Before it had claimed the lives of dozens of climbers, including George Leigh Mallory in 1924. Norgay, the descendant of generations of yak herders, was destined to become a monk, but his love for the mountains was that much stronger. He had but one dream, despite seven sherpas dying in 1922, to conquer Everest. For thirty years expeditions had been struggling to scale its fiendishly difficult icy slopes until he and Hillary finally succeeded.