10
AWESOME NATURAL WONDERS
MOUNT
EVEREST
BREATHTAKING
At 29,035 feet (8,850 m) high,
Everest’s peak is an awesome
place to be. It’s also icy cold,
battered by hurricane-force winds,
and the air contains less oxygen
than it does at sea level. So unless
you have an oxygen mask, it’s very
hard to breathe up there.
CLIMBING EVEREST
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and
Tenzing Norgay were the first to
reach the top of Everest and make
it back home. Since then, another
3,000 people have managed it.
You can’t stand anywhere higher on the earth than on the top of
Mount Everest. The world’s highest mountain is a massive, snow-
and ice-topped chunk of rock in the Himalayas, a huge mountain
range that lies in the middle of Asia.
Climbing Everest is dangerous. You
have to travel across steep ice
slopes, use ladders to cross
crevasses, and keep yourself warm.
DEADLY RIVAL
28,251 feet (8,611 m) tall, K2 in
Pakistan and China is the second-highest mountain in the
world. It may be only the second tallest, but it is harder to
climb. It’s killed a quarter of those who’ve tried to climb it.
STILL RISING
The Himalayas were created
when two landmasses, India
and the rest of Asia,
crashed into each other
50 million years ago,
pushing the land up into a
mountain range. The land is
still moving, and so the
Himalayas are still growing.
Huge, bulky, and brooding, Mount
Everest is an unbelievable sight—
and even more magnificent
if you get to the top!
AWESOMENESS
The jagged edges jutting into the air on
Everest’s slopes are awesomely dangerous.
