Mount Everest: Location, Formation, History and Mountaineering

Where is Mount Everest?

Located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayan Mountain chain, Mount Everest holds the record as the highest mountain above sea level, clocking in at 29,031.7 feet tall.

With the Chinese and Nepalese borders running across its summit, geologists have subdivided Mount Everest’s rock compositions into three formations separated by low-angle faults known as detachments, including the Rongbuk, North Col and Qomolangma formations from Everest’s base to its summit.

Scant flora and fauna can be found on Everest, except certain mosses, spiders, snow leopards, Himalayan brown bear and several species of birds at altitudes below 14,000 feet.

Mountaineering on Everest

A perennial favorite for highly experienced mountaineers, Mount Everest has two primary climbing routes to her summit—one in southeastern Nepal known as the Standard or South Col Route, the other in northern Tibet known as the Northeast Ridge.

While neither route poses significant technical challenges, Everest has stymied climbers with such dangers as altitude sickness, fast-changing weather patterns and winds up to 200 miles per hour, as well as avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall.

While a series of British expeditions attempted to climb Everest from 1921 to 1924—the last sparking one of the mountain’s greatest mysteries when on June 8th of 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made a final push for the summit, never to be seen or heard from again. The first documented ascent came in 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first known humans at the top of the world.

How Many People Have Summited Mount Everest?

As of 2012, the Himalayan Database has recorded 6,871 summits by 4,042 different climbers, while the fatality count by 2019 had surpassed more than 300 lives, making Mount Everest, a high-altitude holy grail for experienced mountain climbers everywhere.