SIXTY years ago today, on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing
Norgay became the first men to conquer Everest, the world’s highest
mountain.
1. Everest was identified as the world’s highest mountain in 1952 from
calculations made by the British Great Trigonometric survey.
2.
After failing to identify a local name for the mountain, Andrew Waugh,
the British Surveyor General of India, named it after his predecessor,
Colonel Sir George Everest.
3. Sir George Everest pronounced his name as two syllables Eve-Rist, not the three-syllable E-ve-rest.
4. More than 3,000 people have climbed Everest.
5. Everest climbing is a good source of income for Nepal, generating around $100million a year.
6. The first woman to climb Everest was Junko Tabei of Japan in 1975.
7. Last week, Yuichiro Miura of Japan, aged 80, became the oldest to reach the summit.
8. May 23, 2010, was the most crowded day at the top of Everest, when 169 climbers reached the top.
9. Because of movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates, Everest grows about 4mm every year.
10.
Nepal and China dispute the height of Everest. The Nepalese say it is
8,848 metres (29,029ft); the Chinese do not include the snow at the top
and say 8,844 metres. It’s about 5½ miles anyway.
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