4. Manaslu: Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski reached the summit on 1.12.1984. 5. Cho Oyu: Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski reached the summit on 2.12.1985. Three days later Andrzej Heinrich and Jerzy Kukuczka summited by a new route that has not been repeated on Cho Oyu. 6. Annapurna: Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer reached the summit on 2.3.1987. 7. Lhotse: Krzysztof Wielicki reached the summit on 12.31.1988.

British Rod Baber, one among the circa 520 people who summited Everest this spring, managed to stand out and get a great deal of press in world media by claiming to have made the first cell-phone call and send the first SMS from the summit. In fact, a Chinese team used a cell-phone from the top already four years earlier.

"One small text for man, one giant leap for mobilekind -- thanks Motorola,” Baber reportedly said, giving all merit to the multinational company, which had provided him with a terminal and sponsored his expedition.

Actually, the call was possible thanks to China Telecom, which set up an antenna and thus allowed everyone on the hill to call home from several points, including the summit. The cell-phone coverage was set up to support the huge Chinese team doing a rehearsal carry of the Olympic Torch.

A 71-year-old man from Japan has become the oldest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
Retired teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa scaled the 8,850m (29,035ft) Himalayan peak, breaking the record set by a 70-year-old Japanese man in May 2006.
"I was pretty much at ease mentally at the summit, like I could sing a song," he told a Japanese TV station. Mr Yanagisawa said he climbed the Tibetan side of the peak with a team including New Zealanders and Japanese.

History of climbing Mt. Everest - 1962

Illegal four-man expedition led by the American Woodrow Wilson Sayre is trying the pre-war British route up the North Col and NE Ridge. Possessing a permit to climb Gyanchung Kang from the Nepalese side, the party ascends the Ngozumpa Icefall with Sherpa support, but then surreptitiously crosses the Nup La into Tibet.
Without porters and relying on a grueling schedule of load-shuttling that covers the same ground three times daily, the group reaches the base of the North Col in nineteen days. They climb the North Col, but a fall lands Sayre and partner Roger Hart in a crevasse where they survive the night by wrapping themselves up in a tent. Undeterred, Sayre and Norman Hansen set off the very next day up the North Ridge, but can only climb 1,200 feet (400 meters) in the next two days. Realizing that they are beaten, they turn back but Sayre slips and falls 600 feet (200 meters) down the North Ridge snowfield before stopping. Incredibly, the now emaciated and half-starved expedition is able to return back over the Nup La into Nepal without encountering Chinese patrols.

History of climbing Mt. Everest - 1960

Chinese and Tibetan team of 214 men and women, led by Shih Chan- chun, makes the first summit of Everest via the North Col and Northeast Ridge. Long doubted by Western mountaineers because of the lack of a summit photo and the claim of summiting at night, the photos and film the Chinese did release reveal that they at least climbed the Second Step, the key to the route (although Reinhold Messner claims he possesses documentation proving they didn't climb it, so far this evidence has not been produced).
The final assault party of Wang Fu-chou, Liu Lien-man, Chu Yin-hua, and the Tibetan Gonbu (also known as Gonpa) assaulted the final 15 foot (5 meter) Second Step headwall using pitons and team tactics. After Liu Lien- man repeatedly falls off attempting to lead the pitch, Chu Yin-hua takes off his boots and socks, and using a shoulder stand climbs the last vertical pitch in bare feet! Exhausted by his effort, Liu Lien- man is forced to halt at 28,600 feet (8,700 meters), but the remaining three climbers make it to the summit where they purportedly leave a plaster bust of Chairman Mao by a rock outcrop.

The alpinist of world renown, Reinhold Messner has decided to enter a strategic alliance with SALEWA owner Heiner Oberrauch and his brother Georg, the owner of Sportler. Their common goal is to establish Bolzano as the European Mountaineering Headquarters. The first stage in achieving this goal was the opening of the Messner Mountain Museum in Sigmundskron Castle in June 2006. The museum will be the first of its kind in the world and will be provide a great attraction for tourists and locals alike.
Korean alpinist Park Young Seok has succeeded in reaching the North Pole. This success of exploration has marked Park the first human being in the world to ascend the 14 Highest 8000m Himalayan Peaks, the 7 Summits (the highest peaks on each continent), and reach the 3 poles (Everest, The North Pole, and the South Pole).
Park finally stepped his foot on the North Pole on April 30, 2005 00:00 PM.

From "Everest News":

"Everest 2006 just got more interesting...
Jerzy Kukuczka, Wanda Rutkiewicz, Krzysztof Wielicki, Martyna Wojciechowska? Well maybe not, but she is much better looking! [Have a sense of humor Krzysztof!]
Martyna, a polish Playboy cover girl, will attempt Everest from the Tibet side with Boguslav Ogrodnik. Yes the polish plan a traverse by the normal route, but of course that has been done by several climbers. Somehow we think Martyna will get more coverage... in the Media :) With 2006 probably bringing the 3000th summit of Everest, firsts are hard to obtain, First Playboy Cover Girl to summit! GO Girl!"

Environmental campaigners are calling on UNESCO to place Everest National Park (Sagarmatha National Park) on the World Heritage Danger List because of climate change, so that the legal duty to protect the area is respected. They warn that unless urgent action is taken, many Himalayan lakes could burst, threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying a unique and irreplaceable environment.
Pro Public (Friends of the Earth Nepal) and record-breaking Nepalese climbers, delivered their petition by hand to the World Heritage Committee in Paris on Thursday 18 Nov 2005. Petitioners include Sir David Attenborough, Sir Chris Bonington, Reinhold Messner i Stephen Venables.

October 4th, 2000 - one month after the death of Canada's most popular prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, the Canadian government changed the name of Mt. Logan (5959 m), the highest mountain in Canada, to Mount Trudeau.
After surprising opposition to that change from historians, mountain climbers, and citizens of the Yukon the goverment revoked the change. It looks like sometimes (unfortunately very rarely) we can force the politicians to listen.

British mountaineer, Alan Hinkes, has successfully reached the summit of Kangchenjunga (May 2005).
This marks the completion of Hinkes' Challenge 8000, his attempt to be the first Briton to Summit the world's 14, 8000m peaks.
Hinkes is the 14th person who climbed all 8000 meters mountains.
The others are:
1. Reinhold Messner (Italy), 2. Jerzy Kukuczka (Poland), 3. Erhard Loretan (Switzerland), 4. Carlos Carsolio (Mexico), 5. Krzysztof Wielicki (Poland), 6. Juan Oiarzabal (Spain), 7. Sergio Matrini (Italy),8. Park Young Seok (S. Korea), 9. Hong Gil Um (S. Korea), 10. Alberto Inurrategui (Spain), 11. Han Wang Yong (S. Korea), 12. Ed Viestur (USA), 13. Fausto Di Stefani ( Italy).

History of climbing Mt. Everest - 1952

Rumors of a post-monsoon Russian attempt from the North led by Dr. Pawel Datschnolian, possibly with the hope of beating the Swiss to the top and scoring major propaganda points in an age of Sputnik. There are reports that this expedition left Moscow on October 16th and eventually placed Camp VII at 26,800 feet (8170 meters) before six climbers (including Datschnolian) simply disappeared. The Russians deny the expedition ever took place and the Chinese have never made any mention of it.
Interestingly enough, in an interview with the Tibetan Gonbu (also known as Gonpa), a member of the successful 1960 Chinese first ascent of the North Ridge, a "mystery camp" was encountered at 27,900 feet (8500 meters).
Located above the Yellow Band, this camp could not have been placed there by any of the British pre-war expeditions.
Was the camp placed there by this "mystery" Soviet expedition?
Looking for a good idea for your holidays? How about the so-called "Grand Slam of Adventure"? All you have to do is climb the highest mountains of all the continents and reach both poles. So far only a few people have been able to join "the club".
They are: Heo Young-Ho (S. Korea), Fedor Konyukhov (Russia), David Hempleman (UK), Bernard Voyer (Canada), Khoo Swee Chiow (Singapore), Haraldur Olafsson (Iceland), Stuart Smith (USA), Randall Peeters (USA), Jo Gambi (UK), Rob Gambi (Australia) and Park Young Seok (S. Korea).