Hillary and Tenzing pitch the highest camp in history for their Everest bid
On this day · 28 May 1953
On 28 May 1953, two climbers hauled a tent far above the South Col and spent a freezing night poised for the summit.
On 28 May 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed past the South Col — at 7,920 m (26,000 ft), normally the last camp on Everest — and kept going. With a small support party they pitched a single tent roughly 610 m (2,000 ft) higher still, at about 8,500 m, then watched their helpers descend into the gathering dark.
It was the highest camp any human had ever occupied. The two men brewed tea, nursed their oxygen sets, and tried to sleep on a sloping ledge while the wind worked at the canvas.
They were now perched above every other living person on Earth, with only the summit ridge left to climb.
The gamble was simple and brutal: sleep as high as possible, so the final push the next morning would be short enough to survive. Hillary woke to find his boots frozen solid, and spent two hours thawing them over a stove before the pair could set out for the top.
Sources & references
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