Latest Everest Stories

September 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of two aerospace milestones that involved both triumph and tragedy for the flight test community at Edwards Air Force Base. It was in September 1956 that the highest and fastest flights of the Bell X-2, a swept-wing, rocket-powered research aircraft were flown. Sadly, the latter of those two missions cost the life of Air Force Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt, one of the test pilots assigned to the project. The X-2 was flown in a joint program to...

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Sipping black tea on a glacial beach of jagged gray rocks nearly four miles above sea level, the lanky Briton had the air of a jilted lover who didn't want to admit it was over. Twice before, David Sharp had stood on this gravel plain in Mount Everest's shadow. In 2003 and again in 2004, the 34-year-old engineer had made it well into the "Death Zone" above 26,000 feet before weather, frostbite and lack of oxygen had forced him to turn around, just out of sight of...

By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - British doctors plan to climb Mount Everest to study the impact of low oxygen levels on the body, a project they hope will help critically ill patients. A team of 30 researchers and physicians will monitor the health of 210 trekkers to Everest base camp during the 3-month expedition next year. Thirty doctors will ascend the South Col route and 10 will go to the peak. "Our Everest ascent will involve creating the world's highest medical laboratory,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has kicked out an Italian mountaineer who entered China without legal documents after climbing Mount Everest from the Nepalese side, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. Simone Moro started climbing the world's highest mountain from the south in Nepal on May 20 and reached the Chinese mountaineering camp on the northern slope two days later, Xinhua said, quoting the Tibetan Mountaineering Association. "The camp immediately informed the association of the...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian mountaineer left for dead near the summit of Mt Everest has been found alive after spending a night out on the world's highest mountain, but remains severely ill with frostbite and altitude sickness. Lincoln Hall, 50, was initially reported to have died of cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, as he descended the mountain, according to expedition leader Alexander Abramov, on internet site www.mounteverest.net. However, climbers ascending the next...

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, has blamed the commercialization of climbing the world's highest mountain for the death a British climber, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. New Zealand's Hillary, who conquered the summit in May 1953 with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, said he would have abandoned his own summit bid if another climber's life had been in danger. "I think the whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying,"...

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Expedition Everest, a $100 million attraction at Walt Disney World featuring an encounter with a giant robotic Abominable Snowman, or yeti, opened this week as a preview for Disney fans. By placing the thrill ride in Animal Kingdom, Disney Co. is hoping to excite teen-agers about the least attended of the four Disney parks in Orlando. Animal Kingdom, known more for its animal safari and its support of worldwide conservation, was the eighth...

BEIJING (AP) - The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, is 12 feet shorter than previously thought, Chinese scientists who measured the peak earlier this year said Sunday. Their survey determined that the mountain was 29,017 feet, or 12 feet smaller than it was measured to be 30 years ago, said Chen Bangzhu, a spokesman with the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. The survey was carried out by a team of 50 Chinese experts in May, Chen said at a press conference. The new figure...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China now thinks Everest, the world's highest peak, is about 3.7 meters shorter than its own past estimates after conducting a new survey of the mountain this year, state media reported on Sunday. Mount Everest stood 8,844.43 meters above sea level, with a margin of error of about 0.21 meters, Chen Bangzhu, Director General of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, told a news conference. Chinese mountaineers and researchers climbed to the top of Mount Everest...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Edmund Hillary, the first climber to conquer Mount Everest with his Sherpa guide, on Monday urged that the world's highest mountain be placed on the United Nations' list of endangered heritage sites because of the risks of climate change. Himalayan lakes are swelling from the runoff of melting glaciers, environmental campaigners warned as the 29th session of the U.N. Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee got under way...