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Mount Everest or '''Qomolangma''' or '''Sagarmatha''' (सगरमाथा) or '''Chomolungma''' (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ) pronounced as (Jongmalunga) is the Highest Mountain on Earth , as measured by the height of its Summit above Sea Level . The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet , China . As of the end of the 2006 climbing season, there have been 3,050 ascents to the summit, by 2,062 individuals, and 203 people have died on the mountain. The conditions on the mountain are so difficult that most of the corpses have been left where they fell; some of them are easily visible from the standard climbing routes. Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal; they range from experienced Mountaineer s to relative Novice s who count on their paid guides to get them to the top. The Nepalese government also requires a permit from all prospective climbers; this carries a heavy fee, often more than $25,000 ( USD ) per person. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0305/expert_everest.html NAMING The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or '''Qomolangma''' (ཇོ་མོ་གླིང་མ, translated as "Mother of the Universe" or "Goddess Mother of the Snows"), and the related Chinese name is '''Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng''' () or '''Shèngmǔ Fēng''' (). According to English accounts of the mid-19th century, the local name in name: Sagarmatha (सगरमाथा), meaning "Head of the Sky". In 1865, the mountain was given its . With both Nepal and Tibet closed to foreign travel, he wrote:
Waugh chose to name the mountain after George Everest , first using the spelling Mont Everest, and then '''Mount Everest'''. However, the modern pronunciation of Everest ( IPA : or (EV-er-est)) is in fact different from Sir George's own pronunciation of his surname, which was (EAVE-rest). In the late , which, when viewed from Kathmandu , stands almost directly in front of Everest. In the early 1960s, the Nepalese Government realized that Mount Everest had no Nepalese name. This was because the mountain was not known and named in ethnic Nepal (that is, the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding areas). The government set out to find a name for the mountain (the Sherpa /Tibetan name ''Chomolangma'' was not acceptable, as it would have been against the idea of unification (Nepalization) of the country. The name Sagarmatha (सगरमाथा) was thus invented by Baburam Acharya . In 2002, the Chinese '' People's Daily '' newspaper published an article making a case against the continued use of the English name for the mountain in the Western World , insisting that it should be referred to by its Tibetan name. The newspaper argued that the Chinese (in nature a Tibetan) name preceded the English one, as Mount Qomolangma was marked on a Chinese map more than 280 years ago.1 MEASUREMENT Radhanath Sikdar , an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal , was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak in 1852, using Trigonometric calculations based on measurements of "Peak XV" (as it was then known) made with Theodolite s from 240 km (150 miles) away in India. Measurement could not be made from closer due to a lack of access to Nepal. Peak XV was found to be exactly 29,000 feet (8,839 m) high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 feet (8,840 m). The arbitrary addition of 2 feet (0.6 m) was to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate. More recently, the mountain has been found to be 8,848 m (29,028 Feet ) high, although there is some variation in the measurements. The mountain K2 comes in second at 8,611 m (28,251 ft) high. On May 22 , 2005 , the People's Republic of China's Everest Expedition Team ascended to the top of the mountain. After several months' complicated measurement and calculation, on October 9 , 2005 , the PRC's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping officially announced the height of Everest as 8,844.43 m ± 0.21 m (29,017.16 ± 0.69 Ft ). They claimed it was the most accurate measurement to date.2 But this new height is based on the actual highest point of rock and not on the snow and ice that sits on top of that rock on the summit, so, in keeping with the practice used on Mont Blanc and Khan Tangiri Shyngy , it is not shown here. The Chinese also measured a snow/ice depth of 3.5 m,3 which implies agreement with a net elevation of 8,848 m. But in reality the snow and ice thickness varies, making a definitive height of the snow cap, and hence the precise height attained by summiteers without sophisticated GPS, impossible to determine. The elevation of was first determined by an Indian survey in 1955, made closer to the mountain, also using Theodolite s. It was subsequently reaffirmed by a 1975 Chinese measurement.4 In both cases the snow cap, not the rock head, was measured. In May 1999 an American Everest Expedition, directed by Bradford Washburn , anchored a GPS unit into the highest bedrock. A rock head elevation of 8,850 m (29,035 ft), and a snow/ice elevation 1 m (3 ft) higher, were obtained via this device.5 Although it has not been officially recognized by Nepal,6 this figure is widely quoted. Geoid uncertainty casts doubt upon the accuracy claimed by both the 1999 and 2005 surveys. A detailed region, including the south side of Mount Everest, was made by Erwin Schneider as part of the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, which also attempted Lhotse . An even more detailed Topographic map of the Everest area was made in the late 1980s under the direction of Bradford Washburn, using extensive Aerial Photography . It is thought that the Plate Tectonics of the area are adding to the height and moving the summit north-eastwards. Two accounts,78 suggest the rates of change are 4 mm per year (upwards) 3-6 mm per year (northeastwards), but another account mentions more lateral movement (27 mm),9 and even shrinkage has been suggested.10 The Mount Everest region, and the Himalayas in general, are thought to be experiencing ice-melt due to Global Warming .11 The exceptionally heavy southwest summer Monsoon of 2005 is consistent with continued warming and augmented convective uplift on the Tibetan Plateau to the north. Comparisons Everest is the mountain whose summit attains the greatest distance above Sea Level . Several other mountains are sometimes claimed as alternative "tallest mountains on Earth". Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base;The "base" of a mountain is a problematic notion in general with no universally accepted definition. However for a peak rising out of relatively flat terrain, such as Mauna Kea or Denali, an ''approximate'' height above "base" can be calculated. For Everest the situation is more complicated, since it only rises above relatively flat terrain on its north (Tibetan Plateau) side. Hence the concept of "base" has even less meaning for Everest than for Mauna Kea or Denali, and the range of numbers for "height above base" is wider. In general, comparisons based on "height above base" are somewhat suspect. it rises over when measured from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains above sea level. By the same measure of base to summit, for the Boston Museum of Science, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, and the National Geographic Society , 1991, ISBN 3-85515-105-9. The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is farther from the Earth's centre (6,384.4 km or 3,967.1 Mi ) than that of Everest (6,382.3 km or 3,965.8 mi), because the Earth bulges at the Equator. However, Chimborazo attains a height of only above sea level, and by this criterion it is not even the highest peak of the Andes . The deepest spot in the ocean is deeper than Everest is high: the Challenger Deep , located in the Mariana Trench , is so deep that if Everest were to be placed into it there would be more than 2 km (1.25 mi) of water covering it. CLIMBING ROUTES |
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