Did you know each person who goes to Everest to climb is charged $65,000.00 unless you are sponsored by a govt or private group like NatGeo. And they still need a permit from the govt of Nepal for $20,000.00 or they dont climb. It takes all summer to do it, most of 3-4 months. A lot of people just go to base camp at 16,000' as it alone is a 3 week trek. Then the climb begins up to the top. Acclimating form base camp takes about about 2 weeks and each day you climb higher from 16000 then come back down til you are good to go up the ropes to the top. Theres a lot of good recent books out there that detail it all graphically. It's even more dangerous and expensive to climb the north side from China IF you can even get a permit.