Summit Murder Mystery Series

First Everest climbers from US reminisce 4 men reunite 50 years later BERKELEY, Calif. — It might be hard to conceive now, in an era of extreme sports and ultra-light equipment, but there was a time when Americans who set out to conquer mountains engaged in a pursuit that was as lonely as it was dangerous. But four men — Norm Dyhrenfurth, now 94; Jim Whittaker, 84; Tom Hornbein, 82, and Dave Dingman, 76 — remember. The leather boots that stayed wet for weeks. Oxygen canisters that weighed 15 pounds. The shrugs of indifference most of their countrymen gave a half-century ago to what it would take to get a U.S.led mountaineering expedition to the top of Mt. Everest. "Americans when I first raised it, they said, "Well, Everest its been done.  Why do it again?"  Dyhrenfurth recalled Friday as he and three other surviving members of the 1963 expedition gathered in the San Francisco Bay area for a meeting honoring the 50th anni...

The Yeti has long been an object of folklore. Known to some as the Abominable Snowman the Yeti is thought to inhabit the Himalayan mountains in Nepal, India. In the video below, the indigenous people in the surrounding area also call the mysterious, ape-like creature Meh-The, which translates to "man bear". Sightings of the Yeti have been recorded since climbers have begun tackling the formidable Mount Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest, found a large footprint in the snow and believed it belonged to a yeti. Still, there remains much doubt in the scientific community, due to the lack of conclusive evidence. Until Mount Everest and the Himalayas are completely understood, mankind will never know the truth about the Yeti.

The World's tallest mountain belongs to the Nepalese and China border, nestled into the Himalayas, Mt. Everest rises 29,029 feet above sea level. It is an accomplishment tackled by few and finished even less. In 1865, Mt. Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society. Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India at the time, named it after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest. Although the Tibetans still call it Chomolungma or "Saint Mother". Prior to Waugh, Mt. Everest was simply called Peak XV. Waugh also helped to define Mt. Everest as the tallest peak in the 1850's, taking the title from Kangchenjunga. Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet. The southeast ridge from Nepal is technically easier and is used more frequently. It was the route used by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the first summit of Mt. Everest. There is a small win...

Early in November more than 2000 tourists were stranded at Lukla Airport in Nepal due to bad weather canceling flights. Lukla is the starting point for trips to Mount Everest. The Lukla Airport is also known as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport, after the first men to summit Mount Everest. The Civil Aviation Ministry of Nepal announced flights were canceled all over the region, leaving over 3000 tourists stranded in the region due to bad weather. The ministry is working with the army of Nepal to rescue all stranded tourists. The ministry plans to bring all tourists from Lukla to Jiri with the help of helicopters and sky vans. After Jiri the tourists will be transported to Kathmandu by bus. At Kathmandu they will be able to take flights home. Stranded tourists are not the only problem caused by the flight cancellations. Planes are the only way to provide food in the region. The inability for planes to fly has created a food shortage for many parts of Nepal. The Trekking Agents Associ...

Currently, the record for the most Mount Everest climbs is 20 and it is held by a Sherpa by the name of Apa. Apa completed his 20th climb on Mount Everest on an expedition called the Eco Everest Expedition of 2010. The expedition was in tribute to the world famous climber Edmund Hillary and as an environmental effort to help clean up the trash that has been abandoned along the mountain's trails. Apa collected 15,400 pounds of garbage while climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. The garbage was taken down the mountain by porters. At the summit Apa had originally planned to disperse the ashes of Hillary, the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Buddhist lamas warned that scattering the ashes would bring bad luck. Therefore, the ashes of Hillary will stay at a monastery near the base of Mount Everest. In an effort to show respect for Hillary, Apa prayed for him at the summit of Mount Everest. Apa first climbed the 29,035-foot mountain in 1989 and has repeated t...