At 29,028 feet, Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on the face of the Earth. Ever since it was identified as the highest peak in the world in the 19th Century, people have imagined climbing it. It is not until 1953 that anyone is successful, however, when it is scaled by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. At the time that Krakauer writes his book, climbing Everest has become an increasingly commercial affair, a phenomenon that he sets out to document as a magazine article.
Phakding is a small Nepalese village where the climbers spend their first night together.
Lobuje is the last village where the group stays before moving on the Base Camp. Lobuje is overcrowded with climbers and extremely filthy as a result.
