Presented by A MacGillivray Freeman Films Production Major funding provided by the National Science Foundation Sponsored in part by the Everest Film Network: Museum of Science, Boston Denver Museum of Natural History Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Houston Museum of Natural Science National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan Science World, British Columbia, Vancouver Distributed by MACGILLIVRAY FREEMAN FILMS DISTRIBUTION COMPANY P.O. Box 205, Laguna Beach, California USA 92652 Telephone (714) 494-1055 Fax (714) 494-2079 enzing and I stepped on the summit of Everest on May 29th, 1953. ‘‘ I felt no great surge of joy and exaltation —only a mixture of T more subdued feelings.There was a quiet satisfaction that we had finally made it; a tinge of surprise that I, Ed Hillary, should be standing here on top when so many good men had failed. Behind it all my brain constantly churned out its familiar mental arithmetic— how many litres of oxygen did we have left? An Educational Reso u rce for Tea ch e r s Could we get down safely?” —Sir Edmund Hillary, Memories of Everest Introduction Mount Everest— peak after his predecessor, Table of Contents Where the Earth Meets the Sky Sir George Everest, a contributor to the Geodetic Mount Everest, the pinnacle of the Himalaya, is a Survey of India. The name 1 Introduction name that conjures up many visions: savage rock was accepted by the Royal and blue ice peaks, loneliness and desolation, Geographical Society of 4 ACTIVITY 1 Prayer Flags beauty and grandeur, adventure and fear. It is Britain in 1856, and the the stuff of dreams for many. The Sherpa people appellation mount was 5 ACTIVITY 2 Butterfly Adaptation revere its spirituality; physicians want to study its chosensinceEverest was effects on the human body and mind; geologists a single definitive peak, 6 ACTIVITY 3 Plate Tectonics: want to measure its height and tectonic move m e n t ; rather than a massif. Building Mountains meteorologists want to record its unpredictable weather patterns; and mountaineers want to The Expedition 8 ACTIVITY 4 What Is Your Latitude climb it simply to get to the top. Wh y does Everes t Team and Longitude? entice so many? To understand this draw to the ultimate of ventures, we must first look at the On March 15,1996, a team ACTIVITY 5 Global Positioning region of Mount Everes t , its physical charac t e r i s t i c s , of climbers, scientists, and 10 its people, culture, and spirit, and the uniqueness filmmakers set off on a System of the expedition team that allowed them to mission to reach the realize their dream. summit of the tallest 12 CHAPTER 6 Good Food, mountain in the world. Good Health! A Historic Backdrop After years of research and preparation, the team CHAPTER 7 Can You Take It? The word Himalaya (always singular) comes from was ready. By late May, 14 the Sanskrit “hima”and “alaya”meaning seat of the team members had CHAPTER 8 Drink It Up! sn o w . Between 1849 and 1855, the Himalayan peaks successfully installed 16 in Nepal were first surveyed in the Great Survey research equipment and of India. At the time, it was not known that the had brought back the 18 CHAPTER 9 Talk It Out! tallest mountain in the world was part of this largest format motion mountain ran g e . Lying tucked away in the northeast pictures ever shot from the 20 VO C A B U L A R Y, RE S O U R C E S, AC K N O W L E D G E M E N T S The large format film, EVE R E S T , is appropriate for all intermediate grades (4-8). This teacher guide will be most useful when accompanying the film corner of Nepal, bordering Tibet, Mount Everest, top of Mount Everest. but is a valuable res o u r ce on its own. Teachers are strongly encouraged to adapt the activities included in this guide to meet the specific needs of known as Roman Numeral XV then, was hidden by Who were these extraordinary people? the grades they teach and their students. All activites developed for this guide meet National Standards for Science, Ge o g ra p h y, Math and English, other impressive peaks and not prominently visible. Deputy leader Ed Viesturs, a climbing guide and but are not referenced in this guide due to space constraints and differences in standard use throughout the nation. Calculating the height of such a mountain a veterinarian,has summited six of the world’s Major funding for EVEREST provided by Any opinions,findings and conclusions or recommendations was indeed a challenge, and it was not until much highest peaks without oxygen and has previously expressed in this material are those of the producers and do not later that altitudes were computed with any degree climbed Mount Everest three times. Climbing leader necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. of accuracy. But in 1855, peak XV was estimated Jam l i n g Norgay, son of Tenzing Norgay who Notice: This publication may be rep r oduced by the classroom teacher for classroom use only. This publication may not be rep r oduced for storage in a ret r i e val system, or tran s m i t t e d , to be 29,002 feet (8,840 m) above sea level.The climbed to the summit with Edmund Hillary in in any form or by any means—e l e c t ro n i c ,m e c h a n i c a l , rec o r ding—without prior permission of the publisher. Re p r oduction of these materials for commercial resale is strictly proh i b i t e d . highest mountain in the world had been found. 1953,is an experienced climber and expedition TEACHER’S GUIDE EVE R E S T © MC M X C V I I All rights res e rv e d . Printed in the USA. Now it needed a name. Many were suggested but organizer. He dreamed of going where his father the Surveyor General of India decided to name the had gone before him. 1 Ar aceli Segarra, a phys i o t h e ra p i s t , became the winds,thin air, and on icy precipices? They did it first Spanish woman to reach the top.Japanese in the face of great obstacles and with an amazing climber Sumiyo Tsuzuki has climbed to 22,000 amount of inner-fortitude. (6,706 m) and 23,000 feet (7,010 m) on the north First of all, the camera itself had to be specially side of Everest on two previous expeditions.Dr. designed for such conditions. Specifically, it had Roger Bilham, renowned geophysicist, joined the to be lighter weight.The body was reconstructed expedition hoping to measure the mountain’s out of magnesium, so that now the camera, with geologic forces. batteries and a loaded 500-foot (152 m) magazine of film, was down to 48 pounds (22 kg.) Plastic Did You Know? bearings were used in some critical areas, and The “wind chill factor” refers to how cold you feel when standing in direct wind synthetic drive belts were added for their flexibility versus the actual temperature. When it is cold your body works to maintain at low temperat u re s . The camera could now operat e heat by allowing heat to escape from your body and warm the air surrou n d i n g at temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees F. you. If the air is calm, the heat stays next to your body, maintaining your A camera used by news media, in contrast, body temperature. When heavy winds blow, the air around you is constantly weighs 26 pounds (11.8 kg) and has enough video moving, taking with it the warm air surrounding you. Your body continues to tape to record 20 to 30 minutes of information. create heat to compensate. The faster the wind, the more heat escapes The camera used to film major motion pictures and the colder you feel. weighs approximately 50 pounds (22.7 kg) when For a classroom activity, you can determine approximate wind chill factor fully loaded with lenses and film. with the following formula or use the “Wind Chill Factor Index” (seee sro u r ces): A special 32-volt lithium cell battery pack, Air Temperature minus (1.5 x Windspeed) = Wind Chill Factor weighing 6 pounds (2.7 kg.), provided the power and operated well in cold temperat u re s . In addition, (°F) - (mph) = (°F) the film base was Kodak Estar. Estar doesn’t shrink or rip and is more stable at lower temperatures Co-Director David Breashears ascended than traditional acetate. Ev e r est twice and has won three Emmy awar ds for his cinematography there. Now, with his Au s t r i a n The Art of Filming assistant cameram a n , Robert Schauer, he faced Filmmaker David Breashears says that his biggest the challenge of filming the biggest mountain in challenge was not carrying the IMAX camera, nor the world with the biggest camera in the world— braving the cold and the altitude.It was “finding ® an IMAX camera. good light in a place where the spring sun quickly At 10: 5 5a . m .o nM ay 23 , Vi e s t u r sa n dB re a s h e a r s gets up high in the sky, making for very flat, radioed in that they “couldn’t go any fu r t h e r .” unattractive shots.”He worried about finding Th e y had made it to the top.