Tsang - Tibet - page 321

happened, the Swiss climbed to 8595m on the southeast ridge - higher than any previ-
ous expedition - but could not reach the summit.
The next British attempt was assigned for 1953. Preparations were particularly tense. It
was generally felt that if this attempt were unsuccessful, any British hopes to be the first
to reach the summit would be dashed. There was considerable backroom manoeuvring
before the expedition set off, which saw Eric Shipton, leader of three previous expeditions
(including one in 1935), dropped as team leader. In his place was John Hunt, an army of-
ficer and keen Alpine mountaineer, though relatively unknown among British climbers.
Shipton's 1951 expedition had at the last minute accepted two New Zealand climbers.
One was Edmund Hillary, professional bee-keeper and a man of enormous determination.
He was invited to join Hunt's 1953 expedition, which was also joined by Tenzing Norgay, a
Sherpa who had set out on his first Everest expedition in 1935, at the age of 19.
On 28 May 1953, Hillary and Norgay made a precarious camp at 8370m on a tiny plat-
form on the southeast approach to the summit, while the other anxious members of the
expedition waited below at various camps. That night the two men feasted on chicken
noodle soup and dates. The pair set off early the next day (29 May) and after a five-hour
final push they reached the top at 11.30am, planting the flag for Britain on the highest
point on earth.
By 2014, about 4400 people had reached the peak of Everest (including George Mallory
II, Mallory's grandson), while 248 climbers had died in the attempt. The first woman to
reach the summit was Junko Tabei from Japan, on 16 May 1975. The youngest person was
13-year-old Jordan Romero from California, who reached the top in May 2010. The oldest
person to make the climb was Yuichiro Miura of Japan, who scaled the peak in 2013 at the
age of 80. Over two-thirds of the climbers who summit Everest do so from the Nepali side.
Of all the controversies that Everest generates in the world of mountaineering, its
height is not one that should still be an issue. But in May 1999 an American expedition
planted a global positioning system (GPS) at the top of Everest and pegged the height at
a controversial 8850m - 2m higher than the 8848m accepted since 1954. The Chinese
dispute this claim (and even recently lowered the height by 1.5m due to melting of the
summit ice cap). Of course, plate tectonics are also at play. It is believed that the summit
rises 4mm per year and is shifting 3mm to 6mm per year in a northeasterly direction.
For the latest on Everest, check out www.everestnews.com .