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.

• Who: Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper and mountaineer, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa climber born near Thame in the Khumbu.
• When: approximately 11:30 am on 29 May 1953.
• Expedition: the ninth British attempt, led by Colonel John Hunt and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee.
• Route: the southern approach through the Khumbu Icefall, the Western Cwm, the South Col and the summit ridge.
• Time spent on the summit: about 15 minutes.
• Tenzing's experience: six previous Everest expeditions before 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 culmination of three decades of earlier attempts covered in full in our history of Mount Everest.

How was the 1953 expedition organised?

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.

What route did Hillary and Tenzing take?

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, still the single most dangerous stretch on the route as our Khumbu Icefall dangers guide explains, to the Western Cwm, the South Col, and the final summit ridge.

What did Tenzing Norgay bring to the expedition?

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, the same generations-deep local expertise our guide to Sherpa mountain guides traces through to today's licensed guides. 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.

When did news of the summit reach London?

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.

Why did Hillary and Tenzing receive different honours?

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.

What did Hillary and Tenzing do 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.

Can you walk their 1953 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.

How does 1953 equipment compare with today?

What oxygen systems did they carry?

The 1953 expedition carried roughly 200,000 litres of oxygen across sixty light-alloy and one hundred RAF-surplus steel cylinders, far more than any earlier attempt, and the team deliberately chose simpler open-circuit sets over more efficient closed-circuit designs because no closed-circuit apparatus of the era could reliably handle a climbing man's breathing rate at altitude. Early open-circuit sets weighed roughly 30 lbs for two 800-litre cylinders, good for about six hours at a 4-litre-per-minute flow; by summit day, Hillary and Tenzing were using a lighter, refined version of the same open-circuit design at roughly 22 lbs (10 kg). Modern oxygen systems use titanium cylinders wrapped in Kevlar weighing as little as 7.7 lbs (3.5 kg) with regulators adjustable in quarter-litre increments, a fraction of the 1953 system's weight for a comparable flow rate.

How heavy was 1953 cold-weather gear?

Sleeping bags on the 1953 expedition weighed around 9 lbs each; a modern equivalent rated to similarly extreme temperatures weighs roughly half that, around 4.5 lbs, using synthetic and down insulation unavailable in 1953. The broader gear evolution since then, in outer-layer waterproofing, boot insulation, and pack materials, has followed the same pattern: comparable or better cold protection at a fraction of the weight, part of why modern summit pushes can move faster than Hunt's expedition managed with 1950s equipment.

What happened on summit day?

Hillary and Tenzing left their final camp, pitched at roughly 8,500 m on the South Col route, before dawn on 29 May 1953 and reached the summit at approximately 11:30 am after negotiating the rock step below the summit ridge now known as the Hillary Step. They spent only about 15 minutes at the top, taking photographs and leaving a small offering, before beginning the descent, since remaining longer at that altitude carried its own escalating risk even with supplemental oxygen.

Why the Approach Took Weeks, Not Days

Reaching the summit in May 1953 followed roughly two months of expedition time from arrival in Nepal, most of it spent ferrying supplies up through the Khumbu Icefall and establishing a chain of camps rather than climbing quickly, since 1950s teams had no way to shortcut the acclimatisation process modern trekkers still follow today. That slow, staged build-up through camps at increasing altitude is the same underlying principle behind the rest days built into every itinerary on this site, covered in practical detail in our acclimatisation guide, just scaled up from a two-week trek to a two-month siege-style expedition.