Amid the last century, the mission to climb Mount Everest seemed impossible. Official ascent statistics include at least 50 unsuccessful attempts. And only in 1953 did Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquer its summit, after which the number of successful ascents to the peak began to increase dramatically. And thanks to modern equipment, today almost any well-trained person can climb Everest.

There are climbers who have set their own unique records on Mount Everest- the land of records. Here we have listed the ten most incredible Mount Everest climbers who had goals that are a little crazy.

Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary

On May 29, 1953, New Zealand Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British expedition, set foot on the summit of Everest for the first time in history.

The climbers spent about 19 minutes at the top. They even dared to take off their oxygen masks. Despite the warnings of the doctors, they did not immediately feel ill.

On the occasion of the successful ascent, Edmund placed a small cross in the snow, and Norgay left a Buddhist donation in the form of sweets. 

The correspondent of The Times sent an encrypted message about the expedition’s success to the Nepalese village of Namche Bazaar, where there was a radio. From there, the message was then sent to the British Embassy in Kathmandu. 

Already on June 1, 1953, the day before the British Queen Elizabeth II coronation, the news reached London. Edmund Hillary and George Hunt were knighted, Norgay was awarded the British Empire Medal.

Reinhold Messner

Exactly 42 years ago, the outstanding Italian climber Reinhold Messner did something which shocked everyone. He was the first in history to climb Everest alone, and even without an oxygen tank. The ascent coincided with the monsoon season, but even this did not stop the extreme.

Reinhold was born and raised in the amazing beauty of South Tyrol in Italy. He set a record that is hard to believe. He was the first in the history of mankind to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders of the world – mountain peaks over 8000 meters high.

When on August 20, 1980, he climbed Mount Everest without anyone’s help, he was so tired that he did not even feel any moment of solemnity. 

Messner is now 77 years old, and this is no reason for him to relax in retirement and finally get comfortable on the couch in front of the TV. He still travels through the mountains, visits the camps of the highest peaks in the world, and does not think to stop.

Mark Inglis

Mark Inglis from New Zealand became the first person to climb Mount Everest with both legs amputated. Both his legs were amputated in 1982 as they were frozen during an expedition to Mount Cook, but even this fact did not affect his firm intention to conquer the highest mountain in the world. 

As a result, in 2006, the climber went on a journey to pursue a dream as part of a commercial group, accompanied by a Discovery Channel film crew. It took 40 days for Inglis to reach the summit, but the climber himself claims that he would be ready to go as much more if only to achieve his cherished goal.

During the climb to the top, Inglis faced several difficult trials. At an altitude of 6400 meters, one of his prosthetic legs broke, and he had to repair it.

Mark climbed Everest from one side of the mountain and descended from the other. 

Erik Weihenmayer

Eric Weihenmeier climbed the summit of Everest in 2001 being completely blind. He lost his eyesight at the age of 13, but this did not stop him but instead pushed him to conquer new heights, both literally and figuratively. 

And in 2015, Eric climbed Mount Huntington in Alaska (3,731 meters), Mount Marmolada in Italy (3,342 meters), and Gannet Peak in the USA (4,209 meters). At the same time, in 2004, he also returned to Everest: together with a group of blind teenagers, Weihenmeier climbed to a height of about 6,500 meters.

Yuichiro Miura

Japanese grandfather Yuichiro Miura proved to the whole world that after 80, life is just beginning. At this age, he set his own world record, becoming the oldest climber to reach the summit of Everest. 

Before climbing Mount Everest, he already had three heart surgeries, a broken pelvic bone, and diabetes. He already managed to ascend Mount Everest twice, at 70 and 75 years old. But the highest summit called him for the third time, and on May 23, 2013, he became the world’s oldest conqueror of Everest.

Yuichiro Miura climbed Everest with the help of his team, in which his son, 49-year-old Gota Miura, also participated. The climbers made the last rush to the summit from Camp 5 at an altitude of 8.5 thousand meters in 7 hours. Since, the final meters of the distance was complicated by constant strong winds, they used oxygen cylinders.

Yuichiro and his team stayed at the top of the summit for about 30 minutes, taking celebratory photos, and then began to descend.

Jordan Romero

Jordan Romero became the youngest conqueror of Everest back in 2010 – at the time of conquering the summit, he was only 13 years old. The young daredevil climbed with his parents and three Sherpa assistants: Ang Pasang, Lama Dawa, and Lama Karma. Such an extreme performance required extensive acclimatization and a lot of hard training – in total, the Romero expedition spent about 50 days in the Himalayas.

For the ascent, they chose a route along the northern slope of the mountain from Tibet. It is considered safer; as it excludes the passage through the unpredictable Khumbu icefall; however, it is more technically difficult to climb. Another reason for choosing the Tibetan side of Everest is that Jordan was too young to get an expedition license from the Nepalese authorities.

Team 13-year-old Jordan began climbing the Chomolungma from the north side at 5 pm on May 21, 2010. Along the way, they camped at 25,000 feet and reached the summit at 9:45 the next day. After spending 20 freezing minutes at the summit, a trio of American climbers descended, returning to the main camp at 6:00 pm on May 26.

Junko Tabei

Junko Tabei is the first woman  to climb Mount Everest. When Junko arrived in Nepal in 1975 with the ambitious goal of climbing Everest, she was already the mother of a three-year-old daughter.

At that time, the Nepalese authorities allowed only one expedition to obtain a permit to climb Everest in one season. The Japanese expedition consisted of 15 women; it was sponsored by two companies and the press. Besides, the UN declared 1975 the year of women; thus, “all the stars aligned this time,” and the Japanese team led by Junko Tabei received this permit!

Junko gained world fame on May 16, 1975, when she climbed to the top of the world – Mount Everest. Her ascent took place along the route of the pioneers Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay along the southern Nepalese side of the mountain. 

Junko opened a new era in women’s mountaineering with her climb to the top. And although the second woman climbed to the top of Everest literally after the Japanese woman (ten days later, as part of the Chinese team, the Tibetan climber Phanthog climbed to the top of Everest from the north.) Junko forever remained in the history of mountaineering as the first woman to defeat the highest summit. 

Kami Rita Sherpa

On May 7, 2021, Nepalese climber Kami Rita Sherpa set a new record for the number of ascents to the summit of Everest. He ascended the highest point of the planet for the 25th time!

Kami, 51, broke his own 2019 record when he climbed Mount Everest for the 23rd and 24th time. He also has five double ascents in a season: in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2019.

Kami Rita belongs to the Sherpa- an ethnic group living in the highlands of Nepal and the Himalayas. He first climbed Mount Everest on May 13, 1994; he also climbed Mount K2 and Lhotse once, Manaslu twice, and Cho Oyu eight times.

Scott Parazynski

Scott Parazynski reached the summit of Mount Everest, walked in space seven times, and saw the planet from heights most people can only dream of.

Parazynski was forced to leave NASA due to an injury to his back after attempting to climb Mount Everest in 2008, a mishap in which he fractured a spinal disc, however after months of rest and full recovery from his injury returned to try to climb the highest point in the world in 2009, with the support of Discovery Channel and successfully fulfilling that personal mission.

Babu Chiri Sherpa

Babu Chiri Sherpa began his expeditionary life as a porter until he climbed his first eight-thousander Kangchenjunga at the age of 23.

Soon, the peaks of Dhaulagiri, Shishapangma, and Cho-Oyu were added to his collection, but it was Everest that became the peak that brought him fame. During his career, he climbed to the top of the world 10 times between 1990 and 2000 and was one of the first to climb to the top twice in one season in 1995.

In 2000, he started from Base Camp at 17:00 on May 20 and was at the summit at 09:56 the following day, climbing the mountain in a record time of 16 hours and 56 minutes!

But in 1999, he completed a project that was even more unusual at the time. He took a tent to the top of Everest, laid it out there, and spent 21 hours on the very top of the mountain, and without the use of oxygen cylinders! Periodically, he sang the anthem of Nepal, which was broadcast on the radio to the radio station “Radio Nepal.”