8,848 meters

8.848km

K2 is the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest; at 8,611 metres above sea level, it’s roughly 250 metres shy of Everest’s famed peak.

28,251′

Growth of Everest The Himalayan mountain range and the Tibetan plateau were formed as the Indian tectonic plate collided into the Eurasian plate about 50 million years ago. The process continues even today, which causes the height of the mountain range to rise a tiny amount every year.

However, it’s the Sherpas who guide foreign climbers all the way to the summit who make the most money, bringing home between $5,000 (£3,960) to $8,000 (£6,330) in a single season.

In order to climb Mount Everest for free, you will need a sponsor. Start with local companies, build up and show them a strong social media presence. Pitch them on not only your reach but an exciting or moving story behind the climb. You can also consider contacting a charity.

11 deaths

Sherpas are renowned in the international climbing and mountaineering community for their hardiness, expertise, and experience at very high altitudes. It has been speculated that part of the Sherpas’ climbing ability is the result of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes.

In order to successfully summit Everest, you must be incredibly physically fit; most people spend at least one-year training to climb the mountain. You should also be comfortable on AD-rated climbs with previous experience at high altitudes.

Everest was first conquered in 1953 by a Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, who stood on the world’s rooftop with Edmund Hillary. Living for generations at high altitude has given Sherpas more oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. Sherpas talking and chain-smoking cigarettes while climbing in air space usually reserved for jet planes.

Yes, you can still smoke and do the Mt Everest base camp trek. It would be better if you were a nonsmoker but you can still do it. In fact, many people smoke and still complete the Mt Everest base camp trek.

Yes. Smokers can climb 8000 m peaks. I remember seeing some K2 documentary with people smoking on their way up the mountain. If I remember correctly it was some documentary from 70s-80s or so with an Italian group of climbers who stopped for smoking breaks.

The Sherpas are Tibetan Buddhists of the Nyingmapa sect, and have drawn much of their religious tradition from the Rongphu monastery, located at 16,000 feet on the north side of Mount Everest.

The coldest months are December-February, with January night temperatures averaging -33°F (-36°C) and the daytime just a couple of degrees warmer if at all. The coldest temperature actually measured on the summit was in February 2003 with a -41.8°F (-41°C) reading.

Sherpa is predominately a spoken language, although it is occasionally written in the Tibetan or Devanagari script. The greatest number of Sherpas live in Nepal and speak Nepali in addition to their own language. Those educated in Tibet or in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries may speak Tibetan.

A new generation of female Sherpas, known as Sherpani, is pushing further into the male-dominated world of high-altitude mountaineering. The first Nepali woman to do so, she is now the first to conquer the world’s three highest mountains, Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga.

But the word “Sherpa” originally meant “people from the East” and is pronounced “shar-wa” by the Sherpa themselves. Before mountain climbing became a popular pastime in the Himalayas, the word Sherpa simply denoted a group of people who migrated to Nepal from Eastern Tibet.

Yaks in the Himalayas

• Yaks are common throughout the Sherpa lands. YAKS.
• Brass bells are worn so the herdsman can find his animals, the red tassles are simply for decoration. The yak is a valuable animal to the People that live here.
• Yak teams are used to bring supplies to the remote Mount Everest region.

It has many challenges including extremely cold weather, low freezing temperature, and difficult climbing conditions. You need to acclimatize for a long duration before you could arrive at the summit and descend back. The Everest expedition season generally begins in late March.

Francis: Sherpas produce 30% more power than lowlanders at altitude. They have more capillaries per square centimeter of muscle than lowland climbers. They have bigger chests, greater lung capacity, as well as higher measures of all lung physiology, like peak flow.

Most sherpas will consequently require oxygen above camp 4 in order to perform at their best. Since Sherpas are stronger than us at altitude, they are very well suited for alpine style expeditions in the Himalayas. You will need them to carry the oxygen, the gear and as a safety on the summit push.