Mount Everest
Just the Facts

Elevation: 29, 028'; five miles up; the world's highest summit is at about cruising altitude of a jet

Local Names:
Sagarmatha (Nepal)
Chomolungma (Tibet)

First Ascent: 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, Nepal

The Man Who Fell Down Everest: Yuichiro Miura made the famous 1971 attempt to ski Everest, but after making a few turns from the South Col, he pulled a parachute and slid thousands of feet on his butt.

Getting Warmer: Hans Kammerlander became the first person to ski from the summit of Everest after climbing the Northeast Ridge in May of '96. Lack of snow forced him to down-climb sections between 8,600 and 7,000 meters, leaving a full top to bottom ski descent still undone.

Because it's there: in 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, GBR, were last seen going strong for the top. It is unknown if they reached the summit before disappearing.

First Oxygenless Ascent: 1978, Reinhold Messner & Peter Habeler, AUS

Wind: climber Dave Breashears has compared the ominous sound of evening winds on the upper mountain to that of a 747 jet taking off endlessly.

As good a reason as any: "Expeditions are good spacers -- time and distance for weighing and evaluating life back home as well as beginning to understand somewhere new." -- Pete Boardman, 1975, from "Everest the Hard Way"