Ascents
On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, both of the United Kingdom, made an attempt on the summit from which they never returned. Noel Odell, the expedition's geologist, saw the pair climbing up "with great alacrity... near the base of the final pyramide" [sic] at 12:50pm that day. In 1979 climber Wang Hongbao of China revealed to a companion that he had discovered a body in 1975 thought to be Irvine, but he unfortunately was killed in a fall the very next day before he could provide precise details to anyone else. In 1999 however, the famous Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found instead Mallory's body in the predicted search area near the old Chinese camp. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community as to whether the duo may have made it to the top of the world, 29 years before the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The general consensus among climbers has been that they did not. There's no evidence of either man above the Second Step but if Mallory had made it that far then he likely summitted, for there are no difficult technical climbs further up. Almost everyone agrees Mallory died in a short fall during his descent. Irvine probably briefly survived the fall that killed Mallory, but died later of injuries and/or exposure. Irvine's body was probably found by another Chinese climber in 1960 but has not been rediscovered since, despite several searches in 2004. Mallory had gone on a speaking tour of the United States the year before in 1923; it was then that he exasperatedly gave the famous reply, "Because it is there", to a New York journalist in response to hearing the question, "Why climb Everest?" for seemingly the thousandth time. Comprehensive information is available at Mallory and Irvine: The Final Chapter including critical opposing viewpoints.
In
1995 George Mallory II of South Africa (grandson) reached the summit of
Everest.
In 1933, Lady Houston, a millionaire ex-showgirl, funded the Houston Everest Flight of 1933, which saw a formation of aeroplanes led by the Marquess of Clydesdale fly over the summit in an effort to deploy the British Union Jack flag at the top.
After taking part in the 1935 reconnaisance expedition, the prolific mountaineering explorer Bill Tilman was appointed leader of the 1938 Everest expedition which attempted the ascent via the north west ridge. They reached over 27,000 ft (8200 m) without supplemental oxygen before being forced down due to bad weather and sickness.
Early expeditions ascended the mountain from Tibet, via the north face. However, this access was closed to western expeditions in 1950, after the Chinese took over Tibet. However, in 1950, Bill Tilman and a small party which included Charles Houston, Oscar Houston, and woman climber Betsy Cowles, undertook an exploratory expedition to Everest through Nepal along the route which has now become the standard approach to Everest from the south. During 1951 a British led expedition led by Eric Shipton and including Edmund Hillary, travelled into Nepal to survey a new route via the southern face.
Taking their cue from the British, in 1952 a Swiss expedition attempted to climb via the southern face, but the assault team of Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay turned back 200 metres short of the summit. The Swiss attempted another expedition in the autumn of 1952, this time a team including Lambert and Tenzing turned back slightly lower.
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 turned back after becoming exhausted high on the mountain. The next day, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its fittest and most determined climbing pair. The summit was eventually reached at 11:30 am local time on May 29, 1953 by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal climbing the South Col Route. At the time both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but after interminable pestering Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and bury a few sweets and a small cross in the snow, before descending. News of the expedition's success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, Hillary and Hunt discovered that they had been promptly knighted for their efforts.
On May 16, 1975 Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest. On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind climber to do so.
During the 1996 climbing season, 15 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. May 10 of that year was the deadliest day in Everest history, when a storm stranded many climbers near the summit, killing eight. Among those who died were experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, both of whom were leading paid expeditions to the summit. Beck Weathers, a client of Hall's, survived the ordeal after being left for dead near the highest Base Camp. Journalist Jon Krakauer, on assignment from Outside magazine, was also in Hall's party, and afterwards he published the bestseller Into Thin Air which related his experience. Weathers published his story in the book Left For Dead. In May 2004, Kent Moore, a physicist and John L. Semple, a surgeon, both researchers from the University of Toronto, told New Scientist magazine that an analysis of weather conditions on that day suggests that freak weather caused oxygen levels to plunge by around 14%.
During the same season, climber and filmmaker David Breashears and his team filmed the IMAX feature Everest on the mountain. The 70 mm IMAX camera had to be specially modified to be lightweight enough to carry up the mountain. Production was halted for several weeks so Breashears and his team could assist the survivors of the May 10 disaster, but the team eventually reached the top and filmed the first high-definition footage of the summit. On Breashears' team was Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay, following in his father's footsteps for the first time.
Up to the end of the 2001 climbing season, 1491 people have reached the summit (560 of them since 1998), and there have been 172 climber deaths. The conditions on the mountain are difficult enough that most of the corpses have been left where they fell, some of them easily visible from the standard climbing routes.
Most expeditions use oxygen masks and tanks above 26,000 feet (8,000 m); this region is known as the death zone. Everest can be climbed without supplementary oxygen, but this requires special fitness training and increases the risk to the climber: humans do not think clearly with low oxygen, and the weather, low temperatures and the slopes often require quick, accurate decisions.
Mountain climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal; they range from experienced mountaineers to relative novices who count on their paid guides to get them to the top. The Nepalese government also requires a permit from all prospective climbers; this carries a heavy fee.