Himalayas attract Hillarys

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 22

Himalayas attract Hillarys

The names “Hillary” and “Mt Everest” have been linked ever since Sir Edmund. Hillary conquered the world’s highest peak in 1953. Another Hillary, Sir Edmund’s son Peter, is currently battling the freezing temperatures and thin air of the high altitudes in an attempt to climb Mt Everest. Peter Hillary and his party of mountaineers plan to climb the mountain via the steep west ridge, a different route from that taken by his father. Mt Everest is part of the great ■ mountain range known as the Himalayas which stretch for about 2400 km along the northern borders of India and Pakistan. Towards the east of this range, on the frontier between Nepal and Tibet, stands Mt Everest. Himalaya means the dwelling place of snow, a fitting name for the highest range of mountains in the world. In summer, when the monsoon winds bring rain to the lower ranges, it is not rain but snow which falls on the higher ground where it is colder. Above 3960 m snow lies all the year round, even when the lowland of India, which is not far away, is sweltering beneath a burning sun.

More than 70 peaks of the Himalayas and the nearby ranges are over 6100 m high, so there is always a lot of snow in the area. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that it was calculated that Mt Everest was the highest mountain in the world. About 1850 some British surveyors who were making maps in the northern part of India, sighted a tiny white pyramid sticking up above all the other snow-capped peaks. They measured this by using a special kind of mathematics called trigonometry, and discovered that it was the highest mountain in the world, rising to more than 8840 m. Later more accurate measurements showed it to be 8848 m high. In 1858 the mountain was named after Sir George Everest who was the Surveyor General in India when the mountain’s height was measured. Because the people of Nepal and Tibet kept very much to themselves and did not encourage visitors from the outside world, very little was known of the mountain for many years. During the second half of the nineteenth century however, mountaineers began to explore the remote and unknown country of the Himalayas.

By the beginning of this century there was talk of forming an expedition to climb Mt Everest, and in 1921 the first Mt Everest expedition started to explore the lower reaches of the mountain. This expedition explored the west, north and east areas of the mountain, reaching it through Tibet to the north. Several expeditions followed which also went through Tibet, but all failed to reach the top. Finally in 1953, under the leadership of Colonel John Hunt, a different route was chosen for the attempt on Everest, this time from the south through Nepal. Camps were established at various heights on the mountain. Supplies were carried to the camps by the mountaineers and Sherpas who acted as porters. Oxygen tanks were carried up the mountain and these were used by the climbers over the last stages. At a level of about 6000 m, the air contains much less oxygen than at a lower level, and the human body can become weak with the reduced oxygen intake. Some of the members of Colonel Hunt’s 1953 Everest expedition found it difficult working at the very high levels of the top few camps, and had to retreat to a lower level. The two men who withstood the conditions best were Sir Edmund Hillary and a Sherpa, Tenzing Nor- * gay. These two made a camp at 8500 m in very difficult conditions — there was no flat ground suitable for pitching a tent and a site was cleared on two levels. Hillary spent the night sitting on the top level with his feet on the bottom ledge, and in this way was able to brace the tent against the quarter-hourly fierce gusts of wind. The next morning the pair set off at 6.30 a.m., and by 11.30 a.m. they joyfully realised that there were no

more icy slopes ahead of them. They had reached the top of the world. They stayed there for 15 minutes, took photographs, and ate a cake. Hillary left a crucifix on top for the leader of the expedition, and Tenzing made a little hole in the snow in which he E laced food offerings — tales, biscuits and chocolate. The news of the successful attempt on Everest arrived in Britain just after the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth H. The Queen recognised the significance of the feat by knighting both Hillary and the expedition

leader, John Hunt. During his climbing trips to the Himalayas, Sir Edmund Hillary became attached to the people living on the lower stapes of Mt Everest, the Sherpas. He raised money for a school at Khumjung in 1960, and since then many more schools have been established. Water supplies, medical clinics, hospitals and aircraft facilities are other improvements. This aid work, which started as a personal gesture by Sir Edmund Hillary, is now administered by the Himalayan Trust.