Their achievement provided one answer to the many questions about high-altitude survival which had been asked from the beginning of the century. Their climb was the culmination of a siege-style effort in the expedition led by Sir John Hunt. Indeed, it provided the blueprint for the first ascents of the majority of the remaining 800 metre peaks through the next decade.

Today Everest has been climbed by all its formidable ridges and each of its great faces. It has been climbed without supplementary oxygen, it had been soloed and parapented off.

But the original ascent remains a classic story of exploring new thresholds and reaching out to achieve the highest point in the world.