Mount Everest: The deadly history of the world's highest peak

Mount Everest is the highest mountain on the planet. The summit of the mountain straddles the border between Tibet and Nepal.

The southeast ridge from Nepal is one of the main climbing routes. The south ridge route is easier than the north ridge route.

According to the University of Michigan, the northern approach was mapped in 1921 by George Mallory, who did not intend to attempt the summit. According to The Ohio State University Department of History, Mallory was quoted as saying "Because it's there" when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest.

In 1922, a group of Brits and Austrians, including a chemist, attempted an ascent using oxygen for the first time, but the ascent was stopped by an earthquake.

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They did not survive the attempt to reach the summit. The 1999 expedition found the body of the man. More and more bodies have been recovered in recent years as the ice continues to melt.

In the 1920s and 1930s, expeditions tried to get to the Tibetan side, but it was closed after the Chinese took control of Tibet. The standard approach to Everest from the south was developed by Bill Tilman and a small group of people, including Americans Charles Houston, Oscar Houston and Betsy Cowles.

A new climbing altitude record was set in 1952 by members of a Swiss expedition led by Edouard Wyss-Dunant. Tenzing Norgay was a member of the British expedition the year after.

John Hunt led a British expedition back to Nepal. The organizing secretary to the expedition wrote in The Himalayan Journal that Hunt selected two climbing pairs to try to reach the summit. The first pair came close to the summit but had to turn back due to oxygen problems. After Edmund Hillary and Norgay reached the summit, they left some sweets and a cross.

The mountain is getting harder to climb. According to a study published in the journal NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science, the glaciers of Everest are melting quickly due to climate change. The South Col Glacier has lost more than 180 feet over the last 25 years. Hikers have been able to summit the mountain because of warmer temperatures.

Technology has made climbing more safe. They'll get a helicopter and fly you off if you're stuck, because it's easier to get supplemental oxygen now.

When was Everest first measured?

According to the University of Montana, the height of Mount Everest was determined in 1856. The peak of Peak XV was pegged at 29,002 feet by the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India. Nepal wouldn't allow them entry due to concerns that it would be invaded or annexed. The accepted elevation was determined by a joint Chinese-Nepalese survey in November 2021.

According to a study published in 1931 in the journal Nature, the mountain was proposed to be named in honor of Sir George Everest. Although Nepal and Tibet were closed to outsiders, the Tibetans referred to the mountain as "Chomolungma" for hundreds of years.

According to the American Himalayan Foundation, Mount Everest attracts experienced mountaineers and less seasoned climbers from around the world, who typically hire local guides from the Sherpa people, a Tibetan ethnic group renowned for their knowledge of the Himalayan range and skill in climbing. It is difficult to climb the more than 11,000 feet from base camp to the summit in a low-oxygen environment. The major obstacles to summiting the peak are altitude sickness and weather.

Alan Arnette, a veteran climber and record keeper, said it was like holding your breath and climbing a set of stairs. It's more like the Empire State Building. According to the Himalayan Database, more than 300 people have died attempting to summit Everest. Over 80% of those ascents have been done. A record number of successful ascents were recorded in the year.

What lives on Everest?

Lhotse, Nuptse, and Changtse are some of the peaks surrounding Mount Everest.

Animals cannot live at higher altitudes. The lower areas of the mountain are home to a number of plants. The highest-altitude plant species, a type of herb called Saxifraga lychnitis, grows on Everest's slopes and was described in a journal paper. There are no plants above this point.

Red pandas, snow leopards, and Himalayan black bears can be found at altitudes below 16,400 feet. There are many animals in the Himalayas, including Himalayan tahrs, langur monkeys, hares, mountain fox, martens and Himalayan wolves.

Everest milestones

The Mount Everest expedition milestone are listed here.

• 1895: Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, suggests naming the tallest Himalayan peak after his predecessor, Sir George Everest.
• 1921: British explorer George Mallory charts the northern approach.
• May 29, 1953: Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary become the first expedition to officially summit Everest.
• May 20, 1965: Sherpa Nawang Gombu becomes the first person to reach the summit twice, The Guardian reported in a 2011 obituary.
• May 16, 1975: Junko Tabei of Japan becomes the first woman to summit Everest, The New York Times reported that year.
• May 3, 1980: Japanese climber Yasuo Kato is the first non-Sherpa to reach the summit a second time, following his original 1973 summit. (Kato died in 1983 during another attempt to reach Everest's summit, according to a report in the American Alpine Journal.)
• Aug. 20, 1980: Reinhold Messner of Italy is the first person to reach the summit solo, a grueling experience that Messner recounted in a 2003 interview in The Guardian.
• 1996 climbing season: 16 people die while climbing Mount Everest, the most fatalities in a single year up to that point, according to the Indianapolis Public Library. Eight climbers died on May 10 alone, during a storm. One of the survivors, Jon Krakauer, a journalist on assignment for "Outside" magazine, wrote the bestseller "Into Thin Air (opens in new tab)" (Anchor Books, 1999) about his experience.
• May 22, 2010: Apa Sherpa, who first summited on May 10, 1990, reaches the summit a 20th time, Everest News reported.
• May 23, 2013: At age 80, Japanese climber Minura Yūichirō becomes the oldest person to summit, according to CNN.
• April 25, 2015: The Gorkha earthquake in Nepal triggers an avalanche on Everest, killing 22, the single deadliest day in the mountain's recorded history, Stanford University's Stanford Earth Matters magazine reported.

Additional resources

You can use this map to explore Mount Everest from your home. There is a harrowing account of two climbers who tried to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1978. You can see highlights from the exhibit in a virtual tour.

The original article was written in 2012 and has been updated.