Yesterday marked the sixtieth anniversary of the successful
ascent of Mount Everest , the world's tallest mountain. See:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/60th-anniversary-sir-edmund-hillary-and-tenzing-norgay-were-the-first-to-scale-everest--but-not-the-last-8636708.html.
At 29,035 feet, a climber near the summit faces danger from altitude sickness
and cold as well as the perils of climbing itself. The mountain's summit was
reached for the first time on May the
29th 1953 by two men, A New Zealander called Sir Edmund Hillary and
a native from the local Sherpa culture, Tenzing Norgay. However this stirring
tale has a dark secret, according to Jan van Helsing in his book paradoxically
marketed under the title Don't Touch this
Book! However, despite it being a dark secret I hope that it's true because
it has a heartwarming conclusion.
Most first ascents of mountains have a single name of the
first climber to step onto the summit. Even in a team of climbers, one
individual will usually be selected to make the historic first footprint on the
top. Everest is different because there are two names, both Hillary's and
Norgay's. The two climbers, who were of course the only witnesses to the feat,
held hands and walked up onto the very top of the world's highest mountain
together. However when they returned to base camp, the expedition management
gave Norgay a form to sign which they told him was just some formalities to do
with insurance or tax etc. Norgay signed it. The problem was, that's not what
the form said. What it really was, was a witness statement declaring something
along the lines of: "I, Tenzing
Norgay, saw Edmund Hillary step up onto the summit of Mount Everest first, and I only followed him up a few
moments later." Norgay unfortunately could not read English; he had
been tricked by people who, for whatever reason, wanted Hillary to be recorded
as the sole first climber. All that the fraudsters now needed was Hillary's
cooperation. Surely Edmund Hillary would have been quite happy not to have to
share the glory and to claim that historic place for himself alone... wouldn't
he? No. To his great credit, Hillary refused to betray his friend. He joined
Norgay is exposing the expedition management's scam and to this day, sixty
years later, the highest point on the Earth's surface still has two names next
to its entry in the mightiest of human endeavours.
