May 29, 2009 – Mt. Everest Base Camp

Mt. Everest Base Camp — Stefen Chow/Aurora Photos

• Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest on this day in 1953.

  They were the first to do so

• Tenzing Norgay was a Nepali-Tibetan sherpa and Edmund Hillary was a mountaineer from New Zealand.

  Together they succeeded where many others failed

• People who want to climb Mount Everest work through a series of base camps as they acclimate to the high altitude.

  It can take weeks to get properly adjusted

• “…When you climb this mountain you have to climb…as…a child crawling up to its mother’s lap.” —Jamling Norgay

  Where is this mother of a mountain?