[…]and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, he had determined fo name this noble peak of the Himalayas “Mont Everest.” Major Thuillier further briefly explained, the mode by which these snowy and distant peaks had been laid down by the operations of the Government Survey, from the base survey of Sonakhoda in the Purneah district, near the Darjeeling hills, along the principal triangulation of the Great N. West longitudinal series, traversing the Tirai Frontier and passing through Kumaon to the Dhera Doon Base, and shewed that the independent results of all the observations of Mont Everest were most satisfactorily accordant ; in fact the accordance of the independent heights of this point is closer than could have been expected, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well defined peak, and was observed from great distances.]
Consequently, Colonel Waugh had been obliged to coin a name, and had fixed on Mount Everest. Agreeing as I do with Colonel Waugh in the propriety of his rule of adopting native names, and cordially sympathising with the sentiment which gave rise to the name Mount Everest, I trust I may be permitted, without offence, to state, in justice to my friends the Nepalese and to myself who have been so long connected with them, that the mountain in question does not lack a native and ascertained name; that that hame is Déva-dhúngá, or holy hill, Mons Sacer in Latin ; and that it is expressly referred to under that name in our Journal.
1856 October 15, “Science and Inventions”, in The Critic, London Literary Journal[3], volume XV, number 373, →OCLC, page 500, column 3; republished as “Geology”, in David A. Wells, editor, The Annual of Scientific Discovery: or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art for 1857[4], Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1857, →OCLC, page 306:
It appears from a late survey made of the Himalaya range, by Colonel Waugh, that the Khanchinjinga, which has been hitherto supposed to be the highest summit, is in fact not so—a higher mountain having been discovered, situated between Katamandoo and Khanchinjinga. This last named is 28,156 feet above the level of the sea; but the new summit reaches the enormous height of 29,002 feet. It has been proposed to call this Mount Everest, after a former Surveyor-General of India.
News from India tell that Colonel Waugh, surveyor-general, has discovered that Kanchinjinga is not the highest of the Himalayas, but that the supremacy belongs to a peak a hundred miles distant between it and Katmandu, the height being not less than 29,002 feet above the sea. He names it Mount Everest, in honour of the colonel his predecessor in the great work of triangulation.
In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘ Mont Everest.’[…] As it will be interesting to you to see the independent results for all our observations to this mountain, and to contrast them with those of other celebrated peaks, I herewith append an attested statement of the geographical positions and elevations of Dwalagiri, Mont Everest, Kunchinginga, and Choomalari. You will perceive that the results are all satisfactorily accordant. In the case of Mont Everest the accordance of the independent heights is closer than could have been anticipated, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well-defined peak and was observed from great distances.]
On arriving at Calcutta, in the beginning of 1855, Herr Hermann Schlagintweit set out for the north-western provinces of Bengal, and, having reached Sikkin, continued their researches all along the Himalayas, with a view of ascertaining their height, and the characteristics of the places, from that until they came to the high mountain of Nepaul, which was lately called Mount Everest by Col. Waugh, after his distinguished predecessor. This is the highest mountain in the world at present known, being considerably over 29,000 feet above the level of the sea. The natives have two names for it—one of them, Gorishanta, which is mythological, is to be found only in the Nepaulese, and the second name, Chingofanmara, is that by which it is known among the people of Thibet.
1858, Edward Thornton, “Everest Mount”, in A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East-India Company, and the Native States on the Continent of India[7], London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., →OCLC, page 306, column 1:
EVEREST MOUNT.—A mountain of the Himalaya range, situate between the mountain of Kinchingunga, in Sikkim, and the city of Khatmandoo, in Nepaul, and presumed to be the loftiest summit in the world. Its elevation is 29,002 feet above the level of the sea. The highest summit of the Andes is Sorata, having an elevation of 25,267 feet. Mount Everest is reported to have been recently discovered by Colonel Waugh, and to have been named in compliment to the late surveyor-general of India.
But narrative, after all, is Mr. Gilfillan’s forte, and his picture of the flood is a masterpiece. First, we have the march of the animals — lions and tigers, “the solemn elephants,” the hyena, “horrible even in its transient tameness,” “the fox and lamb embracing each other” — “thick streams of reptile existence, from the serpent to the scorpion, from the boa-constrictor to the lizard, wriggling on their ark-ward way” — “overhead flights of birds, here all oracular of doom—the earnest eagle, the gloom-glowing raven, the reluctant vulture,” sweeping to their destined home. Then, we have mountains submerged and volcanoes extinguished, “Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more beneath the waves” — “the eye of Mount Blanc darkened, Old Taurus blotted out,” the tide “rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow” — and lastly, “some human scenes of extraordinary interest,” which Mr. Gilfillan descries amidst the surrounding confusion.
1863, Fordyce A. Allen, “Asia”, in A Primary Geography on the Basis of the Object Method of Instruction[10], 3rd edition, J. B. Lippincott & Co., →OCLC, page 45:
The mountains of Asia are the loftiest in the world. Mount Everest, one of the Himalayas, is more than five and one-half miles high,—a mile higher than Mount Tupungato!
Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile.†
† Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000.
From a scientific explorers point of view, my wanderings have been very limited, but I daresay one of Cook's tourists would consider me a respectable traveller. I have never seen the buried cities of Central America, nor surveyed the world from the top of Mount Everest, nor even climbed the Caucasus, nor wandered by stormy Hydaspes: but I have done Egypt, and Algeria, and Greece, and all that is tolerably worth seeing in southern Europe, and have come to the conclusion that, although Nature is mountainous, life is everywhere more or less flat, stale, and unprofitable.
What Waugh named was the pinnacle itself, not the general mountain mass, and for this reason he called it "Mont Everest," not Mount Everest; it is situated on the back of the range, some distance to the north of the general line of peaks, and from most points of view in Nepalese territory it is not nearly such a prominent object as the more southern peaks, XIII. (S.E. 27,800), XIV. (S. 24,000), XVII. (S.W. 22,800), and XVIII. (W.S.W. 22,000).
Although the real elevation, and even the geographical position, of even the highest mountain in the world are quite uncertain, it may be assumed that the goal lies somewhere near the northern frontier of Nepal, very probably north of the summit recognised by surveyors as Mount Everest, and that the height is at least 29,000 to 30,000 feet.
As we approached Tingri, the valley widened out and bent round to the South. Tingri itself was situated on the side of a small hill in the middle of a great plain, from which, looking to the South, was visible the wonderful chain of snowy peaks, many of them over 25,000 feet in height, which extends Westwards from Mount Everest. We crossed the Ra-chu—a tributary of the Bhong-chu, partly by bridges and partly by fords ; it was split up into a number of small and very muddy channels that took their rise from the Kyetrak Glacier. Tingri was to be our first base for reconnoitring[sic – meaning reconnoitering] the Northern and North-western approaches to Mount Everest.
Where five channels in the Northwest Passage were known, Ericsson opened a sixth. He found a peak in Sikang Province of western China, in the Amne Machin Range, which was almost a thousand feet higher than Everest, but he lost his instruments and his companions and Mount Everest remained on the books the highest mountain on the planet.
1962, Edmund Hillary, Desmond Doig, “Into the Mingbo Valley”, in High in the Thin Cold Air: The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, led by Sir Edmund Hillary, sponsored by World Book Encyclopedia[19], Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 129:
Our investigations were carried out almost exclusively among the Sherpa people living within thirty miles of Mount Everest. Tracks and sightings of the Yeti have been reported over a much wider area than this, but a large proportion of the more tangible evidence used in support of the Yeti theory comes from the region we examined.
1977 October 9, “KOREAN EVEREST CLIMBER ARRIVES”, in Free China Weekly[20], volume XVIII, number 40, Taipei, page 2:
Ko Sang Den, Korean conqueror ofMount Everest, flies into Taipei on his way home. He scaled the world’s tallest peak last Sept. 15, the 55th person to accomplish the feat.
1989 December 30, P.V. Bole, “Introduction”, in 100 Himalayan Flowers[21], New York: The Vendome Press, published 1991, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 8:
This abode of snow is the loftiest mountain range on earth. Its highest peak is the mighty Mount Everest. The Himalayas extend from Afghanistan in the east up to south-east Tibet, a distance of over 2,400 km in length and 250 to 400 km in breadth.
The biggest thrill of the event for Chelsea and me was the presence of Sir Edmund Hillary, who had explored the South Pole in the 1950s, was the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest, and was a reminder of another Hillary whom Chelsea and I so loved and who was working on her campaign at home.
The Tibetan Parliament-in-exile and Central Tibetan Administration has never opposed Beijing Olympic Games; however, in complying with Olympic spirit and to prevent further direct losses of precious human lives, we once again, urge International Olympic Committee and related organizations to reconsider taking the Olympic torch up to Mount Everest and inside Tibet.
"Like Mount Everest inside an oven," was how Jon Grissom described Aratoht while on a fact-finding mission to see if the garden world was worth contestation with the batarians. His team ultimately decided that the planet's air pressure and oxygen content were too low for large-scale human habitation.
2013 May 21, Shelley Shan, “Matsu mountaineer dies following Lhoste ascent”, in Taipei Times[24], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2016, Taiwan News, page 3[25]:
Lee, a native of Lienchiang County (Matsu) was a calligrapher, painter and photographer. He climbed Mount Everest in 2009 and published a book in 2010 detailing his expedition on the highest mountain on Earth.
2019 June 11, Shengping Zhou, Shristi Kafle, “Xinhua Headlines: Mt. Qomolangma mired in "chaos", stricter regulations required”, in Yamei, editor, Xinhua News Agency[26], archived from the original on 11 June 2019[27]:
This climbing season for Mt. Qomolangma, or Mount Everest, has hit the headlines around the world for becoming the deadliest since 2015 with at least 11 people losing their lives.
2019 October 1, Edmund Lee, “The Climbers film review: Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi in patriotic mountaineering drama”, in South China Morning Post[28], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 October 2019, Entertainment[29]:
As part of the trio of Chinese team members who in 1960 reached the summit of Mount Everest – or “Zhumulangma”, as the characters insist it’s called because it’s “our mountain” – assault team leader Fang Wuzhou (Wu Jing) and photographer Qu Songlin (Zhang Yi) have nevertheless lived in deep regret since. The reason? They’ve brought “shame” to their country for failing to provide photographic evidence to make it a legitimate feat in the eyes of the world.
2020 December 8, Ankit Adhikari, Joanna Slater, “It’s official: Mount Everest just got a little bit higher”, in The Washington Post[30], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-08, Asia & Pacific[31]:
Nepal and China, the two countries that share a border on Mount Everest, announced a new official measurement of the mountain’s height on Tuesday: 8,848.86 meters, or 29,031.69 feet.
2021 March 9, Sangam Prasain, “No dissemination of pictures of others on Everest without permission”, in The Kathmandu Post[32], archived from the original on 21 March 2023:
A photograph of a serpentine line of climbers near the summit of Mount Everest in May 2019 went viral. It highlighted not only the popularity of the mountain among climbers but also the risk of overcrowding and exposure to the elements at altitude above 8,000 metres dubbed the “death zone”.
2021 August 19, “Asia Video captures the beauty of Tibet with release of documentary film Cang Qiong Fu Yin”, in AP News, PR Newswire[33], archived from the original on 13 September 2022:
Westerners that have visited Tibet regard it as a paradise. It is most known for Mount Everest and Mount Kailash, the Manasarovar, Namtso and Yamdrok lakes, as well as the simple and warmhearted Tibetan people, and the traditional white khata scarf.
2023 January 31, Bhadra Sharma, Adam Skolnick, “The Queen of Everest Trains While Working at Whole Foods”, in The New York Times[34], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 January 2023, Sports[35]:
Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest 10 times, the most ascents ever by a woman. She has no plans of slowing down.
But the travellers were secure in their shelter, and had nothing to fear for the present ; their tenement was of greater stability than a tent or a native hut. It was one of those marvellous structures erected by little insects, which to Cameron appeared even more wonderful than the upraising of the Egyptian pyramids by human hands. To use his own comparison, it might be likened to the construction of a Mount Everest, the loftiest of the Himalayan peaks, by the united labour of a nation.
We stand on the colossal peak of King Lear, with Othello on our right hand and Macbeth on our left, the sublime masses of Elizabethan mountain country rolling on every side of us, yet plainly dominated by the extraordinary central cluster of aiguilles on which we have planted ourselves. This triple summit of the later tragedies of Shakespeare forms the Mount Everest of the poetry of the world.
After this rather tricky problem let's climb the Mount Everest of all writing problems. I mean, of course, the world-famous, forbidding peak of U.S. income-tax prose.
‘I lost seven kilos in the heat, but I needed to do it. I had to put myself through the wall to get where I needed to be. This was my Mount Everest. I had to climb it to prove to myself that I could compete at this level. But by gee, it was bloody hard work.’
Most great book lists concentrate on works of the highest literary or scholarly merit. Think of the Harvard Classics, Harold Bloom’s “Western Canon,” the Modern Library’s selection of “the 100 best novels of the 20th century.” Here, the compilers imply, are our cultural masterpieces, the Mount Everests and K2s all literate people should scale in their lifetime.
Two weeks later, Crum was lying awake in bed when his comment came back to her. “If you were climbing Everest, you can imagine it would be cold, and there'd be some nights it would be dark, and you'd be tired,” Crum thought. “You'd be pretty miserable. But what did you expect? You're climbing Everest.” At that time in her life, finishing her dissertation was her Mount Everest. She wasn’t sure she would succeed. But that challenge was important enough to be worth weathering a few cold, dark nights.
2017, Salazar, David (interview with Russell Thomas), Q & A: Tenor Russell Thomas on His First ‘Otello’ & Historic Met ‘Bohème’, OperaWire (October 4, 2017):
OW: Many see it as the Mount Everest of tenor roles. What made you feel ready to take it on at this moment in your life? And why with ASO?
RT: It definitely is the Mount Everest of tenor roles!!
2018, Carman, Tim, Can a chile pepper really cause an ‘incapacitating’ headache?, The Washington Post (April 12, 2018):
To people of a certain disposition — thrill-seekers, daredevils, folks who never want to taste their food again — the Carolina Reaper is the Mount Everest of foodstuffs. It must be conquered.
2018 July 12, Joseph Gerth, “Dear John: This breakup isn't about us, it's about you and the N-word”, in USA Today[45], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 March 2023[46]:
Who wants to take the heat for defending someone who used that word — the Mount Everest of racial slurs?
2021 October 4, Patricia Leigh Brown, “Oyster Shoreline at ‘Greater New York’ Has a Pearl of a Message”, in The New York Times[47], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 October 2021, Art & Design[48]:
To get to Newtown Creek, a severely polluted New York City waterway and Superfund site once teeming with oyster beds, the Mohawk artist Alan Michelson wended his way past the detritus of industrial Queens — the garbage haulers, the taco truck parking lots, the Mount Everests of scrap metal and building debris being clawed by construction cranes.
2022 June 23, “Sheriff: 2 divers drown in Florida cave diving expedition”, in AP News[49], archived from the original on 23 June 2022[50]:
The cave is in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Park, which is north of the Tampa Bay area along the Gulf Coast. An adjacent cave, Eagle’s Nest Sink, is regarded as the “Mount Everest of cave diving,” according to the wildlife commission.