Mount Everest

Credit: Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA/Landsat, Posted on: Friday, 30 May 2003, 06:00 CDT Download full size image

On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal, became the first humans to successfully climb to the peak of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. They were part of a British expedition lead by Colonel John Hunt sent specifically to reach what was regarded at the time as the “third pole.” In the 50 years since Hillary and Norgay first climbed the mountain, more than 5,000 people have attempted to repeat their feat with only 1,600 successes and 175 fatalities. Everest is the tallest of many extraordinarily high peaks in the Himalayas, including neighboring Lhotse (27,890 feet, 8516 m) and Nuptse (25,790 feet, 7885 m). The mountain range was formed when a large land mass broke off from Africa roughly 200 million years ago and was carried by plate tectonics across what is now the Indian Ocean. When this land mass came close to Asia, it started to push up the land ahead of it, forming a large shallow ocean with rich ocean life. The

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