Mountaineering
These are the most amazing feats achieved on Mount Everest
The summit of Mount Everest has been reached 8,306 times since it was first climbed 65 years ago. Here are the stories behind some of the most amazing records set in that time.
The 8,848m summit of Mount Everest – known as Sagarmatha in Nepal or Chomolungma in Tibet, both meaning ‘Goddess of the Sky’ – is a mega draw for adventurers of all kinds.
With so many summits, these days everyone wants to bag a ‘first’ on top of the world, so the list of achievements up there is starting to become more and more bizarre. This has included one person climbing in shorts, another going topless and one couple getting married there. (For the record, the Nepali government has since began vetting ascents to make sure they are respectful.)
Here we take a look at the stories behind some of the most amazing Everest moments that made the record books.
Learn more about Mount Everest:
01
First ascent
New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nelpalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were fuelled on sardines and biscuits on their final push to the summit. They braved high winds, a mammoth snowstorm and temperatures of -28ºCelsius to reach the top on May 29, 1953.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
© Jamling Tenzing Norgay/www.tenzing-norgay-trekking.de
It is not widely known, though, that before joining the British-run expedition, Sherpa Tenzing had come within 150m of the summit the previous year, when he climbed with Raymond Lambert of Switzerland.
The successful ascent of 1953 came just three years after Nepal opened its borders to an ‘easier’ route than Tibet’s North Face. Only one ascent per year was allowed, however, and France and Switzerland had it booked for the next two – so they may have planted their flag had the British expedition failed.
02
First female ascent
Twenty-two years after the first ascent, Japan’s Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the top as part of an all-female team taking the same route as Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing.
Junko Tabei was the first woman to ascend Mount Everest
© Jaan Künnap/Wiki Commons
Amazingly, she was buried unconscious for six minutes in an avalanche during the climb but was pulled out alive and continued on up to the top. She went on to become the first woman to climb the Seven Summits – the highest peak on each continent.
03
Most times at the top
Can you imagine summiting 31 times?
© Lloyd Smith
Reaching the top once is incredible – but one man has summited 31 times. Kami Rita Sherpa hit that record figure on May 27, 2025. Kenton Cool of the UK (more on him later) has the most summits for someone who isn't from Nepal – the English climber and mountain guide hit the top for the 19th time on May 17, 2025.
04
First ascent and ski descent without supplementary oxygen
Bargiel descended on skis without supplementary oxygen
© Bartłomiej Pawlikowski/Red Bull Content Pool
On September 22, 2025, after nearly 16 hours climbing in Everest’s notorious “death zone” (above 8,000m where oxygen levels are dangerously low), Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel clipped into his skis right on the summit of Everest and started his descent via the South Col Route. He reached Camp II that night and rested - the summit push had taken longer than planned, meaning darkness made it dangerous and difficult to navigate further that day. The next morning, he skied through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall - guided in part by a drone flown by his brother, Bartek - before safely arriving at Base Camp to become the first person to ascend and descend Mount Everest with no bottled oxygen.
This wasn’t just another extreme feat. More than 6,000 people have climbed Everest, but fewer than 200 have ever done it without supplementary oxygen. Skiing back down again afterwards, however, is a huge, individual achievement – and is something that'd never been done before.
Explore more of Andrzej Bargiel's incredible achievements
05
Fastest up
The climb from base camp to the summit – a vertical ascent of almost 3.5km - is rarely attempted in one go as most climbers go up and down between different camps to acclimatise before the final push.
View from the summit
© Carlos Pauner
In total, the entire route would take a fit and acclimatised person about 34-38 hours, with four six-hour legs from base camp to Camp 1, Camp 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 4, with plenty of stops in between, and then a final summit ascent of 10-14 hours.
But in 2003, Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa did it in one single run from South Base Camp and took just 10h 56m and 46s from South Base Camp to summit.
06
Fastest down
Marco Siffredi took a fast-track down when he snowboarded from the summit to advance base camp, at 6,400m, in two-and-a-half hours in 2001 – but he wasn’t the first to slide down the mountain.
Slovenian Davo Karničar skied from the summit to base camp in 2000. He was the first to go all the way, just missing the frozen body of a climber on his five-hour run down. Compared to that, his ski descents of Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, the Eiger and Annapurna were a piece of cake.
Neither were the fastest descent though – because in 1988 Frenchman Jean-Marc Boivin had paraglided off, bravely running down a 40m slope at the top of the mountain to get the speed to take off then flying down to Camp 2 at 5,900m in 11-12 minutes.
07
Meditation
Most summiters only stay for a few minutes. But Nepal’s Bhakta Kumar Rai – also known as Supreme Master Godangel of the Heavenly Path sect – spent 32 hours on the top in 2011, 27 of which were in meditation and 11 without any artificial oxygen.
08
First tweet
In 2011, the aforementioned Kenton Cool sent the first summit ‘tweet’ as part of a marketing campaign. On his Twitter account, he wrote, “Everest summit no 9! 1st tweet from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal.”
09
Spaceman summit
Not content with five shuttle missions and 47 hours of spacewalks, American Scott Parazynski became the only astronaut to reach the summit in 2009, on his third attempt. “It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison,” he said after. “I’d never trade either.”
10
Oldest
Yūichirō Miura of Japan became the oldest summiter in 2013 aged 80 – four months after having heart surgery. But he was so tired he had to be airlifted from 6,500m to Base Camp. In 1970, he became the first to ski on Everest. Japan’s Tamae Watanabe set the record for the oldest woman to summit aged 73 in 2012.
11
Youngest
At the opposite end of the scale, American mountain climber Jordan Romero became the youngest person to reach the top aged just 13 years and 10 months in 2010. In 2014, Malavath Poorna of India became the youngest female to summit – she was just one month older at 13 years and 11 months.
12
Doing it differently
Mount Everest and Nuptse from Kalapatthar
© Pavel Novak
A joint team from China, Japan and Nepal did a full traverse of Everest in 1988 – reaching the top from the North and the South simultaneously, and crossing over to descend from the opposite sides.
Kushang Sherpa is the first person to reach the summit from three different routes – climbing the South Col 1993, the North Face in 1996 and Khangshung Face in 1999.
Australian Tim Macartney-Snape became the first to walk and climb from sea level to the top in 1990 on a 1,200km journey that began in Ganga Sagar on the Bay of Bengal. He summited solo, weak with nausea and diarrhoea, and nearly fell when he stopped to adjust his camera.
Briton Pauline Sanderson went one step further in 2006. She launched her expedition at the Dead Sea – from 420m below sea level. The total ascent of 9,269m took her almost six months and she made it to the top with husband, Phil, making them the first married couple to reach summit.
13
And finally
On the May 25, 2003, just four days before the 50th anniversary of the first ascent by Sir Edmund Hillary, the climbing legend’s son Peter phoned his dad via satellite phone from the summit.