Interesting Facts about Mount Everest

  • Jul 13, 2020
  • Prashan Poudyal
  • 2821

Table of Contents

Mt Everest is not only the most revered but one of the fascinating altitudinal mountain tops in the world. Situated between the borders of Nepal and China, it receives a huge crowd of people every year making their way up to climb the summit or trekking to its adventurous base camp.

Everyone around the world might have indifferent questions regarding the enigmatic Mt Everest. We have tried to provide every piece of information, that best describes the mighty mountains and the legacy behind its existence. 

How did Mount Everest get its name?

  • Everest was first discovered by Andrew Waugh and his team in 1856 AD as a part of the great Trigonometric Survey. It was then called as Peak XV. However, later on, it was renamed as Mt Everest after the surveyor General of India, George Everest. And, since then it has been called as Mount Everest throughout the world. Other than that, it is also called by many other names such as Sagarmatha (named by Baburam Acharya), Chomolungma (Tibetan name meaning goddess mother of mountains), Third Pole, Deu-Dhunga, etc.
        

Mount Everest Height

Mount Everest has a height of 8848m above sea level. In 1856, Andrew Waugh announced Everest (formerly known as Peak XV) as 8,840 m /29,002 ft high, after several years of calculations based on observations made by the Great Trigonometric Survey. Later on, it was accurately measured as 8848 m high and is since then regarded as the actual height.

Is Mount Everest Height increasing?

  • Yes, Mount Everest is known to grow taller by approx. 4 mm each year.

Is it the tallest mountain on earth?

  • Mountain Everest is the tallest mountain on earth from the ‘sea level’. However, if we go further deep into the oceans and measure the height from below the sea level, the honor of the tallest mountain goes to Mauna Kea (10,200 m), a Hawaiian inactive volcano.
     

Mount Everest Location and Geography

Everest is located at the Nepal-Tibet border in the Mahalangur range of Himalayas. On the Nepali side, Everest is located in the Sagarmatha National Park. On the Tibetan side, it is located in Tingri County in the Xigaze area which is part of the people’s republic of China.
However, because of the popularity and many political issues, it is more accessible from Nepal Side. Thousands of trekkers and mountaineers come each year to Nepal for trekking the Everest Base Camp and summiting the mountain.


 

Is Mount Everest a Volcano?

  • No, Mount Everest is not a volcano. There has never been any volcanic actions on and around Mount Everest.

Facts

  • Everest Base camp lies at an altitude of 5364 and is directly accessible to trekkers.

  • The temperature at the summit is always freezing and during January, temperatures can drop as low as -60° C (-76° F)

  • It has also been mapped by Google. They did it in 2011.

  • If you are at the summit, you breathe in about the third of the amount of oxygen you take in at sea level because of the very low atmospheric pressure. Because of this, many people suffer from altitude sickness (Acute Mountain Sickness) which is among the major causes for deaths in Everest.
     

Mount Everest Summit

After the Everest Summit in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary from England and Tenzin Norgay Sherpa from Nepal, many people have been trying to successfully climb the highest place on earth.
 

How many people have climbed Mount Everest?

  • As per the end of 2018, there has been 9,159 successful summit climbs by 5,294 people.

How many people have died climbing Mount Everest?

  • A total of around 300 persons have already died climbing on both sides of the mountain. This marks the fatality rate to be around 6-7%. Deaths on Mount Everest are growing year by year because of the increasing mountaineers. The number of people that died during the recent years of Everest Summit are:
    2019 : 11
    2018 : 11
    2017 : 7
    2016 : 6
    2015 : 18-22

How long does it take to climb Mount Everest?

  • The average time from arriving at Base Camp to reaching the summit is around 40 days. This is because the body needs to acclimatize at a very high altitude, and one needs to go up and down from the camps while ascending to the summit.

How much does it cost to climb Mount Everest?

  • The average cost for climbing Everest is estimated to be between $30,000 and $45,000 from an operator. However, depending on the types of equipment and other facilities, this rate can be lower or higher.

Facts

  • In 1999, Babu Chiri Sherpa spent 21 hours on the summit. The longest stay ever by anyone so far.

  • Interestingly a wedding took place at the Mt Everest. In 2004, Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa, part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition, married each other when they reached the top.

  • In 1978, Italian climber Reinhold Messner became the first to summit Everest without using supplementary oxygen. In 1980, he also made the first successful solo climb of Everest.

  • Kami Rita Sherpa became the first person to climb Mt Everest with a record-breaking 24 times with his latest ascend on 20th May 2019

  • Jorden Romero from the USA climbed Everest when he was only 13 years old making him the youngest person to successfully climb Everest. Similarly, the oldest person to successfully climb the summit till today is Yuichiro Miura from Japan in 2013 at the age of 80.

  • The fastest run from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu was done by Lizzy Hawker from the United Kingdom on April 18, 2013. She completed the run in 63 hours and 8 minutes.