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Tim Pile

THE GOOD
Tibetans know it as Chomolungma and it’s Sagarmatha to the Nepalese. Exact translations are as elusive as a yeti and vary from “brow of the sky” to “goddess mother of the Earth” or simply “the mountain so high that no bird can fly over it”.
The British took a less evocative approach and named the world’s highest mountain after George Everest, surveyor general of India from 1830 to 1843. Before that, the colonials knew it only as Peak B.
There is similar disagreement over its exact height, particularly after an earthquake in 2015. The officially recognised figure is 8,848 metres, about 16 times the height of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong.
The allure of climbing Mount Everest
In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest and, epitomising the mountaineering community spirit of the time, agreed not to reveal who actually set foot on the top first.
Tenzing’s legacy is that about 10,000 Sherpas are employed in Nepal’s mountaineering and hiking industry, earning wages well above the national average. And for good reason. They plan routes, haul ridiculously heavy loads and prepare meals in the most challenging of conditions, all to help their clients fulfil the ambition of a lifetime. They also save lives; carrying down the injured and assisting those suffering from altitude sickness.

Thousands of foreigners are irresistibly drawn to the Everest region each season. Many fly from Kathmandu to Lukla Airport, constructed by Hillary in 1964 after he purchased a patch of steeply sloping land and recruited villagers to flatten the site by performing a traditional foot-stomping dance.
From Lukla it’s a 10- to 14-day trek to the south base camp, which is an adventure in itself. Routes lead through forests and flower-filled meadows, past pretty Sherpa villages and remote Buddhist monasteries festooned with fluttering prayer flags. Overnight stops are at rustic tea houses surrounded by mesmerising Himalayan pinnacles.
How rush by Hongkongers and others to climb Everest is changing the mountain
Mountaineers choose from two main routes: the southeast ridge and the north ridge. It might take hikers two weeks to reach the south base camp but climbers and sightseers can now drive all the way to the north (Tibetan) base camp on a newly sealed road in a fraction of the time.
Modern hotels with Wi-fi and hot water are available in the nearby Gangkar township and work on a string of restaurants, shops and a mountaineering museum is due for completion in 2019. There will also be a helipad to help rescue injured climbers and victims of avalanches.
THE BAD
If the rulers of the Raj had been a little more enlightened, the world’s highest peak would be known today as Mount Sikdar. George Everest, reputedly the most ill-tempered sahib in India, has gone down in history while Indian mathematician Radhanath Sikdar – the man who actually calculated the height of Mount Everest – is largely forgotten.

Good luck at Lukla. The tiny airport is regularly described as the world’s most dangerous and the final descent is not for the faint-hearted. Strong winds buffet planes, razor-sharp Himalayan peaks are almost within touching distance and pilots have to somehow land on a steep runway that is only 527 metres long. (The runways at Chek Lap Kok are 3,800 metres.)
In 2008, a crash landing resulted in the deaths of 18 passengers and crew, and two pilots perished in a similar incident in May 2017.
Those on terra firma aren’t necessarily any safer. More than 290 people have died trying to climb Everest since 1921 and an estimated 120 dead bodies still litter the mountain. Earlier this year, Hongkonger Ada Tsang Yin-hung faced criticism for not assisting dying climbers en route to becoming the first Hong Kong woman to reach the summit. The former schoolteacher claims she would have been putting her own life at risk had she stopped to share her oxygen with the doomed mountaineers.

The continuing commercialisation of the mountain’s Tibetan side dismays purists who fear north base camp will become an upmarket hangout for wealthy non-climbers and coach tourists. (Is the helipad for rescue operations or sight­seeing flights?)
The Nepalese side of the moun­tain is hardly an unspoiled eco-paradise, either. High-season bottlenecks have become the norm as hundreds wait in line, sometimes for hours, to negotiate dangerous sections. And as increasing numbers of adventurers add an Everest ascent to their bucket lists, waste disposal has reached a tipping point. Literally. Oxygen cylinders, food cans, tents and other equipment from previous expeditions litter the landscape along with human excrement and used toilet paper.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

THE UGLY
Despite putting their lives on the line, Sherpas often feel ignored and unappre­ci­ated, particularly by their own govern­ment. When a giant column of ice broke away in 2014, killing 16 Sherpas, there was no official statement of condolence from Kathmandu and minimal financial help for bereaved families. As a result, porters refused to go back on the mountain for the remainder of the season. All expeditions were cancelled and wages forfeited.
In 2015, a major earthquake hit Nepal killing almost 9,000, mainly poor villagers. It triggered an avalanche that swept through Everest Base Camp killing 19 people including 10 Sherpas. Climbing was cancelled for the second year in a row.


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The good, bad and ugly sides to climbing Mount Everest

The growing appetite for summiting the the world’s highest mountain has left this bucket-list staple  littered with bodies and waste, while those who make the dream come true remain unsung and woefully underpaid

This April 24, 2014 photo released by Adrian Ballinger, founder and head guide of Alpenglow Expeditions, shows a meeting between Nepalese government delegation and Sherpa mountain guides near Everest base camp, Nepal. Nepal's attempts to salvage the Mount Everest climbing season took another hit Friday as more Sherpa mountain guides packed and left the base camp for their village homes a week after the deadliest disaster on the world's highest mountain. (AP Photo/Alpenglow Expeditions, Adrian Ballinger)

--THE BAD-- A Tara Air Dornier Do 228 aircraft taxis after landing at the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, on December 2, 2009. Lukla is known as the gateway to Mount Everest. The Himalayan nation's government is holding a cabinet meeting on the shadow of Everest on December 4 to draw attention of climate change in the Himalayas. AFP PHOTO/ Prakash MATHEMA / AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH MATHEMA [06AUGUST2017 GOOD BAD UGLY POST MAGAZINE]

Mountaineers pass the Hillary Step heading for the summit of Everest.

--THE BAD-- This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa collecting garbage, left by climbers, at an altitude of 8,000 metres during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers collected 1,800 kilograms of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak. Led by seven-time summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, the team braved thin air and below freezing temperatures to clear around two tonnes of rubbish left behind by mountaineers, that included empty oxygen cylinders and corpses. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 8,000 metres have generally been left to the elements -- their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures. The priority of the sherpas had been to clear rubbish just below the summit area, but coordinator Karki said large quantities of refuse was collected from 8,000 meters and below. AFP PHOTO/Namgyal SHERPA

--THE BAD-- This picture taken on May 17, 2010 shows Nepalese sherpas after retrieving two corpses of climbers that were left on the world's highest mountain during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers collected 1,800 kilograms of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak. Led by seven-time summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, the team braved thin air and below freezing temperatures to clear around two tonnes of rubbish left behind by mountaineers, that included empty oxygen cylinders and corpses. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 8,000 metres have generally been left to the elements -- their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures. The priority of the sherpas had been to clear rubbish just below the summit area, but coordinator Karki said large quantities of refuse was collected from 8,000 meters and below. AFP PH

The Himalayan town of Lukla, in Nepal. From Lukla, it’s a 10- to 14-day trek to Mount Everest base camp. Picture: AFP

After conquering Everest at 80, Yuichiro Miura eyes next challenge 

Yuichiro Miura holds his grandson upon his arrival in Tokyo on May 29, 2013, after having scaled the world's highest mountain at the age of 80.

A 75-year-old Yuichiro Miura conquers the summit of Mount Everest on May 25, 2008.

Miura gives a victory sign at Kathmandu airport in 2003 after reaching the summit of Everest for the first time aged 70. Photo: Devendra Man Singh/AFP

Screen grabs from The Man Who Skied Down Everest, which follows Miura's hair-raising descent in 1970 and won an Academy Award for best documentary.

A still from The Man Who Skied Down Everest. 

Another still from from The Man Who Skied Down Everest.

Miura's father, Keizo Miura, was also a famous skier and mountaineer. 

Miura and his son Gota (centre) display the Japanese  flag on the summit of Mount Everest on May 22, 2003. Photo: AFP/Miura Dolphins

Four recent films about Everest, from Hollywood affair to gritty documentaries

A scene from Sherpa, a documentary which happened to capture the deadly avalanche of 2014 that killed 16 Sherpas.

--ONLINE ONLY-- This handout image shows a scenes from the movie “The Himalayas” . Photo / HANDOUT [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

--ONLINE ONLY-- This handout image shows a scenes from the movie “ Meru ” . Photo / HANDOUT [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

Still of 'Everest', 2015 British-American drama film directed by Baltasar Kormakur and written by William Nicholson, starring Jake Gyllenhaal [09AUG2015 REVIEW SUNDAY - FILM LEAD]

How rush by Hongkongers and others to climb Everest is changing the mountain

Climbers like Stephen Venables say the rise in the number of people visiting world’s highest peak brings added revenue for Sherpas, but also more trash, and pushes prices up for Nepali locals

--ONLINE-- In this photograph taken on April 18, 2014, a Nepalese rescure helicopeter lands at Everest Base Camp during rescue efforts following an avalanche that killed sixteen Nepalese sherpas in the Khumbu icefall at the base of Mount Everest. Dreams shattered and counting their losses, many foreign climbers -- from a veteran mountaineer to a epileptic teenager -- say they might never return to Nepal to climb Everest, upset by ugly scenes at base camp and the government's mismanagement of the peak. Climbing Everest from the Nepalese side -- the easiest and most popular route up the world's highest peak -- has been effectively closed this season after the worst ever accident on April 18, 2014. Sixteen Nepalese sherpa guides died in an avalanche, sparking a labour dispute between them and the government and a boycott that left foreign expeditions no choice but to abandon their plans. AFP PHOTO / ROBERT KAY / AFP PHOTO / ROBERT KAY [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

In this handout photograph released by Himex, the organisers of the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon, on May 29, 2016, runners participate in the world's highest marathon in the foothills of Mount Everest, in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal. Gasping for breath and clad in trekking boots, more than 150 local and foreign runners took part in the world's highest marathon in the snow-covered foothills of Mount Everest. The annual Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon, which began in 2003, is meant to mark the anniversary of the first summit of the peak by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953. / AFP PHOTO / HIMEX / HO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HIMEX" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

British mountaineer Stephen Venables, the first Briton to climb mount Everest with out the aid of Oxygen tanks attends a book signing for The Conquest of Everest book in London on May 29, 2013, on the 60th anniversary of Tenzing and Hillary's accent in 1953. AFP PHOTO / ANDREW COWIE / AFP PHOTO / ANDREW COWIE [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

--ONLINE-- FF85DC MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION. /nThe British expedition that conquered Mount Everest in May 1953. Standing, from left, Thomas Stobart, sherpa, Charles Evans, Charles Wylie, Edmund Hillary, John Hunt, Dawa Tenzing, Michael Ward, Michael Westmacott, Tom Bourdill. Photo / Alamy Stock Photo [11JULY2016 FEATURES LIFE]

Crossing ladders on Mount Everest in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal.

How to take risks in business and expeditions without fearing failure: Seven rules from Hongkonger who's scaled the Seven Summits

Paul Niel shooting photos in the Congo

Paul Niel on top of Mont Blanc

Climbing down Denali,  the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level

Ski ascent in Switzerland 

On the summit ridge of Mt Everest

Climbing a mountain in China

Niel tries to solve a Rubik's cube atop Everest; an experiment on how the brain is influenced by altitude and lack of oxygen

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The growing appetite for summiting the the world’s highest mountain has left this bucket-list staple littered with bodies and waste, while those who make the dream come true remain unsung and woefully underpaid


The growing appetite for summiting the world’s highest mountain has left this bucket-list staple littered with bodies and waste, while those who make the dream come true remain unsung and woefully underpaid


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