60 Years of Climbing Mount Everest

 

 

60 Years of Climbing Mount Everest   Nepal celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Wednesday by honoring climbers who followed in the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Nepalese officials offered flower garlands and scarfs to the climbers who took part in the ceremony. They were taken around Katmandu on horse-drawn carriages followed by hundreds of people who marched holding banners to mark the anniversary. Hillary and Norgay reached the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953. Since then thousands of people have reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak. Tenzing Norgay died in Darjeeling, India, in 1986 at age 71. Hillary, who died of heart failure in 2008 at the age of 88, attended the golden jubilee celebration of the conquest in 2003. 1 A photo taken on September 30, 2010 shows Mount Everest (C) from the window of a Druk Air aircraft during a flight from Bangkok to Paro. Everest is the world's highest mountain above sea level at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) high. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) # British mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, both members of the Mount Everest expeditions in 1922 and 1924, are seen at base camp in Nepal. The pair was preparing to climb the peak of Mount Everest in June of 1924. It is the last image of the men before they disappeared on the mountain. (AP Photo/Str) This undated file photo shows British mountain climber George Mallory, who died while scaling Mount Everest in 1924. Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine led a 1924 British expedition assault on Everest and failed to return, but ever since speculation continues that they may have been the first to reach the highest point on the planet. (AFP/Getty Images) 4 L-R: Hugh Ruttledge, leader of the expedition; Doctor Gordon Noel Humphreys; Mrs. Humphreys; Lieutenant Jim Gavin; and Mrs. Gavin, stand aboard the SS Ranchi at Southampton, England before sailing to India on Feb 1, 1936. The group would make up the advance party for the 1936 Everest Expedition, the sixth British expedition. The party included Mrs. Noel Humphreys, wife of Dr. Humphreys who would accompany the party as far as Darjeeling, India. Hugh Ruttledge previously led a 1933 expedition to the mountain where climbers reached 8570 meters but failed to summit. In the 1936 expedition, climbers turned back around 7,000 meters due to bad weather. (AP Photo) # 5 Baron John Hunt, British mountaineer, born in 1910 in Malborough, Wiltshire. A British army officer, Hunt saw military and mountaineering service in India and Europe, and in 1953 led the first successful expedition to Mt. Everest. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images) # 6 Explorers Sardar Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, left, and Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand drink tea outside a tent at camp. The pair conquered Mount Everest in 1953. Hillary and Norgay were part of the ninth British Expedition to Everest. (AP Photo/NZPA,Penguin Books, HO) # 7 Sherpa Tenzing Norgay stands on the summit of Mount Everest May 29, 1953 after he and climbing partner Edmund Hillary became the first people to reach the highest point on Earth. (AP Photo/Edmund Hillary, Royal Geographical Society) # 8 Sardar Tenzing Norgay, right, of Nepal and Edmund P. Hillary of New Zealand, left, show the kit they wore when conquering the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, on May 29, at the British Embassy in Katmandu, Nepal on June 26, 1953. Edmund Hillary, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reached the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, becoming the first people to stand atop the world's highest mountain. (AP Photo) # 9 In center, L-R: Edmund Hillary, Colonel John Hunt, leader of the expedition, and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, pose arm in arm at Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy on their way to London on July 2, 1953. They were treated at a reception during their stopover. (AP Photo/James Pringle) # 10 Sir Edmund Hillary, left, and his fellow New Zealander George Lowe, are welcomed home to New Zealand on their arrival by air at Auckland on August 8, 1953. Both were members of the 1953 British Everest expedition. Hillary was knighted for his feat in conquering the world's highest peak. He was accompanied on the final assault by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who also reached the top. (AP Photo) # 11 Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand explorer who conquered Mount Everest in 1953, is shown at Banepa, Nepal, on March 12, 1963. Sir Hillary was leading a small party for a climbing and school-building expedition in eastern Nepal where the team would build two schools for Sherpa children. (AP Photo) # 12 In this 1963 photo released by Henry S. Hall Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films, members of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition team climb the West Ridge of Mount Everest. # 13 In this 1963 photo released by Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films, members of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition team and sherpas are shown with their climbing gear on Mt. Everest. Jim Whittaker reached the top of the world on May 1, 1963, a decade after Britain's Edmund Hillary. Three weeks later, two other Americans, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, became the first men ever to scale Everest via the mountain's west side. (AP Photo/Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library, Barry Corbet Personal Papers and Films) # 14 Mountaineers William Unsoeld, left, and Barry C. Bishop are joined by their wives, Jolene Unsoeld and Lila Bishop, after being flown to Kathmandu after their successful ascent of Mount Everest, May 27, 1963. Both suffered frostbitten toes. (AP Photo) # 15 President Kennedy presents the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, July 8, 1963, to Norman G. Dyhrenfurth of Santa Monica, Cal., leader of the American mountain climbing expedition to the top of Mt. Everest, at a White House ceremony. In the background from left are: Barry C. Bishop, Lutner G. Jerstad, sherpa guide Girmi Dorje, and Barry Corbet. Bishop and Jerstad were among five people who reached Mt. Everest's summit. (AP Photo/William J. Smith) # 16 A close up photograph of the summit of Mount Everest (29,028 ft) taken by the Indian Air Force during a flight over the Himalayas on June 9, 1965. (AP Photo/Indian Air Force) # 17 Sherpa Tenzing Norgay pins the badge of The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute onto the lapel of Sir Edmund Hillary at the institute in Darjeeling, India on Sept. 4, 1960. Hillary was paying a visit to the institute where Tenzing is now the training director. In the center is the managing director, Brigadier Gyan Singh of the Indian Army who led this year's Indian Army expedition to Mount Everest. (AP Photo) # 18 Mountain climber Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to stand on the summit of Mt. Everest in Nepal on May 16, 1975. (AP Photo) # 19 Reinhold Messner (l), from South Tyrol, and Peter Habeler from North Tyrol, members of the Austrian Expedition, return home to Munich's Airport on May 22, 1978, after being the first to climb Mount Everest without any oxygen apparatus. (AP Photo) # 20 Scott Fischer sits at camp in the Khumbu Valley on a Mt. Everest approach in Nepal in this April, 1996 photo from Mountain Madness. Fischer, co-owner of the outdoor adventure company, is missing and presumed dead with four other climbers on Mt. Everest after they apparently lost their way in a blizzard. 1996 would become the deadliest year on the mountain. 15 people died while trying to summit, including 8 people on May 11 in deadly weather conditions. (AP/Mountain Madness) # 21 Anatoli Boukreev nearing "The Hillary Step". Rope held out by steady wind over knife edge ridge. Summit visible down and right of highest point in image. May 10, 1996. Boukreev was a member of Scott Fisher's expedition team and is credited with saving the lives of fellow climbers when a blizzard hit the mountain. Boukreev would be killed a year later in an avalanche while attempting a winter climb of Annapurna in Nepal. (Courtesy of Neil Beidleman) # 22 Seaborn Beck Weathers of Dallas, Texas, an American survivor of the Swedish Expedition, is flown to Katmandu Monday, May 13, 1996 by a rescue helicopter from Mt. Everest. Eight climbers still remained missing in unsurvivable conditions on the 29,028-foot (8,848 meters) mountain. Weathers suffered from facial burns from high winds and severe frostbite on both hands. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi) # 23 Stuart Hutchnson, a Canadian member of the International mountain climbing expedition arrives at a Katmandu airport Thursday, May 16, 1996. The five members of his team were hit by a blizzard near the top of Mt. Everest. Two Americans, two New Zealanders and a Japanese woman died of exposure when they were caught in a blinding snowstorm that lashed the top of Everest with 80-mph winds. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi) # 24 Jonathan Krakauer, of Seattle, Wash., one of the surviving members of an international mountain climbing expedition, is interviewed by reporters after his return to Katmandu, Nepal, Thursday, May 16, 1996. He talked about the tragic deaths of five alpinists trapped in a blizzard near the top of Mount Everest. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi) # 25 New leader of U.S. Mount Everest Environmental Expedition, Neal Jay Beidlemen, 36, of Aspen, Co., returns to Katmandu Monday May 20, 1996, after leaving the dead body of colleague Scott Fischer, 40, from Seattle, Wa., on the world's highest mountain. (AP PHOTO/Binod Joshi) # 26 Dr. Seaborn Beck Weathers arrives at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Grapevine, Texas, Thursday, May 16, 1996, after a flight from Germany. Weathers, 49, was recovering from severe exposure and frostbite suffered in a blizzard on Mt. Everest. Beck was plucked off the 29,028-foot peak in a daring helicopter rescue from the blizzard which left eight climbers dead. (AP Photo/Jon Freilich) # 27 A Buddhist chorten shaped memorial honors mountaineer Scott Fischer near a pass between Dughla and Lobuche, on the trail to the Everest Base Camp, Nepal, May 15, 2003. Fisher, a highly experienced leader of the "Mountain Madness" team, from western Seattle, was one of the members of the May 10, 1996 expedition that lost the highest number of lives on Everest in a single day. Nearly 174 lives have been lost on the heights of Everest. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) # 28 Dr. Beck Weathers sits in his office at Columbia Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas on Monday, May 5, 1997, where he is relearning his job as a pathologist. A year prior, he lay snow-blind, frost-bitten and in a hypothermal coma a few hundred feet from the summit of Mt. Everest. A sudden storm claimed eight lives of his party, the worst disaster ever on Everest. His right arm was amputated; he lost the fingers of his left hand; and his nose was also removed. Weathers has undergone eight major surgeries. (AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Natalie Caudill) # 29 Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura, 70, smiles after returning to Everest Base camp, Nepal, Saturday, May 24, 2003. Miura set a record by becoming the oldest man to climb Mount Everest. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) # 30 The famous adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary at his home in Auckland. Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to climb Mt. Everest back in 1953. (Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images) # 31 Aerial photograph of the Khumbu Icefall along Everest's West Shoulder May 15, 2003 on the Nepal - Tibet border. A record 1,000 climbers plan assaults on the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit of Mount Everest to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the first successful assault on the World's tallest mountain May 29, 2003. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) # 32 An aerial photograph of Everest Base camp, a large tent city full of climbers at 18,000 ft. May 15, 2003 which sits at the foot of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) # 33 Tourists take photographs of the Himalayan Mountains during an early morning tourist charter flight to view Mt. Everest, the world's tallest peak, April 14, 2005. Tourism has declined around 40 percent each month since a February 1st grab of absolute power by Nepali King Gyanendra. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) # 34 In this photo provided by Japanese mountain guide Hiroyuki Kuraoka, 71-year-old Japanese mountain climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa, center, climbs to reach the summit of Mount Everest to become the oldest person to scale it, on Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Yanagisawa, a retired junior high school teacher from central Japan, was 71 years, 2 months and 2 days old when he reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak on May 22, becoming the oldest Everest climber and beating the previous record set last year by another Japanese climber, Takao Arayama, who was aged 70 years, 7 months and 13 days. (AP Photo/Hiroyuki Kuraoka, HO) # 35 The casket of Sir Edmund Hillary is lowered down as he lies in state at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on January 21, 2008 in Auckland, New Zealand. Sir Edmund Percival Hillary died on January 11, 2008 from heart failure at 88 years old. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) # 36 An ice axe rests on the casket during the State Funeral for Sir Edmund Hillary at St Mary's Church on January 22, 2008 in Auckland, New Zealand. Hillary is best known for being the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Hillary died from a heart attack on 11 January 2008, he was 88 years old. (Photo by Brett Phibbs-Pool/Getty Images) # 37 In this May 31, 2008 file photo, Min Bahadur Sherchan, center, who became the oldest person to climb Mount Everest on May 25, 2008, shakes hands on his arrival in Katmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi, File) # 38 Nepalis view Mount Everest from Shyangboche some 140 km (87 miles) northeast of Kathmandu on December 3, 2009. Nepal's cabinet is due to hold a meeting on December 4 on a plateau 5,262 metres (17,192 feet) high, in the shadow of Mount Everest, to draw attention to the effects of global warming before a key climate change summit in Copenhagen. Scientists say the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and creating huge glacial lakes that threaten to burst, devastating mountain communities downstream. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images) # 39 A Nepalese soldier stands in front of The Mount Everest range seen from the Kalapattar Plateau some 140kms (87 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, on December 4, 2009. Nepalese ministers held what they said was the world's highest ever cabinet meeting at a height of 5,262 meters (17,192 feet) to highlight the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images) # 40 Nepalese Sherpa guide Apa, 48, who holds the record for most climbs up Mount Everest waves before setting off on a new expedition to scale the world's highest mountain for a 19th time in Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, April 6, 2009. Apa flew out of the capital, Katmandu, with his team for the small airstrip at Lukla, from where they would trek to Everest's base camp and spend a few days acclimatizing and preparing for their summit bid. His wife Yangin Sherpa is seen at right. Apa holds the recored for Everest summits at 21. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi) # 41 A general view from Everest Base Camp towards the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal on May 17, 2009. Bad weather conditions forced three Nepalese Sherpa brothers to give up their plans to set a new world record by spending 24 hours in the "death zone" on top of Mount Everest. Pemba Dorje Sherpa, 30, and his two younger brothers reached the summit on May 19, but were forced down after only two hours, Pemba told AFP after returning to Kathmandu. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) # 42 Nepalese mountaineer Pemba Dorje Sherpa (L) and others pause at the Hillary Step while pushing for the summit of Everest on May 19, 2009 from the south face of Nepal. Bad weather conditions forced three Nepalese Sherpa brothers to give up their plans to set a new world record by spending 24 hours in the "death zone" on top of Mount Everest. Pemba Dorje Sherpa, 30, and his two younger brothers reached the summit on May 19, but were forced down after only two hours, Pemba told AFP after returning to Kathmandu. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) # 43 Unidentified mountaineers walk past the Hillary Step while pushing for the summit of Everest on May 19, 2009, as they climb the south face from Nepal. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) # 44 In this photograph taken on May 19, 2009, unidentified mountaineers descend from the summit of Everest. Four climbers were killed returning from the summit of Mount Everest, tour agents and officials said on May 21, 2012, bringing the season's death toll to six on the world's highest peak. (STR/AFP/GettyImages) # 45 In this photo taken Saturday, May 22, 2010 and released by Team Romero, 13-year-old Jordan Romero, center, poses for photos with his father Paul, left, and stepmother Karen Lundgren on the summit of Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak. Jordan became the youngest climber to reach the top of Mt. Everest, the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) peak after climbing it from the Chinese side accompanied by a team that included his father, his stepmother and three Sherpa guides. (AP Photo/Team Romero) # 46 This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa collecting garbage, left by climbers, at an altitude of 8,000 meters during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers collected 1,800 kilograms of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak. Led by seven-time summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, the team braved thin air and below freezing temperatures to clear around two tons of trash left behind by mountaineers, that included empty oxygen cylinders and corpses. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 8,000 meters have generally been left to the elements -- their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures. The priority of the sherpas had been to clear trash just below the summit area, but coordinator Karki said large quantities of refuse was collected from 8,000 meters and below. (NAMGYAL SHERPA/AFP/Getty Images) # 47 This picture taken on May 16, 2010 a corpse of a mountaineer being retrieved by unseen Nepalese sherpas during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers collected 1,800 kilograms of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak. (NAMGYAL SHERPA/AFP/Getty Images) # 48 This undated photo provided by Alan Arnette shows the view from Mount Everest Camp 3 at 24,000 feet on the Lhotse Face. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Alan Arnette via The Coloradoan) # 49 Female Bangladeshi mountaineer Wasfia Nazreen takes a self-portrait in a traffic jam at the death zone, "Hillary Step" right before the summit on Mount Everest on May 26, 2012. Wasfia Nazreen, 29, became the second Bangladeshi woman to summit the world's tallest mountain on May 26, 2012 and is climbing the highest peak on each of the continents to celebrate 40 years of Bangladeshi independence. (Wasfia Nazreen/AFP/GettyImages) # 50 Female Bangladeshi mountaineer Wasfia Nazreen (C) is followed by mountaineers in a traffic jam on Mount Everest on early morning May 26, 2012. (Kusang Sherpa/AFP/GettyImages) # 51 In this Tuesday, May 16, 2013 photo, tents are pitched on Camp 2, as climbers rest on their way to summit the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Mount Everest. May is the most popular month for Everest climbs because of more favorable weather. (AP Photo/ Pasang Geljen Sherpa) # 52 In this image released by mountain guide Adrian Ballinger of Alpenglow Expeditions and taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, climbers make their way to the summit of Mount Everest, in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Nepal celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Wednesday, May 29, 2013, by honoring climbers who followed in the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. (AP Photo/Alpenglow Expeditions, Adrian Ballinger) # 53 In this Saturday, May 18, 2013 photo, climbers from various countries make their way down towards Camp 4 on their way to summit the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Mount Everest. (AP Photo/ Pasang Geljen Sherpa) # 54 In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, two Japanese climbers, in blue, rest on top of the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Mount Everest, surrounded by Tibetan prayer flags. (AP Photo/ Pasang Geljen Sherpa) # 55 In this Wednesday, May 22 photo, climbers from various countries descend Khumbu Icefall on their way back to Base Camo after summitting the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Mount Everest. (AP Photo/ Pasang Geljen Sherpa) # 56 In this image released by mountain guide Adrian Ballinger of Alpenglow Expeditions and taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, climbers navigate the knife-edge ridge just below the Hillary Step on their way to the summit of Mount Everest, in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas. Sixty years ago, Sir Edmund Hillary and climbing partner Tenzing Norgay were the first to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth on May 29, 1953. (AP Photo/Alpenglow Expeditions, Adrian Ballinger) # 57 In this photo distributed by MIURA DOLPHINS CO., LTD., 80-year-old Japanese extreme skier Yuichiro Miura, right, who has had four heart operations in recent years, stands atop the summit of Mount Everest as he becomes the oldest person to climb the world's tallest mountain, May 23, 2013. Miura, who also conquered the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05 a.m. local time, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura's Tokyo-based support team. (AP Photo/MIURA DOLPHINS CO., LTD.) # 58 The last light of the day sets on Mount Everest as it rises behind Mount Nuptse as seen from Tengboche, in the Himalaya's Khumbu region, Nepal, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Everest, the world's highest mountains, stands at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet). (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer