Even its name conjures up images of steep icy ramparts, jagged rock faces, and cold rarefied air.
Strong winds scour and pummel the mountain as the summit pokes into the jet stream.
This giant casts a shadow some 250 miles long. It straddles the borders of Nepal to the south and Tibet to the north. It was the British reconnaissance expedition of 1921 that determined the only feasible route to the summit was via the North Col to the Northeast Ridge. Prior to 1938, this route was made famous by seven unsuccessful British attempts, but it was during the 1924 expedition that George Leigh Mallory and his young climbing partner Andrew Irvine would disappear into the history books. It would be another 40 years before a very large Chinese team successfully climbed this route in 1960.