Edmund Hilary's odyssey to Everest

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

Edmund Hilary, the greatest mountain explorer won the highest honour that a man could ever have deserved in his lifetime and was a man who practically did things that an ordinary ,am would never have even dreamt to do. His most prominent achievement was reaching the unreachable apex of mount Everest on 29 May 1953.

He will ever be remembered for reaching the great heights of Everest the North Pole and the South Pole through his undaunted mettle. On the fateful 11th of January 2008, Hilary breathed his last at the age of 88 at the General Hospital in the city of Oakland New Zealand.

Sir Edmund Hilary

In her special announcement of the death of Edmund Hilary, Helen Clark the premier of New Zealand claimed that his death brought about a massive loss for New Zealand and the New Zealanders. With the death of Hilary, the New Zealand flag of Oakland harbour and that of the Parliament were at halfmast in condolence and he was given a state funeral with a declaration of day of mourning for his death. His astonishing mental capacity and courage brought him all kinds of epitpets of bravery and people respect him as the man who conquered whole world by getting at the unknown reaches of mount Everest.

Isolated child

As a small child, he was rather isolated and was small made in comparison with his peers. Hilary was normally reticent and reserved but he was possessed by an urge to read books on adventure which haunted his mind and childish imagination. A passion to climb and explore highest mountain peaks in the world slowly crept into his consciousness when he turned 16.

His first excursion to the mount Ruwapehu with some of his classmates proved his exceptional mental and physical strength which was seen to be much more superior to that of his peers. This exciting experience made him test his prowess to its limits by traversing the step-sided mount Oliver of Alps range. This was as he later revealed, the first significant breakthrough in his extra ordinary lifetime of exploration.

The year 1951 marked a significant phase in his life as he managed to be a member of a British exploration teams under Eric Shipton who carried out an extensive search operation around the Everest mountain.

Edmund Hilary thus set off an arduous expedition with his friend George Lo to the precipitous cliff of Cha Ou of Himalaya range but had to give up his efforts because he failed to find an easy track to the top. So they had to cancel out their passion to explore temporarily because the way to Everest had been closed by China in control of tibet.

Meanwhile a Swiss explorer team met with an unexpected failure to reach Everest because bad weather had turned them back when there was no more than 200 metres to the top.

Towards the top of Everest

Another British exploration team under the leadership of Hunt invited Edmond Hilary and Teng Sing to join the expedition to the top of Everest. It was decided that Tom Bodilan and Charles Evans were to trek to the top of Everest followed by Edmund Hilary and Teng sing who were by now inseparable companions. the exploration team which established their first camp in 1953, and slowly and perilously treked upward amidst unbearable chill.

They established their last camp at an astonishing height of 25,900 feet and Tom Bodilan and Charles Evans set about climbing to the top under Hunt's instructions.

Unfortunately Evan's oxygen machine suddenly began to malfunction forcing them to turn back with only 330 feet to the top, Next Hilary and Teng Sing encountered numerous hardships in extremely strong winds and biting snow.

However, they managed to build camp for the night at 27900 feet up the mountain.

Drama on the mountain

In the morning, Hilary noticed that one of his shoes, which he had inadvertently kept out side the camp, was totally frozen by excessive chill. It is said that he had to delay his journey up the mountain for almost 2 hours in his effort to bring the shoe back to normalcy. He carried a baggage including the oxygen machine which weighed nearly ten killogrammes and found himself before a cliff of about forty feet (which is popularly called "Hilary Step"). Within a few minutes which involved highest risk, Edmund Hilary, with a fine spirit of adventure managed to reach the top of Everest hooking himself to a narrow fissure between the layer of rock and the layer of snow on top.

Hilary captured Teng Sing on film when Teng Sing was fixing the British flag on the apex of mount Everest. They spent around fifteen minutes on the top and Hilary took special care to look for possible signs left by Melroy who was considered to have reached the top several years previously. But there were none.

Nature hostile

As a token of arriving, at the highest mountain peak, Teng Sing carefully stored some objects he had brought such as a few slabs of chocolate a chalk and a pencil which were given to him by his small son who was without the least notion of why his father was leaving home.

On return journey, they were suddenly confronted with a great problem of tracking down their way down as the melting ice had obliterated the marks of the way that Hilary had placed while climbing the mountain.

With great difficulty, they made their way down to the camps where George Lo and the members of the team were awaiting their safe return.

After enjoying the hot bowl of soup presented by Hilary's old friend George Lo, Hilary exclaimed, It's wonderful George! We've finally beaten this devil".

It was ironic that the exciting news of Hilary's successful expedition to Everest reached Great Britain just on the day when Queen Elizabeth was being officially appointed to the throne. Edmund Hilary, TengSing and all the members of the exploration team were greatly baffled by the international recognition and admiration they received once they arrived at the city of Kathmandu-Nepal.

His achievements

Sir Edmund Hilary who distinguished himself by conquering the highest mountain of the world was really successful in reaching the tops of ten more mountains belonging to Himalayan range between the years 1956 - 1965. Meanwhile, Hilary piloted the first airplane to Marble Point in Antarctica in 1957.

He reached the South Pole under a common wealth Antarctic exploration project in 1958 and was honoured for it.

A noteworthy development in his lifetime of exploration took place when he crossed the Arctic Ocean in an airplane together with Neil Amstrong in 1985 and was honoured to be the only man who set foot on the peak of mount Everest, Arctic region and Antarctic region.

In 2007, Hilary left for Antarctica accompanied by the Prime Minister of New Zealand for celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the camp of the Scott. He offered the sponsorship for building a hospital in Nepal and tragedy befell his family when his wife Luise and daughter Billinda died of an aircrash on their way to Kathmandu to see him.

This happened in 1975. This unexpected tragedy reduced him to bad health and it went on till he died in a hospital on 11th January 2008.

Sir Edmund Hilary received a growing chorus of admiration and praise virtually from every country as his courage, bravely and perseverance were highly valued.

The government of New Zealand renamed schools, educational institutes and highways as Edmund Hilary as a token of State honour for him.

Two universities conferred two doctorates on him and numerous parents were eager to name their babies after him.

The New Zealand government honoured him by featuring his photo on the five dollar note - an honour which was extremely special because no person had ever got the chance to have his image on a currency note while he was alive. It is interesting to note that Sir Edmund Hilary was the only foreigner who was honoured, by a foreign government.

The Nepal government made arrangements to hold a solemn ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the expedition to Everest and honoured Sir Edmund Hilary with the citizenship. He loves Asia. He willingly accepted the post of New Zealand high Commissioner for India and Nepal and served in New Delhi for four and half years.