From the Photo Archive: 69 Years of Epic Everest Climbs
Published 27 May 2022, 18:15 BST
Tents pepper the ground of Everest Base Camp, tucked into the mountainside under the towering Khumbu Glacier.
In 1924, George Mallory and an expedition team set off to conquer Mount Everest. Mallory vanished during his attempt to reach Everest's summit days after this photo was taken.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to summit Mount Everest in 1953.
A group of Sherpas helped lead the first successful climb of Everest.
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary drink a celebratory cup of tea after their successful ascent of Mount Everest.
Porters carry supplies to Everest Base Camp as part of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition. The expedition, funded by the National Geographic Society, marked the first American summit of the mountain.
A group of climbers leave camp and begin their Everest summit attempt.
The first American team summited Mount Everest in 1963, led by a Swiss climber named Norman Dyhrenfurth. The group consisted of 19 Americans, 32 Sherpas, and 909 porters carrying 27 tons of gear.
Barry Bishop holds the American flag and the flag of the National Geographic Society at Mount Everest's summit. Bishop was a Society staff member and documented the expedition for National Geographic magazine.
The Milky Way dazzles above the Himalaya, a mountain range that stretches 1,500 miles across Asia. Thirty of the world's highest mountains are in the Himalayan range, including Everest, the tallest peak on Earth.
On a 2012 expedition, a climber crosses a crevasse in the Khumbu Icefall by using a bridge made from aluminium ladders.
Conrad Anker and Jangbu Sherpa climb up the West Shoulder of Everest to retrieve gear Anker had stashed for his West Ridge attempt in 2012. The West Ridge is one of the least traversed routes to Mount Everest’s peak.
Light dusts Mount Everest’s West Shoulder and Nuptse, a nearby peak just southwest of Mount Everest, as the sun begins to set.
A group of climbers ascend fixed ropes up the Lhotse face to the South Col, a pass between Lhotse and Mount Everest. The South Col route is the most successfully climbed route on the mountain.
A mountaineer hangs upside down from tent supports during a party at Everest Base Camp in 2012.
A man carries a tray filled with warm drinks through a camp kitchen at Everest Base Camp in 2013.
A mountaineer practices climbing techniques on ice during an evening training session near Everest's Base Camp in 2012.
Climber and expert guide Damian Benegas crosses an aluminum ladder in 2012.
Helicopters take off from and land at the helipad on Everest Base Camp while rescuing injured climbers from Everest Camp 2.
Conrad Anker uses a fixed rope to guide himself safely down an ice step in the Khumbu Icefall.
Clouds circle the peak of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain at 29,035 feet.
After gathering the remaining pieces of gear at Camp 2, a sherpa descends the Khumbu Ice Fall back down to Everest Base Camp.
A sherpa rescues an 82-year-old Nepali man attempting to climb Everest in 2013.
Evening settles onto Mount Everest as a group of climbers hike into the Khumbu Icefall in 2012.
An extraordinary night sky glitters above Everest Base Camp in 2012.
Just before a storm, tents from several expeditions huddle against the snowy slope in this drone shot of the North Col camp at about 23,000 feet. But the hurricane-force winds that followed proved too strong, blasting down every tent. A couple were blown away; one was lofted hundreds of feet into the air.
