Hillary Describes Plans For Katmandu Journey

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 12

Hillary Describes Plans For Katmandu Journey

6V. Z.P.A. -Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 18. Sir Edmund Hillary left London yesterday for Katmandu to build a hospital for Sherpas 12 miles from Everest. He is taking a party of 10 New Zealanders, including four doctors, to build the six-bed hospital at Khumjung, at a height of 13,000 feet. Sir Edmund Hillary told a London press conference of a plan for members of his party to float 90 miles down Himalayan rivers in rubber dinghies to test whether jet boats could be used in the area. “If they could, it would mean that a vast area of Nepal could be opened up,” he said. “At present there are no roads and the only access is by helicopter if one is available.” Sir Edmund Hillary said

tthat while in Nepal he planned to take his 11-year-old son Peter up’the Khumbu glacier to the Everest base camp.

When he is joined by Lady Hillary, Peter, and Sarah, aged 10, and Belinda, seven, they will do a 100-mile walk across Nepal, taking about 10 days. He will also visit Sherpa Tensing in Darjeeling.

The cost of the cottage-type hospital, plus a year’s running cost, he said, would be about £lB,OOO. In addition, research work on goitre, which is common in the area, would be carried out, and there would be development work on seven elementary schools which his expeditions have helped to build. A total of about £32,000 had been raised for the expedition including £20,000 in New Zealand.