Mount Everest peak 8,848 metres above sea level

It has been more than six decades since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first ever mountaineers to reach the peak of Mount Everest, but the desire for conquest it inspires in climbers hasn’t diminished in the slightest. The news is filled with dozens of stories of triumphs and also of tragedy, as summiteers from around the world flock to Mount Everest to put their names in the annals of history. Here are some extraordinary facts about the mountain you won’t come across all that often: There has been some dispute about the exact height of Mount Everest, too, among the Chinese and the Nepalese, with the former claiming it to be 8844 meters, and the latter claiming it to be 8848 meters.