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WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2008 (Reuters) — A brain swelling condition related to low oxygen levels in the air may have caused many of the deaths of people climbing Mount Everest, researchers said on Tuesday. A brain swelling condition related to low oxygen levels in the air may have caused many of the deaths of people climbing Mount Everest, researchers said on Tuesday. An international team led by Paul Firth of Massachusetts General Hospital studied the 212 reported deaths from 1921 to 2006 on Mount Everest, the highest on Earth. Hazards awaiting those who dare to climb the 29,000-foot (8,850 meter)...

The authorities in Nepal are closing Everest Base Camp completely to foreigners not intending to climb the world's highest peak. They are doing this because China is worried demonstrators might disrupt their project to bring the Olympic torch up the mountain. China is seeking to bring the torch up any day now, when weather permits. Meanwhile, scores of Tibetan exiles have been arrested while demonstrating in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. Many amateur trekkers come to Nepal with Everest Base Camp as their ultimate goal. The husbands and wives of summiteers stay in the camp before their spouses go on up....

A special team of Nepalese police and army personnel has been given orders to use force if necessary to stop anti-China protests on Everest. Liam Cochrane reports from Kathmandu. Thai actor Christopher Benjakul runs with the torch during the Beijing Olympic Torch relay in Bangkok, Thailand, 19 Apr 2008 Expeditions heading towards Mount Everest will face tight security checks this climbing season, as Nepal tries to prevent anti-China demonstrations on its side of the mountain.The army has sent 15 soldiers trained in mountaineering to set up a checkpoint at Camp One, the first stopping point above Everest Base Camp.There will...

Nervous about Tibet, China bans Everest climbers By Charles Hutzler, Associated Press Published: Friday, March 14, 2008 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 7:52 p.m. Beijing | China is denying mountaineers permission to climb its side of Mount Everest this spring, a move that reflects concerns by the communist government that Tibet activists may try to disrupt its plans to carry the Olympic torch up the world's tallest peak. In recent days, everyone from the U.S. government to rights groups and George Clooney have urged China to tackle issues as varied as its restrictions on religion;...

THE body of New Zealand explorer and Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary is lying in state today following a traditional Maori welcoming ceremony in Auckland. As the hearse pulled into the forecourt this morning, Lady Hillary emerged from Holy Trinity Cathedral surrounded by family members, including Sir Ed's son Peter Hillary. Sir Edmund, the first person along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay to climb the world's highest peak in 1953, died of heart failure on January 11 at the age of 88. His funeral will be held tomorrow. New Zealand defence force personnel acted as pallbearers as about 100 members of...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Edmund Hillary once expressed surprise that it was he -- "an ordinary person with ordinary qualities" -- who became the first man to conquer the world's tallest peak. He spent the rest of his life telling the story of the climb up Mount Everest that made him one of the 20th century's best-known adventurers. But he maintained his reputation for humbleness, while working to aid the impoverished people of Nepal. Hillary died at Auckland Hospital about 9 a.m. Friday from a heart attack, said a statement from the Auckland District Health Board. Though ailing in his...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday. He was 88. The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called "Ed" and considering himself just an ordinary beekeeper. "Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off'...

It will be completed before Beijing Olympics. Beijing: Less than a year after the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, China confirmed plans for construction of yet another engineering feat: a 110-km black-topped tarmac road to the Everest base camp. The plan has sparked off a torrent of criticism with environmentalists decrying ...glaciers are thought to be in danger of melting.

Revolutionary helicopter faces funding Everest By PAUL CHARMAN - Eastern Courier | Saturday, 16 June 2007 HIGH FLYER: Trevor Rogers with part of the Alpine Wasp's kevlar and carbon fibre fuselage. The unmanned chopper is designed to rescue climbers from the Everest death zone two-at-a-time. Lack of self-belief and vision has cost Kiwi companies the chance to hitch their logos to the most advanced helicopter ever made. That is the view of the man building the Alpine Wasp, an unmanned helicopter designed to rescue injured climbers at high altitudes in the Himalayas. Trevor Rogers says his efforts to interest Kiwi...

A stricken climber left to die on Everest was saved by an American guide and a sherpa who found her by accident as they returned from the summit. The dramatic rescue of the Nepalese woman has reopened a passionate debate about mountaineering ethics, a year after the controversial death on the mountain of the British climber David Sharp. The woman, identified only as Usha, was found on Monday morning suffering from severe altitude sickness about 550 metres beneath the 8,848m (29,028ft) summit. She was at a similar altitude to the cave where Sharp died on May 15, 2006, after an...

KATMANDU, Nepal - A veteran Sherpa guide scaled Mount Everest for a record 17th time Wednesday, beating his own previous record, mountaineering officials said. Appa, who goes by one name, reached the 29,035-foot summit with seven other Sherpas and a Western climber, said Ang Tshering, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. Appa, 46, is one of the most respected climbers in the mountaineering community. His closest competitor — fellow Sherpa guide Chewang Nima, 41 — scaled the peak a 14th time last year. Appa, who now lives with his family in Utah, was leading a team calling themselves the "Super...

KATHMANDU (AFP) - A Dutch daredevil is to tackle the world's highest peak wearing just boots, shorts, gloves and a cap, the expedition leader told AFP Wednesday. Wim Hof, known as the "Iceman," holds nine endurance records and recently ran 21 kilometres (13 miles) barefoot above the Arctic circle in Finland. Hof claims to have special abilities to withstand freezing temperatures. His website innerfire.nl shows him cross-legged and semi-naked, meditating on ice. "He will not climb all the way in shorts, only in sections, but we plan to set many new world records," said expedition leader Werner de Jong by...

Hillary comes clean about Sir Edmund Finally admits she was not named for famous mountain climber -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 17, 2006 10:39 a.m. Eastern Years after alternative media pointed out the virtual impossibility, Sen. Hillary Clinton finally has admitted she was not named for the famous conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary. The New York Times, which repeated the claim as fact in a story just one week ago, reported Sen. Clinton's campaign issued a correction yesterday. "It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add," said...

KATMANDU, Nepal - Just days after a British climber was left to die near Mount Everest's summit, an American guide abandoned his second bid to stand on top of the world so he could rescue a mountaineer mistakenly given up for dead. Not only did Daniel Mazur not scale the world's highest peak from the northern side, he also failed to get his two paying clients to the top. "It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," Mazur, of Olympia, Wash., told The Associated...

Just days after a British climber was left to die near Mount Everest's summit, an American guide abandoned his second bid to stand on top of the world so he could rescue a mountaineer mistakenly given up for dead. Not only did Daniel Mazur not scale the world's highest peak from the northern side, he also failed to get his two paying clients to the top. "It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," Mazur, of Olympia, Wash., told The Associated Press upon returning...

Everest 2006: A message from the deathzone 06:30 pm EST May 30, 2006 Let me tell you what it feels like on 8500 meters, deep in the Death Zone. It depends...on 3 things: 1. The weather 2. How long you have been up there 3. And if you use (good) oxygen If the weather is bad, you are out of oxygen (or use a bad system), and you are returning from a summit - chances are you feel like shit. Your brain is a distant blur, your legs hardly move, and you just want to sit down and sleep. But...

In the Washington Times this week there came a report of a climber who was left to die on the slopes of Everest. Mark Inglis, an amputee on atrificial legs, defended his group's decision to leave David Sharp, a man they found dying on the side of the mountain. "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for him] for quite a lot at the time and it was a very hard decision," said Inglis. The group moved on, after some of the group's...

Sharp unrescuable, says Chinese mountaineer Updated: 2006-05-28 09:14 Chinese female mountaineer Luo Lili regretted David Sharp's death in the Mount Qomolangma but said the British climber was at a nearly unrescuable height. "Mountaineers all know the height above 7,000m is very dangerous and usually deemed as an unrescuable height," said Luo on Saturday, who just returned from a May 15 scaling of the world highest peak. Sharp, 34, ran out of oxygen and died in a snow cave just 300 meters from the summit on his way down the Himalayan mountain. Dozens of people had walked right past him, unwilling...

Climbers' attitude is 'horrifying', says Sir Edmund (Filed: 24/05/2006) Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first mountaineers ever to scale Mount Everest, has expressed outrage at reports that a young Englishman was left to die on the side of the world's tallest peak. Sir Edmund: 'People just want to get to the top' David Sharp, from Guisborough, apparently died of oxygen deficiency while descending from Everest's summit last week. Several parties reported seeing Mr Sharp, who was 34, in various states of health on the day of his death. One party included the New Zealander Mark Inglis, who became the...

Everest rescue underway for Australian Email Print Normal font Large font May 26, 2006 - 11:10AM Advertisement AdvertisementA dramatic rescue operation is underway in the hope of saving the life of an Australian climber given up for dead on Mount Everest. Lincoln Hall, 50, and one of Australia's leading climbers, was reported by a Russian expedition leader to have died on Thursday while descending from the summit of the world's highest mountain. Friends in Australia mourned Hall after Russian Alexander Abramov declared on Everest news websites that the climber's death "was verified", and was probably due to cerebral edema. However,...

Everest Pioneer Climber Blasts Group Who Left Dying ManPioneering Everest Climber Sir Edmund Hillary Blasts Dozens of Climbers Who Left Dying British Man WELLINGTON, New Zealand May 24, 2006 (AP)— Mount Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary said Wednesday he was shocked that dozens of climbers left a British mountaineer to die during their own attempts on the world's tallest peak. David Sharp, 34, died apparently of oxygen deficiency while descending from the summit during a solo climb last week. More than 40 climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, and almost all continued to the...

Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain. Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for...

TOKYO - A mountaineering company claimed that a 70-year-old Japanese man on one of its expeditions Wednesday became the oldest person to scale Mount Everest, edging the record-holder by three days. A spokesman for Guinness World Records in London said it couldn't immediately confirm the feat. Takao Arayama, aged 70 years, 7 months and 13 days, scaled the 29,035-foot peak, according to Toshinori Koya, who heads Tokyo-based company Adventure Guides, which planned the climb. The Guinness World Records Web site says the record has been held by Yuichiro Miura, also of Japan, who reached the summit at the age of...

Kiwi mountaineer Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mount Everest last night to become the first double-amputee to conquer the world's highest peak. His wife, Anne Inglis, sent a text message to The Press and Inglis' supporters late last evening which said: "Mark definitely made it, back at Camp 4. They are in high spirits. Anne."

Mount Everest and the Himalaya mountain range conjure images of llamas and Sherpas loaded with heavy packs. But tucked into the cold shadows of the world's tallest mountain are biologically diverse hotspots filled with poorly known plants and animals found nowhere else on the globe. Scientists from Conservation International and Disney's Animal Kingdom recently launched a two-month scientific expedition into six regions of the Tibetan "Sacred Lands" in the mountains of Southwest China and Nepal. Today they announced the discovery of a pocket of the world rich in extraordinary flora and fauna. "The fact that we found so many new...

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Connie Julian, 917-449-9064, Janet Yip 212-941-8086 or commission@nion.us News Advisory: From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration WHEN: January 10, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. WHERE: The White House, Walk-in Gate, across from Lafayette Park WEBSITE: http://www.bushcommission.org An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, on moral, political, and legal grounds, will be delivered by a citizens' tribunal to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th. Named in the indictments are: President of...

Think about it. Can a woman safely scale Everest while fretting whether any of her hair is visible? Can she do so while obsessing about the legs or arms showing (both of which remain taboo in the Muslim community, regardless of the weather or circumstances)? Think somebody can climb a mountain wearing a shalwar kamees, much less a jilbab? Wait, it gets worse. What if there is a man beneath her on the trail? Is she not dishonored by this compromising position? And won’t that sight risk causing fitnah and fatality on the mountainside? (I’m reminded of the fretting of...

New Delhi: Indian Army’s women mountaineers created history on Thursday by becoming the first women’s expedition to scale the Mt Everest. Captain Shipra Mazumdar, Captain Ashwini Pawar, cadet Tshering Ladol and trainee Dechin Lhamo scaled the 8848-metre high peak between 6:15 a.m. 9:39 a.m. The peak was also scaled by five members of the support team -- Major S S Shekhawat, Subedar Surjeet Singh, Naib Subedar Jagat Singh, Havildar Topgey Bhutia and Commando Kaman Singh. The women mountaineering team scaled the world’s tallest peak from the Chinese side through the North Col Route, the Army said in a release.

Two Iranian Women Conquer Mount Everest Jun 1, 2005 Two Iranian women made history when they became the first Muslim women to conquer Mt Everest, the tallest peak in the world. Farkhondeh Sadegh, a 36-year-old graphic designer, and Loleh Keshavarz, 26, a dentist, added a new chapter to the history of mountaineering when they climbed the 8,848 m peak Monday. They climbed the peak from the southern side through Nepal around 10.45 a.m. as part of the 21-member Iranian 2005 Everest Expedition. It was an especially heady triumph for Iran as besides bagging the honour of sending the first Muslim...

Iranian female climbers ready to scale Mount Everest May 27, 2005 New Delhi, May 27, IRNA-Farkhondeh Sadegh and Leila Bahrami, two gritty women are leading a team of seven Iranian women to the daunting task of climbing the world's tallest mountain peak, Mount Everest, `The Hindu' reported from New Delhi on Friday. Sadegh and Bahrami have been both to Nepal before and are seasoned climbers. They climbed Mount Pumori, a steep mountain of 7,161 metres, 8km away from Everest in 2001. All the members of the team are aged between 25 and 36 years, and except for Sadegh and Bahrami,...

Beijing has high hopes for Olympic flame on Everest Thu 26 May, 9:42 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - China has high hopes for the 2008 Olympic Games -- 8,850 metres (29,035 ft) high, to be exact. Beijing is investigating how to haul the Olympic torch to the peak of Mount Everest and broadcast the event live during the pre-Games torch relay, a senior Olympics official said on Thursday. "We have organised a research team and they are assessing it," said Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, told Reuters. "It depends on the weather at...

Mt. Everest Avalanche Injures Climbers Friday, May 06, 2005 KATMANDU, Nepal — Medics in a makeshift tent hospital on Mount Everest (search) on Friday treated six climbers injured in an avalanche, while rescuers hoping to evacuate the victims in helicopters were turned back by snowfall and strong wind. No one was killed by the avalanche early Thursday, which swept through the first of four camps set up between Everest's base camp and the mountain's 29,035-foot summit. Six climbers received injuries ranging from bruises to a possible broken back, reports from the mountain said. The victims' nationalities were still unclear. They...

Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore was awarded seven and a half minutes of air time in the 7:30 half hour of Thursday's Today show to offer his political analysis of why the Democrats failed to oust Bush. Katie Couric felt that wasn't enough, so she invited him back an hour later for another eight minutes and forty seconds of air time, or 16 minutes, 10 seconds overall. While Couric tried to suggest that maybe Hollywood liberalism hurt the Democrats (and even noted the "vitriol...you seem to embody"), she also inaccurately promoted Moore's latest book as "new" and "currently on many bestseller...

Claim: Hillary Clinton was named after world-famous mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary. Status: Probably not. Examples: Taking a weekend break from official duties on her Asian tour, the first lady escaped already-remote Katmandu and traveled two hours by prop plane, land rover and rowboat to the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge. Later, she got to meet Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to reach Mount Everest's summit in 1953. Sir Edmund Hillary, a frequent visitor and benefactor of Nepal since his historic trek, had a brief Hillary-to-Hillary handshake at the Katmandu airport before Clinton departed Sunday for Bangladesh. The first lady...

May 24, 2004 23: 30 EST They stunned the entire mountain as they came soaring toward the summit. They waved at the climbers and then they were gone. Well, at least Angelo was. You rarely get a story like this one even at ExplorersWeb. Check the full report of the flight that rocked Everest this morning: "Tummy troubles in the night. Had a look out of the tent before dawn, didn't look too good so went back to sleep. Woke up later (at least it was light) and suprise! It didn't look too bad. Got out of my tent...

Sky 'fell in' on Everest By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent (Filed: 27/05/2004) The eight climbers killed on the single deadliest day on Everest may have been victims of the "sky falling in", according to a study. An analysis of weather patterns in May 1996 suggests the mountaineers died when the stratosphere sank to the level of the summit, 29,000ft above sea level. The freak weather caused pressure and oxygen levels to plunge within the "death zone" - the area above 26,000ft where the oxygen is extremely thin. Normally Everest's summit lies just below the atmospheric layer. But on May 10,...

LONDON (AFP) - A British adventurer laid claim to being the first to fly around Mount Everest (news - web sites), at 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) the world's highest peak, in a microlight aircraft. Richard Meredith-Hardy, 46, took off from a base camp 25 kilometres (15 miles) away, then braved potentially dangerous downdrafts to reach the summit where he waved to "a shedload of climbers" and snapped photos. "This place is seriously big," he said, according to a statement from his ground crew sent to AFP in London, "and we were lucky to get a break in the weather...

A Korean climber has died descending from the Summit of Everest from the North side. A Japanese woman has also died descending from the North side of Everest. Shoto Ota was with the Adventure Guides QOMOLANGMA EXPEDITION 2004. After the summit she lost consciousness coming down and died. She was 63. Other Korean climbers and their Sherpa who had been attempting to save the life of the Korean climber who died, and are now unaccounted for. It is unclear if the Sherpas are accounted for. On the South side of Everest, a small team of Gustavo Lisi (Argentina) and...

Link post, to allow interested readers access to the thread below in the FR "chat" section, where any commentary should be posted. Geology Picture of the Week, March 28-April 3, 2004: Himalayan Vista

OK, there are a couple of options here. If you click the picture below, you'll get a larger version of it. Two links are provided below the picture; one goes to the NASA Earth Observatory page, and the other goes to the "Find Mount Everest" site at Johnson Space Center that has an interactive view of the whole place (there is a separate page with the highest peaks indicated. Forget Everest -- try to find Xixabangma without looking at that page!) On Top of the World: Everest and Makalu Find Mount Everest

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 August 31 The View from Everest Credit & Copyright: Roddy Mackenzie Explanation: What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far, tremendous cliffs, distant plateaus, the tops of clouds, and a dark blue sky. Mt. Everest stands 8.85 kilometers above sea level, roughly the maximum height...

Everest Survivor: Global Extremes pre show warm-up07:24 a.m. EDT Jun 1, 2003 Tonight OLN TV in the United States is going to air this past Thursday/Friday’s summit push on TV – 7 PM EST (8 PM PST). Whether you’ve been following these guys since last autumn or just heard of them today, read on for a pre-show warm up of the Everest Survivor show. Join us as we recount the Global Extreme’s Lho mystery man who almost got put in Nepali jail, the expedition leader getting hit in the head with an oxygen bottle, and the ex-contestant who refused to...

"Finally made it, Ma! Top o' the world!"…literally Climbers can now email friends and family from 17,400 feet thanks to the highest cybercafé in the world at the Mount Everest base camp. The Everest internet café has been launched to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing. Not only will it allow the 50,000 hardy trekkers who tackle the peak every year keep in touch with loved ones but internet access at base camp will make it easier to call for emergency assistance and check...

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Should Mount Everest be closed to climbers and allowed to recover after a half century in which thousands of mountaineers have scaled its slopes trying to reach the summit? Yes, say pioneers who were among the first to reach the world's highest peak. The Sherpa porters and guides who get their income from the expeditions to the 8,850-metre summit, disagree. "I have suggested to the Nepal government that they should stop giving permission and give the mountain a rest for a few years," said Edmund Hillary, one of the first two climbers who conquered the mountain...

See link.

China has launched an intensive campaign to make the west in particular stop calling the world’s highest peak as Mount Everest and instead refer to it by its Chinese name Mount Qomolangma. It says that the mountain is very sacred to the Tibetans. The campaign was officially launched on Monday in all the newspapers. The Chinese Daily accused "British colonialists" of "ignorance and arrogance" in persisting with references to Mt Everest. "British colonialists raped the sacred mountain of the Tibetans by giving it a false name." "Until today the world is still persistently humiliating Mt Qomolangma with English-language hegemonism,” says...

Blindly believing themselves the first to discover the tallest mountain straddling the border of China's Tibet and Nepal, Britsh people named the peak in honor of George Everest, a British surveyor general of India who led a team in surveying the Himalayan ranges in the early 1840's.In a paper published in 1958, Lin Chao, a late prestigious expert on geographic history and topography with Beijing University, noted that the British man did not deserve the honor, as it was Tibetans themselves who first discovered the peak.According to Lin's reasearch, the Manchurian and Han (or Chinese) language name of 'Qomolangma' first...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 23 The View from Everest Credit & Copyright: Roddy Mackenzie Explanation: What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far, tremendous cliffs, distant plateaus, the tops of clouds, and a dark blue sky. Mt. Everest stands 8.85 kilometers above sea level, roughly the maximum...

Female Climbing Team Turns Back By Associated Press May 19, 2002, 6:16 AM EDT TACOMA, Wash. -- A group of five American women tackling Mount Everest was forced to turn back just short of the summit. Health problems and weather forced the final four climbers to turn around early Saturday, just 285 feet from the 29,035-foot summit. Minutes before they turned back, expedition leader Eric Simonson of International Mountain Guides had reported things were fine, said his wife Erin Simonson, business manager for the trek. "Everything was going beautifully," she told The News Tribune of Tacoma. "Twenty minutes later, I'm...