Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary Reach Everest’s Summit

At 11:30 in the morning on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, an experienced Sherpa mountaineer from Nepal, stepped onto the summit of Mount Everest. Standing at the culmination of the southeast ridge route via the South Col, the pair spent about fifteen minutes taking photographs and leaving offerings of sweets and a small cross in the snow. Their arrival marked the first verified ascent of the world’s highest mountain, bringing to fruition decades of attempts that had commenced in the 1920s.

The enterprise was the ninth British mountaineering expedition directed at Everest, organized and funded by the Joint Himalayan Committee of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society. British mountaineers faced pressing international competition, with French and Swiss permits already lined up for subsequent seasons. The committee chose Colonel John Hunt to manage the operation because of his combined military leadership and alpine background, replacing Eric Shipton. Shipton had favored smaller, less competitive endeavors, and several climbers initially resented his removal until Hunt won their confidence.