The 1953 Mt Everest Expedition
How Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became legends
Oct 26, 2006 Joseph Allen McCullough
In actual fact, Hillary was the first to reach the summit, but he maintains that this is irrelevant, and that they reached it together. The Queen had a double cause for celebration on this day, her coronation. So, how did it all begin?
Prior to 1953, there had been numerous attempts to attack the mountain, mainly by the British. After the Swiss failure of 1952, the Brits were back on target and a strong team set off for Nepal. The team was led by ex-military man, John Hunt, and consisted of mountaineers, a physiologist, a camera-man, the expedition doctor and, in the hope that they would succeed, The Times Correspondent. They were also joined by the now necessary companions, the Sherpas. For a long time the Sherpas did not go anywhere near Everest, perceiving it to be a powerful force, the 'Goddess Mother of the Land', and the slopes were considered to be off-limits to mere humans. That is until the westerners came along and coughed up the dough.
Once base camp had been established at the foot of the Khumba icefall, the vast area of precarious ice formations and deep crevasses that tumbles down the centre of the valley that leads up to Everest, a series of further camps were created. Unlike the later expeditions, the 1953 group had to find suitable camping grounds on the route to the summit, although they did learn from the Swiss expedition's mistakes.
Base Camp was established at 17, 600 ft (over 4 times higher than Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain), then Camps 1 through to 9 were set up on the twisting journey up to the summit. Everything had to be carried up to stock the camps, and, the higher the camp got, the less time the climber could spend there because of the thin air, so frequent trips up and down were required. Bearing in mind that all this going up and down took weeks, which was necessary for acclimatizing as well as for the camps.
Once over the treacherous ice fall, Hunt had to decide whom he would pair with whom for the assault on the mountain. Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon were the first summit pair, and on 26th May they reached the highest point that man had ever set foot on, high up on the south summit (28, 750 ft). Unfortunately they slipped and fell hundreds of feet and narrowly missed plummeting to their deaths. A combination of this fall, the weather and problems with their oxygen equipment saw the end of their summit bid. Now the final hopes laid with Hillary and Tenzing .
They awoke early and began their summit attempt, cutting steps in the ice and trudging their way through the snow. Taking it in turns to lead, they passed the high-point of the others. Excitement mounting, Hillary was faced with a 40-ft rock step, which would have been hard climbing even at a much lower altitude. He persevered and managed to find a route, even if a somewhat precarious one. Tenzing followed suit and soon Hillary was astounded to find himself standing on an exposed area of snow with nothing but air all around him! It was the summit! Tenzing soon joined him and they spent only 15 minutes there, taking pictures and embracing. Tenzing also left some offerings for the gods. The beekeeper from Auckland and the Everest veteran Sherpa had become legendary.
Upon descending to the south summit, they could hardly hide their grins and were soon spotted by their team-mates. As Hillary got closer to his team, he uttered that famous phrase. 'Well George, we knocked the bastard off!'.
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