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Woman makes history

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Woman set to make history on Mount Everest

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Mountain climber Melissa Arnot joins TODAY from her Mount Everest base camp to talk about attempting to again scale the mountain, but without the help of supplemental oxygen. She'd be the first U.S. woman to complete the dangerous climb.

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Mount Everest Facts and  History - Fun Facts for Kids | Educational Videos by Mocomi

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Deaths on Mount Everest

DEATHS ON MOUNT EVEREST

Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,035 (8,850 meters), is also the highest graveyard on planet earth. Many climbers have died on Mount Everest since 1921 and over 200 of them are still on the mountain. Some are buried in crevasses. Some fell down remote parts of the mountain. Some are buried in snow and ice. Some lie in the open. And some side beside the popular routes up Everest. There is no firm count of the exact number of climbers that have died on Mount Everest, but as of 2012 it is about 235 people. Below, are the top ten in deaths.

Cerebral oedema 5

Exhaustion 7

Altitude Sickness 9

Unknown 22

Fall 48

Avalanche 51

Exposure 25

Disappeared 15

Heart Attack 8

Fall Into a Crevasse

Most Die While Descending

Most climbers die while descending the upper slopes of Mount Everest, often after having reached the summit, in the area above 8,000 meters called the "Death Zone." The high elevation and corresponding lack of oxygen coupled with extreme temperatures and weather conspired to create a greater risk of death than on the mountain's lower slopes.

Death Rate Increased

Since the 1980s, when more climbers began ascending above 8,000 meters than previously, the date rate for climbers who died descending the mountain jumped. On the South Col Route on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest, 2.5 percent of descending climbers died, while on the Northeast Ridge Route in Tibet the number of descending deaths is 3.4 percent.

Death of David Sharp

There are many tragic stories like that of British climbers David Sharp, who sat down under the overhang 1,500 feet below the summit on May 15, 2006 after successfully climbing Mount Everest. He was extremely tired after a long summit day and began freezing in place as he sat there. As many as 40 climbers trudged past him, believing already dead or not wanting to rescue him, on one of the coldest nights that spring. A party passed him at 1 in the morning, saw he was breathing still, but continued on to the summit since they didn't feel they could evacuate him. Sharp continued freezing through the night and the next morning. He had no gloves on. He was undoubtedly hypoxic from lack of oxygen and probably had no idea where he was nor felt any pain.

High-Altitude Cerebral Edema

Along with extreme fatigue, many Everest climbers who die develop symptoms like loss of coordination, confusion, lack of judgement, and they may even slip into unconscious-all symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE). HACE often occurs at high elevations when the brain swells from the leakage of cerebral blood vessels. Most Die While Descending Most climbers die while descending the upper slopes of Mount Everest, often after having reached the summit, in the area above 8,000 meters called the "Death Zone." The DEATHS ON MOUNT EVEREST Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,035 feet (8,850 meters), is also the highest graveyard on planet earth. Many climbers have died on Mount Everest since 1921 and over 200 of them are still on the mountain. Some are buried in crevass- es. Some fell down remote parts of the mountain. Some are buried in snow and ice. Some lie in the open. And some sit beside the popular routes up Everest. There is no firm count of the exact number of climbers that have died on Mount Everest, but as of 2012 it is about 235 people. Below, are the top ten in deaths. high elevation and corresponding lack of oxygen coupled with extreme temperatures and weather conspire to create a greater risk of death than on the mountain's lower slopes. 51 Death Rate Increased 48 Since the 1980s, when more climbers began ascending above 8,000 meters than previously, the death rate for climbers who died descending the mountain jumped. On the South Col Route on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest, 2.5 percent of descending climbers died, while on the North- east Ridge Route in Tibet the number of descending deaths is 3.4 percent. Death of David Sharp There are many tragic stories like that of British climber David Sharp, who sat down under an overhang 1,500 feet below the summit on May 15, 2006 after successfully climbing Mount Everest. He was extremely tired after a long summit day and began freezing in place as he sat there. As many as 40 climbers trudged past him, believing him al- ready dead or not wanting to rescue him, on one of the coldest nights that spring. A party passed him at 1 in the morning, saw he was breath- ing still, but continued on to the summit since they didn't feel they could evacuate him. Sharp continued freezing through the night and the next morning. He had no gloves on. He was undoubtedly hypoxic from lack of oxygen and probably had no idea where he was nor felt any pain. 22 15 5 High-Altitude Cerebral Edema Along with extreme fatigue, many Everest climbers who die develop symptoms like loss of coordination, confusion, lack of judgment, and they may even slip into uncon- scious-all symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE). HACE often occurs at high elevations when the brain swells from the leakage of cere- bral blood vessels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_climbing_Mount_Everest http://climbing.about.com/od/mountainclimbing/a/Death-On-Mount-Everest.htm © Copyright 2013 Heriberto Ed Hernandez. All rights reserved. Scriptron.com Cerebral oedema Exhaustion Altitude Sickness Unknown Fall Avalanche Exposure 25 Disappeared Heart Attack Fall Into a Crevasse

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DEATHS ON MOUNT EVEREST Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,035 (8,850 meters), is also the highest graveyard on planet earth. Many climbers have died on Mount Everest since 1921 and over 200 of them are still on the mountain. Some are buried in crevasses.

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The route to the top of the world has become too crowded.

The first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest was James Whittaker, who accomplished that towering feat in 1963. As he stood at the summit, accompanied his Sherpa guide, both men were very much alone.

Fast forward to 2013, when a team from National Geographic Magazine trekked up the mountain to mark the anniversary of Whittaker's quest; they found that in 2013, the challenge isn't nearly as....challenging.

A crowd of climbers slog up the Lhotse Face, heading toward Camp IV, last stop before the summit. Loose regulations and a boom in commercial guiding over the past two decades have made Everest far more accessible to experts and novices alike.

According to an article in the current National Geographic Magazine, about nine out of ten who reach the summit now are guided "clients," people who pay up to $120,000 for this "tour." Not that climbing Everest is easy, even under those conditions: Ten deaths were reported in 2012, including three Sherpa guides. But today-as if the altitude, the winds, the lack of oxygen wasn't enough to deter them-climbers walk up trails that are polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps.

In more than a few places, climbers face a more gruesome encounter: corpses of the dead who didn't make it to the top.

The cover of the June 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine.

"When I arrived at the apex ..., it was so crowded I couldn't find a place to stand," writes author Mark Jenkins in the June issue of the National Geographic. "Meanwhile, down below at the Hillary Step the lines were so long that some people going up waited more than two hours, shivering, growing weak-this even though the weather was excellent. If these throngs of climbers had been caught in a storm, as others were in 1996, the death toll could have been staggering.

"Clearly the world's highest peak is broke," he writes. "But if you talk to the people who know it best, they'll tell you it's not beyond repair."

Headlamps trace a path to the summit a few hours before dawn. Says one guide, "The most dangerous thing about Everest is everyone else who's trying to climb it."

There are about 35,000 visitors to the Everest region annually, and the money they spend for guides and permits is crucial to Nepal's economy, where the average national wage is less than $900. It has become, in the words of one climber, "a commercial mountain."

The crowding has led to altercations, and worse, on the mount. In 1996, eight climbers were killed and several others stranded in a sudden blizzard near the summit. The tragedy was documented by Jon Krakauer, a journalist and climber on that expedition, in his 1997 best-selling book, "Into Thin Air."

Crowded, yes, but still risky: Team member Hilaree O'Neill steps across a bridge of aluminum ladders lashed together above a crevasse in the Khumbu Icefall, considered one of the most unpredictable hazards on Everest.

There are still memorable moments at Everest. Earlier this month, Arunima Sinha, 26, a trainee police officer from India, became the first female amputee to reach the top. Just two days later, an 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer became the oldest man to scale Everest; while in 2010, Jordan Romero, a 13-year-old American boy, was became the youngest to trek to the top.

As the Everest climb becomes more of an "extreme sport" and less of a unique, life-changing event, the crowds and queues are likely to increase. In his piece, Jenkins lays out some way to improve the climbing environment, including issuing fewer permits to climbers, restricting the size of the climber teams to lessen congestion, and to require all climbers to remove all their waste and garbage from the mountain.

One crucial element is to ensure that climbers have the experience necessary; without the training, some just don't recognize that at some point, it might be time to turn around and go back.

"Only half the people here have the experience to climb this mountain," a Sherpa told the magazine. "The half without experience are the most likely to die."

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Has the summit of Mount Everest become an overcrowded tourist trap?

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The route to the top of the world has become too crowded. The first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest was James Whittaker, who accomplished that towering feat in 1963. As he stood at the summit, accompanied his Sherpa guide, both men were ver