Mount Everest, with a height of 8,848 metres is the highest  mountain peak in the world. Located on the border between Nepal on the South and Chinese Tibet on the North, it was formed about 60 million years ago. The weather on Everest is extreme with average temperatures ranging from -33° F in January to -2° F in July, the warmest month. Strong winds and deep snowfalls may occur suddenly. Everest is named after Sir George Everest the British Surveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843.  The height of Mount Everest was officially announced by the Britishers in March 1856. And soon after, the idea of conquering it wondered in people’s minds. It  also became one of the greatest challenges placed before mankind by Mother Nature. 

By 1890s, the idea of climbing Mt. Everest stuck in the imagination of mountaineers and adventurers.  Involved  with two British exploring organisations- the Royal Geographical Society  and the Alpine Club, two British army officers Sir Francis Younghusband and Charles Bruce   sought permission from Tibet to mount an Everest expedition  in the early 1900s, but political tensions and bureaucratic difficulties made it impossible. In 1913, a British officer John Noel  travelled Bhutan in disguise to find the route to Everest.

 Permission to explore Mt. Everest was  granted by Tibet in 1920. In 1921 the RGS and the Alpine Club formed the Mount Everest Committee, chaired by Younghus- band, to organise and finance the expedition. A party under Lieutenant Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury set out to find a route to Everest.  Three prominent members of the expedition were A.M. Kellas, George Mallory and H. Raeburn. During the summer of 1921, the northern approaches to the mountain were thoroughly explored. On the approach to Everest, Kellas died of heart failure and Raeburn  also fell ill. Finally the high exploration devolved almost entirely upon  Mallory thus making him the first man to put foot on the Everest massif. Mallory’s party reached the North Col (Col is a pass in a range of mountains) of Everest at 7,066 m before being forced back.

After an unsuccessful attempt in 1922, Mallory attempted another expedition with mountaineer Andrew Irvine in 1924. On June 6, Mallory and Irvine set out using Irvine’s modified oxygen apparatus and on June 8 attempted the summit. It was an expedition from which they never returned. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 after 75 years at  8150 metres .  Irvine’s body has still not been found. His  ice axe was found on the upper slopes of the mountain at about  8440 metres. But, no evidence that two climbers have been reached the summit of Everest was found. 

Between 1924 and 1952, several Everest expeditions were led but none were successful. Then in 1953, the ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt  arrived in Nepal. Prominent members of the expedition were Bourdillon, R.C. Evans, A. Gregory, Edmund Hillary, W.G. Lowe, C.W.F. Noyce and Major C.G. Wyli. Tenzing Norgay was not a part of the British team. His services were hired because of his experience in guiding Everest  expeditions. Other sherpas were also hired to assist the expedition.

After three weeks’ training on neighbouring mountains, a route was worked out up the Khumbu Icefall, through which it was possible to start ferrying loads of supplies. Two forms of oxygen apparatus, closed and open-circuit types, were tried. Hunt decided that Bourdillon and Evans, experts on closed-circuit, should make the first attempt from the South Col. Hillary with Tenzing Norgay  were to follow, using open-circuit and a higher camp.

Lowe spent nine days working at the lower section of the Lhotse (a mountain connected to Everest) face. On May 17 a camp was pitched on it at 7,315 metres. The route on the upper part of the face was first made by Noyce on May 21. The next day, 13 Sherpas led by Wylie, with Hillary and Tenzing ahead, reached the col and dumped loads. The fine weather continued from May 14 but was with high winds. On May 24, the first summit party, with Hunt and two Sherpas in support, reached the col. On the 26th, Evans and Bourdillon climbed to the South Summit of Everest, but by then it was too late in the day to go farther.

On the 28th May, the ridge camp was established at 8,500 metres by Hillary, Tenzing, Lowe, Gregory, and Ang Nyima (a sherpa). Hillary and Tenzing passed the night there. On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent wearing 14 kg packs. The crucial move of the last part of the ascent was the 40-foot (12 metres) rock face later named the “Hillary Step”. Hillary saw a means to wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice and Tenzing followed. They reached Everest’s 8,848 m summit, the highest point on earth on May 29, at 11:30 am. Hillary turned to Tenzing, and the men shook hands; Tenzing then embraced Hillary in a hug.  Tenzing made an offering of food for the mountain; Hillary left a crucifix Hunt had given him. Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing wave flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India. The two men ate some sweets and then headed down. They had spent about 15 minutes on the top of the world.

The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow had covered their tracks, complicating the task of retracing their steps. They met  Lowe and Noyce on the slopes above the South Col in the afternoon. The two climbers pointed to the mountain and  signaled about reaching at the top. 

 News of the conquest of Mount Everest did not reach the outside world until 2nd June. A headline from a London paper published that day screamed, “All this, and Everest too!” referring to the coronation of Elizabeth II and the conquest of Everest. There were celebrations all around.

Colonel Hunt and Edmund Hillary were knighted on their return. Sir Hillary also served as the New Zealand High Commissioner to India in Delhi from 1984 to 1989. Tenzing Norgay was awarded the George Medal for his achievement and later became director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling.