Expedition guidelines, Mount everest expedition plan, including information on environment, climate, equipment, physiological demands, medical considerations, preparation and training.

Essay by chubbyUniversity, Bachelor's November 2003

download word file, 11 pages 4.1

Introduction.

Standing at 8848m above sea level, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Humans have tried to conquer Everest since the early 1900's however it was not until the 29th May 1953 that Sir Edmond Hillary, John Hunt and Tenzing Norgay officially reached the summit. George Mallroy was said to have climbed Mount Everest in 1924 however there is still controversy whether or not he succeeded. The first woman ever to climb Everest was Juko Tabei who climbed the mountain in 1975. (Microsoft Encarta, 1999)

Mount Everest is situated on the border of Tibet and Nepal. The name Everest is stemmed from the British engineer, Sir George Everest, who surveyed the Himalayas from 1829 to 1843. (Hutchinson Educational Encyclopedia, 2000)

The route for this expedition to mount Everest is shown in figure 1. On route to the summit, after leaving base camp, 4 camps will be established.

From base camp the route of the expedition will take us on the Khumbu glacier past the Khumbu ice fall. The first camp will be established at 5000m, where we will stay for around 3 weeks. Camp 2 will be established at 6500m and camp 3 at 7300m, near the cirque of the Khumbu glacier. The final camp, camp 4 is to be set up at 7900m, situated below the south col. (Microsoft Encarta 1999).

Figure 1 - Route to the summit of Mount Everest (Microsoft Encarta, 1999)

Briefing on Expedition

Climate

Every aspect of the climate on Everest is extreme. In winter the average temperature is around -36o however temperature can drop as low as -60o. In summer months the average temperature is around -19o. As a result of these extremely low temperatures there is constant snow and ice cover on the surface of the mountain. Even in...