(alt. 29,035 ft.)
Photos at top of page are of Everest's peak on clear days. Photo at right is of
the "South Col" climbing route, from
Mt. Everest South Col Route Maps & Videos (click on figure to enlarge, then
hit back button to return to web page). The "South Col" is the
most popular climbing route, and the one used
during the first successful summit on May 29, 1953, by Sherpa
Tenzing Norgay
and New Zealander
Edmond Hillary. Norgay and Hillary used supplemental oxygen to make their ascent,
as did all subsequent climbers for the next 25 years. On May 8, 1978,
Reinhold Messner
from Italy, and
Peter Habeler from Austria,
made the first ascent without supplemental oxygen. Messner summited without
supplemental O2 a second time, from a different route, on August 20, 1980.
It is now estimated that less than 4% of current climbers go without
supplmental oxygen. For a medically-oriented discussion of climbing Mt.
Everest without oxygen, see Arterial Blood Gases on Mt. Everest.
Below is a map showing the location of Mt. Everest on the border
of Nepal and China. Other climbing routes lead from both Nepal and China.
The South Col route leads from Nepal.
Like no other mountain, Everest engenders an almanac of
lists, firsts, feats, and, inevitably,
a grisly accounting of deaths (some 120+ corpses litter the mountain).
Feat
Year
Climber(s)
First to reach summit
1953
Norgay & Hillary
First American to summit
1963
Jim Whittaker
First woman climber
1975
Junko Tabei (Japan)
First ascent without oxygen
1978
Reinhold Messner (Italy) & Peter Habeler (Austria)
First to summit alone, without oxygen
1980
Reinhold Messner (Italy)
Disaster Year
1996
15 deaths (see
Into Thin Air)
First disabled person to summit
1998
Tom Whittaker
Youngest person to summit
2001
Temba Tsheri Sherpa (age 16)
First blind person to summit
2001
Erik Weihenmayer (Colorado, age 32)
First person with 1 arm to reach summit
2003
Gary Guller
First couple to marry on summit
2005
Mona Mulepati and Pem Dorje Sherpa (Nepalese)
Oldest person to summit
2008
Yuichiro Miura (Japan, age 75)
The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev
Left For Dead, by Beck Weathers
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest
and Unforgiving Places, by David Brashears
No Shortcuts To The Top, by Ed Viesturs
Himalayan Quest, by Ed Viesturs
Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, by Broughton Coburn
K2, The Savage Mountain, by Charles S. Houston