Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. And I'm Tracy Wilson and it's this part two of our Everest podcast. Yes uh. In the first part of this episode, we talked about how the British came to identify and name Everest and the subsequent desire to conquer it. We also covered the earliest climbs up to the point where World War Two caused a pretty big gap in expeditions. As the nineteen forties stretched on the British efforts to some Everest continued to be on hold and maybe hoping to capitalize on this lack of officially organized expeditions and make a name for himself, One man, accompanied only by two sherpas, one of whom was tensing rge illegally entered Tibet to try to climb Everest in nineteen forty seven. This was Canadian Earl Den and he was not super well prepared for this expedition, not even a little. He didn't have enough training or enough resources. He didn't even reach the North Call, which is usually the first place that climbers make camp on the mountain proper before he had to turn back. Yeah, he had cut rate equipment. He had only ever trained in um warmer climates to climb mountains. He just st ill prepared. UH. But also in seven a successor to the Mount Everest Committee that had run the previous expeditions leading up to this was created, and that was called the Himalayan Committee. And this once again combined the resources of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographic Societies. UH. The newly reformed committee would have to face not only the brutal and still unsummitted mountain, but also the political problem of China closing Tibet to outsiders in nineteen fifty so they would no longer have access from the north UH to try their essense. In nineteen fifty, an Anglo American reconnaisance mission led by Bill Tillman an American doctor Charles Houston, explored the approach options from the Nepal side of the mountain. Tilman ended up eliminating the Western comb approach as not being a practical option, although it did end up being used. I think he just thought at the time it was not going to work. UH. In n there was another unofficial attempt, and this one was by a danish Man named Klauds becker Larson, and becker Larson took sherpa guides with him and he crossed illegally to the Tibetan side of the mountain to try to climb via the north side. But this time, as the group of approached the north coal, the sherpas told becker Larson that they weren't going to go any further and the entire climb was aborted. Basically, They're like, we're not gonna help you after all, and he had that sense to go, well, then I'm not gonna make it, So that was setting into that. Was it because of conditions or some other reason? Uh there When you read about it, it's and he's written a book about his um Um adventure, but it sounds like there were multiple factors. They were uneasy about the political conditions, they weren't super confident that he was going to be able to do it. It just kind of all felt very bad to them. Um One thing that I read that I didn't even list as a source because I was it seemed not really that um um credible. But it's worth bringing up because there are so many rumors around stuff like this that there was actually a religious aspect to it, that they felt that there were some bad omens in the mix. I think that's largely conjecture, but basically they just said no and that put an end to that. We're done with this. Also in nineteen fifty one there was another reconmission, and this one was run entirely by the Himilyan Committee. Eric Shipton was once again the team lead. Scotsman William Hutchinson Murray initiated and organized this mission in collaboration with Michael Phelps Ward, both of whom joined Shipman on the expedition. Ward had been examining maps and photos from the Royal Geographical Society archives and he used his research to identify a route up the mountain from Nepal. So he was spending his time while they weren't doing things, just pouring over the information that they already gathered so that he could figure out a way that they could get up the mountain this way, since they didn't have the Tibetan side anymore. Also joining we're physicist and rocket researcher Thomas Duncan, board Long and to New Zealanders, beekeeper Edmund Hillary and lawyer Harold Earl Ridford, and in Murray's account of this expedition, he says, quote, it's worth recording that this is the first instance where the members of an expedition to Everest have chosen themselves, chosen their leader, and initiated the expedition. Is unlikely to happen again. So because these were mounted and funded by a committee, the committee always picked when it was going to happen, who was going to go, who's going to lead it. But this is the first time that guys got together and so we think we figured this out, here's what we'd like to do, and they kind of pitched it to the committee and the committee said, yes. Marie's group encountered a whole lot of obstacles along the way. There were leeches that caused septic sores, they were washed out bridges, a hornet swarm, like everything you can think of. You know, when you read his account of the whole, like his mission report, you're just like you have got to be then hornets. Yeah, it sounds like an episode of Land of the Lost. I mean, there are so many crazy things that have been of those poor guys. In spite of all that they were able to detect a feasible path up to the south coll and so, and eventually this whole mission was considered to be a success. Yeah, they didn't they had never planned the summit on that one, but they identified this new route thanks in large part due to this research that they had been doing. So it uh was resounding success. So the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research sponsored its OH ninety two expedition, which was headed up by Edward with Dunnant Intensing or Gay was also on this expedition and while he, along with Raymond Lambert, was able to set a new record in climbing altitude, though they struggled to do so. They were crawling on all fours before they finally reached their limit. Like these guys were really trying to keep going and they just couldn't do it. There was a second Swiss expedition in the fall of nineteen fifty two, but the death of one of the sharp is on the mission, who was killed by falling ice, combined with bad weather to put an end to it before they could have any real push for the summit. And there's also a really interesting rumor that there was a Russian attempt on the Tibetan side in although both Russia denied it had ever happened and China had never acknowledged it, there was allegedly a camp found in nineteen sixty that supported this rumor, though in article for the Alpine journal Mountaineer You of Getting Given, writer describes the search he attempted into the rumored expedition. He made inquiries with mountaineering organizations, personal contacts, government offices, sports associations, and trade unions. And he found no evidence that any of the alleged members of the Mystery Ascent party ever existed. Yeah, it seemed like they were completely fabricated names and people. So uh still a rumor, not supported in any way that we can find. Uh. And in nineteen fifty three, another expedition was led by Henry Cecil John Hunt, Lord Hunt of landfair Waterdine, although this impressive moniker is not the one that is most commonly associated with this trip. Also climbing were Robert Charles Evans deputy leader, George Christopher Band who was the youngest team member at age twenty four, Tom Boyon as the oxygen officer, Alfred Gregory in charge of photography, Edmund Hillary, whilst George Lowe Cuthbert Wilfred, Frank Noyce, Mike Ward as expedition physician, Michael Horatio Westmacott as ice Fall trailmaker, and organizing secretary Charles Jeffrey Wiley, who was also in charge of the service sherp attending Orge was also on the ascent team, and it was his seventh trip up to the mountain, and when this group arrived at Temboche Monastery on the early part of their journey, tending Orge's mother actually greeted them. She wanted to make sure her son was okay and give her blessing for him to climb, which she did. After making their way to the South Call over the course of many weeks, the first summit push was made by Evans and boardingon on. The pair got to the South Summit in the early afternoon, but only made it to twenty eight thousand seven ft which is eight thousand, seven hundred seventy before depleted oxygen supplies and inhospitable winds forced them to turn back, and three days later, on May, Edmond, Hillary and tensing Orge headed up from a starting point of Camp nine at thousand feet or eight thousand fives, which had been set up by Hunt in a team of sherpas for the pair, while Evans and Boordeon were making their bid for the top, so they were kind of prepping for the second go at the top even as the first one was happening, because he just wanted to be ready. They left camp at six thirty am and had reached the south summit by nine am, and at one point ten Signora had seemed to be in distress, but Hillary found that the line of his Oxiden tank had been blocked with ice, and they were able to fix that situation and keep moving. The next two and a half hours were carefully spent uh picking their way up a forty ft or twelve point two nearly vertical wall of rock and ice, which is now known as the Hillary Step, and then at last they had reached the elusive summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth in that moment, a dream that was more than three decades in the making for the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and a century from the time that British surveyor As had first seen the mountain was finally realized. The pair took photos. They looked around briefly for any sign of the lost team. Mallory and Irvine uh Norgay buried Buddhist offerings in the snow, and Hillary buried a crucifix. They ate a mint cake, so sort of like the power bar of the past. I guess uh. They only spent about fifteen minutes up there at the summit. The photos taken were of the view from the top, largely as proof, and Tensing waving his ice pick with flags of the United Nations, Great Britain, India and Nepaul attached to it. No photos were taken of Hillary. Yeah, Tensing Orgie didn't know how to work the camera, although he said in subsequent uh interviews and I think in a book that he had offered to try and Hillary and said no, no, it's fine. So there are no pictures of Edmond Hillary at the top, the pair had to carefully make their way back down. Their steps had already been erased by wind, and on the way back down from that loftiest of heights, they were met by George Lowe from the expedition, who has made his way up to meet them. And this is when Hillary famously said to him, well, George, we've knocked that bastard off I love how many pithy quotes around everything we have to think, like, as an adventurer, you're just at the ready with sound bites. Yeah, Holly, would you like to take a second talk about a word from our sponsor? So going back to Everest post Summits writing about the importance of that first summit for Smithsonian Magazine in two thousand three, A journalist who had been part of that historic expedition wrote, fifty years on, it's hard to imagine what a golden moment that was that the young British Queen, at the very start of her reign, should be presented with such a gift. A British expedition reaching the top of the world at last seemed then almost magical, and a generous world loved it. The news ran around the globe like a testament of the light, and was welcomed as a coronation gift to all mankind. It was nothing like so momentous and achievement as that giant moonstep the Americans were presently going to take. But it was altogether simple, a political, untechnological and exploit still on a human scale. And Holly good, I don't know if I'd go so far to say, Holy good, I don't either, but uh, there's some waxing rhapsodic about that's very rhapsodic. And there are also a number of issues that go along with this entire thing that go everywhere from colonialism to the fact that the whole place is covered in garbage. Now, yeah, which we'll talk about into just a minute. So neither Edmund Hillary, nor Tenzig nor climbed Everest again. Hillary was given a knighthood and Tensing received Britain's George Medal in recognition of his courage. They were also decorated in many other ways, and certainly I know Edmund Hillary um went on to you know, have endorsement deals, etcetera. But one of his ongoing missions and his passions in his life after the summit was the sharp of people and their well being. The Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation was formed the nineteen seventies and since its foundation, it's funded and supported the development of medical care center, schools, and conservation initiatives in Nepal. He went back all the time, he brought his whole family. Uh wasn't so interested in going up the mountain again, but he really wanted to try to do what he could to take care of the people around it. Although Hillary died in two thousand eight at the age of eighty eight, this foundation and its work go on. Tensing, for his part, continued to escort explorers and to train climbers, and he eventually founded an adventure tour company, which was taken over by his son after Tensing died at the age of seventy two. There have been more than three thousand, five hundred people at the peak of Everest since that first summit, and more than two hundred people have died trying, and most of those bodies remain on the mountain. For a lot of reasons. A litter problem has also, as we said, developed on this once pristine landscape as used supplies are dropped to lighten the loads of climbers. More than thirteen tons of garbage have been collected by the Eco Everest Expedition Group since two thousand eight. As well as human waste and a handful of bodies. There's an estimated ten tons of trash left on the mountain. Yeah, this is where I still have a fundamental problem with it. Yeah. Well, it's hard to imagine why people would just leave their their trash there until you read the first person accounts of how grueling it is to make it to the top. Really, people will be taking a step and then having to take multiple breaths before they can take another step because they're so exhausted. Yeah, so lightning the load becomes important. Yeah, Lightning the load becomes important. And and picking all of that stuff up to try to take it back down in a lot of cases becomes a life threatening attempt. Um Like, you can either leave that stuff there or you can make it down alive. And that does not seem like a very good choice, which is still part of why I struggle with it, because it kind of in deciding that you're going to do this thing, you're kind of putting your desire over the mountain. I mean, this was once a holy place and now there's well, and it's after a huge cleanup effort, there are still ten tons of garbage there. Well, and it's it's still a holy place. It's just a holy place that has trash all over right now. Yeah, it's the holy place covered in garbage. Yes, And it's also extremely expensive to climb Everest. This was one that I kind of stumbled across in my research, and I totally got sticker shock. I mean I I in my head, of course, I was like, yeah, that's gotta be a huge undertating minimum thirty. Uh. Also, I can go up into the six figures very easily. Yeah. That's also one of the reasons that, Uh, when when you see stories about like storms that have killed people that were attempting to get to the summit, a lot of times there's this thread of this was the only time this person and was ever going to be able to try it because of the amount of money that's involved, in the amount of training, and that turning back would have meant that all of that I was gonna go to waste. Yeah, it's um, it's for most people to do it. I would say, it's so once in a lifetime thing. There are repeaters, but not very many of them. Uh. And that cost is determined by a number of things, the permits, the services retained, the ascent path that you use, your travel, your training, what guides you hire, how savvy you are. I was watching one modern documentary about it, and uh, one of the pieces of advice they were giving to people was, if you have anyone in your party who is a native speaker, already before you start hiring guides and buying equipment, let them do all the bargaining, because they will completely jack up the prices for anyone that's not from the area. Um, it's like wedding planning. That's a whole that gonna be a whole other episode. I feel way is about those things. Yeah. So in spite of all the costs and all the danger and all the garbage, the Summit of Everest has become kind of a bucket list item for a lot of modern mountaineers. And now there are ladders and guide ropes in place, and some conveniences that early explorers never had but made possible. Occasionally. Now more than two hundred people will reach the summit in a single day, yeah, which is just such a huge number. And that's certainly not an everyday thing. This is a seasonal trip. You can't do it anytime. The season to get to the top is extremely limited. Like that that that two hundred person day might be the only day that anybody gets to the summit that year. Yeah, which is why you can have like, oh, thirty people have done it, But wait, if two people a day are doing it, that's how that math works. Out is it's a very narrow window where two hundred people in a day could get up there. Um, it's it's very interesting to read about modern accounts of of what it means to be bull and why they're doing it. I think the trying to remember which piece I read. One woman described the people in her particular group as largely, not entirely, but largely separating into two types. One was like, really kind of wealthy, twenty something almost trust fund babies that kind of were just kind of adrenaline junkies. And then older men that were working through some stuff. And she was like, I was kind of an outlier because I was like a thirty year old woman and I certainly had my own stuff going on. But those were for the most parts, she again qualified not everyone, but those were the primary two groups. Yeah. I kind of wonder if if, like those first explorers, most of them have died now, because that was a long time. Yeah, I kind of wonder if some of these first explorers, if they were alive today, would be kind of like, Yeah, everyone used to be a challenge before they nurved it. Yeah, you wanna have some listener mail, I do. That sounds spectacular this one goes back. We've had a few listener meals about it, and I was debate over whether we shoultreat another, but I love them so much. It's another haunted mansion one uh And it is from our listener Joe, and he says, my family went to Disney Room when I was six, and I decided I was brave enough to go in the haunted house. My older sister and brother took me while our parents went to the Hall of Presidents. My bravado quickly left me after the stretching room. My sister calmly held me and comforted me, assuring me I would be fine. She got me through the ride while my brother called me a baby and a scarity cat. We were almost through when the Doom Buggies came to a halt in the cemetery part of the ride, right next to that skeleton head that kept popping out from behind the tombstone screaming. After a few minutes stuck and me freaking out, the ride operators told us we would have to abandon our buggy and walk out of the ride. My patient sister carried a crying me through the graveyard, which still had all the happy haunts moving about and out to safety, and my brother still teases me about it to this day. Oh no, why hope in a good natured way. I mean, well, I think we meant. And when we were doing the episode, one of my favorite things in the Haunt ad Mansion is that moment at the at the end of the stretching room at the very beginning, where all of these small children completely just lose it. But then that makes me sad and their patients sister is having to carry them out. This is a lot about his sister though, it's very sweet. Yes, we have also had a couple more cast members write us and confirm the ashes being scattered. Yes, uh, yeah, we have enough confirmation now, I think, yes, that we can say with certainty, well we're throwing ashes around the Haunt image. Yeah. And I had one of those moments where, you know, Facebook likes to tell you when some friend of yours is talking about something and it's not actually pertinent you. It was like some friend that had put up one of those articles that was about crazy things that happened in Disneyland, and somebody had was just going on about how they scattered part of their father's ashes there and how important it was to them that was you know, they didn't really care because it was so important to them to know that part of their father was there. And I was like, no, your father got vacuum. And I had to very forcibly restrain myself from getting involved in that of conversation because it was not about me. Yeah. Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, I completely man, nobody understands as much as me that you would want to be the thousandth the thousandth ghosts living there like that seems pretty dreamy to me, but you know, really you will go to a vacuum. Yeah. I'm also just sort of in favor of not doing things that inconvenience all the other people on the rides, it has to be shut down for the has Matt team to come in. Yeah. Some people who were really annoyed because they were like, well, cremated remains are are not even a hazard because they're basically ash, And I was like, that's that's not the point. That's still they're still having to call in a cleanup crew and shut down the ride. Yeah. Yeah, because if you think about it, I mean, if they didn't do that, I'll just circle it back to today's episode. It would be like everything there, It would be just piles of ash everywhere. It really would and nobody wants that. I mean, it would take on a whole different kind of Yes, here we're going through the cremins of lots of people who love the mansion. You don't want that. Nobody wants that. If you would like to write us talk about where you want to put your cremins or whatever else you can think of, or if you were scared by a fabulous ride as a kids, you can do that at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. You can also connect with us on Facebook dot com slash missed in History and on Twitter at missed in History. We're also on missed in History dot tumbler dot com and at pinterest dot com slash missed in History. You would like to do some more research about what we talked about today, you can go to our website and type in Everest. We recommended that last time for the article about dead bodies on the mountain, but today we'll go to how climbing Mount Everest works, which talks a little bit about the history and also about how modern next visions do it and sort of what it takes to to get up the mountain. If that's something you want to do, If you want to research that, or almost anything else you can think of, you can do that at our website, which is how stuff Works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff Works dot com. Netflix streams TV shows and movies directly to your home, saving you time, money, and hassle. As a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming directly to your PC, Mac, or right to your TV with your Xbox three, sixty P S three or Nintendo we console, plus Apple devices, Kindle and Nook. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go to www dot Netflix dot com and sign up now.

Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. And I'm Tracy Wilson and it's this part two of our Everest podcast. Yes uh. In the first part of this episode, we talked about how the British came to identify and name Everest and the subsequent desire to conquer it. We also covered the earliest climbs up to the point where World War Two caused a pretty big gap in expeditions. As the nineteen forties stretched on the British efforts to some Everest continued to be on hold and maybe hoping to capitalize on this lack of officially organized expeditions and make a name for himself, One man, accompanied only by two sherpas, one of whom was tensing rge illegally entered Tibet to try to climb Everest in nineteen forty seven. This was Canadian Earl Den and he was not super well prepared for this expedition, not even a little. He didn't have enough training or enough resources. He didn't even reach the North Call, which is usually the first place that climbers make camp on the mountain proper before he had to turn back. Yeah, he had cut rate equipment. He had only ever trained in um warmer climates to climb mountains. He just st ill prepared. UH. But also in seven a successor to the Mount Everest Committee that had run the previous expeditions leading up to this was created, and that was called the Himalayan Committee. And this once again combined the resources of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographic Societies. UH. The newly reformed committee would have to face not only the brutal and still unsummitted mountain, but also the political problem of China closing Tibet to outsiders in nineteen fifty so they would no longer have access from the north UH to try their essense. In nineteen fifty, an Anglo American reconnaisance mission led by Bill Tillman an American doctor Charles Houston, explored the approach options from the Nepal side of the mountain. Tilman ended up eliminating the Western comb approach as not being a practical option, although it did end up being used. I think he just thought at the time it was not going to work. UH. In n there was another unofficial attempt, and this one was by a danish Man named Klauds becker Larson, and becker Larson took sherpa guides with him and he crossed illegally to the Tibetan side of the mountain to try to climb via the north side. But this time, as the group of approached the north coal, the sherpas told becker Larson that they weren't going to go any further and the entire climb was aborted. Basically, They're like, we're not gonna help you after all, and he had that sense to go, well, then I'm not gonna make it, So that was setting into that. Was it because of conditions or some other reason? Uh there When you read about it, it's and he's written a book about his um Um adventure, but it sounds like there were multiple factors. They were uneasy about the political conditions, they weren't super confident that he was going to be able to do it. It just kind of all felt very bad to them. Um One thing that I read that I didn't even list as a source because I was it seemed not really that um um credible. But it's worth bringing up because there are so many rumors around stuff like this that there was actually a religious aspect to it, that they felt that there were some bad omens in the mix. I think that's largely conjecture, but basically they just said no and that put an end to that. We're done with this. Also in nineteen fifty one there was another reconmission, and this one was run entirely by the Himilyan Committee. Eric Shipton was once again the team lead. Scotsman William Hutchinson Murray initiated and organized this mission in collaboration with Michael Phelps Ward, both of whom joined Shipman on the expedition. Ward had been examining maps and photos from the Royal Geographical Society archives and he used his research to identify a route up the mountain from Nepal. So he was spending his time while they weren't doing things, just pouring over the information that they already gathered so that he could figure out a way that they could get up the mountain this way, since they didn't have the Tibetan side anymore. Also joining we're physicist and rocket researcher Thomas Duncan, board Long and to New Zealanders, beekeeper Edmund Hillary and lawyer Harold Earl Ridford, and in Murray's account of this expedition, he says, quote, it's worth recording that this is the first instance where the members of an expedition to Everest have chosen themselves, chosen their leader, and initiated the expedition. Is unlikely to happen again. So because these were mounted and funded by a committee, the committee always picked when it was going to happen, who was going to go, who's going to lead it. But this is the first time that guys got together and so we think we figured this out, here's what we'd like to do, and they kind of pitched it to the committee and the committee said, yes. Marie's group encountered a whole lot of obstacles along the way. There were leeches that caused septic sores, they were washed out bridges, a hornet swarm, like everything you can think of. You know, when you read his account of the whole, like his mission report, you're just like you have got to be then hornets. Yeah, it sounds like an episode of Land of the Lost. I mean, there are so many crazy things that have been of those poor guys. In spite of all that they were able to detect a feasible path up to the south coll and so, and eventually this whole mission was considered to be a success. Yeah, they didn't they had never planned the summit on that one, but they identified this new route thanks in large part due to this research that they had been doing. So it uh was resounding success. So the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research sponsored its OH ninety two expedition, which was headed up by Edward with Dunnant Intensing or Gay was also on this expedition and while he, along with Raymond Lambert, was able to set a new record in climbing altitude, though they struggled to do so. They were crawling on all fours before they finally reached their limit. Like these guys were really trying to keep going and they just couldn't do it. There was a second Swiss expedition in the fall of nineteen fifty two, but the death of one of the sharp is on the mission, who was killed by falling ice, combined with bad weather to put an end to it before they could have any real push for the summit. And there's also a really interesting rumor that there was a Russian attempt on the Tibetan side in although both Russia denied it had ever happened and China had never acknowledged it, there was allegedly a camp found in nineteen sixty that supported this rumor, though in article for the Alpine journal Mountaineer You of Getting Given, writer describes the search he attempted into the rumored expedition. He made inquiries with mountaineering organizations, personal contacts, government offices, sports associations, and trade unions. And he found no evidence that any of the alleged members of the Mystery Ascent party ever existed. Yeah, it seemed like they were completely fabricated names and people. So uh still a rumor, not supported in any way that we can find. Uh. And in nineteen fifty three, another expedition was led by Henry Cecil John Hunt, Lord Hunt of landfair Waterdine, although this impressive moniker is not the one that is most commonly associated with this trip. Also climbing were Robert Charles Evans deputy leader, George Christopher Band who was the youngest team member at age twenty four, Tom Boyon as the oxygen officer, Alfred Gregory in charge of photography, Edmund Hillary, whilst George Lowe Cuthbert Wilfred, Frank Noyce, Mike Ward as expedition physician, Michael Horatio Westmacott as ice Fall trailmaker, and organizing secretary Charles Jeffrey Wiley, who was also in charge of the service sherp attending Orge was also on the ascent team, and it was his seventh trip up to the mountain, and when this group arrived at Temboche Monastery on the early part of their journey, tending Orge's mother actually greeted them. She wanted to make sure her son was okay and give her blessing for him to climb, which she did. After making their way to the South Call over the course of many weeks, the first summit push was made by Evans and boardingon on. The pair got to the South Summit in the early afternoon, but only made it to twenty eight thousand seven ft which is eight thousand, seven hundred seventy before depleted oxygen supplies and inhospitable winds forced them to turn back, and three days later, on May, Edmond, Hillary and tensing Orge headed up from a starting point of Camp nine at thousand feet or eight thousand fives, which had been set up by Hunt in a team of sherpas for the pair, while Evans and Boordeon were making their bid for the top, so they were kind of prepping for the second go at the top even as the first one was happening, because he just wanted to be ready. They left camp at six thirty am and had reached the south summit by nine am, and at one point ten Signora had seemed to be in distress, but Hillary found that the line of his Oxiden tank had been blocked with ice, and they were able to fix that situation and keep moving. The next two and a half hours were carefully spent uh picking their way up a forty ft or twelve point two nearly vertical wall of rock and ice, which is now known as the Hillary Step, and then at last they had reached the elusive summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth in that moment, a dream that was more than three decades in the making for the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and a century from the time that British surveyor As had first seen the mountain was finally realized. The pair took photos. They looked around briefly for any sign of the lost team. Mallory and Irvine uh Norgay buried Buddhist offerings in the snow, and Hillary buried a crucifix. They ate a mint cake, so sort of like the power bar of the past. I guess uh. They only spent about fifteen minutes up there at the summit. The photos taken were of the view from the top, largely as proof, and Tensing waving his ice pick with flags of the United Nations, Great Britain, India and Nepaul attached to it. No photos were taken of Hillary. Yeah, Tensing Orgie didn't know how to work the camera, although he said in subsequent uh interviews and I think in a book that he had offered to try and Hillary and said no, no, it's fine. So there are no pictures of Edmond Hillary at the top, the pair had to carefully make their way back down. Their steps had already been erased by wind, and on the way back down from that loftiest of heights, they were met by George Lowe from the expedition, who has made his way up to meet them. And this is when Hillary famously said to him, well, George, we've knocked that bastard off I love how many pithy quotes around everything we have to think, like, as an adventurer, you're just at the ready with sound bites. Yeah, Holly, would you like to take a second talk about a word from our sponsor? So going back to Everest post Summits writing about the importance of that first summit for Smithsonian Magazine in two thousand three, A journalist who had been part of that historic expedition wrote, fifty years on, it's hard to imagine what a golden moment that was that the young British Queen, at the very start of her reign, should be presented with such a gift. A British expedition reaching the top of the world at last seemed then almost magical, and a generous world loved it. The news ran around the globe like a testament of the light, and was welcomed as a coronation gift to all mankind. It was nothing like so momentous and achievement as that giant moonstep the Americans were presently going to take. But it was altogether simple, a political, untechnological and exploit still on a human scale. And Holly good, I don't know if I'd go so far to say, Holy good, I don't either, but uh, there's some waxing rhapsodic about that's very rhapsodic. And there are also a number of issues that go along with this entire thing that go everywhere from colonialism to the fact that the whole place is covered in garbage. Now, yeah, which we'll talk about into just a minute. So neither Edmund Hillary, nor Tenzig nor climbed Everest again. Hillary was given a knighthood and Tensing received Britain's George Medal in recognition of his courage. They were also decorated in many other ways, and certainly I know Edmund Hillary um went on to you know, have endorsement deals, etcetera. But one of his ongoing missions and his passions in his life after the summit was the sharp of people and their well being. The Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation was formed the nineteen seventies and since its foundation, it's funded and supported the development of medical care center, schools, and conservation initiatives in Nepal. He went back all the time, he brought his whole family. Uh wasn't so interested in going up the mountain again, but he really wanted to try to do what he could to take care of the people around it. Although Hillary died in two thousand eight at the age of eighty eight, this foundation and its work go on. Tensing, for his part, continued to escort explorers and to train climbers, and he eventually founded an adventure tour company, which was taken over by his son after Tensing died at the age of seventy two. There have been more than three thousand, five hundred people at the peak of Everest since that first summit, and more than two hundred people have died trying, and most of those bodies remain on the mountain. For a lot of reasons. A litter problem has also, as we said, developed on this once pristine landscape as used supplies are dropped to lighten the loads of climbers. More than thirteen tons of garbage have been collected by the Eco Everest Expedition Group since two thousand eight. As well as human waste and a handful of bodies. There's an estimated ten tons of trash left on the mountain. Yeah, this is where I still have a fundamental problem with it. Yeah. Well, it's hard to imagine why people would just leave their their trash there until you read the first person accounts of how grueling it is to make it to the top. Really, people will be taking a step and then having to take multiple breaths before they can take another step because they're so exhausted. Yeah, so lightning the load becomes important. Yeah, Lightning the load becomes important. And and picking all of that stuff up to try to take it back down in a lot of cases becomes a life threatening attempt. Um Like, you can either leave that stuff there or you can make it down alive. And that does not seem like a very good choice, which is still part of why I struggle with it, because it kind of in deciding that you're going to do this thing, you're kind of putting your desire over the mountain. I mean, this was once a holy place and now there's well, and it's after a huge cleanup effort, there are still ten tons of garbage there. Well, and it's it's still a holy place. It's just a holy place that has trash all over right now. Yeah, it's the holy place covered in garbage. Yes, And it's also extremely expensive to climb Everest. This was one that I kind of stumbled across in my research, and I totally got sticker shock. I mean I I in my head, of course, I was like, yeah, that's gotta be a huge undertating minimum thirty. Uh. Also, I can go up into the six figures very easily. Yeah. That's also one of the reasons that, Uh, when when you see stories about like storms that have killed people that were attempting to get to the summit, a lot of times there's this thread of this was the only time this person and was ever going to be able to try it because of the amount of money that's involved, in the amount of training, and that turning back would have meant that all of that I was gonna go to waste. Yeah, it's um, it's for most people to do it. I would say, it's so once in a lifetime thing. There are repeaters, but not very many of them. Uh. And that cost is determined by a number of things, the permits, the services retained, the ascent path that you use, your travel, your training, what guides you hire, how savvy you are. I was watching one modern documentary about it, and uh, one of the pieces of advice they were giving to people was, if you have anyone in your party who is a native speaker, already before you start hiring guides and buying equipment, let them do all the bargaining, because they will completely jack up the prices for anyone that's not from the area. Um, it's like wedding planning. That's a whole that gonna be a whole other episode. I feel way is about those things. Yeah. So in spite of all the costs and all the danger and all the garbage, the Summit of Everest has become kind of a bucket list item for a lot of modern mountaineers. And now there are ladders and guide ropes in place, and some conveniences that early explorers never had but made possible. Occasionally. Now more than two hundred people will reach the summit in a single day, yeah, which is just such a huge number. And that's certainly not an everyday thing. This is a seasonal trip. You can't do it anytime. The season to get to the top is extremely limited. Like that that that two hundred person day might be the only day that anybody gets to the summit that year. Yeah, which is why you can have like, oh, thirty people have done it, But wait, if two people a day are doing it, that's how that math works. Out is it's a very narrow window where two hundred people in a day could get up there. Um, it's it's very interesting to read about modern accounts of of what it means to be bull and why they're doing it. I think the trying to remember which piece I read. One woman described the people in her particular group as largely, not entirely, but largely separating into two types. One was like, really kind of wealthy, twenty something almost trust fund babies that kind of were just kind of adrenaline junkies. And then older men that were working through some stuff. And she was like, I was kind of an outlier because I was like a thirty year old woman and I certainly had my own stuff going on. But those were for the most parts, she again qualified not everyone, but those were the primary two groups. Yeah. I kind of wonder if if, like those first explorers, most of them have died now, because that was a long time. Yeah, I kind of wonder if some of these first explorers, if they were alive today, would be kind of like, Yeah, everyone used to be a challenge before they nurved it. Yeah, you wanna have some listener mail, I do. That sounds spectacular this one goes back. We've had a few listener meals about it, and I was debate over whether we shoultreat another, but I love them so much. It's another haunted mansion one uh And it is from our listener Joe, and he says, my family went to Disney Room when I was six, and I decided I was brave enough to go in the haunted house. My older sister and brother took me while our parents went to the Hall of Presidents. My bravado quickly left me after the stretching room. My sister calmly held me and comforted me, assuring me I would be fine. She got me through the ride while my brother called me a baby and a scarity cat. We were almost through when the Doom Buggies came to a halt in the cemetery part of the ride, right next to that skeleton head that kept popping out from behind the tombstone screaming. After a few minutes stuck and me freaking out, the ride operators told us we would have to abandon our buggy and walk out of the ride. My patient sister carried a crying me through the graveyard, which still had all the happy haunts moving about and out to safety, and my brother still teases me about it to this day. Oh no, why hope in a good natured way. I mean, well, I think we meant. And when we were doing the episode, one of my favorite things in the Haunt ad Mansion is that moment at the at the end of the stretching room at the very beginning, where all of these small children completely just lose it. But then that makes me sad and their patients sister is having to carry them out. This is a lot about his sister though, it's very sweet. Yes, we have also had a couple more cast members write us and confirm the ashes being scattered. Yes, uh, yeah, we have enough confirmation now, I think, yes, that we can say with certainty, well we're throwing ashes around the Haunt image. Yeah. And I had one of those moments where, you know, Facebook likes to tell you when some friend of yours is talking about something and it's not actually pertinent you. It was like some friend that had put up one of those articles that was about crazy things that happened in Disneyland, and somebody had was just going on about how they scattered part of their father's ashes there and how important it was to them that was you know, they didn't really care because it was so important to them to know that part of their father was there. And I was like, no, your father got vacuum. And I had to very forcibly restrain myself from getting involved in that of conversation because it was not about me. Yeah. Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, I completely man, nobody understands as much as me that you would want to be the thousandth the thousandth ghosts living there like that seems pretty dreamy to me, but you know, really you will go to a vacuum. Yeah. I'm also just sort of in favor of not doing things that inconvenience all the other people on the rides, it has to be shut down for the has Matt team to come in. Yeah. Some people who were really annoyed because they were like, well, cremated remains are are not even a hazard because they're basically ash, And I was like, that's that's not the point. That's still they're still having to call in a cleanup crew and shut down the ride. Yeah. Yeah, because if you think about it, I mean, if they didn't do that, I'll just circle it back to today's episode. It would be like everything there, It would be just piles of ash everywhere. It really would and nobody wants that. I mean, it would take on a whole different kind of Yes, here we're going through the cremins of lots of people who love the mansion. You don't want that. Nobody wants that. If you would like to write us talk about where you want to put your cremins or whatever else you can think of, or if you were scared by a fabulous ride as a kids, you can do that at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. You can also connect with us on Facebook dot com slash missed in History and on Twitter at missed in History. We're also on missed in History dot tumbler dot com and at pinterest dot com slash missed in History. You would like to do some more research about what we talked about today, you can go to our website and type in Everest. We recommended that last time for the article about dead bodies on the mountain, but today we'll go to how climbing Mount Everest works, which talks a little bit about the history and also about how modern next visions do it and sort of what it takes to to get up the mountain. If that's something you want to do, If you want to research that, or almost anything else you can think of, you can do that at our website, which is how stuff Works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff Works dot com. Netflix streams TV shows and movies directly to your home, saving you time, money, and hassle. As a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming directly to your PC, Mac, or right to your TV with your Xbox three, sixty P S three or Nintendo we console, plus Apple devices, Kindle and Nook. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go to www dot Netflix dot com and sign up now.