Who was the first person to step foot on the summit of Mt. Everest?

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   Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years ago

   Who was the first person to step foot on the summit of Mt. Everest?
   
   When did this person reach the summit? How long did it take the person to climb Everest and reach the summit?
   
   Mt. Everest from the south, wiki cc -  Papa Lima Whiskey 2
   
   

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   Dressage Husbandposted 9 years ago

   It is supposed to be Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, I think the Sherpa actually got there first. It was 29th May 1953. I do not know how long it took them, but several weeks. They used the South East Ridge route. Many previous British attempts had tried on the North ridge as the mountain is on the precise border between Nepal and China and the British could not get access to Nepal.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Very interesting. Thank you, Stephen.

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   connorjposted 9 years ago

   
   
   There is some evidence that the Brits, Mallory and Irvine reached Everest's peak well before the New Zealander did; however, the evidence is not conclusive (yet). George Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s.
   During the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew "Sandy" Irvine both disappeared on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair were last seen when they were about 800 vertical feet (245m) from the summit.
   The goal of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 was to discover evidence of whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had been the first to summit Mount Everest in their attempt long before Hillary, it happened in June 1924. The team hoped in particular to find a camera on Irvine's body which, had the pair been successful, should have contained a picture of the summit. Within hours of commencing the search During May of 1999, Conrad Anker found a body on the North Face, at 8,155 m; but to their surprise it was that of Mallory, not Irvine. Mallory lay face-down, arms outstretched as if to break a sliding fall, with one broken leg and a serious wound to the skull, but otherwise very well-preserved. It seemed probable that he had been a victim of a fall while roped to Irvine. The body was only an hour or two from the safety of their camp.
   Many artefacts were found on the body, including a pocket knife, altimeter, and snow-goggles, but no camera. Three discoveries in particular fuel continuing speculation: First, a pair of goggles were in Mallory's pocket, suggesting he was descending at night when he fell (though he may have had a second pair, ripped off in his fall). Second, on an envelope he had noted the amounts of oxygen in each of their cylinders, figures which suggest a slight possibility that the pair may have taken three cylinders on their final climb, rather than two as generally believed. Finally, it was the absence of an item which was perhaps most intriguing; it had been reported that Mallory carried a photograph of his beloved wife Ruth with him which he wanted to leave at the peak.
   When Sir Edmund, who died in January 2008, was once asked his view on the controversy, he replied: "I do not know whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit. "What I do know is that Tenzing Norgay and I were the first to get to the top and back down to the bottom again."

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Wow, John. This could make a great hub. Thank you for participating and sharing this information.

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   Tusitala Tomposted 9 years ago

   There is a very strong case that the first expedition members to reach the summit of Mount Everest did so way back in the 1930s.  The belief being that those selected made it to the summit, but perished on the way down. 
   
   I recall watching a documentary where they dealt with this in a very convincing way.   But the business of who stepped up first in 1953 is childish, I think.  The two men involved were a team.  It's only the egos of the various national leaders such as China or New Zealand that are stupid enough to ague who actually was leading at the time.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Tom. I hope those who are working on the correct answer come up with some valid evidence. I am very curious about this. Thanks for participating.

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      Dressage Husbandposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      There was evidence that George Mallory may have been the first too. He and his guide were virtually at the top when the backup team lost sight of them in the clouds. George Mallory's body was found about 1,000 ft shy of the summit. The guide was lost

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