The hero on the Himalayan peaks

By Amal Hewavissenti

High up in the mountains, we can view some of the most dramatic scenery in the world - deep gorges, large valleys, cascading waterfalls, fast-flowing rivers, and fog-capped peaks. However, mountains continually challenge and inspire the human spirit of adventure, with each generation of climbers aspiring to find novel ways to conquer the highest peaks.

The Himalayas, the world's largest mountain system includes around 30 mountains of great height with several jagged snow-covered peaks, deep river gorges and large valley glaciers. The apparently unreachable apex of Mount Everest gradually, fired the human spirit to conquer and explore the highest mountain peak on earth.

The landmark figure to have trekked across a difficult terrain up to the peak of Everest is Sir Edmund Hillary who will ever be remembered for his undaunted mettle. Sir Edmund Hillary, the greatest mountain explorer won the highest honour that a man could ever have deserved in his lifetime.

His most prominent achievement was reaching the great apex of Mount Everest and he was a man who practically did things that an ordinary person would never have even dreamed to do.

With the death of Hillary, the New Zealand flag of Oakland harbour and that of the parliament were at half-mast in condolence and he was given a State funeral with a declaration of a day of mourning for his death. In her exclusive announcement of the death of Edmund Hillary, Helen Clarke the premier of New Zealand claimed that his death brought about a massive loss for New Zealand and the New Zealanders as a whole.

Bravery

His astonishing mental capacity and courage brought him all kinds of epithets of bravery and he was greeted with an avalanche of public respect because he had conquered the whole world by getting at the unknown reaches of Mount Everest. Even in his childhood, Hillary was inspired by a passion to climb and explore highest mountain peaks. His first excursion to Mount Ruwapehu accompanied by his colleagues showed 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 steep-sided Mount Oliver of AIPs range.

The year 1951 marked a significant breakthrough in his life as he managed to be a member of a British exploration team under Eric Shipton who carried out an extensive search operation around the Everest mountain. Edmund Hillary thus set off on an arduous expedition with his companion George Lo to the precipitous cliff of Chaou of Himalaya range but had to give up the efforts as he had failed to find an easy track to the top.

Therefore, the team was forced to cancel out their passion to explore temporarily because the way to Mount Everest had been closed by China in control of Tibet. Meanwhile, a Swiss explorer team met with an unexpected failure to reach Everest because extreme weather had turned them back when they were within 200 metres to the peak. Another British exploration team under the leadership of Hunt invited Edmund Hillary and Tang Sing to join the expedition to the top of Everest. They established their last camp at an astonishing height of 25,900 feet while Tom Bodian and Charles Evans set about climbing to the top under Hunt's instructions.

Next, Hillary and Teng Sing encountered numerous hardships amidst extremely violent winds and biting snow. However, they managed to build a camp for the night at 27,900 feet up the mountain.

In the morning, Hillary noticed that one of his shoes which he had inadvertently kept outside the camp was totally frozen by excessive chill. It is said that he had to delay his journey up the mountain for almost two hours in his effort to bring the shoe back to normalcy.

Hillary carried a baggage including the oxygen machine which weighed nearly ten kilograms and suddenly found himself before a cliff of about forty feet (which is popularly called "Hillary Step"). Within a few minutes which involved highest peril, Edmund Hillary with a fine spirit of adventure succeeded in reaching the top of Everest by hooking himself to a narrow tissue between the layer of rock and the layer of snow on top.

And Hillary captured Teng Sing on film when Teng Sing was fixing the British flag on the apex of Mount Everest.

Return

They spent around 15 minutes on the top and Hillary took particular care to look for possible signs left by Melroy who was considered to have reached the top several years previously. But there were none. As a token of arriving at the highest mountain peak, Teng Sing carefully stored some objects he had brought. On the return journey, they were abruptly confronted with the problem of tracking down their way down as the melting ice had obliterated the marks of the way that Hillary had imprinted while climbing the hill. With great difficulty, they made their way down to the camps where George Lo and his team were awaiting their safe return.

On the moment of rejoining George Lo, Hillary exclaimed, "It's wonderful George. We've finally beaten the devil." It was ironic that the exciting news of Hillary's successful expedition to Everest reached Great Britain just on the day when queen Elizabeth was being officially appointed to the throne.

Edmund Hillary, Teng Sing and all members of the explorer team were greatly baffled by the international recognition and admiration they received once they arrived at the city of Kathmandu - Nepal.

Hillary reached the South Pole under a Commonwealth Antarctic exploration project in 1958 and was honoured for it. Sir Edmund Hillary who distinguished himself by conquering the highest mountain of the world was successful in reaching the tops of ten more mountains belonging to Himalayan range. Meanwhile, Hillary piloted the first air-plane to Marble Point in Antarctica in 1957.

A noteworthy development in his lifetime took place when he crossed the Arctic ocean in an air-plane together with Neil Armstrong in 1985.

He will ever be remembered for reaching the great heights of Everest, the North Pole and the South Pole.

On January 11, 2008, Hillary breathed his last at the age of 88 at the General Hospital in the city of Oakland New Zealand.