Sir Edmund life was marked by grand achievements,high adventure,discovery,xcitement and b his personal humility. he was humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop everest long after the death of tenzing norgay, the mountain guide wuth whom he stood arm on the summit on may 29,1953. In the annnals of great heroic xploits,the conquest of mt.everest by EDmund and Norgay ranks with the first trek to the south pole by Roald Amundsen in 1912 and the first non stop trans atlantic flight by charles A.lindbergh in 1927. he had pride in his feats. returning to his base camps as the who took the first step on to the top of world's highest peak,he declared,"we knocked the b.......off".
His philosophy of his life was simple,"adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities,such as i regard myself",he said in 1975 interview. numerous everest xpeditions had failed.Dozens of xperienced mountaineers,including many sherpas,the nepaleese people famed as climbers had been killed burried in avalanches or lost and frozen in sudden storms that roared over the dizzying escarpments.One who vanished in 1924,was George Leigh Mallory,known for snapping when asked y climbed everest,"bcoz it is there !"his body was found in the ice 75 years later in 1999,abt 2000ft below the summit.
Ed and Norgay were part of a royal geographical society -alpine club expedition lead bu Colonel Henry Cecil John Hunt-a siege group that included a dozen climbers ,35 sherpa guodes and 350 porters carrying 18 tonnes of food and equipment. their route was the treacherous south tor, facing Nepal.
After a series of climbs by coordinated teams to establish to establish ever-higher camps on the icy slopes and perilous rock ledges,Tom Bourdillon and Dr.Charles Evans wer the first team to attempt the summit but gave up at 28,720feet-315ft. fromm the top-beaten back by exhaution,a storm that shrouded them in ice and oxygen tank failures. Ed,then 33 Norgay 39, made the next assault.they first established a bivouac at 27,900ft. on a rock ledge 6ft. wide and canted at a 30deg. angle.there holding their tent against a howling gale as the temperatures plunged to -30deg.,they spend the night.
ED & NORGAY during their trek....
SIR EDMUND HILLARY during 80's
at the peak of Mt.Everest
At 6.30 am on may 1953,cheered by clearing skies ,they began the final attack.Carrying enough oxygen for 7 hours and continuing on picking up two partly filled tanks left by Evans and Bourdillion,they inched up a step ,knife edged ridge south east of the summit. Half-way up,sir Edmund recalled in high adventure(1955 Oxford University Press),they discovered soft snow under them."Immediately I realised we were on dangerous ground," he said. "Suddenly, with a dull breaking noise, an area of crustall around me about 6 feet in diameter broke off."
He slid backward 20 or 30 feet before regaining a hold."It was a nasty shock,"he said."I could look down 10,000 feet between my legs." Farther up,they encountered what was later named the Hillary Step -a sheer face of rock and ice 40 feet high that sir Edmund called "the most formidable obstacle on the ridge."But they found a vertical crack and managed to climb it by bracing feet against one side and backs against the other.The last few yards to the summit were relatively easy. "As I chipped steps,I wondered how long we could keep it up,"Sir Edmund said."Then I realised that the ridge,i nstead of rising ahead,now dropped sharply away.I Looked upward to see a narrow ridge running up to a sharp point.A few more whacks of the ice axe and we stood on the summit."
The vast panorama of the Himalayas lay before them:fleecy clouds and the pastel shades of Tibet to the north,and in all directions sweeping ranks of jagged mountains,cloud-filled valleys,great natural amphitheatres of snow and rock,and the glittering Kangshung Glacier 10,000 feet below.
Standing atop that pinnacle in 1953 was an experience Sir Edmind would recollect many times in lectures and quite conversations."The whole world around us lay spreadout like a gaint relief map,"he told one interviewer."Iam a lucyman .I have had a dream and it has come true,and taht is not a thing that happens often to men."
