60 years ago today Mount Everest was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
To the British, Everest has always been "our mountain". In the 19th century, British geographers mapped it, measured it and named it. In the 20th, British pilots were first to fly over it and in 1953 a British team was first to climb it. When, by sheer luck, news of their ascent reached London on the eve of the Coronation, Everest's place in our cultural history was fixed for ever.
Since 1953 many other British mountaineers have climbed Everest and a number of them have scored important firsts.
In 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston made the headlines with the first ascent of Everest's south-west face on an expedition led by Chris Bonington.
The 1975 expedition was the sixth attempt on Everest's treacherous south-west face. "It was just another logical step in the development of any mountain," Bonington says. "First the easiest route, then the harder ridge, then the much harder ridge and then you go on to the faces."
Kenton Cool, a mountain guide, has been part of Everest's commercial explosion for the past decade. He's been to Everest every year since 2004 and is the first Briton to have climbed Everest 10 times - and to have tweeted from the summit. His clients have included Ranulph Fiennes, the oldest Briton to climb Everest, and Bonita Norris, the youngest British woman to have done so.
Six decades after it was conquered, mountaineers complain that the summit of Mount Everest has become virtually gridlocked with climbers, but this has not dampened climbers enthusasim to climb the world's most famous mountain.
To the British, Everest has always been "our mountain". In the 19th century, British geographers mapped it, measured it and named it. In the 20th, British pilots were first to fly over it and in 1953 a British team was first to climb it. When, by sheer luck, news of their ascent reached London on the eve of the Coronation, Everest's place in our cultural history was fixed for ever.
Since 1953 many other British mountaineers have climbed Everest and a number of them have scored important firsts.
In 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston made the headlines with the first ascent of Everest's south-west face on an expedition led by Chris Bonington.
The 1975 expedition was the sixth attempt on Everest's treacherous south-west face. "It was just another logical step in the development of any mountain," Bonington says. "First the easiest route, then the harder ridge, then the much harder ridge and then you go on to the faces."
Kenton Cool, a mountain guide, has been part of Everest's commercial explosion for the past decade. He's been to Everest every year since 2004 and is the first Briton to have climbed Everest 10 times - and to have tweeted from the summit. His clients have included Ranulph Fiennes, the oldest Briton to climb Everest, and Bonita Norris, the youngest British woman to have done so.
Six decades after it was conquered, mountaineers complain that the summit of Mount Everest has become virtually gridlocked with climbers, but this has not dampened climbers enthusasim to climb the world's most famous mountain.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/10073278/Everest-at-60-the-Brits-who-got-there-first.html
