1953 British Mount Everest expedition
The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953. Led by Colonel John Hunt, it was organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee. News of the expedition's success reached London in time to be released on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, on 2 June that year.
Edmund Hillary reading The Times, with his photo of fellow summiteer Tenzing Norgay on the cover, July 1953
The Western Cwm, above the Khumbu Icefall. The Lhotse Face (centre right) was climbed trending left to the South Col (depression, centre), with the south-east ridge leading to Mount Everest's summit
Mount Everest. The route the British took started up the Khumbu Icefall − seen spilling out of the Western Cwm (hidden from view) − Lhotse Face and reached the South Col (snowy depression, extreme right), finishing up the south-east ridge (right-hand skyline)
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953
Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.
Aerial photo from the south, with Mount Everest rising above the ridge connecting Nuptse and Lhotse
North Face of Everest as seen from the path to North Base Camp
Everest and Lhotse from the south: in the foreground are Thamserku, Kangtega, and Ama Dablam
The name "Mount Everest" was first proposed in this 1856 speech, later published in 1857, in which the mountain was first confirmed as the world's highest.