Where Is Mount Everest?

As the recent deaths of sixteen Sherpas underscore, climbing Mount Everest remains a daunting challenge. Located in the Himalayas, Everest is the highest mountain in the world at a whopping 29,028 feet. In this compelling narrative, Nico Medina guides readers through the mountain’s ancient beginnings, first human settlers, historic climbs, and the modern commercialization of mountain-climbing. With stories of expeditions gone wrong and miraculously successful summit climbs, this is a thrilling addition to the Where Is? series!Nico Medina is the author of Who Was Julius Caesar? and Who Was Genghis Khan?, as well as two YA novels. He works at a publishing house in New York City and lives in Brooklyn.

Where Is Mount Everest?

April 18, 2014, was the deadliest day in the history of Mount Everest.

Standing on the border between Nepal and China, this mammoth mountain rises more than 29,000 feet—nearly five and a half miles—into the sky. It is the highest point on earth. More than four thousand people have reached the top of Everest. Hundreds more have died trying.

Early that morning in 2014, around fifty men were on the mountain. Suddenly, a block of ice the size of a house broke off a cliff. It cracked into truck-size pieces. The ice chunks tumbled down the mountainside, instantly killing those in its path. For days, people dug in the snow and ice, hoping to find survivors. But in the end, sixteen men lost their lives.