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Peak experience Our Ascent of the Everest: High Adventure
In addition to hurricane force winds and sub-zero temperatures, all described vividly by Hillary, the pictures show the glaciers, the ice-falls and the bottomless crevasses. He faced all these hurdles in the two expeditions before the successful climb in 1953. This was the Himalayas. No other mountain could give them this experience to prepare them for the Summit. Other than Nature's fury, which was ever present, one of the photographs shows porters carrying stores to the high-altitude camps. Over 3 tonnes of stores had to be carried by the sherpas. On another occasion they had to ford a river which was a raging torrent. Fording it once was difficult, but they had to do it several times and help the terrified sherpas with massive loads to make multiple crossings. Other than a rope that connects Hillary to his climbing partner there is another constant companion: fear. One night, in his tent he expresses thoughts from the darkest depth of his mind, "I felt a terrible sense of fear and loneliness. What was the sense in it all? A man was a fool to put up with it! And for what?".
There is a photograph of Tenzing and Hillary ready to move for the Summit that shows Tenzing's confidence and determination. The flags of India, Nepal, New Zealand and the UK, wrapped around the ice-axe handle ready to be unfurled on the Summit. May 29, 1953, 11.30 am. Hillary and Tenzing stood atop Mount Everest. Says Hillary, "I felt a quiet glow of satisfaction spread through my body. I turned around and looked at Tenzing. I could see his infectious grin of sheer delight. I held out my hand and in silence we shook in good Anglo-Saxon fashion. But this was not enough for Tenzing and impulsively he threw his arm around my shoulder and we thumped each other on the back in mutual congratulations." Cultural differences notwithstanding, jolly good show old chaps!
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One
picture is worth a thousand words. Edmund Hillary's book with more
than two dozen photographs is absolutely magnificent and awesome. It
was a first time that a camera was used at 29,029 feet above sea
level. It captured the climbing conditions and obstacles faced by
climbers in the Himalaya.
Hillary
recounts his trials and tribulations with clarity and this is what
makes the reader a part of the historic climb. It is very involving
possibly because it is not about climbing a mountain, but THE
Mountain, the highest in the world and for the first time. Hillary
takes us along.