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Everest

In Spring 2016, Roman Reutov and Maxim Shakirov received funding from Yandex to ascend Mt. Everest and take the first panoramic photos from the highest point on the planet. And they made it to the top! Now you too can make the climb virtually and see the world from an altitude of 8848 meters.

Ascend

The peak of Everest is the highest point on Earth. You can, of course, see it from an airplane. Or even from outer space. But nothing compares to the sensation that you are somehow above the Earth, yet your feet are still planted on the ground.
Everest goes by several names. Qomolangma, which means «lady wind» or «snow mother» in Tibetan. Sagarmatha, meaning «mother of the gods» in Nepalese. And, of course, Everest, a name bestowed by Europeans in following with the tradition of naming elements of nature after themselves. (Sir George Everest was the Surveyor General of British India). One of his successors suggested that the mountain bear Everest’s name.
Everest is 8848 m high and is part of the Himalayan mountain range that runs through China and Nepal.
Before the first group managed to reach Everest’s peak in 1953 about 50 expeditions had attempted ascents in the Himalayan and Karakorum mountain ranges.
In 1953, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New-Zealander Edmund Hillary became the first to definitively reach the summit. There is an unsubstantiated alternative history, however, which holds that the first Europeans to reach the summit were actually Andrew Irvine and George Mallory in 1924. But they never returned.
Since 1953, approximately 7000 people have reached the summit, but only 4166 of them were actually mountaineers in pursuit of glory.
The first Russians who made it to the top were those who took part in the well-known First Soviet Himalayan Expedition in 1982. A book documenting this experience, Everest 82, inspired Maxim Shakirov to become a mountaineer.
In 2015, Maxim Shakirov and Roman Reutov attempted to climb Everest in order to capture the first panoramic images from the top of the world and show people how everything looks from 8848 m. But nature had its own plans. A powerful earthquake interrupted their ascent and it was miraculous that they survived.
But on May 20, 2016, Roman conquered the challenge, summiting Everest and capturing panoramic footage from the highest point on Earth.
Toyota also participated in the expedition: their cars made it thousands of kilometers up the mountain, safely and securely transporting the mountaineers to the Base Camp.

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