Goddess Chomolungma

Challenges of ‘Goddess of the Sky’ May 2 2008 by Sarah Manners, Western Mail Mount Everest, is also called Chomolungma or Qomolangma in Tibetan, which translates as “Mother of the Universe” or “Goddess of the Mother Earth” or Sagarmatha in Nepali, which means “Goddess of the Sky”. It is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level at 8,848 metres or 29,029 feet. New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people to conquer Everest. They reached the summit at 11:30am local time on May 29, 1953 via the South Col route. News of the expedition’s success reached London the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. The mountain, part of the Himalayan range in High Asia, is to be found on the border between Sagarmatha, Nepal, and Tibet, China. By the end of the 2007 climbing season there had been 3,679 ascents to the summit by 2,436 individuals. There have been 210 deaths on the mountain, where conditions are so difficult that most corpses have been left where they fell; some are visible from standard climbing routes. Everest climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain a permit costing up to US$25,000 per person.