On Top of the World
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Long before a British mapping team in 1852 declared 29,028 - foot (8,848-m) " PeakXV " to be the highest spot on earth and named it after surveyor General Sir George Everest, the people of Nepal recognized the supermacy of their mountain. They call it "Sagarmatha", mother of the Universe. This isn't so exaggerated, since the high mountains feed the headwaters of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers, brining life to hundreds of millions in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. |
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The first organized attempt to reach the summit was made from the Tibet side in 1922.
Why climb it? "Because it's there." was the classic answer of British Mountaineer
George Malllory, who disappeared into the clouds near the top on his fatal second
attempt from Tibet in 1924. Twenty nine years later New Zealander Edmund Hillary and
Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made it from Nepal, and since then more than 200 climbers from
some 2o countries have accomplished the feat. Misses Junko Tabei of Japan was the first
woman to stand on the top of the World, in 1975, and another Japanese, Yuichiro Miura,
was first to ski back down in 1970.
Nowaday's, climbers seek their first by attempting new and difficult roots and methods. Rainhold Messner from the south Tyrol area of Italy, the greatest of modern mountaineers, has climbed everest twice without oxygen, once in a solo four-day dash. Two sherpas had climbed it five timesl. By the end of 1988, 95 persons had died while making the attempt to conquer Mount Everest, including 40 Sherpas. The climb may only be undertaken with the government permission and on payment of a not-too-substantial fee. The mountain dominates the Sagarmatha National Park, formed in 1976 with assistance from New Zealand. The park, covering an area of 400 sq. miles (1243 sq. km), is also a world heritage sight, and boasts a wide variety of fauna and flora, the former including musk deer, himalayan tahr, red panda , black bear, wolves, marmots and snow leapord. And most elusive of all - the yeti ! Sir Edmund Hillary, now New Zealand's ambassdor to India and Nepal, has created a Himalaya Foundation that has helped build schools, hospital, bridges and electrification project for Sherpa villages in the area. |