Mount Everest

A Brief Introduction to Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on earth with a height of 8844.43 meters above the sea level. It is located at the boarder between People's Republic of China and Nepal. In Tibetan, the mountain is called "Qomolangma". The word "Qomo" means goddess and "Langma" means the third one, for there are another four mountains near Mount Everest and Mount Everest ranks the third. Covered with white snow all the year round, Mount Everest is the most impressive and magnificent mountain in both China and the world.

Origin of Mount Everest

In fact, mountains are not just big piles of dirt, they are made of solid rock. The rocks that make up the Mount Everest used to be an ancient sea floor. Over millions of years, rivers washed rocks and soil from existing mountain on the Indian subcontinent and nearby Asia into a shallow sea where the sediment was deposited on the floor. Layer upon layer of sediment built up over millions of years until the pressure and weight of the overlying sediment caused the stuff way down deep to turn into rock. Then about 40 million years ago, in a process called "uplifting", the sea floor began to be forced upward, thus forming many mountains including the Mount Everest.

Ascents of Mount Everest

As the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest attracts many well-experienced mountaineers as well as novice climbers who are willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route, still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. Therefore, you had better think twice if you are about to climb Mount Everest.

The First Successful Ascent of Mount Everest

In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) came within 100m (300 feet) of the summit on May 26th 1953, but went back after becoming exhausted. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their catches of extra oxygen were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali sherpa climber. They reached the summit at 11:30 a.m. local time on May 29th 1953 via the South Col Route. At the time, both of them acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending.

Flora and Fauna on Mount Eerest

Euophrys omnisuperstes, a minute black jumping spider, has been found at elevations as high as 6,700 meters (22,000 feet), possibly making it the highest confirmed non-microscopic permanent resident on Earth. It lurks in crevices and may feed on frozen insects that have been blown there by the wind. It should be noted that there is a high likelihood of microscopic life at even higher altitudes. Birds, such as the Bar-headed Goose, have been seen flying at the higher altitudes of the mountain, while others, such as the Chough, have been spotted as high as the South Col (7,920 meters) scavenging on food, or even corpses, left by prior climbing expeditions.

Board and Lodging of Mount Everest

Rongpo Monastery near the Base Camp of Mount Everest is the only place that provides visitors board and lodging. Taking up in the monastery makes it easy for enjoying the sceneries of the morning and evening.

Climbing Routes of Mount Everest

Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet. There are also many other less frequently climbed routes. Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the more frequently used route. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and the first recognized of fifteen routes to the top by 1996.

Best Time for Mount Everest

The climate in Mount Everest area is variable. By and large, it is the rainy season of this area from June to September. During this period, the strong southeastern monsoon leads to frequent rainstorms and hailstorms. From the middle November to February in the second year, influenced by the fierce northwest cold current, the temperature can fall as low as -60℃ with the average temperature of -50℃ to -40℃ and a wind speed of 90 meters per second. Therefore, from March to May and from the early September to the late October in each year are the best time for climbing the mountain because of the good whether.