INTERNATIONAL MOUNT EVEREST DAY 2022: Mount Everest is the world’s highest peak. The summit of this massive mountain is at 8,849 meters (over 29,000 feet). A lot of mountaineers have tried climbing Everest till date, but most of the expeditions have failed. The extreme weather, scarce oxygen and unavailability of any additional supplies make it an extremely difficult and dangerous journey to reach the peak of the mountain.
However, out of the few climbers who have reached the summit, the first ones to do so were Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal.
May 29, 1953 was the day Tenzing and Edmund achieved what was until then considered almost impossible. It was an amusing coincidence that the historic feat was achieved by the duo on Tenzing’s birthday. Tenzing was born on May 29, 1914.
He was 31 years old when he touched the Mount Everest Summit. While they climbed Everest in May 1953 the world only came to know about the feat they’ve achieved after Queen Elizabeth II coronated the two men three days later on June 2.
In honour of Tenzing Norgay, Nepal announced May 29 as the International Everest Day. The day was observed for the first time in 2008, the year Edmund Hillary died. It is celebrated every year mainly to promote mountain tourism. Ministers, climbers, tourism entrepreneurs, government officials and many prominent figures take part in the memorial events held on this day in Nepal.
While Tenzing and Edmund became the first ones to climb Everest, it wasn’t the first attempt by someone to do so. According to Britannica, in 1921, George Mallory and Guy Bullock had planned a Mount Everest expedition and executed it but couldn’t reach the summit.
Then in 1922, Brigadier General C.G. Bruce and the group tried to do it but even they failed to reach the summit. In 1924, Brigadier General Bruce and Mallory tried to do it together and recorded the highest ever climb of 8,565 meters or 28 thousand feet until 1953 when Tenzing and Edmund reached the top of the mountain.
Several attempts after that were made between 1924 and 1953 but proved to be unsuccessful because of several reasons such as deaths of the travelers, shortage of supplies and more.
