29 May 1953: Mount Everest Is Conquered For The Very First Time

On 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary, a citizen of New Zealand and a veteran of World War II, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal,

become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest which, at 29,035 feet above sea level, is the highest point on Planet Earth.

The Sherpas, native to the Khumbu region of northeastern Nepal,

have long played an essential support role in Himalayan climbs and treks because of their strength and ability to endure the high altitudes, as well as their knowledge of the various facets of the Himalayas and Mount Everest.

The two mountaineers, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their achievement broke around the world on 2 June 1953, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and ascension to the British throne, and the British citizenry hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future.

Mount Everest sits on the crest of the Great Himalayas in Asia, lying on the border between Nepal and Tibet.

Called Chomo-Lungma, or “Mother Goddess of the Land” by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, a 19th-century British surveyor of South Asia.

The summit of Mount Everest reaches two-thirds of the way through the air of the Earth’s atmosphere – at about the typical average cruising altitude of jet airliners – and oxygen levels there are very low, temperatures are extremely cold, and weather is unpredictable and dangerous.

The first recorded attempt to climb Mount Everest was made in 1921 by a British expedition that trekked 400 difficult miles across the Tibetan plateau to the foot of the great mountain.

A raging storm forced them to abort their ascent, but the mountaineers, among them George Leigh Mallory, had seen what appeared to be a feasible route up the peak.

It was Mallory who quipped when later asked by a journalist why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, “Because it’s there.”

A second British expedition, featuring Mallory, returned in 1922, and climbers George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce reached an impressive height of more than 27,000 feet. In another attempt made by Mallory that year, seven Sherpa guides were killed in an avalanche. In 1924, a third Mount Everest expedition was launched by the British, and climber Edward Norton reached an elevation of 28,128 feet, 900 vertical feet short of the summit, without using artificial oxygen.

Four days later, Mallory and Andrew Irvine launched a summit assault and were never seen alive again. In 1999, Mallory’s largely-preserved body was found high on Mount Everest – he had suffered numerous broken bones in a fall. Whether or not he or Irvine reached the summit during that attempt remains a mystery.

Several more unsuccessful summit attempts were made via Tibet’s Northeast Ridge route, and after World War II, Tibet was closed to foreigners. In 1949, Nepal opened its door to the outside world,

and in 1950 and 1951, British expeditions made exploratory climbs up the Southeast Ridge route. In 1952, a Swiss expedition navigated the treacherous Khumbu Icefall in the first real summit attempt.

Two climbers, Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay, reached 28,210 feet, just below the South Summit, but had to turn back for want of supplies.

Shocked by the near-success of the Swiss expedition, a large British expedition was organized for 1953 under the command of Colonel John Hunt.

In addition to the best British climbers and such highly-experienced Sherpa guides as Tenzing Norgay, the expedition enlisted talent from the British Commonwealth, such as New Zealanders George Lowe and Edmund Hillary, the latter of whom worked as a beekeeper when not climbing mountains.

Members of the expedition were equipped with specially-insulated boots and clothing,

portable radio equipment,

and open- and closed-circuit oxygen systems.

Setting up a series of camps,

including the Base Camp as seen below,

the expedition pushed its way up the mountain during April and May of 1953. A new passage was forged through the Khumbu Icefall,

and the climbers made their way up the Western Cwm, across the Lhotse Face,

and to the South Col, at about 26,000 feet.

On 26 May 1953, Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon

launched the first assault on the summit and came within 300 feet of the top of Everest before having to turn back because one of their oxygen sets was malfunctioning.

On May 28, Norgay and Hillary set out, setting up high camp at 27,900 feet. After a freezing, sleepless night, the pair plodded on, reaching the South Summit by 9 a.m. and a steep rocky step, some 40 feet high, about an hour later. Wedging himself in a crack in the face, Hillary inched himself up what was thereafter known as the Hillary Step.

Hillary threw down a rope, and Norgay followed. At about 1130 hours, the two climbers arrived at the top of the world - the summit of Mount Everest.

News of the success was rushed by runner from the expedition’s base camp to the radio post at Namche Bazar,

and then sent by coded message to London, where Queen Elizabeth II learned of the achievement on 1 June 1953, the eve of her coronation as the Queen of England.

The next day, the news broke around the world.

Later that year, Hillary and Hunt were knighted by Queen Elizabeth,

each receiving the Order of the British Empire medal.

Norgay, because he was not a citizen of a Commonwealth nation, received the lesser British Empire Medal.

Sir Edmund Hillary died on 11 January 2008 in Auckland, New Zealand at the age of 89.

Tenzing Norgay died in West Bengal, India on 9 May 1986. He was 71.

Hillary and Norgay met for the last known time around 1971. No other meetings between the two trailblazers are documented.

Since Hillary and Norgay’s historic climb, numerous expeditions have made their way up to Everest’s summit. In 1960, a Chinese expedition was the first to conquer the mountain from the Tibetan side,

and in 1963, James Whittaker became the first American to top Mount Everest, planting an American flag in the process.

In 1975, Tabei Junko of Japan became the first woman to reach the summit.

Three years later, in 1978, Reinhold Messner of Italy

and Peter Habeler of Austria

achieved what had been previously thought impossible: climbing to the summit of Mount Everest without oxygen.

In 1988, Stacy Allison became the first American female to climb Mount Everest.

Nearly two hundred climbers have died attempting to reach the summit of Mount Everest. A major tragedy occurred in 1996 when eight climbers from various nations died after being caught in a blizzard high on the slopes.

Back in the 1980s, I was an avid outdoorsman, to include hiking the Grand Canyon in December of 1983, and going on two major hikes in Volcanos National Park (the first was eleven miles, the second was thirteen miles) on the Big Island of Hawaii in August of 1988. This Hawaii hiking exercise also included a six-mile hike across the solid (at that time) Kilauea Volcano crater.

I had accepted an invitation to climb Half Dome in Yosemite National Park later in 1988, but a last-minute, quick-turnaround overseas business trip nixed that idea. Maybe that was for the best, given the inclement weather that my friends who went on the expedition eventually wound up climbing, hiking, and camping in.

In early 1989, however, I did get another chance to see Yosemite National Park, as a group of coworkers and I cross-country skied Yosemite National Park. Manning one of the Park Ranger stations was a young ranger named Mark Wellman, who is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic with arms the size of typical legs, as can be seen in the pictures of him shown below. I had a most-pleasant short visit and conversation with Mark, and was amazed at his knowledge of every square inch of that national park, as well as his positive, never-wavering, can-do spirit.

Mark sustained a devastating and paralyzing injury to his body during a fall while climbing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Undeterred, a few months after I met him at the Yosemite Ranger Station, he and several others climbed El Capitan, a 6000-foot-tall granite monolith

that faces Half Dome

across part of the Yosemite Valley.

Mark did essentially what amounted to 12,000 repetitive six-inch pull-ups to successfully surmount El Capitan. At that time, Mark was the first-ever paraplegic to scale El Capitan.

As if that feat was not enough, Mark later presented a United States flag that he had packed with him on his ascent of El Capitan to President George H. W. Bush in the White House (And, for the record, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the historic Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in July of 1990, within a year of meeting Mark Wellman. Coincidence?).

Nature is quite unforgiving. I found that out in just the mostly-minor hikes that I did in the 1980s. If one does not take every precaution before and during such an excursion, it may very well cost you your life. These activities cannot be done on a "lark;" they have to be planned and you have to train hard and long before the fact.

Scaling Mount Everest in any manner, or El Capitan as a paraplegic, would be well beyond what I would consider to be a "fun" hike. As such, I shan't partake - ever. However, I do admire Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay for their successful ascension of Mount Everest, as well as those mountain climbers who came before and after them.

Likewise, I very much admire Mark Wellman for his "because it's there" approach to comtinuing his vigorous assaults on Yosemite's El Capitan and Half Dome granite monoliths. I consider myself a better person for having met Mark in person and having an opportunity to just converse with him and learn from him for a few minutes on a beautiful and sunny Sunday morning in mid-March of 1989 in one of the most beautiful places on the face of the Earth - Yosemite National Park.

After concluding my impromptu conversation with Mark Wellman at the Park Ranger Station, I cross-country skied over to the Yosemite Chapel to thank God for this experience.

I then went back outside and sat on a bench, and started to eat a sandwich that I had made the night before. A couple of beautiful Stellar's Jays came over and invited themselves to eat lunch with me. They would sit on my thighs and eat bread crust pieces from the cupped palms of my hands. I enjoyed their company in the solitude of Yosemite National Park in late winter. What beautiful birds!

I then collected my thoughts and possessions and went to meet the others for the long ride back to the Inland Empire of southern California. I've never forgotten that trip.

In closing, Mark Wellman, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay are all cut from the same positive, awe-inspiring mold. Mark conquered his "Mount Everest" challenges as did Hillary and Norgay, just "because they are there."

Cheers....

SOURCES: www.nobarriersusa.org ; www.nolimitstahoe.com ; www.nps.gov ; www.markhorrell.com ; www.rgs.org ; www.nationalgeographic.com ; www.si.edu ; www.pbs.org ; www.history.com ; www.wikipedia.org ; www.britannica.com ; www.claremont-courier.com ; www.latimes.com ; www.extremechairing.com ; www.google.com ; www.bing.com ; www.gettyimages.com