1953: First Footsteps - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

Excerpted From "50 Years on Everest," by Contributing Editor David Roberts, National Geographic Adventure, April 2003By today's standards, the 1953 British expedition, under the military-style leadership of Sir John Hunt, was massive in the extreme, but in an oddly bottom-heavy way: 350 porters, 20 Sherpas, and tons of supplies to support a vanguard of only ten climbers.