Chomolungma - Everest - Sagarmatha
The Nepali name Sagarmatha translates to the top of the planet reaching the ocean of the heavens (a liberal interpretation of the Sanskrit definition).
Current estimates of the mountain's height above sea level are 29,022.6 feet (8846.1 m), plus 8.4 feet (2.55 m) of snow, making it 29,031 feet (8848.65 m) high! -The summit is generally listed at 8848 m and that includes about 3.5 m of snow, thus the top, not counting the snow, is at around 8844.5 m.
A Brief History of Everest with Climbing Trivia
-Although George Everest was head of the Survey of India from 1823 to 1843, the man neither set foot near nor saw the peak that honors his name.
-The mountain was first explored by outsiders from the Tibetan side in 1921 after gaining permission to access it from the Dalai Lama. Early mountaineering expeditions were on the Tibet side before climbing efforts were interrupted by WWII. Following the war, a joint British U.S. group visited the south side in 1950, and attention shifted to Nepal.
-The mountain was first climbed in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Percival Hillary. Two days prior to their monumental feat, a pair of British climbers from the same team approached within 90 m/300 feet of the summit and turned back for lack of oxygen supplies. Hillary acknowledged that if the earlier duo had not broken trail and cached supplies, then he and Norgay likely would not have made the summit themselves.
-The Swiss reached the summit the following year, and the mountain then rested undisturbed until 1963, when a US team climbed it by the West Ridge and came down the original route, the first traverse of the mountain.
-1965, Nawang Gombu Sherpa became the first person to summit twice (in 1963 with a US expedition and 1965 with an Indian expedition)
-Junko Tabei of Japan became in 1975 the first female to summit the pinnacle
-1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter Haebeler summited without oxygen
-1980 Yasuo Kato of Japan was the first non-Sherpa to reach the summit more than once (1973 was his first ascent)
-1980 Messner summited solo and without oxygen
-1980 A Polish team achieved the first winter ascent (also, first winter ascent of any of the fourteen 8,000-plus meter peaks)
-1988 Jean-Marc Boivin paraglided from the summit to Camp Two
-By 1990 Everest was being exploited by commercial expeditions that tantalized inexperienced mountaineers into paying large sums. Recent carnage reminds us of the powerful forces that control the world’s highest terrain.
-1993, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became the first Nepali female to summit Everest. She perished on the descent and has become a Nepali national heroine. A peak has been named in her honor as well as a statues put up,the most prominent in Kathmandu near Bouddha. In Lukla, the kani (gateway) heading north out of town is graced with her name as is the memorial hospital at the southern side of Lukla.
-1999, Babu Chiri Sherpa spent 21 hours on the summit without supplementary oxygen. (He also was a record holder for fastest ascent at just under 17 hours. He died on the mountain in 2001 during his 11th attempt at the summit).
-2000, Davo Karničar descended from the summit on skis
-2001, Marco Siffredi snowboarded from the summit
-2002, Erk Weihenmayer was the first blind person to summit
-2004, Pemba Dorje Sherpa Fastest made the fastest ascent (using a southern approach with supplemental oxygen)-- his time was 8 hours and 10 minutes
-2005, Didier Delsalle landed a helicopter on the summit setting records for both highest landing and takeoff
-2008, Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan became the oldest person to summit at 76 (25 days shy of age 77)
-2012, Japan’ Tamae Watanabe, 73 years old became the oldest woman to climb Everest
-2010 13 year old Jordan Romero is the youngest summiteer (not without controversy at putting a young person in risky circumstances. China has since implemented rules banning people under 18 from attempting Everest and Nepal sets the bar at 16).
-Nepal’s Phurba Tashi Sherpa and Apa Sherpa have both summited 21 times! Tashi has summited 8,000 m peaks a record 30 times, including the 21 of Everest, (in 2007 he summited 3 times, twice in 2011). Apa Sherpa has summited an average of once a year for over twenty years (however, he summited twice in 1992 (but did not summit in 1996 and 2001). The record for a non-Sherpa is 14 times by Dave Hahn of the USA.
-23rd May, 2010, 169 climbers reached the summit, the most ever on a single day!
-May, 2011 Sano Babu Sunwar and Lakpa Sherpa tandem paraglided from the summit. They landed near Syangboche and continued their journey by foot and then by kayak to the Bay of Bengal near Kolkata, India. Their astonishing Summit to Seas effort earned them the National Geographic Adventurers of the Year, 2012!
-May 23rd, 2013, Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to summit at 80 years old! He also holds the distinction of being the first person to ski on Everest which he did from the South Col in 1970. The Man Who Skied Down Everest was a film about the feat that won at the time the Academy Award for Best Documentary!
-Sometimes referred to as an ‘Icy Graveyard,’ in the history of climbing on the peak to 2014, around 250 climbers have died including nearly 90 Sherpa. A majority of the corpses are still on the mountain.
-An extensive, valuable database of information on climbing Everest and climbing in Nepal and its border peaks is available primarily because of longtime chronicler of Everest expeditions, Elizabeth Hawley. She began archiving data in 1963. For more information on Everest, including climbing statistics, visit www.everestnews.com, and www.himalayandatabase.com.
Trekking the Everest Region will be an exhilarating journey and non-stop feast of majestic peaks and cultural treasures!
The
welcoming people, regal monasteries, robust mountains, delicious
home-style food and swill, and united nations of international travelers
combine to make the Khumbu a trekkers’ paradise and lifetime
highlight! Recommended Guidebook for Solu-Khumbu:
The Best Little Guidebook for Trekking the Everest Region (paperback) (Kindle)
The Khumbu region is encompassed by Sagarmatha National Park (445 mi² /1148 km². It was established 1976 and was designated a World Heritage Site (Natural) in 1979 (and Ramsar Site in 2007). Sagarmatha National Park is the third most visited area of Nepal after Chitwan National Park and the Annapurna Conservation Area. The acclaimed attractions are the majestic Himalaya with the highest peaks on the planet, lofty villages in mountain valleys graced by accompanying monasteries, and of course, the legendary inhabitants, the Sherpa. Roughly 7000 residents call the Khumbu their home. The national park is also home to wildlife of which Tibetan snow cocks, musk deer, Himalayan tahr and mouse hare are frequently seen. Most of the other mountain dwelling fauna are elusive to the human eye and camera lens.
The Yeti Mystery Unfolds
Sherpa folklore describes yetis as shaggy critters with conical heads, pointed ears, and herculean strength — enough to carry off husky yaks upon which they feast. Yetis are reputed to reach heights, head to toe, of up to a staggering 8 feet (2.44 m), and they haunt the most remote regions of the Himalaya, only rarely bringing trouble to inhabited settlements.
Sherpa believe in three types of yeti: Drema — messenger of misfortune, Chuti — preys on livestock, and Midre – attacks all animals, including the human beast.
The celebrated yeti scalp and hand bones had long been kept at Khumjung Monastery (viewable for a ‘donation’). Now, only the scalp remains. The late Sir Edmund Percival Hillary took the specimens on a tour outside Nepal in the 1960’s. His attempt to verify this ‘anomalous primate’ did not meet with the same success as his mountaineering exploits. Science was unable to back him and authenticate a yeti.
Another mountaineering luminary, Reinhold Messner, was fascinated by the mystery after encountering a yeti-like creature in Eastern Tibet. He wrote a book on his personal search for yeti in the Himalaya (My Quest for the Yeti: The World’s Greatest Mountain Climber Confronts the Himalayas’ Deepest Mystery, St. Martin’s Press, April 2000).
Other expeditions have tried without fruition to find this animal whose existence has been based on anecdotal reports but not scientific corroboration. Messner eventually concluded (after an 11-year search) it was a type of bear…his search now seems to have come full circle with a recent genetic study out of Oxford University (published this July in the Proceedings Of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences). Researchers matched DNA from hair samples found in the Himalaya with a prehistoric bear from The Pleistocene Epoch, roughly 2,500,000 to 11,500 years ago.
The search continues for a live specimen and yeti remains an eminent figure of cryptozoology. As a pop-culture icon, the name yeti surfaces not infrequently in the media and is used to promote everything from mountain bikes to pubs, banks, spas, hotels, bakeries, a golf course and much more. The yeti legend has beguiled the human race from the Himalaya and around the globe!
No comments:
Post a Comment