What is happening on Mt. Everest?

Today's Story

Today's story consists of the following three parts. First I will talk about the history of climbing Mt. Everest. next, I talk about the problem caused by climbing Mt. Everest. and last, now and in future about climbing mountains.

Mt.Everest (Qomolangma) from Tibet

The history of mountain climbing on Mt. Everest

Mt. Everest must be the most famous mountain in the world. Because it is the highest mountain in the world and it has a great history. Because of its height, it had been difficult to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

The first half of the twentieth century, many people had attacked to Mt. Everest. George Mallory was also one of them. He was asked " Why do you climb the mountain?" His answer is very famous phrase, may be you know he said "Because, it is there". It means "Mt. Everest is there". But he didn't come back from Mt. Everest. One person saw him near the summit. But it was the last time that Mallory was observed. For a long time anyone had not known whether Mallory had reached the summit.

After world war II, many people had tried to attack Mt. Everest again. At last in 1953, Edmund Hillary, and Tenjin Norgay, he is a Nepali Sherpa had reached the summit . When they reached the summit, they did not find anything which Mallory left at the summit, so they realized they were the first persons who reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

There are 14 mountains in the world which are over 8000 meters high. People call these years Himalayan Olympic, because many countries tried to become the first country reaching the top of each 8000m mountain for their honor of countries.

Searched by "Everest"

Verious records - reaching the summit without oxygen bottle

After Himalayan Olympic, many different kinds of records were made on Mt. Everest. One of them was reaching the summit without oxygen bottle. This record was made by Reinhold Messner. He is one of the greatest climber in the world. He is called "Super man". He was the first person who climbed all 8000 meters mountains.

Reaching the summit without oxygen bottle is very difficult. Because, At the top of Mt. Everest the density of oxygen in air is also one third of ground level. Some people has mountain sickness at Mt. Fuji which is only 3800m high. They had head ache sickly feeling, throw up many times and sometimes their brain have lack of oxygen and they die.

Under 6500m if they climb slowly they can adapt the height, but over 6500m they cannot adapt the height. Messner had tried to attack the summit from the south col while only one day, so he succeeded . Some people did not believe Messner's record because of its difficulty . But now many people climb without oxygen bottles so they believe.

Various records - alpine style

For a long time people climb Mt. Everest with big team, many members and many luggage. We call this style polar style. Because this style was the same as when people explore the south pole or north pole. In polar style the expedition team makes camps C1,C2,C3,C4 over the Base Camp, where are support persons and foods. They go to the summit step by step. The biggest team was Italian team in 1973. This team had 64 members , climbers ,helicopter pilot, doctors and soldiers to make camps, and many Sherpas. They brought 60 ton foods.

On the contrary in 1980 Reihold Messner reached the summit by alpine style. In alpine style the team consist of only several people and they don't make camps. They bring only minimal foods and they do not use any fixed ropes which are usually used for easy climbing to carry luggage.

Various records - solo climbing

When he climbed Mt. Everest by alpine style, at the same time he climbed by only one. He succeeded solo climbing.

In dangerous area people usually use rope and connect between climbers. When he has some accident, nobody help him. Actually, Messner fell down to the crevasse in this time. But after only 15 minutes he escaped from the crevasse by himself and he continued climbing. After 2 days Messner reached the summit.

Various styles of climbing

Recently people have tried to climb by various kinds of style For example, Reaching the summit from sea, it is 0 meter high.

Another people tried to reach the summit on only 1 day from Base Camp.

There are commercial tours to climb Mt. Everest. Ms. Namba joined a tour last year. Maybe someone remembers. She reached to the summit of Mt. Everest, so she succeeded to climb the highest peaks of the world's seven continents. But unfortunately she died on the way from the summit.

By now, more than 800 climbers had reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

Mt.Everest with the Temple (5000m high) in Tibet

The problems of climbing Mt. Everest

On the contrary, There are problems in climbing Mt. Everest. Now, on the south col there are much rubbish like this. such as oxygen bottle, foods, money, tents, everything is there.

The biggest rubbish is the helicopter of Italian team which I talked before. The biggest team's helicopter crashed in the mountain in 1973. But they left the helicopter in the mountain. That is biggest rubbish even now.

Sherpa and Poter

When people climb the high mountains people employ Sherpas and poters. Their jobs are guidance in Himalayas and carrying baggages. When some members of team died, the plan of climbing was sometimes stopped. But when some sherpas or porters had died, the plan had never been stopped. In short people in rich country buys lives of people in poor country.

fee for climbing Mt. Everest

The fee for climbing high mountains have been raised in these years. Before 1990, the fee of Mt. Everest was 2700 dollars per one team, but next year Nepal government raised the fee 4 times, ten thousands dollars. Next year raised again 5 times, fifty thousands dollars. If we would like to climb Mt. Everest we have to pay much money to Nepal government. Ms. Namba joined a tour, she paid 6 million yen for the tour.

Now and in future

After this the climbing will be desired to be low impact to nature. For example, Messner has never left anything on the mountain. He had never used bolts during climbing. Once people have used bolts, they would never be separated from rocks. and destroy nature. It is difficult to climb Himalayas mountain without bolts, but it is important for adventurer not to destroy nature.

The first climbing for cleaning Mt. Everest was by Nepal police. But in this climbing 2 people died by accident. Climbing in high mountain area is dangerous even if its aim was cleaning.

In these years Nepal government made the big project of cleaning Mt. Everest. Nepal government have sent team for cleaning several times.

Sir Edmund Hillary who is the first climber on the summit of Mt. Everest , organized Himalayan Adventure Trust. It aims to conserve nature, sometimes it sends climbing team for cleaning the mountains.

Like this, the purpose of climbing mountain has been changing from competition between human to living with nature. I also hope this.

Thank you.

Sorry, We have not climbed Mt.Everest (only trekked aroud Base Camp of Mt.Everest in Tibet).
We just know about it by servying Japanese books.

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