Thank you everyone for checkin’ out the blog and for posting your supportive comments. I like Linda’s idea for requests, so if you have any or have a suggestion, then feel free to post it. Note I can’t promise photos of a real yeti, but I will have a new camera to take photos and video sometime in the next couple of weeks. ALSO, make sure to click on the “Follow This Blog” link on the right side of the page.

Since I received a numerous emails and comments about Everest, how about some info you may or may not know:

Everest is one of those wonders of nature that we all seem to be drawn to for whatever reason. I am drawn to it due to my inexplicable infatuation with mountains. A famous, four-line poem by Chinese writer Li Po pretty much sums it up:

All the birds have flown up and gone;A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.We never tire of looking at each other -Only the mountain and I.

Anyway, Mt. Everest sits in the Khumbu region of the Himalaya Mountains. Located along the border between Nepal and Tibet, Mt. Everest is just over 29,029 feet (8,488 meters) high. (Okay, Okay! Technically, the border between Nepal and China. But let’s not quibble…or riot in the streets of Paris and San Fran for that matter.) Known also as Chomolungma, it was first surveyed as a part of the British Survey General of India in 1865 and declared to be 29,002 feet high. (They actually added the 2 so it didn’t seem fabricated. Pretty close to today’s satellite measurements, though!) It was first ascended and descend safely by New Zealand’s Sir Edmond Hillary and his Sherpa partner Tenzing Norgay in 1953 after 31 years of attempts.

Here are a few other tidbits:
· The first two men to ascend without oxygen did so in 1978.
· One of these two men was the first to ascend alone (i.e. no Sherpa or other person helping carry gear, etc.)
· A French pilot did a “hover landing” on the summit in 2005.
· The Nepalese government charges up to $25,000 per person to attempt a summit…not sure how much they charge to ship your frozen body home.
· The two youngest people to summit are women: A 15 year old Nepalese girl and an 18 year old Californian.
· The oldest person up and down: 76 year old Min Bahadur Sherchan.
· Limestone is common on the mountain, including the summit. (If you remember your geology, then you remember limestone is made of slits, clays and millions of marine shells, exoskeletons, etc. In other words, the summit was once on the bottom of the ocean floor.)
· Birds such as the spare-headed goose fly over the summit during migrations.
· By the end of 2007, 2,436 people had summitted and returned alive.
· 210 people have died (just under a 10% death rate for each person that has summited…not even close to Annapurna’s 54% death rate!)
· The highest marathon in the world starts at Everest Base Camp. Anyone up for trying it with me next year?

Something else I think is important to note: I am NOT attempting to climb Mt. Everest. I neither have the money ($60,000-80,000), time (3 months minimum) nor experience to “give-it-a-go,” as my English friend would say. My goal: See the dang thing up close and personal.

This got a little long today and didn’t leave much time for anything else. SO, expect some Japanese flavor in the post this weekend. In the mean time, have a great rest of the week!