Mount Everest is the mountain famously first climbed in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
The pair reached the summit on 29 May 1953 as members of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Hillary was a New Zealander, while Norgay was a Sherpa mountaineer born in the region of Nepal or Tibet, according to differing historical accounts.
They climbed via the South Col route after an earlier summit attempt by Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans was stopped by equipment problems and exhaustion. The successful ascent was announced on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and became an international news story.
Everest is called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibetan. The 1953 ascent should not be confused with the first winter ascent in 1980 or the first solo ascent, completed by Reinhold Messner in 1980.