Tag Archives | Everest

New to Nepal? Not anymore.

All Around This World map of South and Central Asia (featuring Nepal)

This week’s online class for kids takes us to Nepal, a place many Westerners know as home to Sagarmatha (okay, we know it as Mt. Everest) and sure-footed Sherpas. Do we consider the country a refuge of freaky hippies or a haven for budget-travelers? How about as place to go to cleanse the soul?

Nepal is all of those things, but it’s also a linguistically and ethnically complicated nation,  undergoing historic political change while facing the challenge of substantial poverty. It’s also a deeply spiritual land — both the birthplace of Buddha and the only officially Hindu nation in the world…at least until 2006 when, facing political pressure, the country formally became secular.

“Top of the World, Ma!” — Climb Everest with your Kids

Obviously, the best way to end our week of explorations in Nepal is to climb Everest with our children. How do we do this…other than CAREFULLY?

Well, after introducing Nepal and Mt. Everest to our children, we imagine a triumphant climb in seven short steps:

1. Collect our climbing gear, meet a Sherpa guide, and a yak

2. Start with a 6-8 day trek from Lukla to Base Camp at 17, 600 feet.

3. Scale the Khumba Icevall and sleep at Camp 1

4. Go through the Valley of Silence (a glacial valley with little wind)

5. Sleep at Camp 2, Go through unfortunately-named “Death Zone” to Camp 3. (You can tell your kids about “Death Zone” or leave that one out.)

6. Summit! Start at midnight, rest on “The Balcony” and see the sun rise, summit is 28,700 feet.

7. Climb down in reverse. Go home and brag to all your friends.

8. Wake up the next day and climbu Everest again.

Climb Every Mountain

Mt. Everest, known in Nepal as Sagarmatha, meaning, roughly, “Goddess of the Sky,” and to Tibetans as Chomolungma, “Goddess Mother of the Land,” is the tallest mountain in the world.

Every year hundreds of mountaineers from around the world attempt to reach the 29,029 foot high summit, enlisting Nepali Sherpa people to help them climb. In our online class we’re going to teach kids how to climb Everest — Sagarmatha! — using our imaginations. That means we can climb without Sherpas and yaks…or, with a hundred Sherpas and a million yaks.