Interesting facts about Mount Everest

EVEREST is on the border of Nepal and Tibet, China, on the high southern lip of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, an area known as “the roof of the world”. It is known as the world’s highest mountain that once seemed insurmountable.

Now more than 4 000 people have stood on the top of Everest over 9 000 times.

Due to its harsh cold and low-oxygen environment, Mount Everest is one of the deadliest mountains in the world.

We have collected some interesting and amazing facts about the thrills of Mount Everest.

Mount Everest is also called Chomolungma or Sagarmatha

Mount Everest is the highest peak in the Himalayan mountains. Mount Everest was given a Tibetan name as Qomolangma or Chomolungma, which means “mother of the earth”.

In Nepalis, it was called Sagarma- tha which means the “God of the sky”. In Western countries, it was named after George Everest, a director of the British surveyor-general of India, who was responsible for surveying the Himalayas in the 19th century.

Mount Everest is not the tallest! Mount Everest is now 8 849 metres high.

Although Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain base-to-peak at 10 210m, but only 4 205m is above sea level.

Everest’s summit is not the farthest point from the earth centre either.

The farthest point from the earth’s centre is atop Mount Chimborazo (elevation 6 310m) in Ecuador,

South America.

Mount Everest was first climbed in 1953

Mount Everest was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal.

Everest has been summited over 9 000 times

There were more than 5 000 different people who have stood on the top of Everest

over 9 000 times. Kami Rita Sherpa is the person who has climbed Mount Everest the most times. He reached the summit for the 24th time on May 21, 2019. He has also conquered other peaks higher than 8 000m in the Himalayas, including Cho-Oyu, Manaslu, Annapurna, and Lhotse.

About 300 people have died on Mount Everest

The cumulative death rate is about 2% (2018), making Everest the seventh deadliest mountain in the world. Dead bodies are a common scene on Mount Everest.

When people die climbing Everest, their bodies are left on the mountain and become landmarks for other mountaineers, as it is a great challenge for anyone to carry/drag the dead bodies down due to the physical effort needed in the low-oxygen environment.

—