Mount Everest, known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet, has a rich and complex history stretching back millennia. Its immense height was recognized by local populations long before western exploration began. For the Sherpa people of the Khumbu region, it is a sacred peak, the Mother Goddess of the Earth, a place to be respected and revered, not conquered. Traditional Himalayan beliefs incorporate the mountain into their spiritual cosmology.
The mountain entered the Western consciousness not through exploration, but through mathematics. In the mid-nineteenth century, the British-led Great Trigonometrical Survey of India systematically mapped the subcontinent. Using sophisticated instruments and careful triangulation, the survey teams eventually turned their focus to the great peaks of the Himalayas. By eighteen fifty-two, an Indian computer and mathematician named Radhanath Sikdar, working at the Survey headquarters, was the first to identify the peak, then simply labeled Peak Fifteen, as the highest in the world.
The official height determined by the Survey was twenty-nine thousand and two feet, a number chosen deliberately to avoid the impression that the measurement was merely a rough estimate. The peak was named Mount Everest in eighteen sixty-five in honor of Sir George Everest, the former Surveyor General of India. Everest himself was modest about the naming, preferring to use local names, but since the region was then inaccessible to westerners, the official British name was adopted.
The initial attempts to climb the mountain were all launched from the north, through the Tibetan side, as Nepal was strictly closed to foreigners. The reconnaissance expeditions of the nineteen twenties were instrumental in mapping the northern route. These early efforts involved legendary figures of mountaineering. The first expeditions, while unsuccessful in reaching the summit, pushed the boundaries of human endurance at extreme altitude and laid the foundation for future attempts.
The most famous of these early climbs was the nineteen twenty-four expedition, which included George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. They were last seen heading toward the summit before disappearing into the clouds. Whether they reached the summit remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of exploration history. Mallory’s body was discovered in nineteen ninety-nine, but the evidence remains inconclusive regarding their success.
Following the Chinese annexation of Tibet, the northern route was closed, forcing climbers to focus their efforts on the previously unexplored southern side, through Nepal. A Swiss expedition in nineteen fifty-two came very close, blazing the trail that the British would follow the next year.
The pivotal moment in the mountain’s history came on May twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-three. Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal, became the first people to stand on the summit of Mount Everest. This achievement, completed during the British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt, marked the end of the mountain’s purely exploratory phase and ushered in the age of high-altitude climbing.
Since that successful ascent, Mount Everest has become the ultimate mountaineering prize. The second half of the twentieth century saw many significant firsts, including the first successful solo climb, the first ascent without supplemental oxygen, and the first winter ascent. As climbing technology improved and logistics became more refined, the number of successful ascents grew dramatically. The mountain has sadly also witnessed many tragedies, claiming the lives of many dedicated climbers over the decades. Today, Everest remains a powerful symbol of human ambition, testing the limits of physical and psychological endurance.