Here’s an interesting website: Mt Everest History and facts – just all the basic stats for Mt. Everest climbs. It’s amazing what human beings do and can do once someone proves it’s possible, like the 4-minute mile that everyone thought was impossible, and now is practically expected.

Everest was ‘summitted’ for the first time in recorded history in May of 1953, and since then, we’ve gotten to where there’s close to 200 people a year making it up there, including a blind guy, and a guy with one arm! Some people have skied or snowboarded down now, and one guy came down in 11 minutes on a hang glider. All of this is just further evidence for why I frequently say, ‘what won’t these pathetic, crazy, hairless monkey-creatures think of to do next?’ I’ve actually become aware of this page only because we publish a tape by the blind guy, Eric Weihenmayer, called Touch the Top of the World, available on our website at Audio Editions.

Don’t let these stats fool you though – in the best year, fully 1/16th of the people who tried to summit died on the mountain.