Little Known Facts About Mount Everest

Most people probably know that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. Some might actually be able to point it out on the map where it's located between Nepal and Tibet. But besides its location and holding the record for being the tallest mountain, there are a few other fun things to know.

For instance, do you know what Mount Everest is known as in Nepal or Tibet? In Nepal, they call it Sagarmatha which means "mighty brow of the sky". And in Tibet, it's known as Chomolungma which means "goddess mother of the world".

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the summit of Everest. They did so on May 29, 1953. Tenzing Norgay had tried six times before then to reach the top unsuccessfully.

More fun first facts: Junko Tabei survived being temporarily buried in an avalanche to go on and reach the summit on May 16, 1975. She was the first woman to do so. Almost two weeks after her, a woman by the name of Phantog became the second woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In 2005, Pem Dorjee Sherpa and Moni Mulepati were married while standing atop the mountain. The couple was the first to do so.

Sad fact: There are over 100 climbers who've died while attempting to scale Mount Everest and never had their bodies recovered. It is thought that about one person dies trying to climb the mountain every 14 weeks on average.

Fun fact: A Boston Red Sox fan climbed to the top of Mount Everest and left a Red Sox baseball cap there in 2001 in order to try to lift the "curse of the Bambino" so the baseball team might win another world series again one day. The Red Sox won the world series three years later in 2004.

Fact Sources
Everest History, "Firsts". (www.Everesthistory.com)
Mt. Everest History and Facts, "Everest Facts". (www.mnteverest.net)