OpinionEverest challenges mount 70 years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached top

The two men were the first to scale Earth’s highest point, on May 29, 1953; mountaineering has since become increasingly popular and commercial

There are big implications, including determined novices putting others’ lives at risk, overcrowding and environmental degradation

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Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on their climb to the top of Everest in May 1953. What might the men think of the overcrowding on the mountain now? Photo: Alfred Gregory, Royal Geographic Society

Published: 3:25pm, 29 May 2023

Mountains – their height, their mass, their climates and ecosystems – have fascinated humans for thousands of years. But there is one that holds extra-special meaning for many – Mount Everest, or Chomolungma as the Nepalese Sherpa people call it.

A sacred mountain for some, for others the world’s highest peak represents a challenge and a lifelong dream. Seventy years ago, on May 29, 1953, that challenge and dream became reality for two members of a British expedition: New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the 8,848-metre summit.

Their achievement was a testament to endurance and determination. It was also the crowning glory of the British expedition’s nationalistic motivations on the eve of the young Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.

From our vantage in the present, it also represents a high point, not just in climbing terms, but in what we now think of as the modern era of mountaineering. Since then, mountaineering has become massively popular and commercial, with serious implications for the cultures and environments that sustain it.