Two lifetimes wouldn’t be enough for me to read every single National Geographic Society book and magazine issue that I’d love to delve into. However, one of these books that I have read recently is in regard to Mt. Everest, the tallest, fabled, most forbidding mountain on our planet. The subject has fascinated me for quite some time as so many people continue to risk life and limb to reach its summit. Apparently, this becomes an all-consuming lifetime goal that can rightly be viewed as the ultimate act of personal fulfillment for those who successfully climb Everest and live to tell the tale.
There are numerous world renowned, daunting peaks to challenge the hardiest climbers such as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa which rates an awe inspiring 19,341 high, or Mt. Denali soaring into the skies at 20,310 ft. in Alaska. There is also Annapurna in the wilds of Nepal which at 26,545 ft. would be too intimidating for many climbers. However, Mt. Everest deep in the snowy Himalayan range of Central Asia is the mightiest peak of them all – – clocking in at the staggering height of 29,032 ft, or in other terms coming close to six miles above sea level.
While the peak was named for British surveyor George Everest in 1865, the first climbers to actually reach the summit were Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and his Tibetan guide Tenzing Norgay. Their history making achievement took place on May 29, 1953. The skill and expertise necessary to accomplish such a feat was doubtless years in the making as scaling Mt. Everest is a highly formidable and dangerous undertaking to say the least. At least three prior British expeditions trying to reach the summit of Everest failed in the early 1920s.
Two of the better known mountaineers to have failed in this endeavor were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who disappeared in June, 1924. Both were presumed dead with Mallory’s body not being found until 1999, some 800 ft. below the summit. Irvine’s body, however, has never been recovered – and these deaths alone illustrate quite clearly how risky these climbs are. At least 340 deaths have been reported on Everest since the 1920s, and Mountain Without Mercy detailed one of the worst years for such fatalities with 1996 being the deadliest on record (up to that time) with twelve dying on the slopes due to severe blizzard conditions which caught them in a death trap.
Aside from terrible blizzards – which can pop up without warning, there is continuous risk of avalanches, treacherous terrain that challenges the hardiest climbers and the best equipment, there are severe subzero temperatures and altitude sickness from lack of oxygen which often occurs when climbers reach the “death zone” starting above 26,247 ft. At this point, the air is far too thin for a person to survive without supplemental oxygen for an extended period, making the final thrust to reach the summit even that more dangerous. In addition to these risks there is a real possibility of falling into a crevasse without warning – with no way out, never to be seen again.
If all of these risks were not enough to intimidate most people from attempting such folly, there is temporary snow blindness caused by the glare of the sun coming off the snow and ice (which incidentally can cause a fatal misstep into a crevasse) or the strong winds that can cause a fatal fall down the mountainside. Of course, the higher one climbs brings the increasing risk of frostbite – to say nothing of potentially fatal brain swelling (also called cerebral edema) which can be brought on by the excessively high altitude. No doubt, some, if not all of these gruesome possibilities applied to the record number of deaths recorded on Everest for 2023 (and in so many previous expeditions) with 17 dying while trying to reach the summit.
It must also be kept in mind that scaling Mt. Everest would be nigh impossible without the assistance of Sherpa guides, who are an ethnic group living in the Himalayan Mountain valleys. Their mountaineering skills are invaluable for outsiders to have any possible success climbing Everest or any other peaks of extreme height in the region, for that matter. The aforementioned Tenzing Norgay who helped Edmund Hillary ascend Everest over seventy years ago, is probably the best known of the Sherpa guides among the many from Nepal and Tibet to make a career of this. Also to consider: participating in an expedition to climb Everest does not come cheap – what with permits, supplies, guides, etc. can easily cost a bare minimum of $33,000 U.S. dollars and depending on the type of experience being offered – much higher than that.
While I pondered all of the deeply compelling history and stories involved in Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, the triumphs and tragedies which have occurred there were almost mind-boggling to sort out. The best way to summarize why so many are driven to undertake this adventure (or misadventure as the unlucky case might be) is best stated in the book: “In a dark and mysterious way, the deadly nature of the place has only strengthened Everest’s grip on the world’s imagination. Because the dangers are so obvious, Everest has come to symbolize for many people the ultimate in personal ambition and achievement. (Pg. 245)
Thomas Hornbein was part of the first group of American mountaineers in 1963 and described their climb of Mt. Everest as: “a great metaphor for human striving, myth, and the world that is part of us all.” (Pg. 245)
