Chomolungma (Everest) - the most high mountain on our planet. According to official data, the height of the peak is 8848 meters. Chomolungma rises on the border between Nepal and Tibet autonomous region(now the territory of China) and is part of the Himalayan range Mahalangur-Himal. The main peak is located on the territory of China, and the South (8760 m) separates Nepal and China.

Chomolungma - name

Chomolungma is a Tibetan name. Jo-mo-rlung-ma means "Lady of the Winds": "jomo" is the mistress or mistress and "rlung" is the wind. Also in Tibet, the name "Jomo Kang Kar" (jo-mo-gangs-dkar) is used: - "Lady of the white snows."

Sagarmatha is the Nepalese name for the mountain. In Nepali, the word means "Mother of the Gods". The official name of the national park, on the territory of which the southern slope of Everest and approaches to it is located, is “ national park Sagarmatha".

Everest was named by the British. It is not entirely clear why they did not like the available options, but in 1856 the head of the surveyor of British India suggested naming the highest peak in the world in honor of his predecessor, George Everest.

Chomolungma weather

At 8000 meters there is 70% less oxygen than at sea level. Hurricane winds blow here, reaching speeds of 55 m/s, and the temperature drops to -60 °C. These factors are more than enough to explain the danger of climbing to the top. But there are still avalanches, rockfalls and tragic accidents.

Height of Chomolungma

Until the 19th century high mountain considered Dhaulagiri. And only in 1852, based on the trigonometric calculations of the Indian mathematician and topographer Radhanat Sikdar, the peak was named the highest in the world.

In 1856, the first measurement of Everest's height was obtained. The Indian Geodetic Survey has declared the peak to be 29,002 feet (8,840 m) high. Moreover, the exact measurement was 29,000 feet, and the extra two were added so that, because of the round number, the measurement was not considered approximate.

In the middle of the last century, topographers in India again measured the mountain, this time with more accurate instruments. The new measurement gave 8848 meters, and this figure is still considered correct.

In subsequent years, the height was specified several times. In 1975, the Chinese announced the figure of 8848.13 meters. In 1998, during the expedition, the Americans measured the height from using GPS. The height was 8850 meters. At the same time, the Italian Ardito Desio, using modern radio equipment, calculated a height equal to 8872.5 meters. In 2005, the Chinese Department of Geodesy and Cartography published updated measurements of Chomolungma. This time the height was 8844.43 meters above sea level.

The official height of the peak is fixed at 8848 meters above sea level, and the rock is 8844 meters, and another 4 falls on the thickness of the snow and ice cap.

Climbing Chomolungma

Mountains have always attracted people. And climbing eight-thousandth peaks was an amazing challenge. And the first in the list of ascents above eight thousand was in 1950. And three years later, after dozens of failed attempts and deaths, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Norgay Tenzing were the first to climb the highest point on the planet.

In honor of the first conquerors of Everest, the airport in Lukla in Nepal is named. Tenzing and Hillary Airport is considered one of the most dangerous in the world.
Many believe that since Everest is the highest, then climbing it is the most difficult. Despite the height, the peak is not the most dangerous, yielding to many. For example, Annapurna, being one of the lowest eight-thousanders, has an average of 41% of unsuccessful ascents. While the black statistics of Chomolungma are 11% of deaths.

The status of the highest peak has attracted and continues to attract climbers from all over the world. Although recently climbing Everest has become more and more the lot of moneybags, for whom the Sherpas do all the work.

Until 1978, everyone who climbed to the top of Chomolungma used oxygen. The first to reach such a height without oxygen tanks were the German Peter Habeler and the Italian Reynold Messner.

Everest has seen many records:

Sherpa Appa Tenzing has reached the summit 21 times. The youngest climber was 13-year-old Jordan Romero from America, and the oldest was 80-year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura. American Eric Weihenmeier climbed Chomolungma, being blind, and Mark Ingilis with amputated legs.

Chomolungma at present

In 1983, 8 people climbed to the top. In 1990 more than forty. And in 2012 there was a day when 234 people climbed Everest. Most of those who climb to the top today have very little to do with mountaineering, guides and Sherpas do all the work for them. Every year more than 500 people try to conquer Chomolungma, and the number is increasing all the time. Now sometimes when climbing traffic jams form, and you have to wait several hours for the opportunity to pass the rope.

In order to climb, you need up to 60 thousand dollars and at least two months of time. Despite the high cost and complexity of the expedition, at the beginning of 2014 more than 4,000 people visited the summit.

More than two hundred people and hundreds of tons of garbage and abandoned equipment have remained on the slopes of the mountain to this day. Due to the difficulty of evacuating the bodies, many of them remain on the mountain forever. Some, located near the route, serve as a guide for climbers. The most famous landmark was the body of the Indian Tsevan Palzhor at around 8500. According to the color of his shoes, they call him “green shoes”.

In 2014, Nepal passed a law according to which everyone who descends from the mountain must take out at least 8 kilograms of garbage.

Not climbing Chomolungma

The highest peak in the world attracts not only climbers.

In 1969, the Japanese Miura made his first attempt to ski down Mount Everest. After the first, not entirely successful attempt, others followed. The descents were made both on skis and on snowboards.

Several flights were made over Chomolungma.

For the first time, two biplanes flew over the summit under the control of British pilots the Marquis of Clydesdale and David McIntyre in 1933.

Spouses Bertrand and Claire Bernier from France in 2001 flew from Chomolungma on a tandem paraglider. Angelo d'Arrigo from Italy flew a hang glider over the summit in 2004.

In 2005, a Eurocopter AS 350 Ecureuil helicopter, flown by Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalem, made a unique landing on the summit.

In 2008, three paratroopers landed at the top. They jumped out of a plane flying only 140 meters above the high point mountains.

And in 2011, two Nepalese, Sano Bambu and Lakpa Sherpa, set a record by flying over the top on a tandem paraglider. Starting from the summit, they climbed 30 meters above the summit, and after flying around Nuptse, landed in Namche Bazaar.

Trekking in the area of ​​Chomolungma

In order to see the beauty of Everest safely, several wonderful mountain routes of varying difficulty are laid around. One of them - – passes through stunningly beautiful passes and mountain lakes. From the Renjo-La pass (5400 m), from the top of Gokyo-Ri (5400 m) and from the fifth lake of Gokyo, views of the majestic panorama of Chomolungma, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu - four of the eight thousandth peaks of the world.

The most famous track in the area - the route to the base camp of Everest - is much more crowded than Gokyo, but does not win in terms of beauty.

Beautiful and safe routes for all of us!

Everest is the highest peak in the world, the second name is Chomolungma. Its popularity among climbers is great, especially among those who are eager to conquer this height. Without a doubt, traveling to the peak of the mountain is a dangerous adventure, because many people lost their lives on the way to the goal. But the hero who managed to conquer Everest can fully enjoy this unearthly beauty and a sense of freedom. There is something special lurking in her that attracts and attracts people so much, even at the cost of her life ...

Where is Mount Everest and how high is it?

Everest is 8848 meters high. Only in 1853 did the world learn about the highest point on earth, when the first ascent to the mountain took place. Prior to the discovery of the summit, Mount Kanchenjunga, 8586 meters high, occupied the championship.

Everest is located in the Himalayan mountains in southern Asia. The exact location cannot be formulated, since the extent of the mountain occupies the territory of two bordering countries: China and Nepal.

The summit, which is located on the north side, is located in China. The second peak, a little less than 8760 meters high, is located on the demarcation line between Tibet and Nepal.

Air temperature at the top and bottom

The climate and temperature regime of Everest is harsh and unpredictable, and sometimes even extreme. The temperatures at the foot and at the top differ sharply from each other. At the foot, this is usually a positive temperature, which decreases by 6.5 degrees with every thousand meters.

The temperature depends on the season, but never goes above 0 degrees. Most Favorable climatic conditions during the summer months of the year, average temperature July is minus 19 degrees. In winter, the temperature drops, so the average temperature in January-February is -36 degrees, and at night it can reach up to 55-60 degrees below zero.

In the winter and spring period of the year, westerly winds “walk”, and in winter - southwest winds, the speed of which can reach 280 kilometers per hour. During the summer and autumn months, the monsoons blow indian ocean, with the arrival of which drops out a large number of precipitation.

A sharp change in temperature on Everest is not uncommon. Even during the most favorable period for conquest (from May to October), sudden storms and snowfalls are also characteristic. But in each season there are 3-4 days of stable weather, they are called “windows”, which climbers use to conquer mountain peaks.

Atmosphere pressure

Every 10-12 meters atmospheric pressure decreases by 1 mmHg. With a simple mathematical calculation, the estimated height at the top of Everest is about 23 millimeters of mercury, while the norm, as at the foot of the mountain, is 760 millimeters. The actual atmospheric pressure at the summit is considered to be 3 times lower than normal.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW! The drop in atmospheric pressure is directly related to the occurrence of mountain sickness (oxygen deficiency) in climbers. As a consequence, hypoxia, pulmonary edema and heart failure may develop. Therefore, when the first signs of a decrease in the partial pressure of oxygen occur, it is necessary to drop altitude as soon as possible and go down.

Flora and fauna

Vegetation and animal world Everest is not very diverse. At the foot you can find some varieties of low-growing shrubs, individual bunches of grass, some conifers, mosses and lichens. But with every kilometer up, this meager flora disappears. On the slopes of Chomolungma you can find a shrub called snow rhododendron. This is the only plant whose life is possible at an altitude of over 5000 meters at constant sub-zero temperatures.

Among living creatures, you can find Himalayan jumping spiders, some types of grasshoppers. Mountain ducks, alpine jackdaws and some other species of birds that can live at high altitude live on the top of the mountain.

INTERESTING! There is a legend about a phenomenon on the slopes of the famous Bigfoot- Yeti. But so far, only huge footprints in the snow have been found, according to local residents, belonging to this unique creature. But the fact of its existence has not yet been proven, although many scientists and climbers are looking for this miracle.

Video information

How and who conquered Everest

• The first who managed to accomplish the feat and conquer the world's highest peak at a height of 8848 meters were the climber Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Almost 65 years have passed since then (1953). And during this period of time, hundreds of thousands of brave people tried to conquer this mountain.
• The second ascent of Chomolungma was 3 years later in 1956 by a Swiss expeditionary group led by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luxinger.
• In 1963, the first American expedition to Everest was organized, Jim Whittaker became the conqueror. The American was accompanied by Sherpa Nawang Gombu, who later in 1965 climbed the summit for the second time as part of an Indian expedition and became the first person who was lucky enough to conquer the peak twice.
• In 1975, the first conqueror of Everest, among the beautiful half of humanity, was the Japanese Junko Tabei.
• In 1982, the first Soviet expedition took place, reaching the top of the world. It consisted of 25 people, the leaders of the group were Vladimir Balyberdin and Eduard Myslovsky.

Since then, many ascents of Everest have been made by mankind, among which are people of different generations and nationalities. At the end of 2017, the total number of people who reached the peak was 8306 people.

Video plot

Useful information and interesting facts

1. The highest peak in the world was named after the scientist George Everest, who first managed to determine the location and height of the mountain range. The second name "Chomolungma" was given by the locals, which means "Mother Goddess of the Earth".
2. Everest's height increases by about 4 millimeters every year.
3. The ascent takes approximately 2 months, taking into account the time for adaptation and acclimatization.
4. In 2004, on the summit of Everest, a couple from Nepal became husband and wife.
5. Climbing is an expensive pleasure, the price is at least 50-60 thousand dollars.
6. Due to the large amount of garbage that climbers leave on the slopes, the Nepalese government obliges each person on the expedition to collect at least 8 kg of garbage or pay 4,000 dollars.
7. The oldest conqueror of Everest is 80-year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura.
8. The youngest is Jordan Romero, he was 13 years old.
9. Statistics say that for every 10 successful ascents, there is 1 death.
10. The frozen bodies of climbers are not evacuated from the slopes of Everest. Moreover, the corpses of people serve as identification marks of a certain place or height.

Whatever the attractive place of Everest, there is a downside, sometimes scary and cruel. Every step with every hundred meters is given with great difficulty. And no one is safe from altitude sickness and death from hypoxia, pulmonary edema or frostbite, even the most trained athletes. But still, there are extreme people who put their lives on the line in order to conquer Everest and, feeling euphoria, enjoy the beauty of the world from its highest point.

Coordinates: 27.988056 , 86.925278  /  (G) First ascent: May 29 by Tanzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary

Etymology

"Chomolungma" - translated from Tibetan means "Divine". The Nepalese name of Chomolungma - "Sagarmatha" - means "Mother of the Gods".

English name "Everest" Mount Everest) was awarded in honor of Sir George Everest (eng. George Everest, 1790-1866), head of the Survey of British India in 1830-1843. This name was proposed in 1856 by J. Everest's successor, Andrew Waugh. Andrew Waugh, 1810-1878), simultaneously with the publication of the results of his employee R. Sikdar, who in 1852 first measured the height of "Peak XV" and showed that it is the highest in the region and probably in the whole world.

Climbing history

The highest peaks in the Chomolungma region

The first ascent was made on May 29, 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

Until 1950, there were about 50 expeditions to the Himalayas and Karakoram (to Chomolungma, Chogori, Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat and other peaks). Their participants managed to conquer several seven-thousanders of these mountainous areas, but not a single attempt to storm the peaks of the eight-thousandth giants was successful. The greatest result was achieved by English climbers when trying to climb Chomolungma: in 1924, Norton reached a height of 8565 m, and George Mallory and Andrew Irvine (as estimated by N. Odell) - more than 8600 m (there is a lot of evidence that they died already during the descent from the summit, the dispute about whether they reached the summit or not continues today), in 1933 P. Win-Harris, L. Wager and F. Smith - 8565 m.

The first "eight-thousander" conquered by man was Annapurna I. In 1950, French climbers M. Herzog and L. Lachenal climbed it.

The victory over the first eight-thousander broke the myth about the inaccessibility of a peak of such a height and was a signal for climbers in many countries in an effort not to be late in making the first ascents of the eight-thousanders. Over the next five years, six giants were conquered: Chomolungma (English climbers), Nanga Parbat (Hermann Buhl, Austria), Chogori (Italian climbers), Cho Oyu (Austrian climbers), Kanchenjunga (England climbers) and Makalu (French climbers). In subsequent years, this desire grew. The traditional expeditions of such countries with developed mountaineering as Austria, England, Germany, France and Switzerland were joined by climbers from the USA, Italy, Japan, Argentina, China, India, and later - Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, South Korea and, finally, the USSR, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The first woman to climb Chomolungma was the Japanese climber Junko Tabei; .

Literature

• Younghusband Francis. Struggle for Everest, M-L., Gosizdat, 1930.
• John Hunt. Climbing Everest (journal version), 1956. (About Hillary's 1953 expedition)
• Wilfrid Noyce. South Col (Everest). M., Thought, 1975
• Reinhold Messner. Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate, New York/London, 1979.
• Reinhold Messner. Everest Solo (English edition of The Crystal Horizon: Everest - The First Solo Ascent, 1980).
• Messner Reinhold. Crystal Horizon, M., 1990. (About the first solo ascent to Everest without oxygen and during the monsoon period).
• Everest-82. (Ascent of Soviet climbers to the highest peak in the world), M, FiS, 1984.
• Everest, southwest face: First owl. expedition to Everest - 8848 m., Himalaya-82 / Comp. L.M. Zamyatnin. - L.: Lenizdat, 1984. - 222 p.
• Fritz Rudolf. "Chomolungma and her children", M, Rainbow, 1983. (About Everest and a good hundred peaks of the Himalayas).
• Kononov Y. Victory over Everest (The first Soviet expedition to Everest), Kyiv, 1985.
• Kielkowski Jan, Mount Everest massif, EXPLO, 2000. (Everest environs).

see also

Sources

Links

• Everest climbing routes (eng.), when you click on the number, it appears brief information and route statistics

Coordinates : 27°59′17″ N sh. 86°55′31″ E d. /  27.988056° N sh. 86.925278° E d.(G)27.988056 , 86.925278

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

Mount Everest, also known as Chomolungma, is the highest mountain peak, its height is 8,848 meters. It is partly part of the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal.

Where is Mount Everest

Everest is part of the Himalayan mountain range. Its southern peak runs along the border between China and Nepal, and the northern part adjoins the territory of the People's Republic of China.

Name

"Chomolungma" is a Tibetan word meaning "Divine Mother of Life Energy". The mountain was named after the goddess Sherab Chzhamma, who personified maternal energy.

The mountain also has another Tibetan name - Chomogangkar, which means "Holy Mother, white as snow."

The mountain got its English name "Everest" in honor of George Everest, the head of the geodetic service.

Description

In its shape, Mount Everest resembles a trihedral pyramid with a steeper southern slope. Due to its steepness, it never has long-term deposits of recrystallized snow, called firn.

With the fourth highest eight-thousander of the planet, Mount Lhotse, Chomolungma is connected in the south by the South Col Pass. The North Col, a completely ice-covered pass with very steep slopes, connects Everest to Mount Changze ("North Peak"). In the east, Chomolungma ends with the Kangshung wall, the upper part of which is covered with glaciers.

mountain height

Chomolungma was called the highest peak peace in 1852. This was stated by the Bengali topographer and mathematician Radhanat Sikdar on the basis of the trigonometric calculations made.

However, the first height measurement was taken by the British India Survey four years later. In their calculations, scientists were mistaken by eight meters and announced that the height of Chomolungma is 29,002 feet, or 8,840 m.

Their mistake was corrected only after almost a hundred years, in 1950. Then, with the help of theodolites (measuring instruments for determining horizontal and vertical angles), Indian topographers set the correct height mountain top, which is equal to 8,840 m above sea level.

In 2010, the officially recorded height of the mountain was 8,848 m.

But the attempts to determine a more accurate height did not end there. The height of the Chomolungma was measured by the American expedition, the Italian geologist Ardito Desio. However, the results of their studies were not recognized as reliable.

Facts about Chomolungma

1. Mount Everest is over sixty million years old. It owes its appearance to the Indian tectonic plate, which, moving steadily, collided with the Asian plate.
2. The cost of climbing the mountain is not cheap at all. Those wishing to climb to the top will not only have to shell out 85 thousand dollars, but also obtain official permission issued by the Nepalese government. It, by the way, is also not free and costs ten thousand dollars.
3. Did you know that many hours of traffic jams happen not only on the roads, but also when climbing to the top? Often they are accompanied by fights between climbers.
4. The strongest winds blow at the top of Everest. Their speed sometimes reaches 200 km/h. The situation is aggravated and low temperature. The average monthly air temperature in January drops to -36 °C (sometimes it drops to -60 °C).
5. Forty days is the average time it takes to climb up.
6. Periodically, when climbing Everest, Sherpas (descendants of Tibetans who emigrated to the south of the Himalayas) help climbers carry supplies and things.
7. Tourists cause serious damage to the environment of Chomolungma - they destroy trees and use them for heating, leave a lot of garbage after visiting. In this regard, it was decided that every climber who climbed to the top must take out at least eight kg of garbage from Everest.
8. Due to global warming, the glaciers of Everest have decreased by thirty percent, which in the future may adversely affect the water level in the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.
9. The only living creatures that can live at an altitude of 6,700 m above sea level are the Himalayan jumping spiders. They then chose the slopes of Everest.
10. For a long time, Chomolungma was an inaccessible place for white people. The reason for this was the prohibition of the governments of Nepal and Tibet, imposed on visiting the mountain by foreigners.

Who conquered Mount Everest

The first ascent to the summit took place in 1953. All fifty attempts so far have failed.

English climbers George Finch and Jeffrey Bruce were the first climbers to use oxygen, which allowed them to climb to a height of 8,320 meters.

Two years later, an expedition consisting of George Mallory and Andrew Irwin went to Everest. Until now, disputes have not subsided about whether the climbers have reached the summit. The last time, before they went missing, the men were seen 150 meters from the summit.

Among the climbers there were those who did not differ in common sense. So, the Englishman Maurice Wilson went to conquer the mountain without special mountaineering training, completely relying on the help of supernatural forces. The man never made it to the top.

Until 1948, the part of the mountain adjacent to Nepal was inaccessible for climbing. For this reason, the Europeans stormed only northern part Chomolungmy. The very first attempt to reach the summit from Nepal took place in 1949.

But still, the first to conquer Everest were Tenzing Norgay (Sherpa) and Edmund Hillary from New Zealand.

After this ascent, climbers from the USA, China, the USSR, India, Italy, Japan and other countries climbed to the top.

Junko Tabei was the first woman to reach the summit of Everest. And the first European was the Polish Wanda Rutkevich, among the Soviet women - Ekaterina Ivanova.

After Everest was stormed in different time years, with and without oxygen devices, alone and as part of expeditions, overcoming the most difficult routes and bypassing them.

To date, seven thousand ascents to the peak of the mountain have been made. Miuro Yuchiro, 80, was the oldest climber to reach the top. And the youngest is an American thirteen-year-old student Jordan Romero.

Everest - mountain of death

But, unfortunately, not all attempts to conquer the summit are successful.

Statistics say that from 1953 to the present day, more than 260 people have died while climbing the mountain. Moreover, no expensive and high-quality equipment can serve as a guarantor of a successful outcome.

History knows many cases of mass death of climbers. In May 1996, eight climbers froze to death on the South Slope due to a snowstorm. In 2014, an avalanche caused the death of thirteen people, three were missing.

Because of the bodies of the dead, which rest on the slopes of the mountain, many began to compare Everest with a cemetery. In some areas, climbers even have to step over the dead. So, for example, the corpse of a climber who died in 1996 serves as a kind of mark of 8,500 m. The bodies remain uncollected due to difficulties in their evacuation.

How to get there

To climb Everest, you must first get to the capital of Nepal - Kathmandu. To visit the national park, you need to get a permit. It will take you about one day to receive the documents.

You can get to Everest by plane from Tenzing-Hillary Airport, located in the village of Lukla. The plane can accommodate fifteen passengers and makes flights every half an hour.

Getting to Lukla from Kathmandu is also best by plane, because mountain roads you can only get to the village of Salleri, and then only on foot.

There are several routes leading to the slopes of Everest. For starters, it is better to stop on the classic routes around Annapurna, to the Everest base camp or on the tracks in the Langtang area.

To look at Everest, you can use the trekking (travel on foot) offered by various travel clubs and travel agencies.

Mount Everest video

A man lives in Nepal who conquered the "top of the world" 21 times, and at the very top, which was once seabed, amazing spiders live. The mountain is still growing, has not even two, but four official names and is not, by the way, the highest in the world.

(Total 10 photos)

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Source: restbee.ru

1. Himalayan spiders

Even high in the mountains, where there is barely enough oxygen to breathe, we cannot hide from the spiders. Euophrys omnisuperstes, better known as the Himalayan jumping spider, hides in the nooks and crannies of Everest, making it one of the highest living creatures on Earth. Climbers found them at an altitude of 6700 meters. These spiders are able to feed on almost everything that can fly so high. With the exception of some species of birds, they are the only living creatures that permanently live at such an altitude. True, in 1924, during a British expedition to Everest, a previously unknown species of grasshoppers was found here - now they are on display in the British Museum of Natural History.

2. Record climbing Everest - 21 times

Appa Tenzing, also known as Appa Sherpa, was able to conquer the top of the world 21 times. Its first ascent took place in May 1990, after three earlier unsuccessful attempts. Apparently, having learned all the secrets of climbing, Appa continued to conquer Everest every year - from 1990 to 2011. He repeatedly stressed that the effects of global warming are clearly visible in the mountains. Appa is concerned about the melting of snow and ice, which makes climbing the mountain more difficult, as well as the safety of his people, after his home village was flooded by a melted glacier. Appa made his last four ascents of Everest as part of ecological expeditions.

The conquest of Everest is not as romantic as it might seem at first glance. Thanks to the significant development of the tourism industry, there has been a significant increase in the number of ascents to the highest mountain in the world. So, in 1983, only 8 people reached the top, and in 2012, 234 people got there in just one day. It is not surprising that traffic jams and even fights happen when conquering Everest. So, in 2013, climbers Ueli Stack, Simon Moreau and Jonathan Griffith got into a fight with Sherpas after the latter asked them to stop climbing. The Sherpas accused the climbers of causing the avalanche. A dispute began, which, on emotions, turned into a fierce fight using stones. It came to death threats, but the climbers returned to the base camp, where the rest of their “colleagues” took their side. Even the Nepalese army had to intervene in the incident - then both sides of the conflict signed an agreement on its peaceful settlement.

4. 450 million years of history

Although Himalayan mountains formed about 60 million years ago, their history begins much earlier. 450 million years ago, limestone and rocks were part of the sedimentary layers that were located below sea level. Over time, the rocks at the bottom of the ocean came together and began to move upward at 11 centimeters per year. Now, fossils of sea creatures can be found at the top of Everest. They were first discovered in 1924 by guide Noel Odell - thus it was proved that the top of Everest was once under water. The first rock samples from the world's summit were brought back by Swiss climbers in 1956 and by a team from America in 1963.

5. Controversy about height

What is the exact height of Everest? It depends on which country you are on. China has stated that it is equal to 8844 meters, while Nepal claims that it is 8848 meters. This dispute arose because China believes that the height should only be equal to the height of the rock, excluding overall indicator meters of frozen snow. Like it or not, it remains a double-edged sword, but the international community still includes snow in the height of the mountain. China and Nepal came to an agreement in 2010, finalizing an official height of 8,848 meters.

6. Everest is still growing

According to the latest measurements, both China and Nepal can be wrong about the height. In 1994, a research team found that Everest continues to grow at 4 millimeters a year. The Indian subcontinent was originally an independent landmass that collided with Asia to form the Himalayas. But the continental plates are still moving and the height of the mountains is rising. American researchers in 1999 installed special equipment that allows you to monitor its change. Their more accurate measurements could result in the mountain's official height being changed to 8,850 meters. Meanwhile, other tectonic activity is causing Everest to shrink, but the combined results still keep it growing.

7. Everest has several names

Most of us know the mountain under the names of Everest and Chomolungma. The last name comes from Tibet, which means "Divine (qomo) mother (ma) of life (lung)". But these are not the only names by which the mountain is known. So, in Nepal she is called Sagarmatha (“Forehead in the sky”), and she herself is part of the Nepalese national park"Sagarmatha". The mountain owes the name Everest to the British surveyor Andrew Waugh, who was unable to find a single generally accepted name even after carefully studying all the maps of the surrounding area and communicating with its inhabitants. Andrew decided to name the mountain after the geographer who worked in India, George Everest, the leader of the British team that first explored the Himalayas. Everest himself refused such an honor, but nevertheless, British representatives in 1865 changed the name of the mountain. Previously, it was simply called the 15th peak.

8. Traffic jams from people

Climbing Everest will cost you several thousand dollars, but the number of people who want to conquer the summit is steadily growing. In 2012, German climber Ralf Dujmovitz took a photograph of hundreds of people queuing up to climb. By the way, due to bad weather and a long queue, Ralph had to turn back at one of the passes called the South Col. And on May 19, 2012, those wishing to climb to the top of the mountain were forced to stand in line for about two hours - 234 people climbed Everest in one day. However, on the same day, four people died during the ascent, which caused some concerns about the safety of conquering the summit, and railings were installed by specialists from Nepal to deal with traffic jams. Now the issue of mounting the stairs at the top is being discussed.

There are many photographs showing the beauty of Everest from all possible angles, but there is also the flip side of the coin: photographs of the huge amount of garbage left behind by climbers. According to some estimates, there are about 50 tons of waste of various origins on Everest, and their number is growing in proportion to the number of visits. On the slopes of the mountain you can see used oxygen tanks, climbing equipment and other waste products of climbers. In addition, the mountain is "decorated" by the bodies of dead climbers - because of the difficulties in transporting them, the victims of an unfortunate set of circumstances remain lying on the slopes. Some of them serve as a guide for other climbers. So, Tsevang Palzhora, who died in 1996, "marks" a height of 8500 meters and even received the nickname "Green Shoes" - for his conspicuous bright green shoes. Since 2008, a special ecological expedition (Eco Everest Expidition) has been climbing the mountain every year, the purpose of which is to combat the pollution of Everest. On this moment thanks to this expedition, more than 13 tons of waste were collected. In 2014, the government of Nepal introduced a new rule that every climber must bring at least 8 kilograms of waste with him when descending the mountain - otherwise the $4,000 deposit will be lost. There is also a creative project "Everest 8848": its artists turned 8 tons of waste into 75 works of art, using even the remains of broken tents and beer cans. In this way they are trying to draw attention to the pollution of the mountain.

10. Everest is not the highest mountain on Earth

Despite the fixed title, in fact Everest is not the highest mountain in the world. Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano in Hawaii, rises "only" 4205 meters above sea level, but another 6000 meters of its base are hidden under water. When measured from the ocean floor, its height is 10,203 meters, which is almost one and a half kilometers more than Everest.

Everest is also not the most "convex" point on the planet. Dormant volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador reaches an altitude of 6267 meters above sea level, but is only one degree from the equator. Since our planet is slightly thicker in the center, the sea level in Ecuador is located further from the center of the Earth than in Nepal, and it turns out that Chimborazo is the highest point on Earth in terms of stereometry.