The
Himalaya, roof of the world, is a magic place where the magnificence of
the world's highest mountains is mirrored in the rugged beauty and
unique culture of the people who live in their shadow.
English
climbers were the first ones to conquer the Mouth Everest debacle. Before
World War IInd, three English expeditions were sent to the north of
Himalayas, which is the Tibetan side of the Mount Everest. Twice the
climbers reached the altitude of 8,600m, but unfortunately failed to summit.
The southern side of the Mount Everest, that is the Nepalese side of the
mountain was opened to the mountaineers after World War IInd. After the
occupation of Tibet by China, the mountaineering expeditions toward Mount
Everest began from the Nepalese side. On 29th May, 1953, after three decades
of immense attempts, man finally reached the highest-lying point on Earth.
The winning team of the first climbers of the Mount Everest consisted of
Newzealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.
Other Firsts
Since the first successful ascent, many adventurers tried
various firsts at other alternative routes on both the north and south sides
of the Mount Everest. More than 600 climbers from 20 countries have climbed
the Mount Everest summit and Everest climbers age range from 19 to 60 years.
There had been 15 routes
tried out by various trekkers and climbers to the Mount Everest.
- First Summit - May 29, 1953: Tenzing Norgay & Sir Edmund
Percival Hillary of New Zealand via the South-East Ridge Route.
- May 25, 1960: Chinese team makes first Summit of Mount Everest
via the North Ridge.
- May 22, 1963: The first ascent of the Mount Everest West Ridge,
actually the West Ridge/North Face by Willi Unsoeld and Tom
Hornbein. Also the first traverse as they descended the South East
Ridge/ South Col.
- September 24, 1975: Dougal Haston and Doug Scott Summit via the
South west face.
- May 13, 1979: Andrej Stremfelj and Jernej Zaplotnik reached the
Summit via the true West ridge and descend via the Hornbein Couloir.
- May 10, 1980: Tsuneoh Shigehiro and Takashi Ozaki made the first
full ascent of the North Face (Japanese Couloir to the Hornbein
Couloir) of Mount Everest.
- May 19, 1980: Jerzy Kukuczka and Andrzej Czok followed the South
Pillar on on the right hand edge of the Southwest Face.
- August 20, 1980: A solo ascent by Italy's Reinhold Messner
8/20/80 via the North Col to the North Face and the Great Couloir.
He climbed for three days entirely alone from his base camp at
6,500m without the use of artificial oxygen via the North Col/North
Face route.
- May 4, 1982: 11 Russia climbers reached the Summit via the South
West Pillar left of the Great Central Gully on the Southwest Face.
- October 8, 1983: Lou Reichardt, Kim Momb, and Carlos Buhler
reached the Summit via the East or Kangshung face.
- October 3, 1984: Australians Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg
Mortimer reached the Summit via the North Couloir without bottled
oxygen.
- May 20, 1986: Canadian Sharon Wood became the first North
American woman to Summit Mount Everest and climbed the new route of
the west Shoulder from the Rongbuk Glacier and continued on to the
Summit via the Hornbein Couloir.
- May 12, 1988: British Stephen Venables, climbed a line to the
left of the 1983 Kangshung Face route. Actually the East Face-South
Col-SE Ridge. Venables was the only member of the expedition to
reach the Summit.
- May 11th, 1995: The first ascent of the Northeast Ridge on May
11th, completed by Kiyoshi Furuno & Shigeki Imoto of Japan, Dawa
Tshering Sherpa, Pasang Sherpa, and Nima Sherpa.
- May 20, 1996: The first ascent of the North-Northeast couloir by
Peter Kuznetzov, Valeri Kohanov and Grigori Semikolenkov.
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