Day 87: Nepal – Mt. Everest

 

Today, we slept until 5 a.m., with an early 5.30 a.m. departure to the domestic terminal in Kathmandu—just a ten-minute drive. Our flight to Mt. Everest was departing at 6.36 a.m. for a one-hour round trip at a height of 22,000 feet. Even though it is a 72-seat plane, they only sell 36 seats so everyone gets a window seat. There were a few open seats, so the braver souls amongst us got to seat-hop in search of a better view.

The area around Kathmandu boasts six mountains higher than 26,000 feet, and we saw each of them. Fortunately, that early in the morning, there was very little haze and not too many clouds, so we had a really good view.

Gosain Than                       26,290
Cho-Oyu                            26,906
Gyachung Kang                  26,089
Everest                              29,031.69
Lhotse                               27,940
Makalu                               27,766

 

A quick look at those names reveals that one is not like the other. So why is Everest named Everest, while the others have local names? Let's look at the mountain's history. The original Tibetan name is Qomolangma (“holy mother”). Back in 1849, a British survey team was dispatched from nearby India to chart the mountains. Andrew Waugh, the team leader, wanted to maintain local names where possible. For the purposes of the survey, it was labeled Peak XV. He then decided that because there were so many local names, and he didn’t want to favour any of them, he’d name the mountain Everest after his predecessor George Everest, the Surveyor General Of India.  Everest opposed the name and, in 1857, explained that the name could not be pronounced in local Hindi. Nevertheless – it stuck!

Everest straddles the Chinese-Nepal border, and the two sides have quarreled over the years about its actual height, debating whether to include the small ice cap. An initial 1847 survey was carried out from 150 miles away, as the Nepalese didn’t trust the Brits and refused to allow them entry. That prompted the 1849 survey, which came up with a height of 30,200 feet. Subsequent analysis of the data, plus some other measurements, revealed that Peak XV was 29,002 feet. (There is a story that the calculations yielded a result of exactly 29,000 feet. But since everyone would assume that was a rounded guess, they added the +2 feet to make it realistic). Waugh was therefore credited with being “the first man to put two feet on top of Mount Everest”. Eventually, in 2020, Nepal and China kissed and made up, agreeing that the height was 29,031.69 feet.

That figure is complicated by plate tectonics. India is still ramming into Asia at about 2 inches north per year – raising the Himalayas and causing the stress that resulted in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The summit of Everest is estimated to be growing at 0.16 inches per year and moving 0.2 inches laterally to the northeast.

Back to the flight. This was quite an experience. The two flight attendants buzzed around, explaining what we saw and referring to the mini-map guide they handed out. (Page 2 with Everest is above ^^). Everest is bracketed by Lhotse to the right and the stub-nosed Nuptse to the left. Below them is the 22,349-foot Ama-Dablam, impressive in its own right anywhere else in the world, but not here. To put all this in context, we were 20 miles south of the mountain, flying at 22,000 feet, and had to look up. Geek alert >> We also had oxygen in the cabin and normal air pressure. If we were breathing the outside air, the oxygen content would be 9% instead of 21%, which drops to 6.9% at the summit (and it’s a balmy -22C up there right now).

We flew 30 minutes to the west, then turned around and flew 30 minutes back to Kathmandu so that everyone could see the mountains. After a while, I stopped taking photos. I realized that the camera could never capture the full majesty of what I saw, and it was better to take a mental picture to stay with me. You have the best that my iPhone could do here!