This is How Mount Everest Got So Overcrowded

Spoiler: It’s because of money.

Before 1953, no one in recorded history had reached the summit of Mount Everest.

This wrinkle in the Earth’s crust is the farthest from sea level you can get and still have two feet planted on the Earth. This was first determined in 1852 by mathematician and surveyor, Radhanath Sikdar, after decades of exhausting and deadly surveys into the inhospitable and often impassable Himalayas.

But it wasn’t until 1885 when English mountaineer, Clinton Thomas Dent, speculated that it would be possible to scale this mountain, reach the top, and not die doing so.

And the race to conquer Mount Everest began.

Throughout the 1920s and 30s, various British expeditions tried to scale the mountain. The first recorded deaths happened at this time as well. One of whom was George Mallory who went missing while attempting to reach the summit in 1924. His body was found 75 years later, preserved and undisturbed, 2000 feet from the top of Mount Everest.

Nearly 10 years later, wealthy British philanthropist and aviation pioneer, Lady Houston, financed an aircraft expedition to the mountain, making Air Commodore and Scottish Nobleman, Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the first person to fly over Mount Everest.