It’s 70 years since the first ascent of Everest, the worlds most celebrated mountain. The BMC looks back at this event, its context and where it sits in climbing today.
In the early 1800s the British authorities in India started work on the Great Trigonometrical Survey of the subcontinent. With a variety of scientific and acquisitional motivations the survey set out to map territories all through India and up into the Himalayas.
This was a monster task and was carried out over many decades under the eyes of a succession of Surveyor Generals. In the 1850s, under the leadership of George Everest, teams were measuring the height and extent of peaks on the border of the kingdoms of Tibet and Nepal. On a practical and scientific terms, this was a highly technical task of triangulation and mathematics. Due to political restrictions, teams could get no closer than 150 miles from the summits. Calculations had to account for not only the curvature of the earth, but the non-spherical curvature of the earth, as well as light refraction due to heat and altitude.
In 1856 the survey declared that they had most likely found the highest mountain in the world and declared ‘Peak XV’ to be 29,002 feet high. (This is an amazing accurate figure given the conditions. Surveys conducted in the mid- to late-20th century have given various figure around 29, 029 feet.)
Big time!
The peak’s significance to the cultures who had long lived in its presence was clear. Cultures who revered mountains for their spiritual power didn’t need theodolites and mathematics to tell them what was important. Locally it was known by various names including Qomolangma, Mother Goddess of the World and Deodungha ("Holy Mountain"). However, the survey decided to put their own stamp on it and opted for Everest.
To the British-centred west the mountain immediately became a fascination coinciding almost exactly with the British-dominated Golden Age of Alpinism where climbers such as Edward Whymper, Leslie Stephen and Lucy Walker were honoring the empire by sticking their flag into Europe’s finest mountains. As such, now the mountain had been measured the next thing that had to be done was to conquer it.
Various expeditions began in the 20th century, most famously the British 1924 expedition where English climbers Mallory and Irvine lost their lives high on the mountain, initiating speculation that they died while descending from a successful ascent.
Attempts continued until 1953 and the British expedition under John Hunt. An army of porters carried in a mountain of equipment and the assault began. Then, at 11.30 local time on the 29th of May 1953, it happened. Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Nepal-born Tenzing Norgay, finally broke through a rock barrier on the summit ridge, later to be known as the Hillary Step, and made the final steps onto the summit.
‘We have knocked the bastard off,’ Hillary declared.
Since then the mountain continues to tell powerful stories and, seven decades later, is still the world’s most celebrated summit.
The BMC hosted an event in honour of the first ascent where modern stories were told against the backdrop of ancient conquest. You can read some of those stories here . We hope you enjoy them.
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