Hillary to lead scouts in 'Everest attempt’

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 5

Hillary to lead scouts in 'Everest attempt’

By

DAVID JONES

■NZPA London Sir Edmund Hillary will lead his second expedition on “Mount Everest” next month. But on this occasion the world’s highest mountain will be a 25ft scaffold structure specially erected in London’s Leicester Square. Sir Edmund, the first climber to reach the summit of Everest, will lead a party of Venture Scouts to the top of scaffolding on October 1. The scouts will then continue to climb up and down for around seven hours to a total of 29,028 feet, the equivalent height of Everest. The event will mark the official twenty-first birthday of the Scout Association’s Venture Scout section and is taking place in aid of “Sherpa 88,” an appeal to launch Sir Edmund’s work for the Sherpa people of Nepal. Other British Venture Scout units will be organising similar climbs in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh on the same day. Sir Edmund’s interest in the welfare of the Sherpa people of Nepal has continued since he and Sherpa Tensing Norgay became the first people to set foot on the top of Everest in 1953. Since that time he has maintained contact with the people, helping to alleviate the poverty, lack of educaton, chronic illness and high infant mortality rates by raising support for the building of hospitals, schools and clinics.