h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry ID: A24924666 (Edited)

8,848m [In fact, almost all the figures omit the comma.]

<(29,028ft)> 29,029

By the 1960s, the

stood

in the world, Everest

It was thought

[The figure currently stands at 26 (undisputed) - please click on the 5th link here: http://www.8000ers.com/cms/en/lists-of-ascents-mainmenu-226.html which takes you to a PDF file listing successful climbers names and other datails. The footnote needs amending too.]

attempt, all

misstep

In all, they

14 May, 2005, but

I'll do these.

Done.

Thanks, Gnomon.

A few were missed:

2,062 people

altitude of 5,380m

icefall at 6,065m

here at 6,500m

Camp III at 7,470m.

Sorry I missed those. They're done now.

Perhaps it would be better if I were to list these kinds of typos individually in future - guess I was feeling lazy today.

"Nobody knows who the first human to see Mount Everest was and most probably it happened hundreds of thousands of years ago."

changed to "tens of thousands of years ago". People only left Africa about 70,000 years ago, so it would have to be after that.

I'm puzzled by this:

Everest was 'discovered' by a westerner in 1865 and given the name "Everest". But it was identified as being the biggest mountain in the world in 1852, thirteen years earlier. Wouldn't they have given it a name when they found out it was the biggest?

Also, we have:

"After Radhanath Sikdar...identified that the mountain was the world's highest peak in 1852, it immediately became a target for the rapidly-growing new sport of climbing and mountaineering. The first big expedition was on 8 June, 1924"

That's not particularly immediate.

According to Wikipedia,

Waugh first saw Everest in November 1847 and thought it was bigger than Kangchenjunga, the mountain believed at the time to be the biggest.

Radanth Sikdar confirmed in 1852 that Everest (then known as Peak XV) was the highest.

This result was announced in 1856.

The name Everest was not given to it until 1865.

OK, I've sorted out that confusion as follows:

Changed this:

"Andrew Waugh was exploring the area for the British Government in 1865 and assigning local names to the scenery. He discovered at the time the locals did not have a specific name for the peak so instead decided to name it after the predecessor of his job, George Everest - and so Everest gained its name and its position became known to the wider world."

to this:

"Andrew Waugh was leading a British Government expedition to survey all the mountains of the region. He first saw the mountain in 1847, suspecting that it was bigger than any others nearby. In 1852, Radhanath Sikdar (an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal) confirmed the height of the mountain, establishing that it was the highest known mountain in the world. Waugh was given the task of assigning local names to the scenery. He was unable to discover the local name for the peak so instead, in 1865, he decided to name it after the predecessor of his job, George Everest - and so Mount Everest gained its name and its position became known to the wider world."

Changed this:

"After Radhanath Sikdar (an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal) identified that the mountain was the world's highest peak in 1852, it immediately became a target for the rapidly-growing new sport of climbing and mountaineering."

to this:

"Once the mountain was identified as world's highest peak, it became a target for the rapidly-growing new sport of climbing and mountaineering."

I see that it already said that Waugh was the Surveyor General of British-controlled India so I've changed my wording:

"Andrew Waugh was leading a British Government expedition"

to

"Andrew Waugh was leading an expedition"