Mount Everest: The Highest Peak in the World elevation – 29,028 feet (approximate cruising altitude of commercial aircraft) because of conditions on the mountain, climbing is only possible in May and October The area above 26,000 feet is the “Death Zone.” The body begins to shut down due to lack of oxygen.

Mt. Everest is named for George Everest, the British explorer who discovered it.

One of the early attempts to climb Everest was made in 1924, by George Mallory. When asked why he wanted to climb the mountain, Mallory replied, “Because it’s there.” He never returned from his expedition. George Mallory

Mallory’s body was recovered in We still don’t know if he died on the way up or the way down.

The first successful climb of Everest came in 1953, by Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal). Neither will say who stepped on the summit first. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary

Jim Whittaker The first American to climb Everest, James Whittaker, reached the summit in 1963.

Other Everest “Firsts” 1975: first woman to reach the summit - Junko Taibei (Japan) 1988: first American woman to reach the summit - Stacey Allison

Everest claims the lives of people attempting to climb it each year. Everest’s deadliest year was 1996, when fifteen climbers died. Jon Krakauer, on assignment for a magazine in 1996, joined an expedition up Mount Everest led by the New Zealand climber Rob Hall. He arrived at the summit just before a blizzard struck in which Hall and nine other climbers died. This book is Krakauer's first-person account of the tragedy.