Everest in numbers

Since the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, 60 years ago on 29 May 1953, the mountain has lured countless climbers and trekkers keen to walk in its shadow and test themselves against the highest mountain on earth.

Under the leadership of John Hunt the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition climbing party, which included New Zealander Edmund Hilary and local Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, worked their way up the Khumbu Glacier, through its fearsome icefall and across the western Cwm, riven with deep crevasses, to the foot of the Lhotse face. They scaled the face, traversed the steep ice slope above and arrived on the wind-scoured South Col. From here two attempts were made on the summit. The second, by Hilary and Norgay, saw them stand on the roof of the world at 11.30am on 29 May 1953. Everest had been conquered.

Since then a host of other ascents have provided statistics and records, some of which we round up below.

• 60 years since Mount Everest was first summited by Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, on 29 May 1953, via the South Col route
• 8,848m (29,029ft) the officially recognised height of Everest
• 300m - distance from the summit a Swiss expedition turned back in 1952
• 100m - distance from the summit the first 1953 climbing party, comprising Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, turned back after running into oxygen problems.
• 360 porters involved in the 1953 expedition, supporting 12 climbers and 20 Sherpa guides
• 12m - height of the Hilary Step, the final obstacle on the way to the top
• 15 minutes - the length of time Hilary/Tensing Norgay spent on the summit before descending
• 2 main routes used by the majority of modern climbers, from the south and the north-east
• 5,600 people have summited since 1953
• 500+ people have successfully summited each year since 2010
• 15 - highest number of deaths on the mountain in a single year (1996)
• 264 - number of people from the UK to make it to the top since the first ascent (2,000 less than the number of Nepalese)
• 40,000 - number of pounds on average spent to summit Everest from the south
• 8.10  - hours and minutes taken on the fastest ascent (south side) by Pemba Dorje Sherpa in 2004
• 13 years old - youngest person to stand on the summit, Jordan Romero, in 2010
• 80 years old - oldest person to stand on the summit, Yuichiro Miura, in 2013
• 21 - record number of times someone has stood on the summit, achieved by Apa Sherpa between 10 May 1990 and 11 May 2011