Hillary and Tenzing: The 1953 First Ascent of Everest

Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper and mountaineer, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa climber born near Thame in the Khumbu, reached the 8,848.86 m summit of Mount Everest at approximately 11:30 am on 29 May 1953. They were part of the ninth British expedition to attempt the mountain, organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee and led by Colonel John Hunt.

The Expedition's Organisation

John Hunt led a large, methodically planned team rather than a small climbing party, with multiple support climbers establishing a chain of camps up the mountain so that a summit pair could make a final push with minimal additional load. Hillary and Tenzing were the second pairing sent for the summit; an earlier attempt by fellow expedition members Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans came within roughly 100 vertical metres of the top before turning back, a decision that directly shaped the supplemental oxygen and route planning for Hillary and Tenzing's own attempt days later.

The Route Through the Khumbu Icefall

The 1953 expedition approached via the same southern route trekkers and climbers still use: overland from Kathmandu, since Lukla's airstrip wasn't built until 1964, through Namche Bazaar and Tengboche, establishing Base Camp near today's site at 5,364 m, then pushing through the Khumbu Icefall to the Western Cwm, the South Col, and the final summit ridge.

Tenzing Norgay's Local Knowledge

Tenzing Norgay had already taken part in six previous Everest expeditions by 1953, giving the team invaluable route knowledge on the Nepal side that no other member could match. His summit photograph of Hillary, who declined to photograph Tenzing in return reportedly because Tenzing had never used a camera, remains one of the most reproduced images in mountaineering history.

News Reaches London on Coronation Day

Word of the summit reached London in time to be published on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, 2 June 1953, after Times correspondent James Morris relayed the news from Base Camp by runner and a coded radio message designed to beat rival newspapers to the story. The timing was coincidental rather than planned, but it turned the ascent into a symbol of national celebration in Britain at the exact moment of the coronation.

Recognition and Its Imbalance

Hunt and Hillary were both knighted by the Queen on their return, while Tenzing, not being a citizen of a Commonwealth nation, received the George Medal instead, a lesser honour under the British honours system of the time. The asymmetry has been discussed since as an example of how the expedition's recognition initially reflected its British organisational framing more than the two men's equal role in reaching the summit; both Hillary and Tenzing maintained throughout their lives that they reached the top essentially together.

Their Lives After Everest

Hillary spent much of the rest of his life on humanitarian work in the Khumbu through the Himalayan Trust he founded, building schools and a hospital in villages including Khumjung and Khunde. Tenzing settled in Darjeeling, India, and became the first director of field training at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute there, training generations of Indian mountaineers. See the Khumjung and Khunde destination guide for the Trust's schools still operating today.

Walking Their Route Today

Because Lukla's airstrip didn't exist in 1953, Hillary and Tenzing's expedition walked in from lower Solu-Khumbu, broadly the path the modern Jiri Route itinerary follows, starting from Jiri at 1,935 m and joining the classic trail at Phakding after roughly eight additional trekking days. Trekkers who want the closest experience to the original 1953 approach, rather than flying directly into Lukla, choose this route specifically for that reason.