Beyond the Syllabus: Who got there first - the deepest, highest and farthest places on Earth
From the depths of the deepest oceans to the highest point on Earth, man has had the courage to go beyond the obvious and explore the unseen.
Yes, the world can have many unsolved mysteries and places where the most passionate of explorers have also not been able to reach. Click here to read 10 least explored areas on Earth.
In this edition of Beyond the Syllabus, Shiksha.com lists for you names of people who have set records by being the first to reach the most inaccessible areas on Earth. This article also contains details and years when expeditions have been lead to reach the North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest, Mariana Trench as well as the longest river of the world – Nile.
Tenzing Norgay & Sir Edmund Hilliary
Known for: First to climb Mount Everest
When: 1953
Their story: Considered to be the highest point measured from sea level, Mount Everest (8,848 metres above sea level) which lies on the borders of Nepal and China was first ascended by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa of Nepal and Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand.
In 1953, Tenzing took part in John Hunt's expedition, his own seventh expedition to Everest. A member of the team was Edmund Hillary, who had a near miss following a fall into a crevasse, but was saved from hitting the bottom by Tenzing's prompt action in securing the rope using his ice axe, which led Hillary to make him his climbing partner for any future summit attempt.
As per official records, the duo spent approximately fifteen minutes at the summit. Hillary took the famous photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe but since Tenzing had never used a camera before, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded.
Francisco de Orellana
Known for: First to travel the length of Amazon River
When: 1542
His Story: The second longest river, Amazon is known to be the largest river by discharge of water in the world. The average discharge of water by the river is calculated to be about 209,000 cubic meters per second. Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish explorer became the first person to navigate the entire length of the Amazon River, which initially was named Rio de Orellana in 1542. He is also known to have founded the city of Guayaquil which is now known as Ecuador.
Dr Robin Hanbury-Tenison
Known for: First person to cross South America overland at its widest point
When: 1958
His Story: Known to be the first person to cross South America overland at its widest point, Dr Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a Cornish explorer, has many awards and achievements to his name. He not only crossed the entire length of the Great Wall of China on horseback but was also the first person to travel overland from London to Sri Lanka. Hanbury-Tenison also made a record when he became the first to cross South America from north to south by river in 1964-65 and navigated the Orinoco River by hovercraft which no one had ever done before.
Roald Amundsen
Known for: First to reach the South Pole
When: 1911
His Story: The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Amundsen chose three naval lieutenants as his expedition's officers, who were – Thorvald Nilsen, Hjalmar Fredrik Gjertsen and Kristian Prestrud. Amundsen and his troop reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911 which was five weeks before a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition reached there.
Sir Wally Herbert
Known for: First to reach the North Pole
When: 1968-69
His Story: There are many disputed claims made by various explorers that they reached the North Pole successfully. Initially there were two claimants, Frederick Cook, accompanied by two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, who claimed to reach the geographic North Pole on April 21, 1908 and Robert Edwin Peary and his employee Matthew Henson and four Inuit men Ootah, Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah who claimed the same on April 6, 1909. However, neither of the claims is widely accepted today.
However, the first people to undisputedly reach the North Pole were a group of 24 scientists and flight crew led by Aleksandr Kuznetsov. They landed at the North Pole by planes, April 23, 1948.
A British polar explorer, writer and artist, Sir Walter William "Wally" Herbert became the first man fully recognised for walking to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous, but disputed, expedition. Sir Wally Herbert’s team reached the North Pole by surface travel in 1968-69. He used dogsled to reach the North Pole. During the course of his polar career, which spanned more than 50 years, he spent 15 years in the wilderness regions of the polar world.
Jacques Piccard & Don Walsh
Known for: First to descent the Mariana Trench
When: 1960
Their Story: The first people to explore the deepest part of the world's ocean, and the deepest location on the surface of the Earth's crust, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench were Jacques Piccard, a Swiss oceanographer and engineer as well as Don Walsh, an American oceanographer, explorer and marine policy specialist. The duo made the descent in 1960 aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste. At the time of their descent the depth was measured at 10,916 metres but later with more accurate measurements it was calculated to be 10,911 metres.
More recently James Cameron, National Geographic explorer and filmmaker successfully descended to 10,898 m aboard Deepsea Challenger. He became the first man to travel solo to the deepest point on Earth.
Felix Baumgartner
Known for: First man to jump from the Earth’s stratosphere
When: 2012
His story: An Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper, Felix Baumgartner took part in a space diving project called Red Bull Stratos. As part of this project, Baumgartner flew approximately 39 kilometres into the stratosphere over New Mexico, USA in a helium balloon before free falling in a pressure suit and then parachuting to Earth.
The total jump, from leaving the capsule to landing on the ground lasted approximately ten minutes. Baumgartner deployed his parachute after 4 minutes and 19 seconds.
During this project he broke two other world records as well which made him the first man to break the sound barrier without vehicular power on his descent. He also broke the unofficial record for the highest manned balloon flight of 37,640 m which was previously set by Nicholas Piantanida. Another record broken by him was for the highest altitude jump which was set by retired USAF Colonel Joseph Kittinger in 1960.
Gennadiy Samokhin
Known for: First to dive in deepest cave
When: 2012
His Story: Krubera Cave or Voronya Cave is considered to be the deepest caves in the world. The difference in the altitude of the cave's entrance and its deepest explored point is 2,197 ± 20 metres. In 2004, the Ukrainian Speleological Association expedition explored the cave to −2,080 m. Ukrainian diver Gennadiy Samokhin extended the cave by diving in the terminal sump to 46 m depth in 2007 and then to 52 m in 2012, setting successive world records of 2,191 metres and 2,197 metres respectively.
Edward Whymper, Louis & Jean-Antoine Carrel
Known for: First to reach the point farthest from the Earth’s centre
When: 1880
Their Story: With a peak elevation of 6,268 metres, Chimborazo is the highest peak near the equator making it the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center. Chimborazo was first climbed by Edward Whymper, an English climber and his Italian guides – Louis Carrel and Jean Antoine Carrel. They reached the summit on January 4, 1880. However, some people disputed Edward Whymper’s claim of ascending the mountain and so he returned with David Beltran and Francisco Javier Campana and climbed the summit via a new route in the same year.
Donald Morton and Lyman Spitzer
Known for: First to ascent the largest vertical drop mountain
When: 1965
Their Story: Mount Thor, officially known as Thor Peak, is a mountain with an elevation of 1,675 metres located in Canada which has the Earth's greatest vertical drop of 1,250 metres with the cliff overhanging at an average angle of 15 degrees from vertical. The first successful ascent to Mount Thor was made in 1965 by Donald Morton and Lyman Spitzer.
The world record for longest rappel has also been set on Mount Thor in July 23, 2006. The rappelling record was set by an American team consisting of Chuck Constable, Dirk Siron, Ben Holley, Kenneth Waite, Gordon Rosser, Donny Opperman, Deldon Barfuss, and Tim Hudson.
The first ascent on the west face of Mount Thor was achieved by Earl Redfern, John Bagley, Eric Brand and Tom Bepler in 1985. The first free climb of the southwest Buttress was made in 2012 by Bill Borger and John Furneaux.
Hendrik Coetzee
Known for: First to navigate the entire length of Nile
When: 2004
His Story: The White Nile Expedition led by South African outdoorsman and author, Hendrik Coetzee in 2004, made him the first man to successfully complete the Nile River source-to-sea expedition. The expedition began at the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and the troop arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, four and a half months later.
Matthew Webb
Known for: First to cross the English Channel
When: 1875
His Story: The English Channel which is about 560 kms in length and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.1 km in the Strait of Dover was crossed successfully for the first time without the aid of artificial buoyancy by Matthew Webb. He made his first attempt to cross the Channel on August 12, 1875 but failed to do so due to strong winds and poor sea conditions. However, he attempted again on August 25, 1875 and made the crossing in 21 hours and 45 minutes, despite challenging tides and a jellyfish sting.