First Everest Climb Celebrated
Nepal's royal family and mountaineers from around the world joined Sir Edmund Hillary on Thursday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest.
Nepal announced it would grant Hillary honorary citizenship for his services to the Sherpa community.
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 29,035-foot 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 Wednesday.
Also Thursday, Nepal's Crown Prince Paras opened a symposium on mountaineering and Himalayan environment, attended by 200 Everest summiteers from India, Italy, Germany, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Nepal and Japan.
The crown prince handed out commemorative medals to mountaineers, including Hillary.
Charles Demarest, from Boulder, Colo., who reached the summit in 1998 on an expedition that also helped clean up the mountain, said: "It's charming and exciting to see Sir Edmund Hillary. He's done so much for the country."
After the ceremony, mountaineers discussed the issues that have dominated the anniversary celebrations, whether to restrict climbing permits for Mount Everest.
The southern route is the one Hillary and Norgay used in 1953 and is the most popular. Hillary has advocated restricting climbs on that route to one per year. He objects to crowds lining up on ropes and ladders to reach the summit that he and Norgay pioneered.
"I'm not very happy about the future of Mount Everest," Hillary told a news conference on the eve of the anniversary.
"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."
Hillary and Jamling Norgay — the son of Tenzing and an Everest summiteer in his own right — have objected to what they call commercialized 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 on Wednesday 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.
Since 1953, some 1,300 people have climbed Everest, from the Nepal or Tibetan side.
Despite modern conveniences such as an Internet cafe at the base camp, the mountain remains dangerous. Two people were killed Wednesday 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 Katmandu," said Hillary, accompanied by his wife and other relatives.
Hillary said he planned to have dinner with members of the Sherpa community, whom he has continued to visit and aid during the last half century.
By Laurinda Keys