'Glorious Coronation Day news! Everest - Everest the unconquerable has been conquered. And conquered by men of British blood and breed', read the headline of the News Chronicle on 2 June 1953, four days after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. Notwithstanding the clear attempts to link the moment to the 'dawning' of the second Elizabethan age, the newspaper's reaction epitomizes a perculiar set of values and practices that have come to encapsulate exploration's genealogy: heroism, endurance, optimism, courage and the quest for glory. In this instance, Everest was conquered in an act of aggression and a show of British masculinity, with the heroes of the piece rendered exceptional by both biology and heritage (which sits ...