Rainbow Valley sounds delightful, doesn’t it? But on Mount Everest it is a name that has a macabre meaning. Rainbow Valley is also known as Rainbow Ridge, the Rainbow Trail, the Rainbow Road, or Rainbow Path, but they all refer to the same area. Rainbow Valley is a section of the route on the North … Read more
Many people are unaware that it was a British expedition that first climbed Mount Everest, in 1953. Or that this was after no less than eight previous British attempts on the mountain. In this article, I will look at the strange British obsession with the world’s highest mountain. Even though the first people to climb … Read more
In 2006 I met David Sharp at Advanced Base Camp on Mount Everest and later listened on the radio to his discovery by members of my expedition. I was there filming a series for the Discovery channel about expedition leader Russell Brice’s commercial trips. The working title was a comment on the situation that has … Read more
The first recorded yeti sighting was on Everest 100 years ago. In the course of thirty or so trips to the Himalayas, I’ve heard many tales about the Yeti from Sherpas and they were clearly believers. There are very similar stories from local villagers all along the Himalayas, from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladakh, and even … Read more
Everest is the highest mountain in the world. But it isn’t next to the sea, so how was the measurement of 29,031 feet (8,848m) above sea level arrived at? And who first measured Mount Everest, and why? Mount Everest was measured using imaginary triangles and basic mathematics. Everest was measured by British surveyors, who figured … Read more
Before Mount Everest was “discovered”, there were many mountains in the past presumed to be the highest in the world. One by one, higher mountains were found and measured, until Everest topped them all. So which mountains used to hold the title of tallest in the world? Here’s a list of each mountain that was … Read more
Everest is truly a mountain of extremes. Not only does it get very cold, it gets really hot, the air gets really thin and it also gets very windy. Mount Everest can be extremely cold. The lowest temperature measured on the summit of Everest was in February 2003 with a -41.8°F (-41°C) reading. And the … Read more
George Mallory was an English mountaineer who became obsessed with becoming the first person to climb Mount Everest. He disappeared on the mountain in 1924. I decided to look for his body in 1969 and my Mallory and Irvine Research expedition found Mallory in 1999 – you can read more about that here. George Mallory’s … Read more
Fans of Brian Blessed will know of his fascination with Mount Everest. Some will know that he climbed high on the mountain without oxygen in 1990, 1993, and 1996. I climbed with Brian Blessed on Mount Everest as his film crew in 1990, and then as his mountain guide in 1993, and I will never … Read more
Mount Everest is often talked about as something truly enormous due to its height above sea level. But has anyone ever tried to weigh it? Mount Everest weighs around 350 trillion pounds or 175,000,000,000 tons. That’s about 200,000 Golden Gate bridges. But how does anyone know that? How do you weigh a mountain? How Heavy … Read more
