Facts About Mt. Everest

• the highest mountain in the world
• 11,346 summit ascents by 6,098 people until July 2022
• Height: 29,028 feet( 8,848m) or five and a half miles above sea level. It is equivalent to the size of almost 20 Empire State Buildings.
• Location: part of the Himalayan mountain range; straddles the border of Nepal and Tibet.
• Named after Sir George Everest, a British surveyor-general of India. Other names: Sagarmatha in Nepali and Chomolungma in Tibetan, which means "Mother Goddess of the Earth."
• Age: approximately 60 million years old.
• Countries visible from the summit: Tibet, India, and Nepal.
• First to climb to the summit: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953.

Notable dates:

• 1921 — Dalai Lama allows the British reconnaissance party to visit Tibet and the northern side of Mt. Everest.
• 1924 — British explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared near the summit along the Northeast Ridge. They might have been the first to reach the Everest summit, but they never returned.
• 1949 — Nepal opens its borders, allowing mountaineers to summit the southern peak possible.
• 1953 — Hillary and Norgay reached the summit.
• 1963 — First Americans reach the summit.
• 1989 — First two women, both American, reach the summit
• 1990 — Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter, reaches the summit
• 1996 — Eleven people die during spring expeditions.