Online Learning Activities
Relive the Trek: An Edmund Hillary Conquers Mount Everest Activity
Though photos and text, students can experience the historic first climb to the top of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and his sherpa guide.
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
This Scholastic reading activity, “Relive the Trek” (grades 3–8), invites students on the thrilling, historic Mount Everest climb that Edmund Hillary and his sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, completed in 1953.
Through photos and text, students experience the stops Hillary and his team made during their journey:
- The Tengpoche Monastery, the team’s first stop after trekking 170 miles up through the hot and humid Katmandu Valley.
- Base Camp, the next stop on the climb, where the team set up camp for seven days. Its jagged ice made pitching tents difficult.
- Camp IV, where Hillary nearly fell off the mountain but was rescued by Norgay.
- South Col, the last ridge before reaching the summit of the mountain.
- Camp IX, where the rest of the team left Hillary and Norgay to camp in miserable, 17-degree cold before the duo attempted to reach the summit.
- Summit, the top of the world! On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Norgay become the first people ever to make it to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, after scaling a 40-foot vertical snow cliff.
Learning Objectives
By participating in Relive the Trek, students will:
- Improve content-area reading skills, applying various reading strategies
- Develop vocabulary and factual knowledge associated with mountain climbing, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Mount Everest
Related Resources
Students meet Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, the first men to conquer Mt. Everest.
- Subjects:Content Area Reading, Landforms and Topography, Historic Figures
- Skills:Nonfiction Texts
