Fancy standing on the roof of the world without a single flight connection to Kathmandu? A virtual reality experience called Everest: The First Ascent has been running in London, letting visitors trace the steps of the 1953 expedition that put Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the summit — no ropes, ice axes or frostbite required.
The idea is simple but effective: you strap on a VR headset and get a sense of what it was actually like to move through the Khumbu Icefall, cross the South Col and push for the top of the world's highest mountain at 8,849 metres. Rather than a generic climbing game, the experience is built around the historical first ascent, so it leans on the story of the original expedition — the route, the conditions and the sheer scale of the attempt — rather than fantasy adventure.
For anyone who has ever wondered why people keep throwing themselves at Everest, it's a low-effort way to find out. You get the vertigo of the ridgelines and the sense of how small a human looks against the Himalaya, all from a warm room in zone 1. It also works as a taster if the real thing is on your long-term bucket list: seeing the terrain up close, even virtually, makes the logistics and danger of an actual expedition feel a lot more real.
Practically, VR experiences like this tend to run in sessions with timed entry, so booking ahead is wise, especially on weekends. Allow roughly 30 minutes to an hour for the experience itself, and check age and height guidance if you're bringing kids — headsets usually aren't recommended for very young children.
It's an easy add-on to a London day out: pair it with a wander around whatever neighbourhood it's based in, and you've got an afternoon that swings from sea level to summit and back in time for a pint. Worth it for armchair adventurers, families with older kids, and anyone training for (or merely dreaming about) big mountains.