8000ers.com
Eberhard Jurgalski has been fascinated by mountains since early childhood, and in 1981 he began formally chronicling the high mountains of Asia. He has developed the system of “Elevation Equality”, a universal method of classifying mountain ranges and peaks, and his website, 8000ers.com, has become the main source of statistics for altitude in the Himalayas and Karakorum ranges. He is also co-author of Herausforderung 8000er, the definitive guide to the world’s 14 mountains that stand over 8,000 m (26,246 ft).
First ascent of Everest
The world's highest mountain (8,848.8 m; 29,031 ft) was first climbed at 11:30 a.m. on 29 May 1953, when the summit was reached by Edmund Percival Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (India/Tibet, China). The successful expedition was led by Colonel Henry Cecil John Hunt. The first woman to climb Everest was Junko Tabei (Japan), who reached the summit on 16 May 1975.