ABSTRACT
Long before British explorers became aware of the immense peak that they would christen Mount Everest, the native peoples of Tibet and Nepal were referring to the awesome mountain as "Chomolungma"—"Goddess Mother of the World." In the mid-nineteenth century, England's recognition of the mountain as the highest point on earth raised to fever pitch the public's excitement over the sport of mountain climbing. For decades, the geographic and diplomatic obsta cles of the region surrounding Everest made climbers' recon naissance difficult and their hunger to conquer the mountain acute. In 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were lost as they neared the summit (it was Mallory, when asked his reason for attempting to scale the mountain, who had an swered, "Because it is there"). In 1953, Tenzing Norkey and Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to reach Everest's sum mit. Since their ascent, several nations have sponsored suc cessful assaults on the mountain.
