MOUNT EVEREST - Himalayas, Nepal (N 27°59’ E 86°56’) Card 170x120mm with recycled envelope and biodegradable cello. Detailed caption on the reverse of the card. Card is blank for your own message.
MOUNT EVEREST - Himalayas, Nepal (N 27°59’ E 86°56’)
In the massif of the Himalayas, which forms the boundary between Nepal and China, stands Mount Everest. Rising to an altitude of 29,028 feet (8,848 metres), Everest is the highest point on the planet. In Nepali the mountain is called Sagarmatha, “He whose
head touches the sky,” and in Tibetan it is called Chomolongma, “Mother Goddess of the world.” The name Everest comes from the British colonel George Everest, who in 1852 was assigned the task of establishing a map of India. Since the triumphant expedition by
the New Zealander Edmund Hilary and the Nepalese sherpa Norgay Tensing, the first men to set foot on the “roof of the world”, on May 29, 1953, Everest has inspired more than 300 successful ascents and has claimed some 100 lives. But these decades of crowding
(with as many as 300 mountain climbers at the base camp at a time) have caused pollution problems, and the consumption of brushwood for campfires (as much as 7 tons per expedition) has stripped the slopes and exposed them to erosion. However, in the
past ten years, new regulations, clean-up operations (the first of which collected 30 tons of debris at the base camp), installation of solar panels, and expeditions bringing in fuel of their own have helped stop the degradation of this fragile high-altitude site, declared
a national park in 1976, which is vital to the Sherpas.
© Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Altitude - www.yannarthusbertrand.org - www.goodplanet.org
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