FACTS

The Eight-thousanders
The eight- thousanders are the fourteen independent mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 meters (26,247 ft) high above sea level. They are located in Himalayan and Karakoram Range.

Seven Summits
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Scaling all of them is considered as a mountaineering challenge, first postulated by Richard Bass in 1980s. Owing to different interpretations of continental borders based on geographical, geological, and geopolitical, there are differences as to which are these seven summits. The Bass list considers Ksociuszko (2,228m ) as the highest peak in Australia, whereas the Messner list proposed by famous climber Reinhold Messner, considers Carstensz Pyramid  (4,884m) as the highest peak taking the New Guinea also in Australia. The Messner list is more challenging from mountaineering perspective. The seven summits postulated by Messner are:

How was Mt. Everest named?

In 1852, in the office of Great Trigonometric Survey of India, a clerk excitedly informed Sir Andrew Waugh, India’s Survey General that a Bengali computer (the title of the post) Radhanath Sikdhar from Calcutta bureau had discovered the highest mountain in the world. Earlier, surveyors had triangulated and established the angle of rise of the peak from six survey sites, more than hundred miles from the mountain.  After meticulous adjustment for the earth’s curvature, atmospheric refraction, and plumb line deflection, Sikdhar calculated the height of the then known peak XV as 29,002 ft.

In 1865Waugh gave the official name Mt. Everest to the Peak XV in honor of Sir George Everest, his predecessor as surveyor general.  The Nepali name Sagarmatha, meaning head of the sky,  was bestowed by Nepali historian Babu Ram Acharya in 1956, and in Tibetan it is called Chomolungma, meaning the mother goddess of the universe.

Brief history of Mountain climbing

Ascent of Mont Blanc is often referred to as the start of modern mountaineering. Horace de Saussure from Geneva had established the principles of scaling the great peaks by Mont. Blanc in 1787. This attracted many Englishmen for scaling mountains of the Alps.  Account of Alps by the Englishmen James David Forbes served as a general alpine tourism guide.

Scaling of Matterhorn in 1867 by an Englishman Edward Whymper in 1867 became sensational because of the death of four members of the team.  Whymper’s book Scrambles amongst the Alps became famous influencing mountaineering.  The first Alpine Club was formed in 1857.

As the climbing became popular in the Alps in the 19th century, and after the American explorer Robert Perry reached North Pole in 1909 and the Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911, the Everest, also known as the Third Pole became the coveted object of explorers.

British teams were in the forefront in exploring the Mt Everest.  George Leigh Mallory, who succumbed in the Everest in 1924, was the driving force behind the first three expeditions to the Everest. Until 1949 the Nepalese borders were closed to the Western mountaineering parties and all the expeditions to the Everest were launched from the Tibetan side.

The successful summit of the Annapurna, the first eight thousanders to have been scaled, by the French expedition team led by Maurice Herzog increased the momentum for Himalayan expedition. And finally on May 29, 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay placed human feet atop the majestic Everest,  adding another dimension to an array of  human achievements. The Everest has lured many climbers since then. The Government of Nepal  banned foreign mountaineering from 1965 to the Spring of 1969. Ever since then, mountaineering has flourished in Nepal.

A new dimension to climbing was added when Polish climbing team led by Krzystof Wielicki successfully scaled the Mt. Everest in winter of 1980. Until then the climbing had remained a non-winter activity.

Sherpas in Climbing
The very concept of Himalayan climbing remains incomplete without Sherpas. Sherpas involvement with Himalayan climbing began long before Nepal even opened its doors for western mountaineers in 1949. Several Sherpas were hired as porters in 1907 in Darjeeling by the western mountaineers who were attempting peaks in Sikkim. They soon became famous for their exploit of Himalayan mountains. By as early as 1922, they suffered a major blow when seven Sherpa porters died in the Everest expedition of Mallory.  Many of the record holders and breakers in mountaineering hail from Sherpa communities. The list of achievers is long, including one of the first climbers Tenzing Norgay, record 19 time climber Mr. Appa Sherpa, fastest climber Babu Chhiri Sherpa, and many others.