Around 175 people have lost their lives trying to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. But 50 years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top, Everest is still every climber's dream.

Already, 1,201 people have reached the "roof of the world" and a record number of about 1,000 climbers plan during the golden jubilee of the peak's first conquest to try to scale the mountain that straddles the Nepali-Chinese border.

But the drama of Hillary and Norgay's ascent of the 8,850- meter (29,040-foot) mountain -- news of which came on the eve of queen Elizabeth's Coronation -- is still unmatched.

On May 29, 1953, the two climbers wriggled up a small gap between ice and rock at 8,800 meters (28,870 feet), a short stretch ahead of the summit, Reuters reported.

This last grueling rock barrier of the mountain, which locals call Chomolungma or mother goddess of the world, has been known ever since as the Hillary step.

"We knocked the bastard off!" An elated Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand, shouted on his descent to their British expedition camp.

Norgay, a Nepali Sherpa, was more reserved. "Chomolungma: I am grateful," he said afterwards. Since international competition for the story was intense, a correspondent of the times of London sent a pre-arranged message to the newspaper to confuse rivals: "Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop awaiting improvement." Decoded the message translated as "Summit of Everest Reached on May 29 by Hillary and Tenzing."

Uphill Climb The path to the top was not easy.

Twenty-nine years earlier, in June 1924, two Britons had disappeared in the clouds at 8,450 meters (27,70 feet) while going for the summit.

British school teacher George Leigh Mallory and his team-mate Andrew Irvine's pioneering climb was the first of the few truly historic efforts on the giant mountain.

Their accomplishment was especially remarkable because they wore clothes made of only wool and leather and had none of the gear and equipment used by modern-day climbers. Mallory's perfectly preserved body was found on the slopes of the mountain in the spring of 1999 and one question that still remains unanswered is: Was Mallory on his way to the top or on his way down from the summit?

Other climbing expeditions were made but all failed to reach the summit until Hillary and Tenzing's conquest in 1953.

The next big milestone in Everest's history came 10 years later when two members of a U.S. expedition, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, made the first attempt to climb up one side and down another. Mountaineers call this a traverse.

They succeeded, but unsoeld lost most of his toes to frostbite after they were forced to spend their summit night without any protection from the terrible cold. First climb without oxygen.

The next historic breakthrough came in May 1978 when two mountaineers climbed all the way up and down Everest without oxygen cylinders. Following Hillary's Route, Reinhold Messner from Italy's south Tirol, and his climbing Partner, Peter Habeler of Austria, found it tough going toward the end but decided to press on and reached the top.

Messner followed up this historic climb two years later in August 1980 with an even more daring feat: The first solo ascent.

Climbing again without bottled oxygen, he made the ascent to the summit and returned in the unprecedented short time of just three days. His accomplishment has never been repeated.

The next truly historic climb of Everest lies in the future.

It has been thought of but no one has ever tried it: A traverse not just of Everest but also of two mountains, Lhotse and Nuptse that adjoin it to form a horseshoe.