The 2008 Summer Olympics summit of Mount Everest was the special route of the torch relay as part of the 2008 Summer Olympics taking place in China. Torchbearers reached Mount Everest at 9.20 in the morning (local time) on May 8, in parallel with the Shenzhen route. Another name for the climb is the Beijing Olympics Torch Relay Qomolangma Leg. [1]
The route taking the Olympic torch to the summit of the world's tallest peak was a side spur of the main relay, whilst the main relay continued elsewhere in China. It was the most technically challenging leg of the entire torch relay. Aside from the physical difficulty of scaling the mountain, the torch that was used for the climb had to be specially designed to burn in a frigid, windy, oxygen-thin environment. [2]
In April the Chinese government completed a blacktop highway to the Mount Everest base camp to be used when the Olympic torch was taken to the peak. Workers spent 10 months widening, evening the surface of, and installing guardrails on the 67-mile road, the Xinhua News Agency said. "The upgraded highway ... will provide a safe path for drivers, tourists and mountaineers, and facilitate torchbearers (taking) the Olympic flame to the top of the world," the report said. Critics claim the highway, which begins in Tibet's Xigaze prefecture, will damage the permafrost in the ecologically fragile area. But officials said they had conducted a thorough study of the effects on the permafrost, and that the 150 million yuan (US$21.5 million, €13.5 million) project did not damage the environment. [3]
The Chinese government said that the Everest event will be a show of international sportsmanship and national pride. "The torch relay to Mount Everest is a highlight of the whole relay, and it also represents the idea of green Olympics, high-tech Olympics and people's Olympics," Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Jingming said. [4]
The government of Nepal imposed a complete communication ban on journalists and ordered soldiers and police to set up camps on Mount Everest with permission to use force against pro-Tibet demonstrators "to stop any anti-Chinese activities" during the torch's climb to the summit. [5] "This could mean shooting if necessary," Home Ministry spokesman Mod Raj Dotel said. [6]
On May 8, the Chinese Mountaineering Team successfully scaled the world's highest peak. A total of 36 torchbearers participated in the torch relay, 12 of them reaching the summit from the 8,300-meter base camp. The relay was televised live on CCTV state television, and globally. [7] On the summit, banners of the Olympic slogans were unfurled, and the first and last two torch-bearers were female Tibetan mountaineers. [8]
On March 13, China announced it would restrict world mountaineers from climbing Everest and Cho Oyu over concerns that Tibet activists may try to disrupt plans for the climb. John Ackerly, president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, criticized the climb as an attempt by the PRC to legitimize Chinese rule: "Beijing is using the Olympics torch ceremony, which should stand for human freedoms and dignity, to bolster its territorial claim over Tibet." [4]
Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point.
Pumori is a mountain on the Nepal-China border in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. Pumori lies just eight kilometres west of Mount Everest. Pumori, meaning "the Mountain Daughter" in Sherpa language, was named by George Mallory. "Pumo" means young girl or daughter and "Ri" means mountain in Sherpa language. Climbers sometimes refer to Pumori as "Everest's Daughter". Mallory also called it Clare Peak, after his daughter.
Bachendri Pal is an Indian mountaineer, who in 1984 became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.She was awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 2019.
Romeo Roberto "Romi" Garduce, sometimes nicknamed as "Garduch," is a Filipino mountain climber, a scuba dive master, an environmentalist, writer, motivational speaker and works as an IT professional. He began climbing mountains for a cause in 1991 as a member of the UP Mountaineers. Aside from being a mountain climber and IT professional, he became one of the host for the GMA Network public affair shows Born to Be Wild and Pinoy Meets World. He also hosted the GMA News and Public Affairs special entitled Pito Para sa Pilipino with Richard Gutierrez.
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level. It is situated in the Himalayan range of Solukhumbu district, Nepal.
Dale Sto. Tomas Abenojar is a Filipino mountaineer and an adventure sportsman and a mountain guide by profession. He is the founder of an evangelical Christian ministry called Gospel Expedition Ministries. He graduated from Living Waters' U.S.A. School of Biblical Evangelism in 1995 and is now a practicing missionary evangelist. In 2006, he was recognized as "the first Filipino" to reach the summit of Mount Everest by veteran Himalayan expedition chronicler Elizabeth Hawley. According to Hawley Dale reached the summit on May 15, 2006. Abenojar was certified by the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) on May 20, 2006 to have summitted Everest via the North Col on May 15, 2006 at 10:45 a.m. Beijing time.
Lincoln Ross Hall OAM was a veteran Australian mountain climber, adventurer, author and philanthropist. Hall was part of the first Australian expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1984, which successfully forged a new route. Hall reached the summit of the mountain on his second attempt in 2006, miraculously surviving the night at 8,700 m (28,543 ft) on descent, after his family was told he had died.
Dan Mazur is a climber, trekker and expedition leader who has ascended nine of the world's highest summits, including Mount Everest and K2. In addition he is known for several high altitude mountain rescues: the 1991 rescue of Roman Giutashvili from Mount Everest, the rescue of Gary Ball from K2 in 1992, the rescue in 2006 of Australian climber Lincoln Hall from Mount Everest, and the rescue of British mountaineer Rick Allen from Broad Peak. In 2018, Daniel Mazur was awarded the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal "for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions."
Alexander Mitchell Kellas was a Scottish chemist, explorer, and mountaineer known for his studies of high-altitude physiology. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland.
The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, also called by the organizers as the "Journey of Harmony", lasted 129 days and carried the torch 137,000 km (85,000 mi) – the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition was started ahead of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Wang Fuzhou was a Chinese mountaineer, born in Xihua County, Henan. He and Qu Yinhua were the first Chinese to climb Mount Everest on the col/Northeast ridge route.
Wang Yongfeng is a Chinese mountaineer and the assistant secretary-general of China mountain climbing association. He is also the captain of the Chinese Mountaineering Team. Wang and his partner, Li Zhixin (李致新), became the first Chinese couple to climb the "Seven Summits" on June 23, 1999.
Arjun Vajpai is the youngest Indian and the youngest in the world to climb Mount Everest back in 2010. He achieved this feat at the age of 16 years, 11 months and 18 days. He broke the record set by Krushnaa Patil of Maharashtra who climbed the summit at the age of 19. On 20 May 2011, he became the Youngest person ever to summit Lhotse, aged 17 years, 11 months and 16 days. Arjun also became the youngest to summit Manaslu on 4 October 2011. After 3 failed attempts on Makalu, he became the youngest Indian to summit it in his 4th attempt on 22 May 2016.
Musa Ibrahim is a Bangladeshi mountaineer and an adventurer, explorer, journalist and author. He is the first Bangladeshi to claim to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He reached the summit around 5:05 am BST on 23 May 2010 and hoisted the flag of Bangladesh on the apex of the world at around 5:16 am BST. From then, Bangladesh became the 67th Mount Everest conquering country.
The Three Steps are three prominent rocky steps on the northeast ridge of Mount Everest. They are located at altitudes of 8,564 metres (28,097 ft), 8,610 metres (28,250 ft), and 8,710 metres (28,580 ft). The Second Step is especially significant both historically and in mountaineering terms. Any climber who wants to climb on the normal route from the north of the summit must negotiate these three stages.
Lydia Pounamu Bradey is a New Zealand mountaineer. She became the first woman to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1988. She has gone on to summit the mountain five more times.
Phanthog, also known as Phantog and Pan Duo, was a Tibetan mountaineer. She is known for being the first woman to summit Mount Everest via its North Face route, the first Chinese woman to summit Everest, and the second woman to reach the summit, after Junko Tabei.
Wang Jing is a Chinese mountaineer, author, entrepreneur and member of The Explorers Club in the United States. Wang Jing is best known for her feat in becoming the fastest woman in the world to complete the Explorers Grand Slam in 143 days and the fastest woman to climb Seven Summits. The Explorers Grand Slam involves reaching the highest peak on every continent plus at a minimum of skiing the last degree (111 km) to the North and South poles. Wang Jing recorded this adventure in her book Silence of the Summit, which was published in English in December 2018.
The Mount Everest climbing season of 2017 began in spring with the first climbers reaching the top on May 11, from the north side. The first team on the south side reached the top on May 15. By early June, reports from Nepal indicated that 445 people had made it to the summit from the Nepali side. Reports indicate 160–200 summits on the north side, with 600–660 summiters overall for early 2017. This year had a roughly 50% success rate on that side for visiting climbers, which was down from other years. By 2018, the figure for the number of summiters of Everest was refined to 648. This includes 449 which summited via Nepal and 120 from Chinese Tibet.