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Mount Everest Facts

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Below are some of the facts about Mount Everest:

  • Height of Mt. Everest is 8,848 meters or 29,035 feet.
  • Mount Everest is in an amazing location falling across the borders of two countries: Nepal at South and China at North.
  • The age of the mountain is more than 60 million years.
  • The mountain got formed during a movement of the tectonic plates. The Indian plate pushed against the Asian plate, and due to the impact, the landmass and rocks raised to form the Himalayan mountain range where Mt. Everest lies.
  • Quite interestingly the peak grows in height every year by 0.25 inches.
  • The rocks found in Mt. Everest consist mainly of limestone, shale and marble.
  • Through the year the peak stays covered in snow due to extreme weather conditions there.
  • Wind at the top of the summit can blow at a speed of 200 mph or more.
  • The temperature at the summit to go as low as -80F.
  • Mountaineers who try each year to climb the peak wait for the summit window to open. This is that particular time of the year when the rough winds calm down and temperature goes a little higher thereby reducing the extremity of the weather. This happens due to the Jet Stream. The summit opens twice a year, once in mid may and once at November.
  • In an area called Western Cwm along the southeast route to the summit of Everest, temperatures may go as high up as 35 °C (95 °F) on a sunny day. This is due to the snow-covered, bowl-shaped slopes surrounding the area that amplifies solar radiation.
  • The Tibetans have named the summit Chomolungma. This means the universe’s mother goddess, and Nepal officially named it as Sagarmatha.
  • Mt. Everest got its name from the British surveyor Sir George Everest when he identified it with his team in 1841. But the name was finalized later in 1865.
  • In 1856 the name of this peak was Peak 15, and at that time its measured height was 29,002 ft.
  • Nepal officially adheres to the height of Everest as 29,028 ft which was decided after the peak was measured again in 1955. But China uses a different measurement of 29,015 ft. Yet after this the height was measured again using GPS technology in 1999, and the last recorded height found then was 29,035 ft.
  • Mt Everest is again under the scale as Nepal is measuring it once again to find out how the height got affected in 2015 earthquake. The project started in 2017 is expected to get finished by 2020.
  • Mt. Everest was conquered for the first time in 1953, 29th May by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay from New Zealand and Nepal respectively. The mission was led by a British, Colonel John Hunt. They climbed the peak from the South side.
  • The peak was conquered from the North side first time in 1960, 25th May. Chu Yin-Hau, Wang Fu-Zhou, and Nawag Gombu climbed it.
  • Death percentage of mountaineers trying to climb the peak is 3.4% from 1924 to 2017.
  • The body needs 40 days to acclimatize and climb the peak properly. In an average, an expedition on the Mt. Everest can be completed in 39 days.
  • There are 18 climbing routes to the summit.