Mount Everest, Mountain peak in the Mahalangur Himal, Nepal and China
Mount Everest rises 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft) above sea level on the China–Nepal border. Its pointed summit caps a three-sided peak of snow and dark grey rock, with steep faces, jagged ridgelines and deep gullies falling away on all sides. The Khumbu Glacier lies to the south and the Rongbuk Glacier to the north.
The Survey of India identified this peak as the world's highest point in 1852, resulting in its naming after surveyor Sir George Everest in 1865. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans to successfully reach the summit in 1953 via the south route.
The Tibetan name Qomolangma, "holy mother", was recorded in a Chinese transcription in the 1721 Kangxi Atlas and reached the West in 1733 on D'Anville's map as Tchoumour Lancma. Nepal had no name for the peak until the 1960s, when Baburam Acharya coined Sagarmāthā, "head in the sky".
Climbers typically select between two primary routes: the southeast ridge from Nepal or the northeast ridge from Tibet, with most preferring the technically easier southeast path. The climbing season runs from April through May, when weather windows permit ascents.
The summit zone experiences atmospheric pressure at only one-third of sea level, with temperatures dropping to minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius) during January. Geological studies reveal the summit consists of marine limestone layers that once formed part of an ancient seabed.
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