Mount Everest

Click here to add your own text“Located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in Asia, the Himalayas is a long mountain range that forms a formidable barrier between the Tibetan Plateau and the alluvial plains of the Indian subcontinent. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is located in the Mahalangur Himal subrange of the Himalayas. It lies on the boundary between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and Nepal. Rising to an elevation of 8,848.86m, Mount Everest is the most prominent peak among the Seven Summits of the World.”

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From Wikipedia

Mount Everest, also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma, is Earth’s highest mountain. It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range in Nepal and Tibet.  Its peak is 8,850 metres (29,035 ft) above sea level.

Climbing History

There were a series of early attempts, however, amongst the most famous was that of 8 June 1924, when George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made an attempt on the summit via the North Col/North Ridge/Northeast Ridge route from which they never returned. On 1 May 1999, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found Mallory’s body on the North Face in a snow basin below and to the west of the traditional site of Camp VI. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community whether one or both of them reached the summit 29 years before the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

First successful ascent by Tenzing and Hillary

In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) came within 100 m (330 feet) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. Two days later, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali Sherpa climber from Darjeeling, India.

They reached the summit at 11:30 am local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col Route.  News of the expedition’s success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, 2 June. Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, Hunt (a Briton) and Hillary (a New Zealander) discovered that they had been promptly knighted in the Order of the British for the ascent. Tenzing, a Nepali Sherpa who was a citizen of India, was granted the George Medal.

Everest Death Statistics
For the most comprehensive year by year analysis of deaths on Everest, please visit this site.