Mount Everest
Earth's highest point above sea level, remeasured in 2020 and still unimpressed by your hiking boots.
By Greg Goodwin · Published November 4, 2026
Cheat Sheet
- Rock versus snow: China's 2005 rock-height figure was 8,844.43 m, about 4 m below the 2020 snow-height figure both countries now share.
- 1953 timing: Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top at 11:30 a.m. and spent about 15 minutes there.
- Success rate: 43% of attempts above base camp ended on the summit, through December 2025 (Himalayan Database).
- Without oxygen: only 232 climbers, about 1.7% of summiters, have topped out without supplemental oxygen since 1953.
- Route split: the Nepal (South) side has 9,887 summits and the Tibet (North) side 3,850, through 2025.
- Worst modern year: 2023 recorded 18 deaths; the 1996 disaster killed 15.
The 60-Second Version
Mount Everest, in the Himalaya on the Nepal and Tibet border, is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level. Nepal and China jointly announced its official height as 8,848.86 meters, about 29,032 feet, in December 2020 after separate surveys. Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa mountaineer, made the first confirmed ascent on May 29, 1953, as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Today most climbers use two standard routes: the South Col route from Nepal and the Northeast Ridge from Tibet. According to Himalayan Database figures through 2025, the mountain has seen 13,737 summits and 339 deaths. Success depends on weather, acclimatization, supplemental oxygen, and the Sherpa and other hired climbers who fix ropes and carry loads. Everest rewards patience, logistics, and a healthy respect for risk, and it punishes shortcuts.
The Long Version
Measuring the Summit
Everest's height has been argued over for decades because there are several ways to define the top. In December 2020, Nepal and China jointly announced 8,848.86 meters, based on trigonometric and GPS measurements. Nepal had sent surveyors to the summit in May 2019, and China sent a team in 2020. The new figure is about 86 centimeters above the 8,848 meters Nepal had accepted, a number from a Survey of India measurement in the early 1950s. China had previously quoted a rock-height of 8,844.43 meters, measuring the rock beneath the snow cap rather than the snow itself. Many Western climbers also use 8,850 meters, a 1999 figure from a National Geographic Society survey. The point: the answer depends on whether you count the snow.
The 1953 Ascent
The 1953 British expedition was led by Colonel John Hunt and sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. Britannica says the team worked a route up the Khumbu Icefall, ferried supplies to the Western Cwm, and made two summit attempts from the South Col. After Bourdillon and Evans reached the South Summit on May 26 but ran out of day, Hillary and Tenzing camped on the ridge at 27,900 feet. On May 29 they reached the summit at 11:30 a.m., climbing the Hillary Step with ice equipment and no fixed ropes. They spent about 15 minutes on top. Word reached London in time for the June 2 edition of The Times, coinciding with Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Hunt and Hillary were knighted that July.
Two Sides, Two Routes
Everest's two standard routes are the Southeast Ridge from Nepal, which goes through the Khumbu Icefall, the Western Cwm, and the South Col, and the Northeast Ridge from Tibet. Himalayan Database figures through December 2025 count 9,887 summits and 229 deaths on the Nepal side and 3,850 summits on the Tibet side, with most of the 13,737 total made on the standard routes. Only 187 ascents used other routes, which accounted for about 21% of all deaths. In 1963 an American expedition made mountaineering history when William Unsoeld and Thomas Hornbein climbed the West Ridge, then descended by the standard route, completing a major Himalayan traverse.
Crowds, Commerce, and the People Who Work There
Large-scale commercial climbing on the South Side is usually dated to 1992, when Rob Hall and Gary Ball of Adventure Consultants guided four paying clients to the summit. From 2000 through 2025, 15,781 people climbed above Nepal's base camp, nearly three times the number from the previous 80 years. Hired climbers, mostly Sherpas, are now about half of the summit tally: Himalayan Database counts 6,656 summits by members, meaning clients, and 7,081 by hired climbers. By 2010, more Sherpas than members reached the summit in a season, 196 to 175. Only 232 climbers, about 1.7% of summiters, have reached the top without supplemental oxygen.
Risk by the Numbers
The Himalayan Database records 339 deaths on Everest from 1921 through 2025: 207 members and 132 hired workers. That averages about five a year, though catastrophic events dominate the record. The 2014 Khumbu Icefall serac collapse and the 2015 earthquake together accounted for 31 Sherpa deaths, 15 climbers died in the 1996 disaster, and 2023 set a modern high of 18. From 2015 to 2025, 77 people died, and the normalized death rate has declined. The summit success rate through 2025 is about 43%. These counts focus on deaths above base camp, and other tallies differ slightly, so treat them as good estimates rather than perfect figures.
Why People Care
Everest is shorthand for the extreme: the highest place a person can stand, and a stress test of human endurance, teamwork, and risk. Knowing the numbers, the 1953 story, and the role of Sherpa climbers makes headlines about crowding, deaths, and new records much easier to understand.
Glossary
- Khumbu Icefall
- A fractured glacier on the Nepal-side route, climbed early in the ascent to reach the Western Cwm.
- South Col
- The high saddle between Everest and Lhotse where the 1953 expedition staged its final push from the Nepal side.
- Hillary Step
- A steep rock-and-ice spur about 17 m (55 ft) high between the South Summit and the summit, now climbed with fixed ropes.
- Supplemental oxygen
- Bottled oxygen breathed by climbers at extreme altitude to counter the thin air.
- Himalayan Database
- A free expedition archive covering Nepal and Tibet peaks back to 1905, widely used for summit and death statistics.
Go Deeper
More to Explore
- Angkor Wat
A 12th-century temple so grand that it ended up on a national flag, and so well made it outlasted the empire that built it.
- The Taj Mahal
History's most famous love letter was written in marble and took more than twenty years to finish.
- The Colosseum
Under the Colosseum's arena floor, a hidden underground network let gladiators and animals appear out of nowhere mid-show.
- Stonehenge
Stonehenge's smaller bluestones were hauled an estimated 150-plus miles from Wales, and no one has settled exactly why.
- The Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramid was the world's tallest man-made structure for about 3,800 years, until a medieval English cathedral topped it.