The Summit

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world and climbing up it is the dream of every mountaineer. It got its name from the surname of a British engineer and surveyor, Sir George Everest. The mountain has a different name in Nepali, it’s Sagarmatha. Sagarmatha means ‘Goddess Mother of the World’. It’s beautiful, but one of the most dangerous mountains to climb. In winter, the wind is strong, sometimes there are winds of 250 km per hour and the temperature falls to -60 degrees. The 8848 metre summit is the highest place on Earth. 

Climbers say that ‘Death Zone’ starts at 7,900 metres. There isn’t enough oxygen at that altitude, so the human body starts to die. People can survive for a short time. The climbers should stop and try to breathe after each step. Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first people to climb Everest without oxygen cylinders in 1978. Messner said “I have never felt so tired in my life like that.” 

Why do climbers want to climb Everest? A climber named George Mallory said “Because it’s there” before he died on the mountain in 1924. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary were the first climbers to reach the summit. They achieved their goal in 1953. More than 1000 people have climbed the mountain in the past 50 years and more than 150 people have died. Most of the bodies are still on the mountain because it’s very hard to find and move them.

It’s dangerous and also expensive to climb Everest. It’s not enough to be fit to climb it. You must have $65,000 to get training before climbing. After training, you can try to climb with professionals.