Mt. Everest beckons - and we can't resist

Everest, the world's highest mountain at 29,029 ft above sea level, continues to exert an unyielding pull on the collective imaginations of would-be mountaineers. So far around 2,700 people have been recorded making it to the summit. But the conditions are unforgiving. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 8,000 meters have generally been left to the elements -- their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures.

In this image, the oldest summitteer of Everest: Nepali ex-soldier, Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit of Mount Everest on May, 25 2008 at the age of 76.

Nepalese climber Apa Sherpa, who holds the world record the for most successful climbs of Mount Everest, poses with his Guinness record certificate upon arriving at Kathmandu airport on April 6, 2011 for a flight to Lukla, northeast of Kathmandu, to prepare for his 21 ascent of the famous peak. A month later, he broke his own record by climbing the highest peak in the world for the 21st time. He first climbed Everest in 1990.

An aerial view of the Mount Everest range some 87 miles northeast of Kathmandu.

On 29 May 1953 Sir Edmund Percival Hillary and a Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay entered the history books when they became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Another view of Everest.

Nepalese climber Pemba Dorje Sherpa (R) poses with his nine-year old son Tseten Sherpa (L) in Kathmandu on November 11, 2010. Pemba, who holds the record for the fastest ascent of Everest, scaled the 19,700-foot Mount Ramdung in eastern Nepal with his son as part of their training to make his son the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.

Participants of the annual Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon begin the race at the Everest Base Camp, Nepal, on Sunday, May 29, 2011. The event, considered as the highest altitude marathon of the world, starts at Khumbu Ice Fall at Everest Base Camp at 5,364 meters above sea level, finishes at Namche Bazar at 3,440 meters above sea level.

Nepalese sherpas after retrieving two corpses of climbers left on the world's highest mountain. Led by seven-time summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, the team braved thin air and below freezing temperatures to clear around two tons of rubbish left behind by mountaineers, that included empty oxygen cylinders and corpses. The picture was taken May 17, 2010.

Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, the former foreign minister of Nepal, became sick and died while trying to become the oldest person to summit the peak. He was reported to have been 82 when he succumbed to illness on May 9, 2011.

Mount Everest seen from the Kalapattar Plateau, on December 4, 2009. Nepalese ministers held what they said was the world's highest ever cabinet meeting at 17,192 feet to highlight the impact of climate change on the Himalayas.

Nepalese politicians pose for a picture after a cabinet meeting at Kalapattar Plateau near Mount Everest on December 4, 2009, at an altitude of 17,192 feet. Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar and 22 other ministers, equipped with oxygen cylinders, traveled by helicopter for the gathering on the Kalapattar Plateau up in world's highest mountain range.

Indian mountaineer and mother of two children, Anshu Jamsenpa (32) holds her medals received from the Nepalese government for summiting Mount Everest twice in ten days - on May 12, 2011 and on May 21, 2011.

The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everest as seen from the International Space Station looking south-south-east over the Tibetan Plateau.

Crop of a NASA photograph with overlay showing climbing routes on Everest.