Since Edmund Hillary got there in 1953, almost 2,000 climbers have stood on the top of the world's highest mountain. Yet Everest remains an often deadly challenge.
George Mallory, who first uttered the clichéd phrase "Because it is there", was among the first of 200 climbers to die on Everest. Most are still out where they fell.
"It's the ultimate physical challenge, but there is an aura, a mystical draw, as well," says Adrian Hayes, 46-year-old regional sales director for Airbus. "That's what I can't explain, the energy you feel when you see this mountain."
Determination
Hayes saw "the black pyramid" in 1998 while climbing another Nepalese peak and it sparked an immediate determination to climb the big one. On April 1 he finally sets off as part of an 8-man international team.
In his own matter-of-fact terms, Hayes is "obsessive about sport and fitness" and "fit as hell".
He has kayaked round the Canadian Arctic, climbed the Himalayas three times and spent Christmas night on the top of Mount Kenya without a sleeping bag.
His involvement in the UAE's growing calendar of endurance events includes winning a series of triathlons, fitness challenges and adventure races, including a Mountain Extreme adventure race last month.
He has also twice been runner up in the annual race up the stairs of the Emirates Towers.
Main thread
Climbing provides the main thread in an otherwise disjointed life. Brought up in the unspoilt wilderness of the New Forest, on leaving school at 16 Hayes showed few signs of his future destiny as an MBA-qualified executive.
"For 6 years I did anything and everything," he says. "I was a hodcarrier, bricklayer, binman, hotel manager and rock musician. I worked on farms in New Zealand and Norway. My parents were probably tearing their hair out."
In his spare-time, though, Hayes was developing a taste for ice-climbing and mountaineering.
This prompted him in 1982 to join the army and a special forces regiment. He moved on after three years to study at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which led to eight years as an officer of the Gurkha Regiment.
Again, this elite regiment recruited from Nepalese tribesmen, had a specific appeal. "I joined the Gurkhas to climb mountains," he says.
"They are very tough guys," he says. "To win their respect you have to keep up. They are either firm friends or fierce enemies."
Chat
On Everest Hayes will be able to chat with his Sherpa guides in their own language. Using talents developed in his teens in a rock band, he says he may also serenade them with Nepalese songs accompanied by guitar.
This is not a side of his character that exactly leaps to the fore in an interview. His military background is still evident a brisk, telegraphic style of communication. Personal information is released with some reluctance on a "need to know" basis.
The briefing concludes with a careful provision on the limits of any preparations with Everest.
"There's unfortunately no way of guaranteeing success in summitting Everest due to the many factors - weather, snow conditions, sickness, injuries etc - beyond one's control," he says. "But I am as prepared as I'll ever be."
Haunts
That said, one chilling fear still haunts him. "Someone just showed me a draft for the press release," he says. "It said that I was climbing Everest 'Because it's there'. I would die if someone thought I had said that. Honestly, I would die."
This May, two UAE-based climbers hope to stand on top of Everest. While Adrian Hayes will approach the summit from Nepal, his friend Ali Bushnaq will take a route from Tibet.
As previously reported in Tabloid, Bushnaq is part of the Everest Peace Project (www.everestpeaceproject.org). This is a nine-person team put together by the Californian climber Lance Trumbull and sponsored by Panasonic.
Teamwork
The project aims to provide an example of teamwork and cultural understanding by bringing together climbers of different faiths.
If he reaches the summit, Bushnaq would be the first Palestinian to do so. As a symbol of the project's aim, he would do this in a team that includes two Israeli climbers.
Hayes is part of the Ice 8000 Mount Everest Summit Expedition 2006. His fellow climbers are drawn from the US, UK, Australia and India. His participation has been sponsored in the UAE by Al Tayer Motors, Shell and Rolls Royce.
Contrasting challenges
The different routes up Everest provide contrasting challenges. Approaching the summit from Tibet avoids the danger of the Khumbu Icefall ? an area of constantly shifting ice blocks that has claimed more lives than any other part of the mountain.
However, the northern approach also involves greater technical challenges and more time in "the death zone" - altitudes over 8,000 metres where the lack of oxygen is beyond the ability of humans to acclimatise.
