• At 29,035 feet (8,850 m), Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth. Located between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayan Mountains, the mountain’s Tibetan name is Qomolangma, which means “Mother Goddess of the World.” The Nepalis refer to Everest as Sagarmatha or Deodungha, which translates “Holy Mountain.” The Sherpa people regard Everest as sacred, and in ancient times, believed that gods and demons resided within its peaks.
• Although Everest is the highest point on Earth, technically speaking, it’s not the tallest. Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, is about 33,500 feet (10,211 m) tall, measuring from the bottom of the ocean floor, but only 13,796 feet (4,205 m) of that is above sea level. This dormant volcano last erupted an estimated 4,000 years ago.
• Everest is named after a man who never saw it. George Everest was the first British Surveyor General from 1830 to 1843. He hired Andrew Waugh, who made the first formal observations of the mountain, and named it after Everest in 1856. Everest’s surname was pronounced “Eve-rest,” not “Ever-rest.”
• The first recorded attempt to conquer the peak was in 1921 by a British expedition. It’s not known whether they reached the peak, because the climbers did not return. On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay became the first documented people to reach the summit. From then until 2016, the summit was successfully reached more than 7,600 times. The success rate has doubled in the last 30 years.
• More than 300 people have died during Everest expeditions from causes that include falls, blizzards, lack of oxygen, altitude sickness, and fatigue, a death rate of about 1%. At least one person has died every year since 1969, except for 1977, dubbed Everest’s safest year.
• A Nepali Sherpa guide named Kami Rita Sherpa holds the record for the most successful climbs, completing his 28th ascent in 2023. Other milestones include the first woman to reach the top, (a Japanese teacher in 1975), the first blind person to climb Everest (Erik Weihenmayer, an American motivational speaker in 2001), the first couple to marry on the top (a couple from Nepal whose ceremony took about 10 minutes), and the youngest, a 13-year-old American who reached the summit in 2010. In 1999, Babu Chiri Sherpa remained on the summit for 21 hours, setting a record for the longest anyone has remained on the summit. On May 23, 2019, a record was set for the most climbers reaching the top in one day, when 358 attained the summit.
• The name of Yuichiro Miura has enormous significance in connection with Everest. In 2003, this Japanese climber, at 70, became the oldest person to reach the summit. In 1970, he had been the first person to ski on the mountain. He skied 6,600 feet (2,000 m) in just over two minutes, stopping just 250 feet (76 m) from the edge of a large, deep crevasse. A documentary film, “The Man Who Skied Down Everest,” was produced and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. If that wasn’t enough, in 2013, Muira broke his own record of the oldest person, completing the trek at age 80.
• It’s pretty spendy to climb Everest. The licensing permit fee to the government of Nepal is $11,000. Add to that equipment, transport, oxygen, supplies, and Sherpa guide services, a service that averages $5,000 per guide per trek. Depending on the number of guides, the cost for a climber varies between $35,000 and $100,000. During 2021, 408 permits were issued.
