Tibet, Chomolungma, Rongbuk. Mount Everest (8,848m). Sunset on Mount Everest, known locally as Chomolungma. In 1852 the Great Trigonometric Survey of India determined that Mount Everest was definitively the world's highest mountain. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, and Tenzing Norgay, an acclaimed Sherpa climber, became the first to reach the summit from the Nepalese side. Between 1921 and 2004, Everest has been climbed by more than 2,200 people from twenty countries. More than 185 have lost their lives.