Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, with an official elevation of 8,848m. It's called Sagarmāthā in Nepali, Chomolungma in Tibetan and Zhūmùlǎngmǎ in Chinese. In English it has been named after a former Surveyor General of India, Sir George Everest¹⁾ since 1865. Prior to this, the mountain was known as Peak 15 (Peak XV).

First attempts to scale the mountain started in the 1920s, but the first successful expedition was in 1953 when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay from a British expedition reached the summit²⁾. In 1975, Junko Tabei was the first woman to climb to the summit³⁾. The first successful winter ascent was in Feb 1980 by Polish Expedition with Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki, with a temperature of -43ºF (-41ºC) and Category-1 Hurricane winds⁴⁾.