Q 01/05

Which high-altitude pack animal hauls much of the expedition gear up the trail to Everest Base Camp?

A) Llama

B) Yak

C) Bactrian camel

D) Reindeer

Answer · why

B) Yak

Yak trains share the work with human porters, and the high trail suits them: with a dense coat and almost no working sweat glands, the animals cope ba...

Q 02/05

China's 2005 survey put Everest over three metres below Nepal's figure because it left out what?

A) Sea-level correction

B) Atmospheric refraction

C) Tectonic uplift

D) Summit snow cap

Answer · why

D) Summit snow cap

The summit snow cap was the sticking point: China measured to bare rock, Nepal to the snow on top, and only in December 2020 did the two jointly annou...

Q 03/05

What is Everest's Nepali name, shared by its national park?

A) Qomolangma

B) Dhaulagiri

C) Sagarmatha

D) Kangchenjunga

Answer · why

C) Sagarmatha

Sagarmatha also names the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, the local nonprofit whose staff at Base Camp check the waste that expeditions carry ...

Q 04/05

Which of these is a common translation of Qomolangma, the Tibetan name for Everest?

A) Snow giant

B) Holy mother

C) Sky father

D) Cloud throne

Answer · why

B) Holy mother

Holy mother is one common rendering. The name was printed on a Paris map in 1733, yet the British survey that named the peak over a century later adop...

Q 05/05

Under what temporary label did the British survey know Everest before it was named?

A) Peak XV

B) Peak K1

C) Peak Alpha

D) Peak IX

Answer · why

A) Peak XV

Peak XV replaced an even plainer tag, peak 'b', given in 1847 when surveyors first suspected it might top Kangchenjunga, then thought to be the world'...