There is a lot of material for students to assimilate in this unit. You may want to spread the unit out over the course of three weeks, incorporating the supplementary material suggestions and viewing related videos.

In the unit, students learn about Everest’s past – everything from the mountain’s creation to its conquerors. Learning about Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (first to summit Everest, with Hillary) is a stepping off point to discuss Tibet’s troubled history after the Chinese invasion and the Dalai Lama’s current influence. An overview of Asia is also available, should you wish to teach it.

The culmination of the unit is an essay writing exercise. Students are provided with eight thought-provoking topics, most directly linked to contemporary teenage issues.

Note: Due to copyright restrictions, some of the worksheets do not include photos. The Internet is a valuable source for images! Please assign HOMEWORK for students to print out a picture of past summitters, the Dalai Lama, and so forth depending on the next day’s lesson.

Begin the unit by asking students to brainstorm what images come to mind when they hear the word, “Everest.” Most pupils know an aura of mystery surrounds the mountain, but are unsure of the background of the quest to summit or even Everest’s location. Students may be aware of the dangers of climbing if they have seen the 2001 Hollywood film Vertical Limit.

Everest through the Years provides a starting point to the mountain. You may want to give out Everest – Just the Facts at this point as well. For older classes, intelligent whole class discussion is suggested. For younger grades, Everest through the years – Comprehension a simple comprehension sheet is available. You might want to assign research homework: students should find out as much as they can about ONE person who has summitted Everest.

Advise students they will have an ESSAY to write at the end of the unit, so to review their essay-writing skills, follow along closely and ask if they have questions!

Students will now get to know summitters of Everest – past and present. If you have asked students to do research, then make a list of the climbers’ names on an OHP with a brief note about them.

Start with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Be sure students understand the significance of a Sherpa summitting the first time Everest has been climbed. An assignment for students to study Sherpas (their culture, villages, economy) would make an easy homework assignment. The backgrounder below gives you some information to augment students’ knowledge.

Sherpas have an unmatched spirit, positive outlook and high altitude prowess that has been written about the world over. Being able to lug heavy packs easily at high altitude has prompted many scientific studies. There is evidence of a gene that allows their blood to carry more oxygen, which helps explain their high altitude prowess.

Over the centuries Sherpas have survived in this challenging climate as traders, yak herders, spinners of wool as well as porters and climbers on Everest. Sherpas traditionally learned climbing and guiding skills while apprenticing to older Sherpas. Today, there is a climbing school for Sherpas, called the Nepali Mountaineering Association, where children as young as five begin training.

About 250,000 Sherpas live in the mountains of Nepal in three connected regions: Khumbu, Solu and Pharak. Of the 25,000 Sherpas living in the vicinity of Everest, most reside in Namche Bazaar which is often called "The Sherpa capital of Nepal.”

Sherpas have played quiet, but critical roles in Everest achievements. From the beginning of their involvement with high altitude mountaineering, Sherpas have paid a disproportionately high price in life and limb. In 1922 seven Sherpa porters were buried under an avalanche on Everest's North Col. Because of their contribution to route fixing and ferrying supplies, they find themselves exposed to the extreme risks of high mountain climbing more frequently than their employers. Still, in a developing nation, many Sherpas feel the high risk = high money equation is worth it to support their extended families.

Religious beliefs are an important part of daily life. The majority of Sherpa homes have altars where photographs of the Dalai Lama and departed family loved ones can be found, along with offerings of rice, water and candles.

The Sherpa culture, as well as the land, have also been affected by the steady increase in mountaineering and tourism. Despite the impact from the outside world, the people of the Khumbu region have held onto their traditions and their religious beliefs.

From Hillary and Norgay, move on to Reinhold Messner. This Austrian climber could be discussed in relation to high altitude sickness – what is it? How does it affect climbers and so forth. Info. is provided below to share with the students.

Also known as mountain sickness, altitude sickness is an acute reaction to a change from sea level or other low-altitude environments to altitudes above 8,000 feet (2,400 m). It is a condition in which the body is starved of oxygen because of the thinness of the air at high altitudes. Mountain climbers, pilots, and persons living at high altitudes are the most likely to be affected.

The symptoms of altitude sickness fall into four main categories: (1) respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath upon exertion, and deeper and more rapid breathing; (2) mental or muscular symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, dizziness, lassitude, headache, sleeplessness, decreased mental acuity, decreased muscular coordination, and impaired sight and hearing; (3) cardiac symptoms such as pain in the chest, palpitations, and irregular heartbeat; and (4) gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. The symptoms usually occur within six hours to four days after arrival at high altitude and disappear within two to five days as acclimatization occurs. Although most people gradually recover as they adapt to the low atmospheric pressure of high altitude, some persons experience a reaction that can be severe and, unless they return to low altitude, possibly fatal.

Rob Hall and Scott Fischer are an interesting way to discuss competition – and how it can be deadly on Everest. Both Hall and Fischer wanted to get their clients to the summit of Everest so they would be able to climbers for future expeditions.

Scott Fischer – Remembered explores Scott’s lust for adventure as a teenager. Explore (whole class discussion) their wives’ potential feelings about climbing, expeditions, etc. Rob spoke to his pregnant wife while he was trapped high on Everest, hours before his death. Did their wives accept the risks when they married their husbands, or did they think the men would change? Do the male students differ in their views than females?

Comprehension work based on the 1996 tragedy would be an excellent addition to this unit. Suggested books to take snippets from:

• Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
• The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
• Left for Dead, by Beck Weathers

The IMAX film chronicling the events would be a fantastic outing. It is possible to borrow programs (showing rushes from the film) from local libraries as well.

Junko Tabei, Stacy Allison and Tom Whittaker are three other significant summitters to study. Divide the class into 3 groups, one for each of the climbers. The groups must summarize the biography information to share with the rest of the class. Mini-presentations with a group spokesperson should be given.

Whole class:
1. Discuss how gender and disabilities have become a non-issue on Everest. What does that say about goal setting?
2. Were there any climbers students researched for which you have not given out bio material? Why did the student choose that particular mountaineer? The next lesson will be on Mallory, so don’t elaborate too much!

HOMEWORK SUGGESTION: Have students choose ONE of the climbers profiled (from Hillary to Whittaker) and write a diary entry the night before reaching the summit.

• What were the weather conditions?
• How was the food?
• Were they frightened?
• What were they wearing?
• Who else was with them? Other climbers? Sherpas?
• Sights, sounds, smells, etc.
• What were they thinking about? Family? Death?

George Mallory remains a fascinating figure in history. Discuss his seeming acceptance of his fate. Why would he go to Everest if he feared he would never return? The Mystery of Mallory provides information about the disappearance of Mallory. The famous mystery is still unsolved. Did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit in 1924, almost 30 years before Hillary? Have interested students research the on-going saga of Mallory’s camera – there’s a plethora on the Net about it.

HOMEWORK SUGGESTION: Have students write a news report – Mallory’s camera has been found! Where? When? How? Who found it? What do the pictures tell us, if anything?

Remind students they will need to bring their Tenzing Norgay sheet to class for the next lesson.

These next four lessons explore the initial problem British and European climbers had: not being able to access Everest through Tibet or Nepal. First, climbers had access solely through Tibet, then (with the advent of Communism), solely through Nepal.

Begin with Most famous Sherpa... , to introduce the idea of Communism and nationality.

“Tenzing was always careful to fudge his past to avoid offending Nepalese authorities, and to prevent China from using his nationality for propaganda.”

Make sure students understand why it would have been in Tenzing Norgay’s best interests to pretend he was Nepalese.

The lessons have a geographical aspect to them as well; ask students to bring their atlases to class so they are clear how Tibet is now part of China. They may be familiar with the phrase, “Free Tibet.” There are many printable maps of China available on the WWW.

Now have students read India Should Save Tibet – An Editorial for one point of view. Discuss whole class what the Chinese point of view might be. Define Communism and discuss its pros and cons. Relate the discussion in terms of Mt. Everest – why wouldn’t the Chinese want outsiders attempting to climb the mountain?

The 13th Dalai Lama allowed Europeans to explore Everest. The 14th Dalai Lama was forced into exile by the Chinese. Read The Dalai Lama aloud; have students interrupt if they have questions; this speech provides the necessary background for an understanding of the Dalai Lama’s views.

The Dalai Lama – A Personal View provides more insight into the Dalai Lama. Students should read silently and discuss the sheet/create a script in pairs. This is a more difficult read and is recommended for older students. Are there any other world “lost cause” issues students can think of?

SUGGESTED VIEWING: Hollywood films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet have been critically acclaimed and generally acknowledged to be historically accurate.

Dalai Lama Interview allows students to compare their own script writing! Discuss the issues raised in the interview and make notes on an OHP for students to follow.

Escaping Tibet – Two Stories provides names and faces, a more personal look at China’s rule over Tibet.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

• Students act out “the escape” of either version
• Students write a letter home from Sonam Dolker to her parents, describing her new life in India
• Script either of the escapees meeting with the Dalai Lama

Asia – Just the Facts provides more background material for students. The Asia Quiz can be done in class simply as a comprehension exercise, or at the beginning of the next lesson with a mark assigned. Instruct students to review the material from throughout the unit – their essay will be assigned tomorrow.

1. The Gobi desert lies in northern China and southern Mongolia.
2. Monsoons are strong winds. In the summer they accompany fierce rain; in winter they blow dry and dusty.
3. The orangutan is native to Southeast Asia, notably Borneo and Sumatra.
4. The smallest nation in size is Macao, a peninsula and two small islands located at the mouth of the Canton River in China. It measures 6 square miles (16 km[sup2]).
5. The smallest nation in population is the Maldive Islands, southwest of India, with 200,000 citizens.
6. Most of the Tibetan people practice Buddhism. Tibet is now a region of China, but it was once part of India.
7. The Chinese belong to the Mongoloid group; the Iranians to the Caucasoid group.
8. The highest point between Tibet (China) and Nepal is Mount Everest, part of the Himalayan mountain range, at 29,035 ft.
9. The official language of India is Hindi.
10. The riches that originally attracted explorers to Asia were silk, spices and jewels.

Begin this lesson by having pairs discuss Everest Quotes – students should be able to identify the author and the context of the quotes. Take up whole class.

Hand out the Everest Essays assignment and read through each of the questions thoroughly with the students. Time may be given in class to work on the assignment. An Essay Writing Checklist offers students a cohesive checklist for writing a solid essay.

HOMEWORK: Assign first draft to be handed in at a date of your choice. Have students evaluate a peer’s first draft. Second drafts should be handed in at a later date for grading.

END NOTE: Limited time? Lessons 7 - 9 can be dropped. Go straight to the Essay in Lesson 10.

The peak of Mt. Everest is the highest point on Earth and stands at 29,035 ft. above sea level. It’s believed that Mt. Everest was formed by two tectonic plates* of Asia and India, which collided millions of years ago and created the mountain range known as the Himalayas. The Tibetans in the North call Everest “Chomolungma” or “Goddess, Mother of the World”. In Nepal, it is named “Sagarmatha” or “the Goddess of the Sky.

In 1852, British Surveyor General George Everest discovered the mountain and called it Peak XV. In 1856, Sir Andrew Waugh proposed “Everest” as the English name of the mountain. In 1861 George Everest was knighted and in 1865, Peak XV was officially renamed, Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.

By the end of the 19th century, British and European mountaineers were looking toward Asia in hopes of reaching Everest, but the path was not clear. Neither Tibet nor Nepal allowed Europeans to cross their borders. In addition, the incredible height of the mountain made the physical effects of altitude a major concern**.

It wasn’t until January 1921, that scientists from the Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club received permission from Tibet’s 13th Dalai Lama*** to send an expedition to Everest from the Tibetan side. Because little was known at the time about Everest’s geography, the 1921 expedition lead by British lieutenant-colonel, C.K.H Howard-Bury was not trying to reach the summit, but merely intended to chart the best course to the summit.

However, George Leigh Mallory, the only climber to take part in all three of the British Everest expeditions in the 1920s, was interested in going to the top. Accompanied by some of the other climbers from the team, Mallory left the scientists and attempted to climb Mt. Everest. After weeks of climbing, backtracking, and detouring around obstacles, they reached a height of 23,000 ft. in an area called the North Col. High winds forced them to turn back at that point.

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* The Earth’s surface layer is composed of large and small plates that move about, causing mountains to rise where they push together and oceans to form where they pull apart
** Altitude sickness is caused by the body's inability to adjust to the lower air pressure and decreased oxygen found above 7,000 feet. Headaches, loss of appetite, lethargy and sleeplessness accompanied by swelling, nausea, diarrhea and fever are the less severe symptoms. Acute altitude sickness can cause hallucinations and death
*** The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. The 13th Dalai Lama was Thub-bstan-rgya-mtsho (1875-1933)

With a summit route map completed, a second expedition set out in 1922, led again by George Mallory. The team of climbers made three separate attempts at the summit. The first attempt was without the use of oxygen. Mallory, E.F. Norton and Howard Somervell, reached a height of 27,000 feet before turning back. The second attempt, was made a few days later by several other climbers with oxygen, reached 27,300 feet. The third attempt by yet another group of climbers, ended in disaster before reaching the summit. Seven Sherpas**** were killed by an avalanche in the North Col.

In 1924, Mallory came back to Everest for the third time, accompanied by young climber Sandy Irvine. The two attempted the push for the summit and were last seen at midday high on a ridge close to the top. Whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit and were killed on the way down or whether they died before reaching the top, is one of Everest’s great mysteries.

The first attempt to climb Everest alone was in 1934 by Maurice Wilson, a former captain in the British army. He disappeared. His body was discovered, intact, 56 years later on the route up to the North Col by a group of Chinese climbers.

Nearly 30 years after Mallory’s disappearance, the summit of Everest was finally reached. On May 29, 1953 at 11:30 a.m., Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa, made the ascent on the Southeast Ridge, past South Peak, to the summit, 29,035 feet above sea level, the highest spot on the earth. The British-led expedition, run by Colonel H.C.J. Hunt, included high-altitude porters, a correspondent from The Times newspaper and a doctor specializing in Physiology.

The success of the expedition combined with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, restored the confidence of a nation weary from long years of wartime hardship and postwar shortages. When Hillary returned to Britain he was knighted by the new Queen, and became Sir Edmund Hillary.

A year after Hillary summitted, the first aerial photos of Everest were taken by an Indian Air Force Liberator.

Since the first climb to the top of Mt. Everest, the mountain has been successfully summitted by hundreds of people. But even with the most high-tech climbing gear, it remains a very dangerous enterprise.***** Some of those individuals who have reached the famous peak include: Junko Tabei (the first woman to summit Everest), Tom Whittaker, (the first disabled person to climb to Mt. Everest) and Reinhold Messner (the first person to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen and, later, the first solo climb). There have also some famous Sherpas who have made the climb since Tenzing Norgay reached the top. Ang Rita Sherpa has made 10 successful summits of Everest and Appa Sherpa has made 11 successful attempts to the summit.

In May 1996, Everest was very much in the world spotlight when world-renowned climbing guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were confronted by a freak savage storm on the upper mountain. The storm claimed the lives of nine climbers, including Hall and Fischer.

Mt. Everest, throughout its history, has remained in the hearts of many climbers as the ultimate conquest, though in reality, no human can ever ‘conquer’ Everest. He or she can only hope to be allowed to climb and return home safely.

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**** The Sherpa, known for their superior mountaineering skills, are employed by Himalayan expeditions as porters and guides
***** More than 150 people have lost their lives trying to reach the summit of Everest

Age of Everest:    Everest was formed approximately 60 million years ago

Elevation:    29,035 (8850m) - found to be 6' higher in 1999

Named After:    Sir George Everest in 1865, the British surveyor-general of India. Once known as Peak 15.

Location:    Latitude 27° 59' N.....Longitude 86° 56' E – Summit ridge separates Nepal and Tibet

First Ascent:    May 29,1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, NP, via the South

First Solo Ascent:    Aug. 20,1980, Reinhold Messner, AUT, via the NE Ridge to North Face

Mt. Everest rises a few millimeters each year due to geological forces

First Ascent by a Woman:    May 16,1975, Junko Tabei, JAP, via the South-Col

First Ascent by an American Woman:    Sep. 29,1988, Stacey Allison, Portland, OR via the South-East Ridge

First Ascent without Oxygen:    May 8, 1978- Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, AUT, via the South-East Ridge

First Disabled Person to Reach the Summit:    Welshman Tom Whittaker, May 27, 1998

First Woman to Reach the Summit of Mt. Everest from both North & South Sides:    Cathy O'Dowd (S.A.) South May 25, 1996/North '99

Youngest Person:    Sambu Tamang (NP) 16 on May 5,1973

Oldest Person:    Lev Sarkisov May 12,1999 -60 yrs. 161 days

Most Ascents:    Eleven, 24th May 2000 Appa Sherpa became the first person to climb Everest 11 times-Ten, Ang Rita Sherpa, Babu Chiri Sherpa all ascents were oxygen-less.

Best and Worst Years on Mt. Everest:    1993, 129 summitted and eight died (a ratio of 16:1); in 1996, 98 summitted and 15 died (a ratio of 6½:1)

Highest Cause of Death:    Avalanches - about a (2:1) ratio over falls

Country with Most Deaths on Mountain:    Nepal - 46

Most Dangerous Area on Mountain:    Khumbu Ice Fall - 19 deaths

First Ski Descent:    Davo Karnicar (Slovenia) Oct. 7, 2000

Last Year without Ascent:    1977

Corpses Remaining on Everest:    About 120

Longest Stay on Top:    Babu Chiri Sherpa stayed at the summit full 21 and a half hours

Largest Team:    In 1975, China tackled Everest with a 410-member team.

Fastest Descent:    In 1988, Jean-Marc Boivin of France descended from the top in just 11 minutes, paragliding.

Only Climber to Climb all 4 Sides of Mt. Everest:    Kushang Sherpa, now an instructor with Himalayan Mountaineering Institute

1. How was Mount Everest formed?
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2. On one side of Mount Everest is Nepal. On the other is _________________________

3. How did Mount Everest get its name?
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4. What two other names does Everest boast?
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5. Why couldn’t British and European mountaineers climb Everest at the end of the 19th Century? Give two reasons.
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6. How many expeditions did George Mallory participate in? _______________________

7. Who were the first two men to stand on top of the world? Which countries were they from?
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8. What two events restored confidence in Britain in 1953?
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9. Who are Sherpas? Why are they so important to Everest expeditions?
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10. Who was the first disabled climber to summit Everest? ________________________

Even though he became the first person to get to the top of Mt. Everest, Edmund Hillary started out in his homeland of New Zealand as a beekeeper. By age 20, however, he had scaled his first mountain peak in the New Zealand Alps - located on South Island, these alps have peaks ranging from heights of 3,000 to 12,000 ft. - and was completely hooked on climbing.

In March of 1953, Hillary, along with a well-equipped British expedition, set out to climb Mt. Everest.* Hillary’s group climbed along the Nepalese, or southern side, of the mountain. Before 1953, the only attempts at Everest were made from the North Tibetan side which is harder to get to than the south side and has much colder winds. Hillary and his group set up Base Camp at 17,500 feet, Camp 1 at 19,500 ft, Camp 2 at 21,000 ft, Camp 3 at 23,500 ft., and Camp 4 at 26,300 feet.**

On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first climbers to successfully reach the summit of Mt Everest. Climbers who take the southern route to Everest still follow what is called Hillary’s trail.***

For his historic achievement, Edmund Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, on July 16, 1953. Sir Edmund has made several trips back to Mount Everest and its region, where he has helped to build schools and hospitals for the Sherpa.

Today, Sir Hillary lives in New Zealand and speaks around the world about his accomplishments. He has also written several books about his many expeditions.

Hillary also reached the South Pole by tractor on January 4, 1958 and wrote about it in No Latitude for Error. And he was a part of the team who climbed Mount Herschel in Antarctica in 1967 for the first time. His autobiography Nothing Venture, Nothing Win was published in 1975.

More recently he has become an outspoken advocate against a proposed hotel at the site of Base Camp on Mount Everest.

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* In the 1920’s there had been 3 unsuccessful attempts by other British expeditions. The last resulted in the disappearance of George Mallory.
** Camp 4 is also known as “The Death Zone” because of the lack of oxygen. Climbers can only spend a few days at this altitude, then must retreat back down the mountain to give their bodies a rest and take in more oxygen.
*** Because of the continuous snow, wind and ice conditions on Everest, there is no actual neat ‘trail’ to follow to the top. Each expedition must make its own way and that’s part of the difficulty of the challenge.

A former yak-tender born in Nepal, Tenzing Norgay* knew there was more waiting for him in life. Apparently, he also knew it was waiting for him on Everest. That’s why, while he was still in his teens, he moved to Darjeeling, India, hoping to be hired as a porter by a British mountaineering expedition to help carry equipment and food up the mountain. In 1935, when he was only 19, he made his first attempt at Everest. Because he did so well on that first expedition, he was hired on for British expeditions in 1936 and 1938. He married Dawa Phuti, a Sherpa girl living in Darjeeling in 1935, before the first expedition.

During World War II (1939-1945) expeditions to Everest became scarce, but Tenzing continued to climb in other places. He successfully climbed Nanda Devi, Tirich Mir and Nanga Parbat.** Dawa Phuti died in 1944; he remarried a year later, to Ang Lahmu, another Sherpa. In 1948, he accompanied the famous Tibetologist Guiseppe Tucci on archaeological investigations in Tibet.

After the war, Nepal opened its borders to foreigners allowing expeditions to begin on the south side of the mountain. Prior to this, all Everest expeditions approached from the north Tibetan side, a technically more difficult route. In 1952, with his sights still on Everest’s peak, Tenzing accompanied a Swiss expedition to Everest, not as a Sherpa,*** but as a fellow climber. During that expedition, Tenzing climbed to a height of 28,260 feet. The summit of Everest is 29,035 feet, so Tenzing was only 775 feet short of his goal.

The following year, Tenzing along with Edmund Hillary, a mountain climber from New Zealand, were recruited by the British to co-lead an Everest expedition. On May 29, 1953 Tenzing and Hillary made history by becoming the first people to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest. While Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his achievement, Tenzing became a worldwide celebrity and received honors from world leaders. Tenzing Norgay’s achievement became not only a victory for himself, but for Asia as well.

The world would have given its acclaim to any climber who was first on the summit of the world's highest mountain, but for Tenzing there was a special glory in this achievement.

Over a period of nearly 20 years, he had made himself a part of every expedition that set out to put a man on the top of Mt. Everest. He had climbed as a lowly porter and as a respected member of the climbing team. He had accompanied large, confident armies (such as the 1936 and 1953 British Everest Expeditions) on their way to the summit, but he had also gone to the mountain with a solitary climber, Earl Denman, in 1947, on the chance that even this might give him an opportunity to get to the top. Tenzing agreed to sneak secretly through Tibet with Denman to make what he knew was a wild and unlikely effort to reach the summit.

By 1953, he had probably spent more time on Mt. Everest than any other human being - and had come closer to its summit. Only months before his successful climb with Edmund Hillary, he and Raymond Lambert of the 1952 Swiss expedition, had come within 1,000 feet of the summit - the highest point that anyone had reached until then.

Unlike most of his fellow Sherpas of the time for whom, by and large, climbing was just a challenging way of making a living, Tenzing desperately wanted to get to the summit of Mt. Everest and devoted most of his life to this goal. "For in my heart," he once said, "I needed to go . . . the pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on earth." If there was ever anyone who deserved to get there first, it was Tenzing.

But there are other reasons why it was appropriate that he have that honor, with Sir Edmund Hillary. Until World War II, most of Asia had been under the domination of the West. By the early 1950s, its people were beginning at last to feel their own strength and identity, and Tenzing, by achieving a goal that the whole world recognized as one of its highest, provided a focus for a new kind of pride and a new view of the future.

"For millions in the world today," wrote author James Ramsay Ullman not long after the climb, "Tenzing is a manifestation of godhead: an avatar of the Lord Siva, a reincarnation of the Buddha. For still other millions, too sophisticated to confuse man with deity, he is a mortal figure of supreme significance. Symbolically as well as literally, Tenzing on Everest was a man against the sky, virtually the first humbly born Asian in all history to attain world stature and world renown. And for other Asians his feat was not the mere climbing of a mountain, but a bright portent for themselves and for the future of their world."

After Everest, what could possibly follow? It is hard to think of going on to any greater glory, whether it be in the mountaineering field or any other. And after you have conquered the world's highest mountain, what objective is there left to dream about?

Whether he chose it or not, Tenzing was now a world celebrity. He was invited everywhere and did much travelling. He became the first Field Director of the newly established Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, a post that he held for 22 years. He named the large house in Darjeeling that was provided for him by public subscription "Ghang Lha," a family name with particular significance because of its association with his birth.

He adjusted to his new life with grace, yet it was not always easy for him. He had become a political symbol, which involved him unwittingly in controversies he did not understand nor care about. He was a simple man who liked and understood life on a straightforward level. He never felt at home in a world where people are accustomed to use each other for their own ends.

After Ang Lhamu died in 1964, he married Daku, a Darjeeling girl whose family came from his home village in Nepal. One of their three sons, Jamling, was to follow his father's footsteps to the top of Mt. Everest in 1996.

Tenzing Norgay died in 1986. The procession that followed his funeral bier was more than a kilometer long.

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* Norgay’s name at birth was Namgyal Wangdi. A holy man renamed him "Norgay", which means "fortunate". Tenzing means “tiger of the snow”.
** The name Nanda Devi means “Blessed Goddess.” At 25,645 feet above sea level, it is the highest mountain in India. Tirich Mir, 25,282 feet tall, is the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush range along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Located in West North Western Pakistan, Nanga Parbat means “Naked Mountain”. Standing 26, 658 feet above sea level, it is the ninth highest mountain in the world.
*** Sherpas are a group of indigenous people who live in Himalayan villages. Because of their stamina and tolerance to high altitudes, they’re hired by expeditions as guides, porters and rescuers.

Growing up in Austria, Reinhold Messner’s father introduced him early on to mountaineering. By the time he was 13, Messner had made many challenging climbs in the Eastern Alps.*

In 1970, he and his younger brother, Gunther, set off for the Himalayas to climb Nanga Parbati. Unfortunately, during the descent of the mountain, Gunther was lost under an avalanche. Messner went back to the mountain a year later in hopes of finding his brother’s body, but was not successful.

Reinhold Messner made his first climb to the top of Mount Everest in 1978 with Austrian Peter Habeler. This was a historic climb because it was the first climb ever accomplished without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Messner returned to the mountain in 1980 and made the first solo climb, also without oxygen.** Messner described himself as “…nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung” as he summitted Everest. He has set a trend among mountaineers, and by 1996 more than 60 men and women had duplicated Reinhold’s record of summitting without supplemental oxygen.

Messner, a record holder on many levels, was the first man to ever climb all 14 of Earth’s tallest peaks.***

And in 1990, he became the first person to cross Antarctica on foot.**** In 1995 Messner went on record saying that he had stopped high altitude climbing, but in 1996 he showed up in base camp below Gasherbrum I in the Himalayas. When he saw the crowd of hopeful summitters in base-camp, though, he just turned around and left.

In the summer of 2000, however, he returned to the Himalayas attempting to summit Nanga Parbat via an unclimbed route. After he and his brother Hubert, and two other climbers reached a very high spot on the mountain face, they turned back because the only route to the summit was too dangerous.

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* Located in southern Europe, the Eastern Alps extend more than 600 miles through southern France, northern Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. The highest peak, Mont Blanc, is 15,771 feet.
** Many people were skeptical of Messner’s first summit without bottled oxygen, so he decided to summit again, this time alone. This way there would be no question that oxygen was not part of his equipment.
*** The fourteen tallest peaks, all in the Himalayas: 1. Mt. Everest- 29,035 ft; 2. K2 (Mt. Godwin Austen)- 28,250 ft; 3. Kangchenjunga- 28,169 ft; 4. Lhotse- 27,940 ft.; 5. Mt. Makalu- 27,766 ft.; 6. Cho Oyu- 26,906 ft; 7. Dhaulagiri- 26,795 ft; 8. Manaslu- 26,781 ft; 9. Nanga Parbat- 26,660 ft; 10. Annapurna- 26,545 ft; 11. Gasherbrum I – 26,470 ft; 12. Broad Peak- 26,400 ft; 13. Gasherbrum II – 26,360 ft; 14. Shisha Pangma- 26,289 ft.
**** Messner wrote Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell, which chronicles his 92-day trek across the icy continent.

In May 1990, Rob Hall climbed Mt. Everest for the first time as the leader of an expedition that included Peter Hillary, the son of Sir Edmund Hillary. The two called New Zealand from the summit, and their call was broadcast live throughout the country.

It was during this expedition that Hall met his wife Jan Arnold, a doctor from New Zealand working at a clinic about 3,000 feet below Base Camp. When Hall returned from the summit, he stopped at the clinic to ask Jan if she would go out with him. He proposed a date to climb Mt. McKinley* together. She accepted, and they were married two years later. In 1993 Arnold reached the summit of Everest with her husband, and in 1994 and 1995 she worked at Base Camp as the team doctor.

In 1992, Rob Hall began his high altitude commercial guiding business “Adventure Consultants” with his friend and climbing partner, Gary Ball. They advertised to take clients to the world’s more ‘remote’ places and peaks. Together, Hall and Ball took wealthy clients up and down the Seven Summits.**

Gary Ball died in October 1993 of cerebral edema on a climb with Hall on Dhaulagiri, the sixth tallest mountain in the world at 26,795 feet. Devastated, Hall buried his friend in a crevasse on the mountain.

In May 1996, Hall led a Mount Everest expedition of eight climbers, each of whom paid $65,000 per person for the privilege of climbing with one of the best guides in the world. Just after reaching the summit, an unforeseen storm hit the mountain, trapping Hall and several other climbers from various expeditions at the top of the mountain. With no shelter and dwindling oxygen supplies, Hall was forced to wait more than 12 hours for the storm to subside.

American Doug Hansen, a postal worker and mountain climber from Seattle, collapsed just after summitting. As the team guide, Hall stayed with Hansen, refusing to leave him alone. Hansen died shortly thereafter. The following day, 36-year-old Rob Hall’s body was found, half buried in snow Jon.

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* Mt. McKinley, also known as Denali, is the highest peak in North America at 20, 320 ft.
** The Seven Summits include: Mt. Everest (29,028 ft.) in Asia, Mt. Aconcagua (22,834 ft) in South America, Mt McKinley (20,320 ft.) in North America, Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft) in Africa, Elbrus (18,510 ft) in Europe, Vinson Massif (16,066 ft) in Antarctica, and Kosciusko (7,316 ft) in Australia.

When Scott Fischer was a young teen, he traveled to Wyoming to the National Outdoor Leadership School, a multi-campus institute focusing on leadership training and outdoor/climbing skills. There, he quickly discovered his passion for climbing. At 18, he returned to the school, joined their faculty as an instructor and met and fell in love with his wife, Jean Price. They later married, settled in Seattle, and had two children.

In 1978, Fischer met fellow climber Stacy Allison climbing in Utah’s Zion National Park. Nine years later, Fischer led a team, including Allison, up Mount Everest. Bad weather made it impossible for them to summit that year, but Allison returned the following year and became the first American woman to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

In 1984, Fischer founded his own climbing business called Mountain Madness, a commercial company that aimed to safely bring the beauty and excitement of adventure to those who could afford to pursue it. While he had an early established reputation as a risk taker, later, after settling down with his family, Fischer told a Seattle journalist that he had become more conservative in his climbing.

In 1994, Fischer led an environmental expedition to Everest without supplemental oxygen.* His group, the Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition, removed 5,000 pounds of trash from the mountain and was praised by environmental groups, thus gaining fame for Fischer and Mountain Madness.

In January 1996, Fischer led an benefit expedition to Kilimanjaro** raising a half a million dollars for the charity CARE, a private international relief organization developed after World War II which brings food, health care, and education to families in need. After this expedition, Fischer quickly became famous outside of the mountaineering circles.

In the spring of 1996, Fischer led his own commercial Everest expedition sponsored by Starbucks Inc. His group included Klev Schoening (a former US ski team member), Klev’s uncle Pete Schoening (a climbing legend himself), Sandy Pittman, Charlotte Fox, Tim Madsen, Lene Gammelgaard, Martin Adams, and guides Anatoli Boukreev and Neal Beidleman.

Tragedy struck the mountain that season in the form of a killer blizzard. Reports indicate Fischer and his team summitted Everest, but on the way down the mountain Fischer was having trouble. It is likely Fischer developed cerebral edema,*** or even pulmonary edema.**** Both conditions can be fatal if not treated right away. Fischer collapsed just below 27,600 feet on the south side of the mountain. Because of the severe storm, no one was able to reach him for many hours. His body was found the following day half-buried in the snow.

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* At altitudes above 7,000 ft. the amount of oxygen in the air decreases considerably. Most high altitude climbers, therefore, bring their own oxygen with them.
** Located in Africa near the Tanzania/Kenya border, Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest mountain at 19,340 feet.
*** Cerebral edema is excess fluid in the brain. This is caused, among other things, by a lack of oxygen to the brain. Because of the high altitude and lack of oxygen in the air, fluid forms in the brain. Immediate descent from the mountain and extra oxygen to the body can help reverse the effects.
**** Pulmonary edema is fluid in the lungs, also caused by a lack of oxygen to the body.

The caption identified the man as Scott Fischer, leader of one of the disastrous expeditions on Everest in 1996, but no matter how long I stared at the photo, I couldn't tell if it was the Fischer I knew. This man had long hair and a three-week mountain beard; my Fischer had been a National Outdoor Leadership School instructor in the summer of 1976 and—at least in my memory—was clean-shaven and close-cropped. He was also just about everything a 14-year-old boy would want to be: strong, handsome, well liked, and outrageously confident. Not only did my old NOLS instructor bear no resemblance to the man in the photo, but it was inconceivable that the Scott Fischer I knew could have died on Everest. To me, he was simply too good at climbing—at everything—to die. I put the magazine back in the rack and walked away.

A year later I was on a flight from L.A. to New York, reading furiously through Jon Krakauer's account of the Everest tragedy, Into Thin Air. Fischer was from New Jersey, I read, and had worked for years as a guide and instructor. He took insane risks on climbs and should have died years ago. He left a string of broken hearts a mile long in his wake. I closed the book and looked out the airplane window. We were flying at roughly the height of Mount Everest. It was the same guy, all right, and he was dead.

My earliest memory of Scott is from a rest break on my first day at NOLS in Wyoming. There were 12 students in our group and three instructors, all first-rate climbers, but Scott was clearly the one to study. At 20, he wasn't that much older than the rest of us, but he gave the impression that he could do absolutely anything. One day, one of the three female students sprained her ankle and he took her pack, 60 pounds on top of the 80 he was already carrying. He walked all day with it, uphill, downhill, across streams, over scree, at a steady hammering pace that even the other instructors had trouble keeping up with. Most days he walked with large stones in his hands, which he lifted like barbells at each step. It was to keep himself in shape for climbing. The boys either admired him, as I did, or dismissed him as a show-off. The girls just stared.

And there were stories about Scott, of course. The other instructors ribbed him about a woman who worked at the NOLS office in Lander. I was just starting to grasp the world of men and women, and gradually figured out that Scott would get in from a trip, spend a couple of days with his girlfriend, and then head back out into the mountains. The fact that there were arrangements like that out there—and that they might even be waiting for me when I got older—seemed almost too good to be true.

Scott was one of the few instructors who led back-to-back trips, and whatever pleasures awaited him in town, it was clear that the mountains were his main priority. He intended to become the best climber in the world and had no problem saying so. At the end of a day of hiking, as people straggled into camp, Scott would find some obscenely difficult bouldering problem and work on it until dark. Every so often, if we were camped near some cliffs, I would look up to see Scott far above me, unroped, climbing some offset crack. He climbed slowly and deliberately and with tremendous strength. He climbed in a way that almost made you feel sorry for the rock. He climbed as if he couldn't fall.

He had fallen, of course—only once, according to him—and the story became legend in our small group. A few years earlier another climber had set up a faulty anchor, and Scott clipped in for a rappel without checking the rope. He stepped to the edge of the cliff, leaned back, and fell. He dropped 150 feet, rotating slowly, and landed in a sitting position in an angled snowbank. It was the only position he could have landed in and survived. He regained consciousness days later, in a hospital bed. He'd shattered his pelvis and broken numerous other bones, but he was alive. He had no memory of the climb, or the fall, or the evacuation. As far as Scott was concerned, one moment he was in the mountains, the next moment he was in bed.

I was the youngest in the group, and in some ways the trip was one long, homesick, forced march. But whenever I began to lose heart, there was always Scott to emulate. On hikes—when not lifting rocks—he would hook his thumbs under the shoulder straps of his pack, and I started doing that, too, because it made me feel like I could walk as fast as he did. On steep snow Scott had a slow, methodical way of kicking steps into the incline that made an ascent look easy, almost inviting; I copied it as best I could. He did little to conceal his impatience with the slower, clumsier students, and I desperately tried to set myself apart from them. "We split into three groups and hiked four and a half miles with packs, uphill to a new camp place on Twin Lakes," I wrote in my journal on July 25, 1976. "I was the leader [of my group] and personally I think I did real well, and so did Scott."

I was trying to impress him, but I was also trying to learn something that I could bring home with me. I was a hopelessly solitary kid, and I saw in Scott some kind of salvation from the insecurities that battered me back home. Practically everything he did, the way he climbed, the way he walked, even the way he stood oozed a blithe confidence, and for years I used it all as a model for what I wanted to be. It was an image mostly untarnished by reality and made uncomplicated by the passage of time. The only flaw that I acknowledged in him—a fearlessness so extreme that it seemed close to a death pact with the mountains—was too disconcerting to deal with. I just wrote it off as something I would understand when I got older.

"Scott is the lead instructor, he's blond, looks like Robert Redford except his nose is too big, and he's real strong," I wrote in my journal another day. "The only thing I don't like about him is that at times he isn't really concerned with your safety, like when we crossed the Popo Agie River. He lets things go unheeded."

The crossing of the Popo Agie, a chest-deep torrent that we encountered a week into our trip, was a debacle from the start. Scott went across first, setting up a grab-line from one bank to the other, and then the rest of us followed. Within half an hour one girl slipped and almost drowned under her pack, another girl was washed downstream and had to be saved by an instructor, and one of the boys dislocated his shoulder. It frightened everybody—instructors included—except Scott. If anything, he seemed puzzled that people could get in trouble in such a mundane way. Crossing a river? It didn't even register on his scale of challenges. At age 20 he seemed in a desperate hurry to get to his future, and accidents just slowed him down.

Our course lasted 30 days, and the last four were called "survival." We finished off our food, and the instructors had us split into three groups and prepared us to fend for ourselves on a long, famished trek out of the mountains. We had fishing poles and a rudimentary knowledge of wild plants to sustain us, but basically we just went hungry. Mark and Tom—the other two instructors—were to join us at the trailhead, but Scott was going back into the high peaks to meet another NOLS group. He said good-bye to us, shouldered his pack, and headed off up the trail. He had his thumbs hooked under his shoulder straps, as usual, and he never looked back around. I never saw him again.

When Junko Tabei was growing up in Japan, people called her “weak” and “frail.” Despite those labels, Tabei began climbing at age 10 during a school outing. As it turned out, Tabei loved the beauty of the mountains and the fact that climbing wasn’t a competitive sport. She enjoyed going at her own pace and the feeling that she wasn’t in a race.

As an adult, she only grew to a height of 4 feet 9 inches, but even so, Tabei has proved herself to be a world class high altitude climber. In fact, she was the first woman to successfully climb the Seven Summits.*

In May, 1975, Tabei led an all-Japanese woman’s Everest expedition. When Tabei began looking for a sponsor for her climb, many companies responded by saying it was impossible for a woman to climb Mount Everest. She finally received help from the Tokyo newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun and from Nihon Television.

The climbers had to overcome many obstacles, including a massive avalanche. At 12:30 a.m. on May 4, 1975, a large mass of snow and ice broke free from the mountain at Camp II, tossing Tabei and four other women about in their tent. Tabei blacked out and was pulled to safety by six Sherpas. After confirming that everyone in her group was all right, Tabei became more determined than ever to continue her climb. Covered with bruises and barely able to walk, she led her climbers, sometimes crawling on her hands and knees. On May 16, 1975, twelve days after the avalanche, Junko Tabei became the first woman in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest. After her historic climb, she was congratulated by the King of Nepal and honored by the Japanese government.

Tabei has a goal to climb the highest peak in every country in the world. By the age of 53 Tabei had climbed 69 mountains. Today, at 61, she has slowed down her climbing, but continues to work passionately on ecological concerns. Troubled by the increasingly negative impact climbers have on nature, Tabei is currently the director of Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan, an organization working on a global level to preserve mountain environments.

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* The highest peak on each of the seven continents are: Asia: Mount Everest in Tibet/Nepal at 29,035 ft; South America: Mount Aconcagua in Argentina at 22,834 ft; North America: Mount McKinley in Alaska at 20,320 ft; Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at 19,340 ft; Europe: Elbrus in Russia at 18,510 ft; Antarctica: Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains at 16,066 ft; Australia: Koscinsko at 7,316 ft.

Stacy Allison became interested in climbing while still a student at Oregon State University. After several hours of climbing and repelling from a 50 ft Douglas Fir tree near the campus, she decided to pursue rock climbing. During one of her early rock climbing expeditions in Zion National Park she met and climbed with Scott Fischer.

The first mountain Allison climbed was Mt. Washington, which is, at 6288 feet, the highest mountain in Washington’s Cascade Range. What began as an adventure turned into a test of strength. The last 300 feet of the mountain took Allison three hours to ascend. Back on the ground fifteen hours later, Allison realized that with enough will and endurance she could climb any mountain. She went on to climb other mountains, including Mt. Huntington.

In 1987 Allison, along with Scott Fisher, attempted to climb Mt. Everest’s North Face. Bad weather made it impossible for them to summit.

As a member of the North Face American Mt. Everest Expedition, Allison did not summit. She describes the challenge: "The worst storm in forty years moved in trapping us in a snow cave at 23,500 feet for five days." Turning back can be the most difficult decision of all, particularly when the effort represents the consummation of a lifetime of dedication and hard work. Allison reflects, "If you see yourself as trying to beat the mountain, eventually the mountain will win. You don't conquer mountains, you cooperate with them."

The following year, Allison won a spot on the Northwest American Everest Expedition. Allison and two other climbers made it to Camp 4 at 26,300 ft. At this altitude the body begins to shut down due to a lack of oxygen, which is why this region of Everest is called “The Death Zone.” With only enough supplemental oxygen for one climber to attempt the summit, the three had a ‘lottery’ to see who was going to try to make it to the top. Allison won the lottery and September 29, 1988, she became the first American woman to summit Everest. Following her Everest climb, Allison went on to lead an expedition to K2.*

Stacy Allison is a survivor and a role model for women. She not only survived Everest, but she has also survived an abusive first marriage. In fact, Allison claims that winning the spot on the 1987 Everest expedition got her through her divorce. Today, she is a published author, having written Beyond the Limits and Many Mountains to Climb, and owner of a contracting company in Portland, Oregon.

She is also a sought-after motivational speaker; she tours the country giving lectures about courage, looking past limitations, and setting new goals throughout life.

Allison's mission is to encourage people to move beyond limitations and reach for their dreams. She challenges her audiences to lay the foundation for risk taking by accepting full responsibility for their lives. She also emphasizes the importance of recognizing and valuing everyone's contribution as a team member in life's pursuits.

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* K2, the second highest mountain in the world, is 28,250 feet. Located in the Himalayas in the Karakoram Range, K2 got its name because it was the second peak measured in the Karakoram Range.

Tom Whittaker, the son of a Welsh Army officer, was introduced to the world of rock climbing in his mid-twenties and has been very successful at it ever since. He’s climbed El Capitan, which is, at 3,600 feet high, the second highest peak in California’s Yosemite National and the 14,700 feet high Matterhorn in Switzerland. He also conquered Alaska’s Mt. McKinley. Known locally as Denali, or “The Great One”, Mt. McKinley, at 20,320 feet high, is North America’s highest peak.

In 1979, Whittaker lost his right kneecap and right foot when an out of control vehicle struck his car. At the hospital Whittaker refused pain medication because he wanted to be clear-headed enough to talk with the doctors and be part of the decision making process. Whittaker says now, ”I wouldn’t take my foot back if you gave it to me. This is who I am.”

As tragic as it was, this accident didn’t keep him from being active and encouraging people of all ability levels to enjoy recreational opportunities and outdoor adventures. To help him with that goal, in 1981 he founded the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group. For 10 years Whittaker was the director for C.W. HOG, at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.

Tom Whittaker also never stopped pursuing his dream of climbing Mt. Everest again. In 1989, wearing a prosthetic foot, which takes 30% more effort to climb on, Whittaker made his first attempt to summit Everest, climbing along Hillary’s South Col trail. Whittaker reached 24,000 feet before bad weather forced him to turn back.* During Whittaker’s second attempt in 1995 he climbed along Everest’s North Face. This time he reached 27,500 ft., becoming the first disabled person to break the 8,000-meter elevation.

Finally, on May 27, 1998, at age 50, Whittaker, leading his own expedition, reached the summit of Mt. Everest. His accomplishments remain a stunning inspiration to people with disabilities.

To help him continue his work, Whittaker has founded a non-profit group called Windhorse Legacy, which is about “…changing the way society views and values people with disabilities.” Even though Whittaker has summitted Everest, and created Windhorse Legacy, he’s not done dreaming. His current goal is to become the first person to climb the highest summit on each of the seven continents.**

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* The air in the “The Death Zone,” above 25,000 feet, holds one third less oxygen than what’s found at sea level, making breathing very difficult.
** The “Seven Summits” are: Mount Elbrus in Europe (though some people say it is Mount Blanc), Mount Everest in Asia, Aconcaqua in South America, Mount McKinley in North America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Kosciusko in Australia, Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

George Mallory, a minister’s son, was born to an upper-middle class English family. A ‘natural ‘climber, his older sister recalled that little George "…climbed everything that was at all possible to climb. … it was fatal to tell him that any tree was impossible for him to get up." When there were no trees around, Mallory resorted to climbing buildings. He free-climbed the tower of the Abbey of Romsey and the tower of the Chamber Court of Winchester. On a trip to America he was once photographed climbing the fire escape of a New York skyscraper upside down.

A good student, Mallory was an even better athlete who excelled in gymnastics. While at Cambridge he studied literature and escaped to the mountains at every chance. At 18 he made his first trip to the Swiss Alps. Though climbing without a guide was considered reckless, Mallory paid no attention and returned to the Alps again and again. In 1911, after summitting Mont Blanc, 15,800 ft high, Mallory wrote in his journal: "One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end—to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared."

In 1919, after serving in World War I, he returned home and resumed climbing. While Everest was still considered an unattained summit, two British expeditions were headed towards it. A 1921 expedition was set to explore and map the mountain and a 1922 expedition was going to attempt to summit. When the invitation came for Mallory to join the expedition he considered turning it down. Everest seemed like an enormous commitment. Each expedition would take at least six months.* Because he had two young daughters and a five-month-old son, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be away from home for that long. Regardless of these considerations, Mallory and his wife agreed that it was a chance of a lifetime and that he had to go.

So in 1921 Mallory, and the others on the team, explored, climbed minor peaks, and helped map the northern approach to Everest. They were walking off the known map, with high hopes of scaling a mountain no Westerner had ever seen at close quarters, venturing into atmospheres thinner than anyone had climbed into before. For its day, going to Everest was like going to the moon. The small, poorly equipped little band challenged Himalayan heights with little to assist them.

He wrote that the mountain had "…the most stupendous ridges and appalling precipices that I have ever seen." Unfortunately on this particular expedition, one of the four climbers died of exhaustion on the trek in, and a second, also suffering from exhaustion, was ordered back, thus ending the expedition.

In 1922, Mallory accompanied a stronger climbing team, which approached Everest along the East Rongbuk valley. This team made it to a height of 27,000 feet, higher than anyone had climbed anywhere, but still 2,000 vertical feet short of the world’s highest summit. Before the expedition headed for home, Mallory decided to make one last summit attempt and set off up the slopes of the North Col, a saddle shaped ridge between the peaks of Everest and Changtse.

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* An Everest expedition in 1921 took two months traveling to and from Darjeeling, India, two months trekking in and out of base camp and two months on or near the mountain.

Unfortunately he began his climb too soon after fresh snow had fallen, and a massive avalanche swept away nine men, killing seven of them, all Sherpa.

When plans were formulated for a third British expedition in 1924, Mallory was unsure whether he wanted to go back, having just started a new job at Cambridge. But, in the end, he thought it would be rather hard to see others conquer the summit without him. He knew that no one would criticize him if he refused to go, but he felt it a compulsion. It is impossible to say now whether these were more than fleeting moments of guilt at having to leave his wife Ruth, yet again, with all responsibility for their young children. Before heading off, he confided in an old friend, "I don't expect to come back."

After the 1921 and 1922 attempts without using supplemental oxygen had failed to take the expedition higher than around 28,125 feet, Mallory decided on one more all-out assault – this time, using oxygen. On the morning of June 6, having breakfasted on a fry of tinned sardines, George Mallory and young Sandy Irvine* set off from the top of the North Col at 23,100 feet, hoping to reach the summit three days later. They passed Howard Somervell, who loaned his camera to Mallory. Somervell was said not to be surprised, as Mallory was notoriously forgetful.

Mallory and Irvine were last spotted, through mist, in the early afternoon of June 8 by geologist Noel Odell, who was following behind in support. He saw two black figures - no more than dots - approach and climb a rock step, called the Second Step, on the mountain's skyline, "nearing the base of the summit pyramid." To Odell, they seemed to be going strong and, although lower than he expected, he felt sure they should make it to the summit. Then clouds swirled in once more and Odell's tantalizing vision was lost forever.

Shortly afterwards a sudden snow squall plastered the upper slopes with a thin layer of new snow. Upon arriving at the high camp, Odell noticed hardware from the oxygen apparatus strewn inside Mallory and Irvine's tent. It seems Irvine was hard at work, making final adjustments to their oxygen canisters before their departure for the summit. Could this have resulted in their leaving too late for their summit bid? Odell retreated to the North Col, but kept watch all night for signs of life above him. There were none, and when two days later Odell began the long climb back up to Mallory and Irvine's last camp, it was with no great hope of finding his comrades. No one had been back to the tent. The expedition had to accept that Mallory and Irvine were lost.

And so it was, on June 8, 1924, a few days short of his 38th birthday, George Mallory and his expedition companion Sandy Irving vanished into the mist surrounding the summit, never to be heard from again. It is one of the mysteries of Everest whether Mallory died on his way to the summit or on his way back down.

On May 14, 1995, George Mallory’s grandson, George Mallory II, summitted 71 years after the disappearance of his grandfather. Young Mallory and his climbing partner, Jeff Hall from Colorado, cut a hole in the snow and buried a picture of his grandfather at the summit of Everest.

In 1999, Mallory's body was found laying face down, 2, 000 feet below summit. It is still unknown whether George Mallory and Sandy Irvine made it to the top.

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* Andrew Irvine, a novice climber, known to family and friends as "Sandy," was 23 years old when set out for Everest with George Mallory.

To this day no one knows what happened to George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. Nor do we know if they trod the summit snows almost thirty years ahead of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, but their names live on in Everest legend. The debate whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit has been further fueled by conflicting clues found by later climbers, such as:

• In 1933, an ice axe was found on the route at 27,750 feet. It had three nick marks on it which was the characteristic mark Irvine was known to have put on some of his belongings.
• When remains of Mallory's camp were found in the thirties, a working torch was among the debris, which also included emergency flares. Had Mallory's forgetfulness left him without the means to signal to his comrades below that he and Irvine were struggling for their lives high on the mountain?
• Mallory's route was eventually completed by a Chinese expedition in 1960. Although hundreds of climbers have been to the North Face and Northeast Ridge of Everest in recent years, it is still not known whether Mallory and Irvine could have climbed the Second Step, a rock outcrop, that by today's standards would be a very difficult climb without the aid of fixed ropes, anchors, or ladders. The Chinese climbers in 1960 reportedly had to stand on each other's shoulders with their boots off, resulting in frostbite and the loss of toes.
• In 1975 a body was found 750 feet directly below the ice axe by a Chinese climber who reported in his broken English that the climber was an "English dead." When he touched the clothes of the dead climber, the fabric disintegrated in his fingers, indicating that the climber had been there many years. Could this be the body of Irvine, who fell from the spot where his ice axe was found? Lying at 27,000 feet, this last piece of evidence has brought teams of mountaineers to Everest to climb to the site where the body was reportedly found.

In 1999, climbers found what they believed to be Mallory’s body. Read the radio transcript below for more information:

SCHIEFFER: Near the peak of Mount Everest, a team of American climbers is claiming an amazing discovery: the body of a British adventurer who may have been the first to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. Sandra Hughes reports …

HUGHES: It's a mystery that's been frozen in the treacherous terrain of Mount Everest for 75 years. Did British explorer George Mallory and his partner reach the peak first? History gives the honor to Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953; but 29 years earlier the two explorers disappeared on their way to the top. This weekend an American expedition found the body of George Mallory just 2,000 feet from the peak.

ERIC SIMONSON, EXPEDITION LEADER: George Mallory really epitomizes Mt. Everest and mountaineering and finding his body really puts closure on a mystery that has existed for 75 years.

HUGHES: By cell phone from Mount Everest, expedition leader Eric Simonson told us Mallory carried a camera, and if they don't find it they won't know it he made it. What did you do with George Mallory's body?

SIMONSON: George Mallory remains a part of Mt. Everest. We buried his body underneath stones and rock.

HUGHES: Sir Edmund Hillary says he isn't worried about the discovery.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY: For 45 years people have regarded me as the hero of Everest, so I've done pretty well anyway.

HUGHES: The world may never know if he got there first, but Mallory still holds a place in history for his famous answer to the question "Why do you climb Mt. Everest?" "Because it's there."

Mallory’s equipment was to be returned to the United Kingdom, but officials ran into tax problems. Read the news wire report below:

British officials are trying to clear up a VAT (tax) problem that has stalled the return of artifacts recovered near the body of English climber George Mallory, who died on Mount Everest more than 75 years ago.

Goggles, matches, frayed rope, monogrammed handkerchiefs and other items are stranded in a storage room at the Washington State History Museum in the US after being found on Mallory's body on Everest in May 1999.

The items were displayed in the Washington museum a year ago and were to be shipped to England last spring. But the Royal Geographic Society is trying to make sure the items will not be subject to Britain's 17.5 per cent VAT. As soon as the society receives an exemption, officials will ask for their return, society spokesman Elliot Robertson said.

Many historians consider the artifacts priceless clues to whether Mallory and Andrew Irvine reached the top of the world's highest peak before falling to their deaths.

A major goal of Simonson's expedition was to find a Kodak camera that Mallory carried. If pictures could be developed from the film inside it, they might prove Mallory and Irvine reached the top.

Sommervell's camera, loaned to Mallory, still lies high on Everest's slopes. Images captured on film may be the only way to solve the mystery!

Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who climbed Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary, was Tibetanand not Nepalese, a new book reveals. Tenzing was always careful to fudge his past to avoid offending Nepalese authorities, and to prevent China from using his nationality for propaganda.

It is one of the most romantic legends in mountaineering -- the story of how a young Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay tended his father's yak herds on a high mountain pass below Everest before becoming, with Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach its summit in 1953.

But while Hillary and the expedition's leader Lord Hunt both believed the Sherpa had been born in a remote mountain village in Nepal, a new book by American mountaineer Ed Webster claims that not only was Tenzing born in Tibet, but he spent much of his childhood there. The world's most famous Sherpa was not really a Sherpa at all.

Even after Tenzing's death in 1986, the truth was considered too sensitive to disclose, not least for fear of embarrassing the Indian government which had supported Tenzing after his ascent. It would have handed a propaganda coup to the Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital Lhasa that a "Chinese climber" was the first to climb Everest.

But now Webster, an author, has been given permission by the family to reveal the truth about Tenzing's real origins.

Throughout his life, Tenzing remained vague about his background. In his autobiography, Tiger of the Snows, he obscured the truth of his childhood without quite denying it, telling ghostwriter James Ramsey Ullman he grew up in the village of Thame, in Nepal. In fact, his parents migrated there during the early 1920s after a period of financial hardship and debt to a local Tibetan governor.

Tenzing, however, was more forthcoming about his birthplace, saying: "I was born in a place called Tsa-chu, near the great mountain of Makalu, and only a day's march from Everest."

When Tenzing climbed Everest in 1953 he was hailed by the Nepali government in Kathmandu as a local hero who happened to live in India.

Nepal's fledgling constitutional monarchy feared domination by the new Indian republic and both countries saw great propaganda value in claiming Tenzing, the first humble-born Asian of the modern era to achieve global fame, as their own.

Tenzing's caution about revealing his true origins was partly explained by this political wrangling."After we climbed Everest," Hillary said, "and Tenzing was invited to England, we were really in a jam because Tenzing had no passport."

The crisis was averted only when the Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, stepped in and personally ensured Tenzing received an Indian passport -- something for which the Nepalese authorities never forgave him.

Nehru became Tenzing's patron and authorized the establishment of a mountaineering school in Darjeeling which Tenzing helped to run. To avoid political embarrassment, Tenzing described himself as "born in the womb of Nepal and raised in the lap of India", but that was far from the whole story. Now the full story has been revealed in Webster's Snow in the Kingdom, which describes an expedition in 1988 to the rarely visited East Face of Everest which approaches the mountain through the Tibetan Kharta Valley, where Tenzing's home village of Moyun is located.

Included in the team was Tenzing's oldest surviving son, Norbu, who was born in the Sherpa community at Darjeeling in India where his father had started his career as a climber after migrating there in the early 1930s.

Norbu, like most Sherpas, knew all about his father's secret and, while in Tibet, he was able to meet long-lost relatives, including Tenzing's half-brother Tashi, and also to solve the riddle of Tenzing's birthplace.

"If Tenzing had come out with the truth that he was, in fact, a Tibetan, he would only have magnified his nationality problems, greatly disappointing India, where he then lived," Webster says. "It's possible some Sherpas might have ridiculed him as something of an imposter, and as a social and cultural inferior."

All of Tenzing's three wives were Sherpas and he remains a potent hero in Darjeeling.

"I believe Tenzing was a sensitive and a sincere man," says Webster. "His writings make this clear, so Tenzing never lied outright about his family origins -- but he never told the full truth, either. Perhaps he believed he was simply a mountaineer, and nationality didn't matter."

During the expedition in 1988, Webster visited the monastery at Ghang La, high in the Kama Valley of Tibet. The yak pastures around the monastery command a superb view of Everest and are almost certainly where Tenzing spent his childhood summers. His family house was destroyed after the Chinese invasion in 1950.

The tradition of mountaineers hiring Sherpas began in Darjeeling at the start of the 20th century. The men quickly proved the most reliable and physically capable porters. The best Sherpas were termed "Tigers" and awarded medals. Mountain tourism proved lucrative and more migrated from the Everest region to India.

Until 1949, Nepal remained closed to almost all Europeans.

For Tenzing, whose parents were struggling to make a new life for themselves, Darjeeling offered a chance for economic success, but his early years there were plagued by money problems as he sought to make his mark as a porter for Western mountaineers. Tenzing never saw his father again, and didn't return home to see his mother until 1952. When news of his sudden fame reached his homeland in Tibet, he was overwhelmed by "all sorts of relatives I had never seen or heard of before".

Now, Sherpas earn thousands of dollars a year helping Western clients on Everest but, with the opening of Nepal to tourism, they no longer migrate to Darjeeling to look for work.

Kate Saunders, of the Tibet Information Network, says the Chinese will understand well the propaganda value of Tenzing's birth. They have, she says, never wasted a chance to stress sovereignty in Tibet.

Perhaps Webster's most intriguing claim is that the seven-year-old Tenzing may have met George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924. During his first expedition to Everest in August 1921, Mallory spent a day at Tenzing's home village before trekking through pastures used by Tenzing's family.

There are few places in the world that have enjoyed more centuries of peace than Tibet. Even the British left it alone. But a communist China, intoxicated with revolutionary fervor, violated the bucolic Shangri La in 1959. The whole world watched silently while China ran over a totally unarmed Tibet.

The United States was preoccupied with Vietnam and gun-shy after North Korea. Europe was too busy to care, rebuilding after the war. Soviet communism, hoping to stem an erosion of the communist alliance, backed Mao*. India had concluded a non-aggression treaty with the Chinese in 1955.

The Chinese attack on Tibet was a direct violation of Panchsheel, the five principles of non-aggression and non-interference, adopted at the Bandung summit. Still, to avoid conflict, Nehru** abandoned the Tibetan cause and kept mum. That silence in 1959 cost India a deadly war with China in 1962. Appeasing the demon did not work then, nor will it work now.

Matters have changed little since then. Ancient monasteries are still being bulldozed by the Chinese army in an attempt to destroy Tibetan culture. The Tibetan people are stripped of any citizenship (not even Chinese), and all opposition is brutally suppressed. A few of the leaders live in India in exile. Other than an occasional reference to the Dalai Lama***, Tibet never shows up in the world press.

To some, Tibet may seem a lost cause, but remember, the world once felt the same way about Jews under Hitler. Whatever the prospects, India has the moral and spiritual obligation to speak up. Tibetans are our people; their culture is our culture.

I am not suggesting India send an army over the Himalayas to free Tibet, I admit that is not practical. However, there are many non-violent options. India should:

• Use her stature in the Security Council to constantly bring up resolutions against the occupying army of China. These will be vetoed, but will serve to focus international attention. This should be combined with a campaign to educate the world about the brutal nature of the occupation.
• Lean on other Asian nations, including Japan, to recognize and support Tibet's government in exile.
• Financially and materially assist any violent or non-violent movement within Tibet.
• Insist China remove all missiles and nuclear weapons from Tibet and use the United Nations, U.S., ASEAN, whatever, to make it stick.

If we raise our voice now, the pillage may slow down, and maybe someday Tibet will be free. If we don't, Tibet and her people will have been bulldozed to the ground by the time communism self-destructs in China.

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* Mao, a communist politician and theoretician, was a founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader from 1935 to 1976.
** Nehru was India’s first Prime Minister
*** The Dalai Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, was political ruler of Tibet from 1940 until 1959; see The Dalai Lama information sheet

TENDZIN CHOEGYAL, Advisor to the Dalai Lama, spoke on January 5, 1999 in Canada.

Tibet still seeks freedom after 40 years of Chinese rule and a million deaths.

The Dalai Lama * (delete extra parenthesis before pronunciation)((Pronunciation: dah LY LAH muh) has been the head of Tibetan* Buddhism since the sixth century. He has also been recognized as the Tibetan head of state for almost 300 years. The current Dalai Lama has been in exile since the Chinese invaded following World War II. During his exile, thousands of Tibetans have fled or become victims of torture and genocide at the hands of China’s Peoples Liberation Army. In the 40-year Chinese occupation, more than one million Tibetans have been killed.

According to legend, the father of all Tibetans was a monkey and the mother an ogress. Tibet’s primitive tribes believed in "Bon," a shamanistic religion in which communications between the visible world and spiritual world were conducted by shamans, or priests.

Sometime in the sixth century, these tribes were consolidated into one tribe, and in the seventh century, they became a great nation under Songtsen Gampo, perhaps the most powerful ruler Asia had yet seen. The emperors of China and Nepal offered him their daughters in marriage.

These women were Buddhists, and they persuaded their husbands to encourage the spread of their religion, which was founded in the 6th century B.C. by a young prince, Siddhartha Gautama, revered as "Buddha," or the "Enlightened One."

Songtsen Gampo sent many of his subjects to India to study Sanskrit and the "Pali Canon" (a body of scripture based on Buddha’s teachings) in order to develop a written Tibetan language. He also built nearly 200 Buddhist temples, and he established a body of common law that, with a few exceptions, was distinguished by its emphasis on Buddhism.

By the eighth century reign of his descendant, Trisong Detsen, all major Buddhist writings had been translated into Tibetan, and scores of foreign Buddhists were teaching in Tibetan monasteries.

But in the ninth century, another king, Lang Dharma, attempted to exterminate Buddhism and restore shamanism. For one generation, there were no monasteries, no monks and no nuns.Buddhism appeared to be dead. But when Lang Dharma was assassinated, Buddhism gradually began to spread again.

During the 11th century, a famous Indian scholar, Atisha, visited Tibet and ended up staying for12 years, teaching and writing. He helped Tibetan Buddhism to flourish.

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* Tibet lies on a vast, arid plateau surrounded by steep mountain ranges in central Asia. It is bordered by China, Myanmar (Burma), India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Its area is nearly 500,000 square miles and it averages 15,000 feet in altitude, which is why the encyclopedias often refer to Tibet as the "Roof of the World".

In the 17th century, Tibetan Buddhism was so renowned that even the emperors of China sought the Dalai Lama’s guidance. Just who was the "Dalai Lama?" The title, which is Mongolian for "Ocean of Wisdom," has been bestowed upon the spiritual leader of Tibet since the 15th century.

A Western writer once explained: “Be it understood, they [the Dalai Lamas] are not gods; nor are they ‘living Buddhas,’ as they are called by the Chinese (Huo Fo-yeh). They are the embodiment of the souls of men who were saintly during their first incarnations and are on their way to Buddhahood through a long succession of lives as mortals in this vale of tears.”

The fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawong Gyatso (1617-82), became not only the spiritual but also the political leader of Tibet. According to one modern observer, he assured that the entire nation would be dedicated to religious principle, "and it has been the constant attempt to put that principle in practice that has been Tibet’s greatest source of strength."

At various times during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, parts of Tibet were temporarily under Chinese influence. But the Dalai Lama was always recognized as the head of state.

Western influences were minimal. A few missionaries and a few expeditions were sent to Explore Tibet, but that was all. And China discouraged further foreign contact.

Then in 1904, the Tibetans signed a treaty with Great Britain. A few years later, when China threatened to tighten its grip on Tibet, it was to Great Britain that the Tibetans appealed for help.

But the British government had pledged not to intervene in Chinese-Tibetan relations and on several occasions had even signed treaties with China regarding Tibet without consulting the Tibetans.

In 1911-12, a civil war in China sparked a Tibetan revolt. The occupying troops of the Chinese Imperial Army were forced to surrender, and in 1913, the Dalai Lama formally reaffirmed his nation’s independence. The new "Republican Government" in China insisted that Tibet was a Chinese province, but, for all practical purposes, independence was real and was acknowledged by a number of nations in the East and West.

In the 1920s, the 13th Dalai Lama tried to bring Tibet, a nation of nomadic herders and farmers, into the 20th century. But he died in 1933, with most of his plans for a modernized economy, school system, and military unrealized.

In 1935, -the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso - was born to a peasant family in a small village in northeastern Tibet. After passing many rigorous tests, he was formally installed as the Dalai Lama in 1940.

As the recent Hollywood film "Kundun" notes, the young Dalai Lama was greatly interested in technology, and he shared his predecessor’s desire to modernize the country. He was delighted when the first English school opened in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in 1944. He also advocated land reform, industry, and trade with the West.

Meanwhile, China was planning a full-scale invasion. The first troops arrived in the outlying regions in 1949, and more soon followed. The communists claimed they were "liberating our brothers in Tibet from imperialist oppression."

In 1950, the small, poorly equipped Tibetan army was defeated. Tibetan delegates who were in China on a special mission were coerced into signing - without authority from the Tibetan government - a 17-point agreement that returned Tibet "to the big family of the motherland." On paper, existing political and religious freedoms were preserved, but China very quickly seized the opportunity to use its new "administration zones" and "military supervisors" to encroach upon them.

In 1954, the Dalai Lama attended the National People’s Congress in Peking, hoping to find a peaceful way to deal with China without compromising Tibetan interests or Buddhist principles. This was when Mao uttered his famous warning, "But, of course, religion is poison. It has two great defects. It undermines the race [and] retards the progress of the country. Tibet and Mongolia have been poisoned by it."

Mao continued to send thousands of soldiers into Tibet. They looted monasteries and temples and imprisoned or killed resisters. By the end of 1958, Tibet was completely conquered.

In 1959, after hearing of Chinese atrocities committed in eastern Tibet, a group of rebels staged an unsuccessful attack on the Chinese garrison in Lhasa. Word spread that the Chinese planned to retaliate by assassinating the Dalai Lama. Thousands of Tibetans stood outside their leader’s compound, ready to protect him.

The Dalai Lama and his entire family secretly escaped only hours before the Chinese began shelling - and killing - many of those brave defenders.

Since the 24-year-old Dalai Lama went into exile 40 years ago, more than 80,000 Tibetans have joined the refugee communities he founded in India, Nepal, and Bhutan.

They have fled from genocide. By its own estimate, between March of 1959 and October of1960, the People’s Liberation Army killed over 87,000 Tibetans in Central Tibet alone.

As Tibetan officials later reported: “The consequences of the confrontation which occurred were devastating: the Chinese troops massacred thousands of people; tens of thousands were taken to concentration or labor camps where most died; Tibetan cultural and religious institutions were destroyed and the population was subjected to terror campaigns and massive "re-education" efforts which the Chinese in China only experienced years later during the Cultural Revolution.”

The current estimate is that more than 1.2 million Tibetans are dead as a result of the Chinese occupation.

Since 1979, the Chinese have claimed that religious freedom has been allowed in Tibet, but in reality it has only been superficial. A few rituals have been re-instituted and a few temples have been rebuilt. Buddhist teaching is still banned or, in the rare cases in which it is allowed, under tight control. Only a handful of monasteries and nunneries - eight out of more than 6,000 – were still in operation in the mid-1970s. In independent Tibet, the most prominent ones each trained 3,000 to10,000 monks and nuns. Now, each is limited to between 150 and 400 and is forced to teach Marxism.

A 1990 Communist Party document states: "With the development of our socialist system, the social system for the natural extinction of religion was established." Another, issued in 1991, adds: We should oppose all who work to split the motherland in the name of nationality and religion.

There should be no hesitation in taking harsh decisions to deal with any political disturbance carried out in the name of nationality and religion, and in doing so the state’s political, judiciary, and even military powers should be used.

Modern Tibetans realize that although "China no longer bombs or sends Red Guards to destroy Tibet’s monasteries, its aim still remains the same as before: total elimination of Tibetan religion and culture." To help accomplish this end, China has flooded the country with Chinese settlers and soldiers - as many as 7.5 million - and it has instituted so many restrictions on the economy that Tibetans are among the world’s poorest citizens. Entrepreneurship and industry are actively discouraged.

A free Tibet exists - but not in Tibetan homeland, where Tibetans have no rights except those that the Chinese see fit to grant them. The Dalai Lama has established a government-in-exile, which features a written constitution, a representative assembly, an independent judiciary, and all the other essentials of a democratic system. He has also founded a number of monastic centers of learning and schools for Tibetan children.

He travels around the world to educate others about the fate of the Tibetans. He tells a tragic story - of six million people locked in a desperate struggle for survival. But he also tells an inspiring story - of those same people and their quiet courage, their deep faith, and their unquenchable optimism.

The Dalai Lama further explains why those who are neither Buddhist nor Tibetan should champion Tibet: We all share a common nature and a common spark of divinity. We all want to be free - politically and spiritually. The cause of a free Tibet, therefore, is the cause of all people.

Tibet has endured great suffering in the last half-century, but suffering can breed the kind of inner strength that people require in order to change the world for the better.

BORN July 6, 1935 in Amdo province; proclaimed as 14th
reincarnation of the Dalai Lama at age two
1950 Becomes head of state and leads negotiations with Chinese
on Tibetan sovereignty
1959 Flees across the Himalayas to India with 80,000 Tibetans
and sets up gov