54 years ago, the mountaineers Edmund Hillary (*1919) and Tenzing Norgay (1914-1986) could barely believe their eyes: with their last strength, they had climbed up a rock and could not see any higher point on the earth. On 29 May 1953, they thus became the first people to reach the “roof of the world”. After struggling against storms, ice, cold and exhaustion, Hillary and Norgay had conquered the highest mountain in the world, the 8,848-metre-high Mt. Everest in the Himalayas in Asia. Since the 1930s, many courageous climbers had attempted the ascent and failed. Some of them even died. It was only with the help of oxygen cylinders and the best equipment that the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a member of the Sherpa mountain people, achieved the adventure, which led to their becoming great heroes. Hillary was even knighted by the British queen, becoming “Sir Edmund”.

Almost 25 years later, something incredible happened again: Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler reached the summit – without oxygen cylinders.