Ask an adventurer about their dream, they will answer you with a word; EVEREST. Who would not want to reach the top of the world? Who would not want to touch the sky? It’s the trip of the lifetime, the Everest Expedition. Mount Everest, also known as The Sagarmatha in Nepali is the tallest peak on earth with an altitude of 8848.86m. The southern face lies in Nepal whereas the northern face is in Tibet. In 1715, China surveyed the mountain for the first time while they were mapping Chinese territory and depicted it as Mount Qomolangma. British Indian government 1856 again measured Mount Everest during their Great Trigonometry Survey. Back then, it was named Peak XV and said to be 8840m tall.

Peak XV was renamed after Sir George Everest as Mount Everest, the name given in his honor, who was a lead surveyor in 1856. Sir George was a Welsh Surveyor; he was the surveyor-general of India for thirteen years from 1830. Everest has fascinated mountaineers all around the globe since the 1920s when Tibet opened climbing in the early 1920s. In 1922 British Expedition team led by Charles Bruce tried to scale the summit of Mount Everest for the first time. It was Edward Norton in his second attempt along with the British Expedition team that set the height of 8572m. The mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared on the third attempt. Mallory's body was found in 1999. There were several attempts made to Everest before the successful attempt made by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953 via the South route and on May 25, 1960, a team for Chinese made the first summit via North Ridge.

Mount Everest Expedition is undoubtedly a lifetime opportunity. Nevertheless, these expeditions encounter many hindrances such as high altitude, severe weather conditions, and avalanches. One must be well trained before actually trying it. You need to get your body ready for the 8848.86m-foot climb to Everest's summit. Depending on your current level of fitness, you need to train for several months before you start your ascent. A climber must build his/her cardiovascular strength along with muscular strength; oxygen level drops by 60-70 percent from sea level. Also, make sure you can carry big backpacks to the top as you will be carrying a cylinder of oxygen and large bag packs along with you. One must acclimatize with weather conditions and be prepared for rock falls, avalanches. Learning rescue techniques would be an added advantage.

Talking about the north route, one climber noted, the North Face is a place where a simple slip would mean death. North face expedition mainly starts from the Tibet side. Chinese climbers claimed to have reached the top via the north route for the first time in 1960, which was not accepted because of lacking photographic evidence. Reinhold Messner who is regarded as the greatest climber ever pioneered a new road on the north col/face. He trekked the Northwest route for three days only himself from his base camp at 6,500 meters without oxygen tanks for the first time in history in 1980. In the same year, Takashi Ozaki and Tsuneo Shigehiro become the first to scale Mount Everest from the North Face. Climbing from the Northside is a perfect opportunity to see how you perform at an extreme altitude. North Face-NE Ridge is a perfect choice to make the success happen without less crowd compared to the south every year. You will do several rounds of practice climbing to acclimatize before actually climbing to the top.    

The Base camp is situated just below the Rongbuk Monastery. It is about a 20 km trek to reach the Advanced Base Camp (ABC). ABC is situated on the rugged and fragmented ground with high-speed winds welcoming you. From ABC to East Rongbuk Glacier, it’s fairly easy, following the snowy slopes to the North Col, you will reach Camp I.  Camp I rest between Everest and Changtse. Following a long snowy slope, you will reach camp II. The course from camp II to camp III is very stormy. The topography here is made up of rocks, which look fairly simple but a slip here means death. However, there are ropes in place, which gives some sense of safety. From camp III, climbers will feel the need for oxygen; the route from camp III to camp IV is a mixture of rocky steps. In this way, you will find fixed ropes, which will lead you in the right direction to the mountain. Camp IV is a small camp; you will want to spend as little time here as possible. You will continue onto the North-East Ridge, where you will encounter the first obstacle known as the first step. The first step is a rock structure about 30 meters high. Some steep rock climbing will lead you to the second step; the second step is the most challenging of the entire obstacle. This is about 40m in height. In another tough rock-climbing session, you will reach the third step. The third step is the easier of all and has a height of 25m. After completing all three obstacles you will land on Summit Pyramid, from here you will see the shining crystals from the top of the world.