Natural speed please.
It's a conversation between two people.
W: Chomolungma, that's beautiful.
M: What's Chomolungma?
W: According to this, that's the most common Tibetan name for Mt. Everest. It means "Mother Goddess of the World" or "Goddess of the Valley." What a beautiful image, the great white-clad mother watching over her children.
M: Yes, but she doesn't make things easy for the ones who come calling, does she? It's amazing the physical challenges that climbers have to overcome to get to the top.
W: Isn't it? It says here that the area in the Himalayas over 8,000 meters is called the "death zone."
M: Blunt but true. On a lighter note, but still speaking of Everest, I was just reading Edmund Hillary's autobiography the other day. You'll never guess what he had to do after he reached the summit.
W: What?
M: Well, apparently the doctor accompanying their expedition had warned that dehydration was a very dangerous threat for climbers at high altitudes. So the night before they went for the top, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay drank a lot of hot lemon drink. When they arrived, their bladders were full, so…
W: Oh my goodness. At the top of Mt. Everest?!
M: When nature calls… You should read the book; you'd like it. Hillary also describes how he went on another Himalayan expedition some years later, partly to look for evidence of the yeti.
W: Oh, I love stories about creatures like that. Please tell me they found something.
M: Sorry. The team only came across one alleged eyewitness who admitted he was tipsy at the time. They also brought back some pelts and a scalp, but they turned out to be from Tibetan blue bears and a kind of antelope.
