2026

October 1, 2026 – “Humans as Explorers” N°2 – Himalaya

The Himalayas (Sanskrit for “Abode of Snow”) are a landscape of superlatives.
Ten of the world’s fourteen mountains exceeding 8,000 meters in height are located here.
Bordering Pakistan, India, China, Nepal, and Bhutan, the Himalayas extend for more than 2,500 kilometers in length
and up to 330 kilometers in width.

In the 19th century, British explorers surveyed the Himalayas.
Mount Everest was named after one of them, the surveyor and officer Sir George Everest.
With a summit elevation of approximately 8,849 meters, it is the highest mountain on Earth.

Climbing Mount Everest is an extremely dangerous undertaking. The air is thin, and temperatures can drop to −60°C.
Anyone attempting to reach the summit must enter the death zone, where the oxygen level in the atmosphere is insufficient for prolonged survival.

Nevertheless, the race to the summit began as early as the 1920s.
It was not until May 29, 1953, however, that the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese-Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay,
using oxygen equipment, became the first people officially to reach the summit of Everest.
In May 1975, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit.
In May 1978, South Tyrolean climber Reinhold Messner and Austrian mountaineer Peter Habeler made history by ascending Everest without supplemental oxygen.