13. Everest anniversary
Everest anniversary
Fifty years after conquering the world's highest mountain, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's son are celebrating in Nepal. New Zealander Hillary and the Tenzing Norgay were the first to scale Mount Everest, and half a century on, mountain climbers from the world are joining Nepal's royal family in the Himalayan kingdom to celebrate. About 450 climbers who have reached the top, many of them Nepali Sherpas essential to Everest expeditions, have gathered in the capital of Kathmandu for a celebration Nepal hopes will help revive a tourism trade shattered by a bloody Maoist revolt. In the week leading to the anniversary, more than 100 climbers have besieged the mountain, sending records tumbling. One Sherpa who has climbed Mount Everest more than anyone, did it again on Monday, while another broke the speed record with an 11-hour sprint to the top. Meanwhile, two U.S. teams are aiming for the 8,850-meter (29,035 feet) summit on Thursday. While Tenzing Norgay died 17 years ago, 83-year-old Hillary has repeatedly talked about his climbing partner throughout the week of parades, exhibitions and parties. Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand is to make Hillary an citizen before a tea party hosted by the monarch of the world's only Hindu kingdom, King Gyanendra. After tea, however, Hillary said he would skip the last banquet to have dinner with members of the Sherpa community, with whom he has forged close ties.
Hillary has spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours building schools, hospitals and clinics for the Sherpa people around Everest. Nepal's cities are more bustling, and many Sherpas are now prosperous, Hillary said some things hadn't changed, such as Sherpas laughing around a nighttime camp fire.
"They know life is tough, but they also know it's important to enjoy it," Hillary said Wednesday as he opened an exhibit of Everest photographs presented by the British Council and the Royal Geographic Society.
Since Hillary and Tenzing "knocked the bastard off" as he said at 11:30 a.m. on the morning of May 29, 1953, around 1,300 people have made the arduous climb to stand on the roof of the world. But where Hillary and Tenzing cut their own way, most climbers today pay guides up to $65,000 to lead them across crevasses, the heights and the Hillary Step just below the summit to give them a shot the top. But while it is easier than in Hillary's day, climbing the world's highest mountain dangerous challenge. Since 1953 about 175 climbers have paid the ultimate price, succumbing to the fierce weather and thin air in what climbers call the "death zone" enveloping the mountain's peak. On Wednesday, two people died when a helicopter crashed as it came into base camp to pick up climbers in air so thin it lying dangerous. In 1996, nine climbers lost their lives in a single day on the mountain.
Both Hillary and Jamling Norgay – Tenzing's son and an Everest summitter in his own right – have objected to what they call commercialized mountaineering. "I believe there are too many people. This year there are about 23 expeditions just from the Nepalese site, Jamling told CNN. Hillary, for one, has modern-day climbers for holding drunken parties at base camp. Other climbers say mountaineers are turning the roof of the world into the highest garbage dump in the world. In years several clean-up expeditions have been sent to the area and pulled out tones of rubbish, including dozens of oxygen tanks, gas cylinders and abandoned tents.