(01 of07)
Open Image ModalA long exposure of the Mount Everest range seen from Syangboche, a small Himalayan settlement some 140kms (87 miles) northeast of Kathmandu on December 4, 2009. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(02 of07)
Open Image ModalNepalese young climber Nima Chemji Sherpa is welcomed by family and friends on her arrival at Tribhuvan domestic airport after summiting Mount Everest, in Kathmandu on May 25, 2012. Nima Chemji reached Everest summit on 19 May 2012 and she claims to be the youngest woman ever to scale Mount Everest. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/GettyImages) (credit:Getty)
(03 of07)
Open Image ModalNepalese mountaineer Apa Sherpa, who has scaled Mount Everest a record-breaking 21 times, is photographed while on the Great Himalaya Trail, one of the longest and highest trekking routes in the world, in the Nepalese Himalayas on February 13, 2012. ( Sameer Jung THAPA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(04 of07)
Open Image ModalThis picture taken on May 17, 2010 shows Nepalese sherpas after retrieving two corpses of climbers that were left on the world\'s highest mountain during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 8,000 metres have generally been left to the elements -- their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures. (NAMGYAL SHERPA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(05 of07)
Open Image ModalIn this Thursday, May 9, 2002 file photo, Tamae Watanabe, right, of Japan poses with a photograher Noriyuki Muraguchi at a base camp on the foot of Mt. Everest in Nepal. A 73-year-old Watanabe has climbed Mount Everest, smashing her own record to again become the oldest woman to scale the world\'s highest mountain. (AP Photo/Office Seven Summits, File) (credit:AP)
(06 of07)
Open Image ModalIn this Oct. 19, 2011 file photo courtesy of SNV Nepal, Great Himalaya Trail Development Programme, a trekker sits by Birendra Lake in the Manaslu region, part of the Great Himalaya Trail route, in Nepal. In the shadow of Mount Everest and its magnetic lore, a cross-border route with a grand name, the Great Himalaya Trail, is being touted as an epic, untapped alternative to the bucket-list trek to base camp on the world\'s highest mountain. (AP Photo/SNV Nepal, Great Himalaya Trail Development Programme, Samir Thapa, File) (credit:AP)
(07 of07)
Open Image ModalIn this Oct. 27, 2011 file photo, the last light of the day sets on Mount Everest as it rises behind Mount Nuptse as seen from Tengboche, in the Himalaya\'s Khumbu region, Nepal. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File) (credit:AP)