The year 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the first successful ascent, when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest. Their achievement has encouraged many more climbers to conquer the peak.
Every year, thousands of men and women try to climb it, to capture the peak and stand at the highest point on Earth. These climbers train for a long time to build the strength needed to climb Mt. Everest.
In addition they carry a lot of gear with the help of local very experienced climbers called sherpas and furry sure-footed animals called yaks.
The Climb
The first part of the climb is to traverse a glacier called the Khumbu Icefall. This terrain is dangerously slippery and has deep crevasses. The climbers tie a rope to each other so that if a climber were to fall into a crevasse one of their teammates can pull them out.
After traversing Khumbu Icefall glacier, next is the climb up a very steep wall of ice called the Lhotse Face. This is a wall covered by thick ice and snow that never melts.
The Sherpas are very skilled and it is they that climb this wall first, to attach the ropes to the mountain, for the rest of the team - this is called lead climbing. Climbers wear a harness that is connected to these ropes to help with the climb and prevent falls.
Climbers also have to carry oxygen cylinders as the air is thin resulting in very little oxygen to breath at these altitudes.
After months of preparation and weeks of climbing, the climbers reach the top only if all goes well.
Outstanding achievements
In 2010, Jordan Romero, a 13 year old American boy became the youngest climber to reach the top of Mount Everest. He was only nine when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa! He claims to have been inspired by a painting in the hallway of his school that showed the highest summits of the seven continents.Did you know
The world's highest flying bird is an Asian goose. It can fly up and over the Himalayas and has been known to fly up to a height of nearly 21,120 feet .
GEM words
glacier: a slowly moving large mass or river of ice
crevasses: a deep open crack, like one in a glacier