In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by
John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair,
Tom Bourdillon and
Charles Evans, came within 100 m (330 ft) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their oxygen caches were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second assault on the summit with the second climbing pair: the New Zealander
Edmund Hillary and
Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali
Sherpa climber. They reached the summit at 11:30 am local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first.
Afterwards Hillary made the famious comment, "We knocked that bastard off!!"