Mount Everest Virtual Adventure

I gave myself two weeks to complete the 63 kilometer virtual trek from Lukla, Nepal to the top of the world at the summit of Mount Everest. I have been going on long walks every day, and I reached my goal in just one week!

I've never been particularly interested in trying to climb the real Mount Everest. It's too expensive and far too dangerous. I may like to consider myself an adventurer, but only to a certain extent! This is about as close as I intend to come to ever trying to summit the world's tallest peak.

Still, I would love to attempt the fairly doable trek to Base Camp in Nepal. It takes a few weeks, but it's a (relatively) easy hike with plenty of amenities along the way. Thousands of tourists make the trek each year. It would be a real adventure, but nothing that I can't handle. This virtual adventure made me quite interested in learning more about Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayan region.

Day 1: I started my journey, trekking the first few Kilometers outside of Lukla on the way to Namche Bazar, where the journey to Base Camp traditionally begins.

Day 3: The Trail was a popular one. As I walked through a small gate in a narrow mountain pass, a great Himalayan valley opened up before me.

Day 4: My last view before Street View ended was that of the harsh Himalayan sun burning low in the sky against a frozen and oxygen-starved landscape.

What I learned on my virtual trek to Mount Everest:

• Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, straddles the Tibet (China) -Nepal border and stands an incredible 29,032 ft above sea level.
• The Tibetan name for Everest is Chomolungma, meaning ‘Goddess Mother of the World’. The Nepali name for Everest is Sagarmatha, meaning ‘Goddess of the Sky’. The mountain is considered sacred in Tibetan Buddhism and amongst the Sherpa people.
• The first ascent of Mount Everest was successfully completed in 1953, when New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay reached the summit.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

• Sherpa isn't a job description. It's the name of the ethnic group that lives in the Himalayan Mountains near Mount Everest.
• Summiting the mountain costs nearly $30,000 USD and takes over ten months of climbing and acclimatizing to the extreme altitude.
• Thousands of people have summitted Everest, but it's extremely dangerous, with a fatality rate of around 4% annually.
• Everest Base Camp has WiFi service!
• Past 26,246 ft is known as the "Death Zone", where the body expends far more oxygen than breathing can take in. There is only 33% as much oxygen at the summit of Everest than at sea level, and climbers can only stay at the peak for a few minutes, even with the aid of supplemental bottled oxygen.

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." - Sir Edmund Hillary