Everest Firsts

1924: Because it's There
On the morning of 8 June, British climbers George Mallory (left) and Andrew Irvine (right) set out from their camp at 26,700 feet (8,138 meters) on the Northeast Ridge. They are last seen hours later, "moving expeditiously" toward the summit. They never returned and debate continues as to whether they actually made the summit. No evidence exists to prove they did.

1950: Switching Sides
The Chinese invade Tibet, and the northern approach used by all previous expeditions is shut off to Westerners. Today, each Mt Everest climbing season sees attempts on both the Tibetan and Nepalese sides of the peak, though most commercial expeditions climb from Nepal.

1953: First on Top
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first men to stand on the summit of Mt Everest. They ascended via the South Col route, the least difficult and most popular path to the summit.

1960: North Side Mystery
A Chinese expedition claims a first ascent of the mountain's north side, but doubts plague their account. There is no summit shot and scant evidence of the team above the Second Step.

1963: Yankee Victory
Jim Whittaker becomes the first American to summit.

1963: First West Ridge Accent
The first ascent of the Everest West Ridge/North Face is claimed by Americans Willi Unsoeld (left) and Thomas Hornbein (right). They also complete the first traverse as they descend via the South East Ridge/South Col.

1965: First Double Summit
Nawang Gombu Sherpa becomes the first person to summit Everest twice. Both of his summits were via the Southeast ridge, his first as a member of Jim Whittaker's American Expedition where he became the 11th person to summit Everest. Out of the first 17 summits of Everest, Nawang had two of them.

1970: Skiing or Falling?
Japanese Adventure skier Yuichiro Miura was the first person to attempt to ski down Mt Everest. He ended up falling 1,320 feet but surviving, to return to Everest 32 years later and claim another record.

1975: First Lady - South Side
Japanese climber Junko Tabei is the first woman to reach the summit. The same year, a British team led by Chris Bonington climbs the Southwest Face.

1975: First Lady - North Side
A Tibetan woman, Phantog, reaches the Summit only a few days after Junko on May 27 to become the second woman to summit Everest and the first woman to summit from the North (Tibet) side.

1975: The South West Face conquered
On 24 September, Dougal Haston (Scotland) and Doug Scott (England) summited via the previously unclimbed south west face. They began their climb at 3:30am, summited at 6pm the same day and then endured the highest bivouac ever on Everest (28,750ft) as it was too dangerous to descend in the darkness. They finally stumbled into camp at 9am after 30 hours without food or warmth.

1978: No Air
Superclimbers Reinhold Messner (Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austria) become the first to summit the mountain without using supplementary oxygen.

1978: First European Woman
The first European woman and the third woman to summit Everest, Wanda Rutkiewicz (Poland), reaches the top. Wanda goes on to become known as the greatest woman climber ever.

1979: First Female Death
The first woman, Hannelore Schmatz (Germany), dies on Everest descending from the Summit after becoming only the 4th woman to Summit Everest.

1979: Double First
Andrej Stremfelj (left) and Jernej Zaplotnik (right) reach the Summit via the true West ridge and descend via the Hornbein Couloir. They are aso the first Slovenian climbers to Summit.

1980: First Winter Assent
First Winter ascent of Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki of Poland. Wielicki went on to be the fifth person to summit all fourteen 8,000m peaks.

1980: The Full North Face
Japanese climbers Tsuneo Shigehiro and Takashi Ozaki (right) made the first full ascent of the North Face (Japanese Couloir to the Hornbein Couloir) of Everest.

1980: The South Pillar Route
Jerzy Kukuczka and Andrzej Czok followed the South Pillar on the right hand edge of the Southwest Face.

1980: First Solo Ascent
Reinhold Messner (Italy) summits solo via the North Col to the North Face and the Great Couloir. He climbed for three days entirely alone from his base camp at 6,500 metres without the use of artificial oxygen.

1982: Vanished Legends
British mountaineers Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker disappear between the previously unclimbed First and Second Pinnacles on the Northeast Ridge. The two were ascending the knife-edge route without supplemental oxygen.

1982: First Canadian
Laurie Skreslet becomes the first Canadian to reach the Summit on 5 October, 1982.

1982: From Russia with Love
Eleven Russia climbers reach the Summit via the South West Pillar left of the Great Central Gully on the Southwest Face.

1983: Kangshung East Face
Lou Reichardt and his American teammates claim the first ascent of the daunting Kangshung (East) Face. In all, six climbers reach the top.

1984: First Indian woman
The first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest is Bachendri Pal.

1984: Aussies on Top
Australians Tim Macartney-Snape (left) and Greg Mortimer (right) reached the Summit via the North Couloir (North Face to Norton Couloir) without bottled oxygen.

Jean-Marc Boivin (France) climbs the Southeast Ridge and straps on a portable paraglider for an 11-minute soar down to Camp II.

1988: Another New Route
British climber Stephen Venables, climbed a line to the left of the 1983 Kangshung Face route.

1988: First American Woman
The First American Woman, Stacey Allison, reaches the Summit of Everest via the South East ridge.

1988: First Woman Without Oxygen
Lydia Bradey from New Zealand becomes the first woman to summit without supplemental oxygen.

1989: First Mexican
Ricardo Torres, becomes the first Mexican climber and the first Latin American climber to summit Everest.

1989: First Mexican without Oxygen
Not to be outdone by his countryman, Carlos Carsolio becomes the first Mexican and Latino American climber to climb Everest without oxygen.

1990: First Married Couple
Andrej & Marija Stremfelj from Slovenia become the first married couple to summit together. Marija also becomes the first Slovenian woman to summit.

1990: Hillary Returns
Peter Hillary follows in his father's footsteps to become the first son of a summiter to Summit Everest.

1990: First Swedish man
Mikael Reutersward becomes the first Swede to summit.

1990: Father and Son Together
First father and son to summit together: Jean-Noel Roche and his son Roche Bertrand (aka Zebulon). They flew together on a tandem paraglider from the south Col. They landed at base camp on the 7th of October 1990. Roche Bertrand was 17 and became the youngest person to ever climb Everest at the time.

1993: First Spaniard Without Oxygen
Oscar Cadiach becomes the first Spanish climber to summit without the aid of supplemental oxygen.

1995: First by North Ridge
The first ascent of the Northeast Ridge completed by Japanese climbers Kiyoshi Furuno and Shigeki Imoto (right), along with Dawa Tshering Sherpa, Pasang Sherpa, and Nima Sherpa.

1995: Firsts For Many Countries
1995 saw Waldemar Niclevicz (left) become the first Brazilian to summit, Nasuh Mahruki (right) become the first Turkish and Muslim climber to reach the top of the world and Michael Jorgensen become the first Danish climber to reach the summit.

1996: A Great Season for the Scandinavians and a New Route
Lene Gammelgaard (left) becomes the first Danish and Scandinavian woman to summit via the South-East Ridge Route and Goran Kropp (right) is the first Swede to the summit without supplemental oxygen. The first ascent of the North-Northeast couloir is also completed by Peter Kuznetzov, Valeri Kohanov and Grigori Semikolenkov.

1996: Highest Helicopter Rescue
Madan "K. C." Khatri Chhetri (left) rescued Beck Weathers (middle) and Makalu Gau (right) near Camp I at approximately 20,000 feet (6,096 metres).

1997: Three generations
Tashi Tenzing Sherpa (right), grandson of Tenzing Norgay reaches the summit, making it the first time that three generations of one family have climbed Everest.

1999: Asleep on top of the World
Babu Chiri Sherpa becomes the first and only climber to sleep on the Summit. Babu spent over 21 hours on the summit of Everest.

1999: A Good Season For Women's Firsts
Katja Staartjes (left) becomes the first and only Dutch woman (to date) to summit. Elsa Avila Carsolio (middle) becomes the first Mexican and Latino American woman to summit and the first Swedish woman is Renata Chlumska (right).

1999: Mallory Found
After 75 years, the body of George Mallory is found by an expedition led by Eric Simonson (right). The debate over whether he and Sandy Irvine reached the summit in 1924 is reignited.

2000: First Pakistani
Nazir Sabir becomes the first Pakistani to reach the summit.

2000: Oldest Woman #1
Anna Czerwinska, at age 51, becomes the oldest woman to have climbed Everest.

2000: Record Ski Run
Davo Karnicar, of Jezersko, Slovenia, accomplished the first true uninterrupted ski descent from the top of the world's highest mountain. After summiting, Davo skied entirely (without taking his skis off) from the top of the mountain to base camp at 5,340m in only five hours.

2001: Mountain Flight
Roche Bertrand and his wife Claire Bernier Roche flew together on a tandem paraglider from the North side Summit of Everest. The paraglider arrived at the Advance Base Camp (ABC) only eight minutes later. They went into the record books as the first husband and wife to fly from the summit together.

2001: Snowboarding Firsts
German Stefan Gatt (left) becomes the first to snowboard from the summit of Everest but unfortunately cannot make an uninterrupted descent to base camp. Instead, that honour goes to Frenchman Marco Siffredi (right). It took Marco approximately two and a half hours to snowboard down to ABC. Marco is one of the world’s leading extreme snow boarders having descended Cho Oyu, Dorje Lhakpa, Tocloraju, Artensonraju and every unimaginable face in the Alps.

2001: First Blind Ascent
American Erik Weihenmayer becomes the first blind person to Summit Everest.

2001: Another Great Season For Women
Viviana Cuq, Cristina Prieto (left) and Patricia Soto (right), from Chile, became the first south American women to reach the summit of Everest, via the South-East Ridge and Evelyne Binsack became the first Swiss woman to summit.

2003: Oldest #2
Yuichiro Miura (Japan) summited Everest at 70 to become the oldest man to reach the summit and adding to his 1970 record of being the first to attempt to ski down the mountain. He summited with his son Gota Miura.

2003: Five in Five
George Dijmarescu (Romania) summits Everest five times from the North in five years.

2003: Amputee Summits
American Gary Guller becomes the first climber with only one arm to reach the top of the world.

2003: Record 13th Summit
Apa Sherpa Summits Everest for a record 13th time.

2003: Youngest American
On May 21, 2003, Jess Roskelley, at age 20, became the youngest American ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest. With his dad, John Roskelley, the father-and-son duo reached the 29,035-foot summit via the North Ridge, a first for that route.

2003: Three Brothers
Da Nuru Sherpa (left), Jangbu Sherpa (middle) and fastest ascent record holder Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa (right) are the first three brothers that have been successful in reaching the summit on the same day.

2003: Everest Speed Records
Pemba Dorji Sherpa (right), 25 years, summited Mt Everest in 12 hours 45 minutes, which was the world record with oxygen until Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, 36 years, summited in only 10 hours 56 minutes and 46 seconds.

2003: First Arab
Zed Al-Refai from Kuwait becomes the First Arab to Summit Everest.

2005: Youngest #2
Ming Kipa Sherpa becomes the youngest person to climb Everest at the age of 15. She reached the summit with her sister, Lhapka Sherpa, the only woman to ever summit Everest three times.

2005: First Marriage
Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa, both from Nepal, exchanged their marriage vows at the summit.

2006: Double Amputee
New Zealander Mark Inglis completes the first summit by a double amputee (no legs).