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Nepal celebrates Mt Everest conquest
Mountaineers from around the world and Nepal's royal family gathered in Kathmandu to join Sir Hillary in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the conquest.
Mountaineers from around the world and Nepal's royal family were gathered in Kathmandu on Thursday to join Sir Edmund Hillary in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest.
Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who was with Hillary when they reached the summit of the world's tallest mountain, died 17 years ago, but the New Zealand adventurer constantly mentioned his climbing partner throughout the week of parades, exhibitions and parties.
After their 15 minutes atop the 8,850-metre summit on May 29, 1953, neither man had any desire to return.
"Tenzing used to say, 'we have done it. We have done it first. Why should we bother doing it again?'" Hillary, 83, recalled on Wednesday.
Hillary said the anniversary meant little to him, only that 50 years had passed, but he was gratified and astonished at the celebrations that began in May in India and will extend into June in the United States.
On the eve of the anniversary, he told a news conference, "I'm not very happy about the future of Mount Everest."
"At the base camp, there are 1,000 people there, with some 500 tents, and a booze place for drinks and all the other comforts," Hillary said. "Just sitting around in a big base camp, knocking back cans of beer, I don't particularly regard as mountaineering."
Both Hillary and Jamling Norgay - the son of Tenzing and an Everest Summitter in his own right - have objected to what they call commercialised mountaineering, which allows people with little experience to pay Sherpas to get them up the mountain.
"Anyone with $65,000 can climb Everest," Jamling said on Nepal TV last night, referring to the typical cost of an expedition. He objected to the drive to be the first to climb the mountain in different ways, or be the oldest or youngest. "It's no longer a passion. It's just a sport," said Norgay.
Recalling how he and Tenzing carved steps into sheer ice walls where no man had been before, Hillary criticised modern- day climbers who ascend over crevasses and ridges prepared for them by Sherpas. "We didn't have 60 aluminium ladders (and) thousands of metres of fixed rope," he said. "We had to do it ourselves."
Since 1953, some 1,300 people have climbed Everest, from the Nepal or Tibetan side, and at least 175 had died in the attempt.
Despite modern conveniences such as an internet cafe at base camp, the mountain remains dangerous. Two people were killed yesterday when a private helicopter flew to the base camp to pick up climbers.
Hillary said he declined a chance to celebrate the anniversary in London, with Queen Elizabeth II, whose 1953 coronation was capped by the Everest feat, carried out by a British expedition which Hillary, a New Zealander, had joined.
"We really felt that the place we wanted to be on May 29 is here in Kathmandu," said Hillary, accompanied by his wife and other relatives.
Nepal's King Gyanendra and Queen Komal planned to host a tea party honouring Hillary, one in a string of feasts throughout the day. After tea, however, Hillary said he would skip the last banquet to have dinner with members of the Sherpa community, whom he has continued to visit and aid during the last half-century.
