The Conquest of Everest

Ned Kelly, the leader of the infamous Kelly gang, has been described as Australia's only truly national hero. During a short but intense crime spree at the end of the 1870s, he led a gang of notorious outlaws who rampaged through the Australian bush, robbing banks and stealing ho ...  Show more

It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the intersection of science, navigation, empire and time itself. For cent ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes focusing on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

It's 70 years since Edmund Hillary with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to reach the summit of Everest in 1953.

We ...

When were the first attempts to summit Mount Everest? Did Mallory really say he wanted to climb it just “because it’s there”? How did climbing expeditions spark diplomatic crises in the 20th century – and what was the ‘Affair of the Dancing Lamas’? To mark the 70th anniversary of ...  Show more

Think you know Mount Everest? Test your knowledge with this fun trivia episode of All About Everest! Host Pauline Reynolds Nuttall takes you through surprising questions and answers about the world’s highest peak: Was it really Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who first summ ...  Show more

After WWII ended, efforts were resumed to conquer Everest, but it took many, many teams and missions to reach the summit. Eventually, a bee keeper and a Sherpa achieved that loftiest of goals. But what's happened on Everest since then? You can read the show notes for this epis ...