25 Crazy Facts That’ll Inspire an Everest Climb

Posted by , Updated on March 21, 2024

Everyone is aware that Mount Everest holds the title of being the tallest mountain in the world (above sea level). However, are you familiar with these 25 astonishing facts that will make you aspire to climb Mount Everest?

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Officially, Mount Everest is 29,029ft based on a 1954 ground measurement. A satellite-based measurement in 1999 found it to be six feet taller but this was disputed.

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24

The summit is just under the cruising altitude of a passenger jet (around 31,000ft)

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At Everest's highest point, you are breathing in a third of the amount of oxygen you would normally breathe. This isn't because of different air composition but rather because of less air pressure.

everest summit
22

Since 1969 at least one person has died on Everest every year except for 1977

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21

Winds on the mountain have been recorded at more than 200mph.

everest wind
20

One out of every 10 successful climbs to the summit ends in death.

everest climbers
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There are estimated to be 200 dead bodies on the mountain and they are used as waypoints for climbers

climbing everest
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Reinhold Messner was the first to climb the mountain alone and without oxygen in 1980

everest sans oxygen
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Frenchman Marco Siffredi and Austrian Stefan Gatt snowboarded down the mountain in 2001.

snowboard everest
16

The oldest person to climb Everest is 80 year-old Yuichiro Miura of Japan

Yuichiro Miura
15

The youngest person to reach the summit is 13 year old Jordan Romero. In May 2010, the young American broke the record previously held by 15 year old Ming Kipa of Nepal.

Jordan Romero
14

The world’s tallest man-made structure of any kind with the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 829m. Everest is more than ten times its height.

Burj Kalifa
13

The world’s second highest building, Taipei 101 in Taiwan would need to be stacked up more than 17 times to match Everest

Taipei 101
12

The first tweet from the summit was sent by Kenton Cool in 2011. He tweeted: "Everest summit no 9! 1st tweet from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal”

tweet from everest
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The mountain gets taller by 4mm every years due to upward thrust created by two opposing tectonic plates.

Everest getting taller
10

Google has now mapped Everest, although it did not get to the summit. In 2011 a team spent 2 weeks hiking over 70 miles to reach base camp, capturing images along the way.

Google maps
9

Without extra oxygen, Australian Tim Macartney-Snape became the first to climb from sea level to the summit, in May 1990.

Everest without oxygen
8

The first phone call was placed from the summit in summer of 2013. Nepalese officials, however, were less than impressed and deemed it illegal.

first call from everest
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Bear Grylls, the youngest British climber to summit the mountain, also flew higher than the peak in a powered paraglider in 2007.

Bear Grylls
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The record for the longest time spent on the summit is 21 hours, achieved by Babu Chiri Sherpa in 1999.

Babu Chiri Sherpa
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In 2004 there was a wedding on the summit. Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa, both from Nepal kept their plans a secret from other climbers until they reached the peak.

Everest wedding
4

Two Polish climbers, Leszka Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki, were the first two summit Everst during winter in February of 1980

Leszk Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki
3

Everest is well known for its "traffic jams". Sometimes several hundred climbers can be on the summit at the same time.

Everest traffic jam
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The mountain was named after George Everest in 1856. He was a retired Surveyor General who never saw the peak.

George Everest
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1974 was the last year that no one climbed Mount Everest

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