Anniversary of First Successful Ascent of Mount Everest
Today is the anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
At 11:30 a.m. local time on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay from Nepal reached the summit of Mount Everest. The pair were part of a two pair expedition aiming to conquer the peak.
The first pair, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, came to within 100 meters of the summit when they had to turn back due to exhaustion. Their work wasn’t in vain though, as their route finding and trail breaking paved the way for the following pair. They also had extra caches of oxygen that came in handy.
Although the team had always maintained that it was a team effort, Tenzig later revealed that Hillary was the first to actually put his foot on the summit.
Tags: highest mountain, mount everest
