Mount Everest · Mahalangur Himal

Everest by the Numbers: Summits, Deaths and Records

Cumulative totals, spring 2026 season highlights, a firsts-and-records table and a dated milestone timeline, all traced to the Himalayan Database as compiled by Alan Arnette and the sources listed below. The underlying research has cumulative totals and named records, not a full year-by-year series, so no annual summit or death chart is invented here.

Cumulative totals, through December 2025

Summits

13,737

All-time, both sides of the mountain

Individuals

7,563

6,656 expedition members + 7,081 hired staff

Deaths

339

229 Nepal side · 110 Tibet side

Deaths per 100 summits

2.47

Computed: 339 ÷ 13,737 × 100

The computed rate above divides the two cumulative totals directly. Alan Arnette's own 2026 analysis quotes a lower ≈1.06 deaths per 100 summits (Alan Arnette / Himalayan Database, 2026 edition), which likely uses a different, unstated denominator (such as total summit attempts rather than successful summits); both figures are shown so neither is presented as the only answer.

Spring 2026 season highlights

Permits issued

~492

Previous record: 478 permits, spring 2023

Summits in a single day

274

20 May 2026

Royalties collected

>USD 6M

From Everest permits alone, spring 2026

Deaths this season

Spring 2026

Firsts & records

Record	Holder	Detail	Date
First ascent	Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay Sherpa	British expedition led by John Hunt, via the Southeast Ridge / South Col	29 May 1953
First winter ascent	Leszek Cichy & Krzysztof Wielicki	Poland	17 February 1980
First woman to summit	Junko Tabei	Japan, via the South Col, twelve days after an avalanche injury	16 May 1975
First ascent without supplemental oxygen	Reinhold Messner & Peter Habeler	Proved the 'death zone' could be climbed unaided	8 May 1978
First solo ascent, no oxygen	Reinhold Messner	North side, solo	20 August 1980
First Nepali woman to summit	Pasang Lhamu Sherpa	Died on descent; national icon, honoured on stamps and peak names	22 April 1993
Youngest summiteer	Jordan Romero	Age 13, from the Tibet side	2010
Oldest summiteer	Yuichiro Miura	Age 80	2013
Most summits, all-time	Kami Rita Sherpa	32nd summit	17 May 2026
Most summits by a woman	Lhakpa Sherpa	11th summit	17 May 2026

Timeline of major milestones

This is the dated record of major milestones in the underlying research, not a complete annual log: entries mark named events, not every year in between.

29 May 1953Ascent
Everest climbed
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit via the South Col on John Hunt's British expedition.
16 May 1975Record
Junko Tabei: first woman on Everest
The Japanese climber summits via the South Col twelve days after being injured in an avalanche.
8 May 1978Record
Everest without oxygen
Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler prove the 'death zone' can be climbed unaided.
22 Apr 1993Record
Pasang Lhamu Sherpa
The first Nepali woman to summit Everest dies on descent; she remains a national icon, honoured on stamps and peak names.
10–11 May 1996Tragedy
The 1996 Everest disaster
A storm kills eight climbers in a night (15 that season), chronicled in 'Into Thin Air': the dawn of the commercial-era reckoning.
18 Apr 2014Tragedy
Khumbu Icefall serac collapse
Sixteen Nepali high-altitude workers die in a single ice release: then the deadliest day on Everest; the season is abandoned.
25 Apr 2015Tragedy
Earthquake avalanche at Base Camp
The Gorkha earthquake sends an avalanche off Pumori through Everest Base Camp, killing at least 19: the mountain's deadliest day.
May 2019Record
The queue photograph
Nirmal Purja's image of ~300 climbers strung along the summit ridge defines the overcrowding debate; 11 die that season. Purja then climbs all 14 8000ers in 6 months 6 days.
Spring 2023Record
Record 478 permits; 18 deaths
Everest's 70th-anniversary season is its busiest and among its deadliest; Kami Rita Sherpa reaches summit number 28.
1 Sep 2025Policy
Permit fee rises to USD 15,000
Nepal's first royalty increase in a decade (+36% for spring), plus a mandatory Nepali guide, no solo climbs, and a 7,000 m Nepal-summit prerequisite under the April 2025 law.
17 May 2026Record
Records on a single morning
Kami Rita Sherpa logs Everest summit 32 and Lhakpa Sherpa her 11th: both all-time records, in a season of ~492 permits, the most ever.

Questions

Everest by the numbers: frequently asked

How many people have summited Everest?+

Through December 2025, the Himalayan Database records 13,737 summits by 7,563 individuals (6,656 expedition members and 7,081 hired staff). Some climbers, notably Kami Rita Sherpa (32 summits) and Lhakpa Sherpa (11 summits), account for many summits each, which is why summit count exceeds individual climber count.

How many people have died climbing Everest?+

339 deaths are recorded through December 2025, 229 on the Nepal side and 110 on the Tibet side. Dividing that by the 13,737 cumulative summits gives about 2.47 deaths per 100 summits; Alan Arnette's own 2026 analysis separately quotes ≈1.06 deaths per 100 summits, likely computed against a different, unstated base such as total attempts rather than successful summits.

Who holds the record for most Everest summits?+

Kami Rita Sherpa holds the all-time record with 32 summits, most recently on 17 May 2026. Lhakpa Sherpa holds the women's record with 11 summits, reached the same day.

What happened on Everest in spring 2026?+

Nepal issued a record ~492 Everest permits (surpassing the previous record of 478 in spring 2023), 274 climbers summited on 20 May alone, and Everest royalties for the season topped USD 6 million. Five climbers died during the season.

Who was first to climb Everest, and who else holds major records?+

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent on 29 May 1953. Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit in 1975, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler first climbed it without supplemental oxygen in 1978, and Pasang Lhamu Sherpa became the first Nepali woman to summit in 1993 (she died on descent). The youngest summiteer on record is Jordan Romero (age 13, 2010) and the oldest is Yuichiro Miura (age 80, 2013).

Sources & data note

Ascent and fatality statistics derive from the Himalayan Database, compiled through December 2025 via Alan Arnette's annual analysis, plus dated press reports for the spring 2026 season. Figures on this dashboard are a typed re-shaping of the same figures on Everest's main profile page, no year-by-year time series exists in the source data.