The Story of Mount Everest
The first survey of the Everest region, based out of India, was performed in 1848 and concluded that the so called Peak XV was the highest know mountain in the world. In 1865 the mountain was renamed named in honor of Sir George Everest, the lead surveyor between 1823 and 1843 in India.
The first British expedition, headed by Charles Howard Bury, attempted to find a route to the summit in 1921. The climber George Mallory was extremely optimistic, after finding a route over the North Col, that the expedition could then make an attack on the summit. A last minute attempt failed due to a looming monsoon. Today, the route discovered by Mallory is the standard route on the northern side of Everest.
In 1922, a second expedition was organized which also included Mallory. Members of the expedition reached an elevation of 8321 meters with the help of bottled oxygen. During the third attempt to conquer the mountain an avalanche took the lives of 7 Sherpas.
In 1924 a third expedition made numerous attempts to summit, but was continually forced to turn back due to poor weather conditions. During an attempt to reach the summit on June 8th, Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared only several hundred meters from the summit, whether or not they submitted is still a contentious topic today. In 1999, an exploratory expedition found Mallory's body, his camera and any evidence is may contain remains unfound.
During the 1930s numerous attempts were made to reach the summit, all without success.
Two British airplanes overflew the summit in 1933. The motors were specially designed for the high altitude, nevertheless, severe downwind near the summit nearly caused the two planes to crash.
As of 1950 China no longer permitted foreigners to travel through Tibet. The Kingdom of Nepal initially allowed a limited number of expeditions, from there a route via the southwest face of Everest could be explored. In 1951 and 1952 one British and two Swiss expeditions explored the Nepal side of Everest without success.
In 1953, it was finally time; the ninth British expedition lead by John Hunt was able to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Numerous camps were established and the expedition formed two roped teams. The first team was forced to turn back at the South Summit due to technical problems with the oxygen system. The second team, comprised of Edmund Hillary and the Sherpas Tenzing Norgay and Ang Nyima, used a different system and reached the final camp two days later. On the next day, May 29, 1953, Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay broke out for the summit and after surpassing a cliff face, known today as the Hillary Step, they reached the summit.
"Because it is there. - George Mallory (1886-1924), answering to the question: 'Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest?'"
