The big heroes who conquered new heights

TAKING A HIKE: Tenzing Norgay (L) and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand in this 1953 handout photo.

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Keywords: Edmund Hillary, Mount Everest

The conquest of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary, who died on Friday, was one of mountaineering's greatest achievements. Here are some others, and some notable failures:

May 15, 2006: British mountaineer David Sharp perishes near the summit of Mount Everest, triggering a worldwide controversy over ethics when it is revealed that several climbers passed his dying body and made no attempt to rescue him.

May 1, 1999: Climbers discover the frozen body of George Mallory -- the man who famously declared he wanted to climb Everest ''because it is there'' -- at 26,760 feet on the mountain's north face, 75 years after he and his climbing partner disappeared. The camera Mallory was believed to have carried with him was not found, leaving no clues as to whether he and Irvine reached the summit before they died.

August 20, 1980: Italian Reinhold Messner completes first solo climb of Mount Everest.

May 8, 1978: Messner and Austrian Peter Habeler become the first climbers to ascend Everest without supplemental oxygen.

May 16, 1975: Junko Tabei of Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest via the southeast ridge.

May 25, 1955: Britons George Ban and Joe Brand complete first ascent of the world's third highest peak Kangchenjunga, 28,169 feet.

July 31, 1954: Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli become the first to summit Pakistan's K-2, the world's second highest peak at 28,251 feet.