New Delhi: Mount Everest is the highest point on this planet, standing at an elevation of 8,848.86 m above sea level. Due to its designation as the tallest mountain on Earth when measured from the sea level, over the years, numerous climbers and mountaineers have tried to scale its peak. While some of them have been successful, many of them have perished. It was the British mountaineers who reportedly made the first efforts to reach Everest’s summit. And it would be a Nepali Sherpa and a mountaineer from New Zealand who would first conquer its summit.
Mount Everest and the first conquest
Make no mistake, the 1953 expedition in which those two ascended to Everest’s summit was also a British expedition and the ninth mountaineering expedition to make the summit. The expedition was led by John Hunt, who selected two climbing pairs to attempt.
Incidentally, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the second pair. The first pair selected by Hunt to attempt was of Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans and they reached within 100 m of the summit on May 26, 1953. But they failed tragically after facing some oxygen problems and had to turn back. But the work of this duo in finding a proper route, breaking trail and their oxygen caches greatly helped the next pair that attempted.
On May 28, the second pair of the expedition, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay kickstarted their attempt to scale the highest peak on the planet. While Hillary was a mountaineer from New Zealand, Norgay was a Nepali Sherpa climber. This duo managed to create history when on May 29, 1953, at 11:30 am local time, they reached the summit of the Everest via the South Col route.
While it was acknowledged as a team effort back then, a few years later Tenzing revealed that Hillary was the first person to put his foot on the summit. He revealed that in his 1955 (ghost-written) autobiography ‘Man of Everest’. Many other people were part of that particular expedition including Jan Morris, the correspondent of The Times newspaper of London and 362 porters. The expedition in the end had over 400 men, including 20 Sherpa guides from Tibet and Nepal, with a total weight of ten thousand pounds of baggage.
While it was acknowledged as a team effort back then, a few years later Tenzing revealed that Hillary was the first person to put his foot on the summit. He revealed that in his 1955 (ghost-written) autobiography ‘Man of Everest’. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
