At 29,028 feet (8,848 meters), Mount Everest is the tallest mountain of the world. Known as Sagarmatha, or Goddess of the sky, in Nepal, Mount Everest has a mystical appeal that attracts thousands of hopeful climbers every year. It's impossible to say how many people have reached Everest's summit at any given time, since the number changes every year. At the end of the 2004 climbing season, 1,400 different climbers from twenty different countries had completed a total of over 2000 climbs.

Because of the extreme conditions experienced on Mount Everest, fatalities are commonplace. To date, 179 people have died trying to reach the summit, which sets the fatality rate at around nine percent. Most of these fatalities happened before 1990. In the last ten years, advances in climbing equipment and more experienced guides have resulted in a steep drop in fatality statistics: from 37% in 1990 to 4.4% in 2004.

In 1924, an English team of two climbers, Mallory and Irvine, claimed to have reached Mount Everest's summit for the first time in history. Because no official records remain of that attempt, is still not clear if they actually did reach the summit. The first official summit was accomplished by Sir Edmund Percival Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a sherpa from Darjeeling, India. They reached Everest's summit on 29 May 1953.

The 1970s was a decade of records. The first woman to climb Mount Everest was Junko Tabei, who reached the summit in 1975. In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. In 1980, Messner was also the first solo climber to reach the summit.

In 2003, another Japanese climber, Yuichiro Miura set the record as the oldest person ever to reach the summit. He was 70 at the time. On the other end of the spectrum, the youngest climber to take on Mount Everest was Temba Tsheri, who on 22 May 2001, at the age of 15, reached the summit. One of the most impressive records, however, is the one set on 25 May 2001 by Erik Weihenmayer. He was the first blind climber to conquer Mount Everest.

The deadliest year in Mount Everest's history was 1996, when 19 people died near the summit. Among the fatalities were group leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Journalist Jon Krakauer, a survivor from that trek, went on to write the bestseller Into Thin Air. The latest record was set on 30 May 2005 by Nepalese Mona Mulepati and Pem Dorje Sherpa. They were the first couple to get married on top of Mount Everest.