Everest

Image by Se7en Summits: Flickr creative commons licensed

Everest (which also has other names) is the highest mountain in the world, and the pinnacle of many mountaineer's career.
It is also a very dangerous place, and an EXTREME ENVIRONMENT.

Schools teaching units on mountains as extreme environments may well have used Everest as a context for their work. There is plenty of scope to consider the extreme weather, the effects of altitude, the glacier and icefall which have to be crossed to reach the base of the mountain, and the cultural significance of the mountain.
There is also the impact of the arrival of those who wish to climb it, and the trash that they leave behind, such as spent oxygen cannisters.
The EXTREME EVEREST project involved Sherpas doing a "deep clean" of the mountain...
This BBC article describes a delay in the project due to the weather. Why not design a job description and application lesson based around getting a place on the expedition ? What particular skills and knowledge would be required.
Perhaps source a set of images to show the 'before and after' of the mountain clean-up there are various Flickr image search options that I listed in the recent issue of GA Magazine.

The mountain has also been in the news several times over the last few weeks.

  • There was the story of the impact of GLOBAL WARMING on the mountain. Apparently one of the impacts, according to this Guardian article (and others), is that it is making the mountain harder to climb.
  • Sadly in the same week, there was the story of a British climber: Peter Kinloch, who had to be abandoned by his team close to the summit of the mountain as he was affected by altitude sickness, and went blind. The Death Zone is an area that has been part of the teaching of extreme mountain environments, and is generally viewed as being above 8000m of altitude. Until you climb to that altitude, there is no way of knowing how your body will react...
  • The youngest woman to reach the summit of Everest : Bonita Norris was also in the news
  • And finally, the same period, saw Jordan Romero reach the summit aged just 13 !
Another link to Everest was made today.
Image copyright Jake Meyer

In London, I met up in Covent Garden with JAKE MEYER.
Jake Meyer has summited Everest, and also holds the record for the fastest trip where he reached the summit of the highest peaks in the contiguous US states.
We talked exploration and geography and then went (Mission) exploring for a few hours. Jake will be speaking as part of the Prince's Teaching Institute Summer School which takes place at the end of the month.

Update: I'm grateful to Steve Brace for reminding me of the Royal Geographical Society's EVEREST resources from their wonderful archives...

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