Sagarmatha National Park covers an area of 1148 square kilometers in the Khumbu region of Nepal. The Park includes the highest peak in the world. Mt. Sagarmatha (Everest 8848 m.) and several other well known peaks such as Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Pumori, Ama Dablam, Thamerku, Kwangde, Kangtaiga and Gyachyung Kang.

As Mt. Sagarmatha and the surrounding areas is of major significance not only to Nepal but to the rest of the world. its status as a national park since 1976 is intended to safeguard its unique cultural , physical and scientific values through positive management based on sound conservation principles.

How to Get There - the Most Common Ways

• Flight to Lukla, followed by two days' walk
• Bus to Jiri and trek for two weeks
• Flight to Tumlingtar, trek for 10-11 days.

Climate The summer climate is cool and wet and winter is cold and dry. Almost all of the annual precipitation, averaging less than 1,000 mm., falls during the summer monsoon, from end of May to September .Climatically, the best time to visit the park is between October and May, except for December to February when , daytime temperatures often drop below 0¼ C and there is heavy snowfall.

Geology

According to the continental-drift theory, the Himalaya were uplifted at the end of the Mesozoic Era, some 60 millions years, ago, The resulting young mountains of this region are still rising, and the net growth is a few centimeters per century.

Local Inhabitants and Accommodations

The park is populated by approximately 3,000 of the famed Sherpa people, originating from Tibet in the late 15th or early 16th century A.D. Their lives are interwoven with the teaching of Buddhism. The main settlements are Namche Bazaar, Khumjung, Khunde, Thame, Thyangboche, Pangboche and Phortse, Tere are also temporary settlements in the upper valleys where the Sherpas graze their livestock during the summer season.

The economy of the Khumbu Sherpa community has traditionally been agriculture, livestock herding and trade with Tibet. With the coming of international mountaineering expeditions in the 1950s, the region also attracted larger numbers of foreign trekkers. Today the Sherpa economy is becoming increasingly dependent on tourism.

There are trekker lodges with food available in places like Namche Bazaar, Thyangboche Pheriche and Lobuche, and along most of the main trekking routes.

Vegetation, Wild Animals and Birds

Vegetation in the park various from pine and hemlock forests at lower altitudes, fir, juniper, birch and rhododendron woods at mid-elevations, scrub and alpine plant communities higher up, and bare rock and snow above tree line, The famed bloom of rhododendrons occurs during the spring (April and May) although much of the. flora is most colorful during the monsoon season (June to August) .

The wild animals most likely to be seen in the park are the Himalayan tahr, goral, serow, musk deer and Himalayan black bear. Other mammals are weasels, martens. Himalayan mouse hare (Pika), jackals and languor.

The park provides a habit for at least 118 species of birds . The most common birds to be seen are the Impeyen pheasant (the national bird of Nepal), blood pheasant, cheer pheasant, jungle crow, red billed and yellow billed coughs and snow pigeon. Fairly common birds are the Himalayan griffon, lammergier, snow partridge, skylark and other.