Mount Everest:-

Mount Everest, the mountain peak in the Himalayas of northern Nepal is considered to be the highest mountain peak in the world. Mount Everest was known as Peak XV until 1856, when it was named for Sir George Everest, the surveyor general of India from 1830to 1843. Most Nepali people refer to the mountain as Sagarmatha, meaning “Forehead in the Sky.” Speakers of Tibetan language, including the Sherpa people of northern Nepal, refer to the mountain as Chomolungma, Tibetan for “Goddess Mother of the world.”

Mount Everest the highest mountain in the world, with a height of 8,848m (29,035ft), rises in the Himalayas on the frontier of Nepal and Tibet. Numerous group tried to reach the summit before the successful attempt by two members of a British expedition on May 29, 1953. Mount Everest is covered with huge glaciers that descend from the main peak and its nearby satellite peaks. The mountain itself is a pyramid-shaped horn, sculpted by the erosive power of the glacial ice into three massive faces and three major ridges, which soar to the summit from the north, south, and west and separate the glaciers.

The climate of Mount Everest is naturally extreme. In January, the coldest month, the summit temperature averages -36 degree centigrade and can drop as low as -60 degree centigrade. In July, the warmest month, the average summit temperature is -19 degree centigrade. At no time of the year does the temperature on the summit rise above freezing. From June through September the mountain is in the grip of the Indian monsoon, during which wind and precipitation blow in the form the Indian Ocean. Masses of clouds and violent snowstorms are common during this time.

Base Camp, which serves as a resting area and base of operation for climbers organizing their attempts for the summit, is located on the Khumbu glacier at an elevation of 5,400 m. It receives an average of 450 mm of precipitation a year.The South Col route for climbing Mount Everest was made popular by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who, in 1953, became the first people to successfully climbs the mountain.

Traditionally, the people who live near mount Everest have revered the mountains of the Himalayas and imagined them as the homes of gods. Because the peaks were considered sacred, no local people scaled them before the early 1900s. However, when foreign expeditions brought tourist dollars and Western ideas to the area, people of the Sherpa ethic group began to serve as high-altitude porters for them. By the mid-1990s, 4,000 people had attempted to climb Everest-660 of them successfully reached the summit and more than 140 of them died trying.

The difficulties of climbing Mount Everest are legendary. Massive snow and ice avalanches are a constant threat to all expeditions. The avalanches thunder off the peaks repeatedly, sometimes burying valleys, glaciers, and climbing routes. Camps are chosen to avoid know avalanches paths. And climbers are chosen to avoid know avalanches paths, and climbers who make ascents through avalanches terrain try to cross at times when the weather is most appropriate. Hurricane force winds are a well-known hazard on Everest, and many people have been endangered or killed when their tents collapsed or were ripped to shreds by the gales.

As the popularity of climbing Everest has increased in recent years, so have safety problems. To pay the high climbing permit fee charged by the Nepalese government, many experienced climbers have recruited wealthy, amateur climbers as teammates. The combination of inexperience, crowded summit conditions (more than 30 have been known to summit the peak on the same day), and extreme weather condition has led to a number of tragedies in which clients and competent guides alike have died attempting the climb.

Empty bottles litter the ground on the South Col route to the summit of Mount Everest. According to some estimates, more than 50 tons of non-biodegradable trash was abandoned on the mountain between the 1950s and the mid-1990s.The large number of trekkers and climbers who visit Nepal and the Everest region contribute to the local economy but also cause serious environmental impact. Such impact includes the burning of wood for fuel, pollution in the form of human waste and trash, and abandoned climbing gear. Although some climbing gear is recycled by local residents either for their own use or for resale, it is estimated that more than 50 tons of plastic, glass, and metal were dumped between 1953 and mid-1990s in what has been called “the world’s highest junkyard.”

Efforts have been made to reduce the negative environmental impact on Mount Everest. The Nepalese government has been using a portion of climbing fees to clean up the area. In 1976, with aid from Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trist and the Nepalese government, the Sagarmatha National Park was established to preserve the remaining soil and forest around Mount Everest. By the mid-1990s the park comprised 1,240 sq km (480 sq mi).