Himalayan Mountaineering Institute An Official Website of HMI, Darjeeling The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) is one of the premier Mountaineering Institutes in the world. Founded on November 4, 1954, by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, to commemorate the first successful ascent of Mount Everest by the late Tenzing Norgay Sherpa & Sir Edmund Hillary.