By: Jude Limburn
Submitted: 2010-02-20 00:27:31 | Word Count: 558
For many people, television and film images are their only window onto Mount Everest (8,848m). However, TV pictures rarely manage to capture and preserve for prosperity the unique majesty of the mountain. The striking impact of good photography such an expressive art form is the only medium that truly does justice to this iconic landscape and the dramas played out on it. In fact, the power of a single unforgettable image can only really be matched by seeing Everest with the naked eye.
From summit pictures to those taken along the course of the Everest Base Camp Trek, the best photographs are those that capture some of the scale and beauty of the Everest landscape and transport us to places seen only by an adventurous few.
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Tensing on Top of the World
Everyone will remember the iconic image of Tensing Norgay, masked and hooded with one boot on the peak of Everest, with blue daylight merging from the horizon into the darkness of space above. Above his head he is holds his ice axe, which bears the national flags of the expedition team that waits expectantly at Everest Base Camp three thousand metres beneath him. You can also see the guide rope curled at his feet which ties him to his climbing partner, who is out of shot. This photograph, of course, was taken by Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953, just after they became the first mountaineers to reach the summit.
This is one of several striking images of Everest expeditions belonging to the Royal Geographic Society. Another powerful picture (that you can see for yourself on the National Geographic website) features Hillary and Norgay on the way up one of the steeper stages. They labour towards the camera which looks down the mountain, with the slopes twisting down behind them in giddy perspective towards the South Col and Lhotse Face below. As well as giving an impression of the steepness of the climb, this image conveys some of the effort involved in the long hard, trek from Everest Base Camp.
Reinhold Messner s Tent
Reinhold Messner was the first recorded mountaineer to reach the summit alone and without the use of bottled oxygen. Imposing these limitations upon himself, it is no surprise that he described himself as a single, narrow, gasping lung, floating over the mists. This notion is depicted by one of his arresting photographs: his tent tied on a precarious outcrop of snow in the foreground with only an expanse of cloud behind, and no sign of a safe place to stand.
Part of the visual impact of these images comes from the innate difficulty in attaining them; but you don t have to be a professional photographer or even a mountaineer to take a breathtaking shot of Mount Everest. Internet photo sharing sites like Flickr contain a bounty of amateur snaps taken along the Everest Base Camp Trek trails and at Base Camp itself. They show that anyone has the potential to catch the world s mightiest mountain in a good light, emerging from the mist, or cutting an impressive silhouette from the sky.
If you like the idea of gathering your own photo diary of an unforgettable adventure, then you should investigate the classic Everest Base Camp Trek, with the chance to see Mount Everest with your own eyes, and take some memorable photographs.
Author Resource:-
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the Everest Base Camp Trek (http://www.mountainkingdoms.com/itinerary_info.ihtml?schedid=919) for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and So
