Fifty years after Hillary's triumph, thousands follow in his footsteps

Fifty years after Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay "knocked the bastard off" by conquering the previously insurmountable Mount Everest, a veritable traffic jam of climbers is forming on the world's highest peak.

When Norgay responded to the reserved New Zealander's offer of a handshake with an ebullient hug at 11.30am on 29 May, 1953, they earned a place in history.

But as the anniversary approaches and a record number of people are trying to scale the Himalayan peak, the achievement of reaching the highest point on earth is not quite what it used to be. Streams of wealthy businessmen or women with £40,000 to spend, as well as those who have saved for a lifetime for the privilege, are lining up to join more than 1,200 climbers who have reached the 29,035ft (8,850-metre) "roof of the world".

At the moment there are more than 200 mountaineers waiting for weather to clear in camps below the summit. During the current spring season, the Nepalese government has issued climbing permits to 22 expeditions, a total of 250 people, not including their unsung heroes, the Sherpas.

These days, only those who surmount disability, age or previous records merit any special mention. Only yesterday, Pemba Dorjie, a 25-year-old Nepalese Sherpa guide and part of the Belgian-led Dream Everest 2003 Expedition, recorded the fastest climb when he reached the summit in 12 hours and 45 minutes.

The day before, Yuichiro Miura, a 70-year-old Japanese former professional skier became the oldest person to scale the mountain the Tibetans call Chomolungma, or "Mother Goddess of the World".

Dozens of climbers have been known to reach the peak on the same days with a gap of as little as 25 minutes between teams. This week, the American reality adventure show Global Extreme Challenge was beaten to the top by a live Chinese broadcast.

In the words of Sir Edmund - who arrived in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, yesterday to join the anniversary celebrations. "Commercial climbing has developed, with many inexperienced enthusiasts, dozens of aluminium ladders, thousands of metres of fixed rope. It is hardly mountaineering, more like a conducted tour."

He added: "Today, many of you who have climbed the mountain say, 'What was the fuss about? Why did they regard it as such a challenge?' It was because nobody knew it could be done.

"We faced a huge psychological barrier ... One of the major efforts that Tenzing and I made was in showing it was possible to reach that great mountain and survive. The only footsteps in the snow were our own."

Now 83 and frail, Sir Edmund is joining hundreds of mountain climbers for celebrations next week, but without his original partner. Tenzing died in 1986.

Among those attending are Junko Tabei, the first woman to set foot on the peak in 1975, Reinhold Messner of Italy, who climbed first without bottled oxygen and Sherpa Temba Tsheri, the youngest to reach the summit, aged 16, last year.

Earlier this week, Junko Tabei said: "Everest has become too crowded. It needs a rest now. Only two or three teams should be allowed in a season to climb Everest. The Nepalese government should cut down on the number of permits that are issued."

But for many it matters little that they are following a well-trodden path, in parts littered with oxygen bottles, tents, food cans and old ropes left by exhausted climbers.

Wally Berg, who has made it to the top four times, said: "Everest is an icon that speaks to the spirit of adventure. It has not been diminished one bit by the thousand-plus people who have reached the summit."

The ascent remains treacherous, evident by more than 175 deaths in the past five decades. For every five climbers who reached the summit before 1996, one died and many of the dead remain captive in the thick ice on the slopes.

Altitude sickness, dehydration, hypothermia, disorientation, falls, avalanches and blizzards have all claimed their victims. Only three days ago, the British mountaineer Conan Harrod, from Manchester, had to crawl or hop for more than a mile after breaking his leg attempting to climb Everest. His fall at 28,000ft could easily have been fatal.

The Nepalese government, which collects about £40,000 from each Everest expedition, imposed strict regulations in the early 1990s that allowed only one team per route, but it rescinded the tight restrictions just over a year later.

Each year, up to 50,000 trekkers hike in the country's mountains. Yet, despite the £100m brought in annually by tourism, 40 per cent of Nepal's 23 million people live in poverty, according to World Bank figures.

For Sir Edmund, the commercialisation of the mountain he conquered is a matter of mild concern and regret. But, as he said recently when seeing the traffic jam, "there have been many people who have followed in our footsteps, but we were privileged to have made those footsteps".

Peak performance

FIRST CONQUERED: 29 May 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay as part of a British-led team. News reached Britain on the day of the Coronation.

HEIGHT: 29,035ft (8,850m)

LAST CAMP: 26,240ft

BASE CAMP: 17,380ft

MOUNTAIN NAMED AFTER: Sir George Everest, British surveyor general of India

NUMBER TO HAVE REACHED PEAK IN 50 YEARS: More than 1,200 and counting

NUMBER TO HAVE DIED TRYING: More than 175

RECORD NUMBER OF ASCENTS BY ONE CLIMBER: 12 times by Sherpa Appa

FASTEST ASCENT: 12 hours, 45 minutes by Pemba Dorjie

OLDEST PERSON TO REACH TOP: Yuichiro Miura, 70

YOUNGEST PERSON TO REACH TOP: Temba Tsheri, 16

FIRST TELEVISION CREW TO REACH SUMMIT: Japanese crew in 1988

NUMBER TO REACH SUMMIT ON 12 MAY 1992: 30 climbers from five teams

AMOUNT RECEIVED BY NEPALESE GOVERNMENT PER EXPEDITION: £40,000.

NUMBER OF TREKKERS IN HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS EACH YEAR: 50,000