Mount Everest

The border between Nepal and China runs straight across the top of Mount Everest, a summit in the Mahalangur Himal whose height was last fixed by a joint Nepali–Chinese survey in 2020 at 8,848.86 metres. No point on Earth stands higher above sea level. Nepalis call the mountain Sagarmatha; Tibetans call it Qomolangma, a name that already appears on a Qing imperial atlas of 1721. The English name came from Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India, who honoured his predecessor George Everest, even though Everest himself protested that the natives of India could neither write nor pronounce it. The Royal Geographical Society adopted it anyway in 1865.

The top of the world was once the floor of a sea. The summit pyramid is Ordovician limestone, and geologists have found microscopic fragments of crinoids, ancient marine animals, in rock taken from high on the peak. Below it lies the Yellow Band, a tawny layer of marble and schist around 8,200 to 8,600 metres that climbers on the Nepali route must traverse with fixed ropes. At the summit the air pressure is roughly a third of that at sea level, and the peak reaches into the path of the jet stream, whose fierce winds can batter it for much of the year; that is why most attempts are squeezed into a short window in May, before the monsoon.

The mountain's human story began with British expeditions approaching from Tibet, because Nepal was closed to foreigners. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off for the summit on 8 June 1924 and never returned, and whether they reached it is still debated. The first documented ascent came in 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary climbed the Southeast Ridge; a Chinese team made the first reported ascent from the north in 1960. Since the commercial era of the 1990s, Everest has become a crowded and costly undertaking. More than 340 people had died on it by 2024, and a Nepali rule due to take effect from the spring 2026 season requires climbers to have summited a 7,000-metre peak in Nepal before they can obtain an Everest permit.

Most visitors never set foot above base camp, and do not need to. On the Nepali side the classic trek runs from Lukla up the Dudh Kosi valley to Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa capital, then past Tengboche monastery and Dingboche to Gorak Shep, the flat below Kala Patthar (5,545 m), and on to South Base Camp at about 5,364 metres; some 40,000 people make the walk each year. On the Tibetan side a paved road branches off China National Highway 318 towards North Base Camp, but since 2019 visitors without a climbing permit may go only as far as Rongbuk Monastery, the sacred threshold of the mountain, long praised for some of the most dramatic views in the world. The mountain is protected by Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal and the Qomolangma National Nature Reserve in China.

Getting there

From Nepal, the usual route is a flight from Kathmandu (or Ramechhap) to Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA) at Lukla, about 38 km from the summit in a straight line. Flights operate only in daylight and good weather and are often delayed by cloud and wind. From Lukla the trek to South Base Camp typically takes six to eight days to allow for acclimatisation. The nearest sizeable town, Khandbari, lies about 73 km away but is not a practical base.

From Tibet, the regional city of Shigatse is about 237 km away and Shigatse Tingri Airport (DDR) about 70 km; the final approach is by road to Rongbuk. Entry rules for Tibet and for the Everest area change often, so check current permit requirements before planning either side.