25 Trivia About Everest

Everybody knows that Mount Everest is the highest place of the earth and it is the dream for adventure lovers to watch the grand view from the summit or at least trekking to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar to witness the majestic top of the world.

Mount Everest was successfully climbed on Friday, May 29, 1953 by legendary Tenzing Norgay Sherpa (Nepal) and Sir Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) on British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt.

Beautiful Everest range and Third Lake of Gokyo Valley seen from the top of Renjo La Pass

Here are some of the interesting facts and figures about the majestic 8848m/29029ft peak.

• Mount Everest was first named as “Peak XV” and measured at 29,002 feet in 1856.
• Mount Everest is known as “Sagarmatha” meaning “forehead in the sky” in Nepali and “Chomolungma” meaning “mother of the world” in Tibetan.
• In 1856, “Everest” is named after surveyor and geographer – Colonel Sir George Everest (Wales). The existence of Everest was confirmed during the Trigonometric Survey of India in era 1850s. 
• There are 18 different climbing routes on Everest.
• Junko Tabei (Japan) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 1 May 1975. She also became the first woman to climb all Seven Summits of Seven Continent by 2012.
• Yuichiro Miura (Japan), an alpinist became the oldest person to climb Mount Everest. His last summit was recorded on May 23, 2013 at the age of 80 after two consecutive summits record set as of 2008 and 2003 at age of 75 and 70.
• He also became the first person to Ski on South Col of Everest on 6 May, 1970 descending nearly 6600 feet. A documentary featuring this venture named “The Man Who Skied Down Everest” won the Academy Award for sports film in 1975.
• Tamae Watanabe (Japan) became the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest. She broke her own record when she climbed Everest in May 2012 at the age of 73 after scaling it for the first time in May 2002 at age of 63.
• In May 1990, Macartney-Snape, an Australian adventurer became the first person to walk and climb from sea level to the 8848m, top of Mount Everest. He had climbed Mt. Everest with partner Greg Mortimer (Australia) in July 1984 and became the first Australians to climb Mt Everest.
• The youngest person to reach the summit is Jordan Romero (USA). He was 13 years 10 months 10 days old when he reached the summit in May 2010. He is also the youngest climber in the world to complete the Seven Summits of Seven Continent at the age of 15 years 5 months.
• On 1978, Reinhold Messner (Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austrian) were the first to climb the Everest without oxygen and later in 1980, Messner strike again by reaching the summit solo – again without bottled oxygen.
• The mountain has even been skied down on October 7, 2000 by a 38-year-old Slovenian named Davorin Karnicar who skied 12,000 feet back to the south-side Base Camp.
• There are more than 282 climbers who died on Everest Expedition since 1924 until June 2016.  Out of which, 109 climbers attempted summit without supplemental oxygen and 70 died during descending from the summit.
• At least 500 climbers have reached the summit from both sides of Tibet and Nepal.
• Two Climbers, Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa, popularly known as Apa Sherpa (climbing period 1990-2011) and Phurba Tashi Sherpa (climbing period 1999-2013) hold the record of successful ascent to Everest for 21 times.
• The fastest ascent from South Everest Base Camp to the summit is done in 8 hours 10 minutes (with supplement oxygen), done by Pemba Dorje Sherpa on May 21, 2004
• The longest stayed on the summit is recorded by Babu Chiri Sherpa by spending around 21 hours on the top on May 6, 1999.
• The maximum death recorded in one day at Everest is 22 during massive Nepal Earthquake 2015.
• One of the notable Rescue Operations done during Everest summit is the evacuation of Guide and another Climber after overnight at 28,500 feet.
• In 1990, Legendary Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary climbed the mountain making the pair the first father and son to do so.
• One year before the first summit of Everest in 1952, Swiss Expedition Team reached 8600m and failed to summit, just approx 250m short of top. 
• The first winter ascent was successfully done by Polish team of Leszka Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki in 1980.
• The coldest temperature of the top of the Everest is estimated at -41ºC and the wind speeds more than 200mph.
• Over 200 dead bodies on the Everest trails are used as navigation points to make climb for the expedition.
• According to study, the minerals components of the top of Everest include 450 million years old limestone and sandstone rock of sedimentary layers below sea level. And the Himalayas formed 60 million years ago.
• How romantic is to propose someone you love on the top of the world! It’ amazing. Do you know that there even had been a wedding (Pemba Dorje and Moni Mulepati) on the top of Mt. Everest in 2004.