OUR PRIDE:- MOUNT EVEREST

Subject: OUR PRIDE:- MOUNT EVEREST Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:40 am

satelite image of mount everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth above mean sea level. Its summit ridge marks the border between Nepal and China, but the summit itself is in Nepal.

Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet, as well as 13 other less frequently climbed routes. Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the most frequently used route. It was the route used by Hillary and Tenzing in 1953. This was, however, a route decision dictated more by politics than by design as the Tibetan border was closed to foreigners in 1949.

Most attempts are made during April and May before the summer monsoon season. A change in the jet stream at this time of year also reduces the average wind speeds high on the mountain. While attempts are sometimes made after the monsoons in September and October, the additional snow deposited by the monsoons makes climbing even more difficult.

[size=15pt]The History of Everest[/size]
The discovery of Everest, the highest mountain in the world, was the crowning achievement of labors by geographers, surveyors, and explorers. It was as demanding and complicated an achievement as the mountaineering and logistical skills of those who eventually climbed it. Both endeavors faced formidable obstacles – physical, psychological, political, and technical – that often appeared insurmountable.
The early exploration of Everest involved the development of measuring, mapping, and surveying techniques, which were employed by many of the great 19th-century explorers to map the earth's lesser-known regions, the terrae incognitae.
The culmination of these skills occurred in William Lambton's Great Trigonometrical Survey of the Indian sub-continent. In the 1830s, this was under the control of the Surveyor-General of India, Sir George Everest, after whom the mountain was named. This scientific endeavor provided an accurate geographical framework for a map of India, which in turn unraveled the mysteries of the Himalayas and established Mount Everest as the highest mountain in the world.
George Leigh Mallory’s famous answer to the question “Why climb Everest?” was “Because it’s there.” Why it was there, like why it was called Everest, did not concern him. In fact, its magnificent height, the summit of the highest range of mountains on earth, is the result of tectonic action—the inconceivably powerful geologic force that moves the continental landmasses against each other. The landmass of India is forced against the landmass of Asia, and the Himalayan ranges are pushed up in between. The process continues inexorably to this day, lifting the entire Himalayan range by several millimeters each year.
This range, which is really a complex skein of ranges, is the mightiest geographical feature on the earth’s surface. About half as long as the Atlantic is wide, it boasts more than a hundred peaks in excess of 24,000 feet (7315 m) above sea level and at least 20 of more than 26,000 feet (7925 m), which is higher than the highest mountains found anywhere else in the world.
Seen from the moon, the range would be the frown on the face of our planet. It is also Asia’s “Great Barrier Ridge” and India’s “Great Wall of China.” Defining the south Asian subcontinent, its peaks intercept the clouds, sundering climatic zones, peoples, and lifestyles. By repulsing the monsoon of south Asia it denies to inner Asia the lushness enjoyed by India and condemns it to extremes of temperature and aridity. Immediately north of the mountains, trees are rare and the (Mongoloid) people are mainly graziers; immediately to the south the slopes are well forested and the (Aryan) people are mainly farmers and crop growers.
A climatic barrier and a rampart against invaders, the Himalayas also control Asia’s life-support system. From the Tibetan plateau, which is swagged and supported by the Himalayas, 10 of the world’s largest rivers plunge south and east, around and through the Himalayan wall, heading for the Indian Ocean and the China Seas. On the banks of these rivers (including the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, and Yangtze), Asia’s civilizations were nurtured; on their floodwaters half the world’s population still depends. To these people, droughts apart and dams permitting, the frown on the face of our planet is more like a benevolent smile.
In the heart of these mountains lurks the peak we know as Everest. But although it has always been there, Everest was for a long time unacknowledged. It was not especially obvious, like Mount Fuji; nor was its existence a geodetic certainty, like the North and South Poles; nor was it, until recently, an accepted geographical feature, as is the River Nile. Exploration left it till last because it was the last terrestrial challenge to be identified. To mapmakers the mountain was unknown until the mid-nineteenth century; and when, in 1856, it finally made its cartographic debut, it came with an exact location, a measured height, and an easily recognizable name. Like DNA, it burst upon the world’s consciousness as the result of an extraordinary scientific odyssey; and there it has stayed because of its one outstanding property as the world’s highest point, a place a little nearer the stars than anywhere else on our planet. The discovery of the mountain marked the crowning achievement of labors just as demanding as those involved in actually climbing it. In both endeavors, the obstacles—physical, psychological, political, and technical—were formidable and, for a long time, deemed insurmountable. The story of Everest, therefore, is the story of both its discovery and its conquest.

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