Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, is also one of the most storied with many tales of adventure, bravery, strength, daring and death.

01 of 04 Who First Reached the Summit of Everest? Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images Did Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay reach the summit of Mount Everest first in 1953? The climbers, first to stand on the summit, agreed that they would say that they reached the summit together, thereby negating anti-colonialism in Nepal and India. Evidence, however, indicates that expedition leader John Hunt and Christopher Summerhayes, British ambassador to Nepal, covered up the fact that Hillary actually reached the summit before Tenzing. A three-page memo by Edmund Hillary in the Royal Geographic Society archives stated that he was first to reach Everest's summit:

"[I] stepped on top of Everest… I quickly brought up Tensing [sic] beside me." The official public version by Hillary said: "A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow and we stood on the summit."

02 of 04 The Strange Case of Mr. Wilson A Gypsy Moth plane similar to the Ever Wrest. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images One of the strangest attempts to climb Mount Everest was by Maurice Wilson (1898-1934), an eccentric Englishman, who tried to climb Everest after flying to the mountain--despite knowing nothing about mountaineering or flying. Wilson decided to climb Everest while recuperating from illness, forming a plan to fly to Tibet, crash the plane on the mountain's upper slopes, and climb to the summit. He then learned to fly a Gipsy Moth plane, which he named Ever Wrest, and spent five weeks hiking around Britain for practice. He flew to India in two weeks and spent the winter in Darjeeling planning his expedition. Wilson, with no climbing equipment, approached the Rongbuk Glacier and got lost crossing difficult terrain. On May 22, 1934, he tried to climb to the North Col but failed at an ice wall. On May 31, his last diary entry read: "Off again, gorgeous day." His body was found in 1935 in snow, surrounded by his blown-apart tent. The last twist in the Wilson saga was that it appears he was a cross-dresser who had worked in a ladies dress shop in New Zealand. He was supposedly found wearing women's underwear and had women's clothes in his pack. A 1960 Chinese expedition added fuel to the story by finding a woman's dress shoe at 21,000 feet.

03 of 04 Did Russians First Climbed Everest? Nicole Kucera / Getty Images According to a report in the Alpine Journal by Yevgeniy Gippenreiter, a large Soviet expedition with 35 climbers went to the north side of Everest in Tibet to attempt the Northeast Ridge Route in late 1952. The group, led by Pavel Datschnolian, worked up the mountain to a high camp in early December, placing a team of six for a summit bid. But the men, including Datschnolian, vanished, probably swept down by an avalanche and were never found. Russian climbers have researched archives, mountaineering journals from the 1940s and 1950s, and checked all the known climber names and discovered nothing. It's as though none of the supposed climbers, including the leader, or the expedition ever existed. Just imagine what might have been if they had succeeded? As the Sydney Morning Herald noted in the April 21, 1952, edition:

"[…]Russia has more 'firsts' to her credit than any other country. Russians invented steel, the electric lightbulb, the radio-telegraph, and the ten-gallon hat. So why not be the first up Everest, even if it is only to prove that the "abominable snowman" is a capitalist warmonger?"