Fifty years ago, on May 29, 1953, mountain climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans ever to scale the icy summit of Mount Everest (elevation 29,035 feet), the world's highest peak. Since then, more than 1,500 other adventurers have reached this pinnacle in the Himalayan mountain range, which sprawls 2,550 kilometers (1,600 miles) along the border of India and Tibet. And at least 170 people have died while attempting the climb.
If a mountain is a landform ...