Mount Everest summit, Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal (© fotoVoyager/Getty Images)

In Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal, Mount Everest rises into view, calm and unmoved as evening settles in. That stillness was broken in 1953. After years of planning and weeks of climbing, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. At just under 8,850 metres above sea level, they became the first people known to have stood at Earth's highest point.