As 54 people reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, we find the best sites on this deadly but respected peak

1. The roof of the world has never been as busy as it was yesterday, when 54 people reached the summit of Everest. Among those to brave the highest peak was the oldest woman yet to scale it.

2. The 63-year-old from Japan is one of 1,000 people to reach the summit since Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay planted the soles of their boots there in 1953.

3. It may seem fitting that their descendants were among the crowds lining the ascent. Tenzing Norgay's grandson reached the summit, while Sir Edmund's son, Peter, was on his way. They had hoped to meet at the summit.

4. But Mr Hillary followed his father's original, slower route to the top. He had to make do with the company of a television camera crew instead.

5. No doubt the cameraman was equally appreciative of the stunning views as those who have passed before him.

6. The mountain is, to south Asians at least, a goddess worthy of veneration. In Nepal it is called Sagarmartha, which roughly translated means goddess of the sky, while Tibetans call it Chomolungma, or goddess of the universe. The peak won its more sober sobriquet in 1865 when it was given the name of the British surveyor-general of India, Sir George Everest.

7. Even a colonial rebranding could not erase the deadly history of a mountain that has claimed the lives of almost 200 climbers.

8. The English-sounding name may, however, be one reason why many Americans think that the mountain is in the United States. It is not in the Rockies, but in the war-torn Himalayan kingdom of Nepal.

9. Teams of local mountain folk as well as international mountaineers have made repeated missions to clean up the tonnes of garbage left by mountaineers during the past 50 years.

10. All parties will have left the slopes by the end of this month, when the weather shifts and monsoon rains make the slopes even more treacherous.