Beyond the Edge

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1

Well, now, the Himalay as...

Well, we introduce to you this morning

Ed Hillary, a very interesting

personality in the alpine world.

- Good morning, Ed.

- Good morning.

How many attempts have been

made on Everest altogether?

Well, there have

been at least 10.

Well, why have

the others failed?

A combination of circumstances

which hasn't been right.

Well, do you think

it's possible to climb Everest?

Yes, I definitely think

it's possible to climb it

and, well, I'm sure

it will be done some day.

It's only 60 years ago, but

it was a completely different world,

and the idea that

you would be the first man

to stand on the highest

point on earth

is a quest, a romantic quest,

There was a real race on

for the world's highest peak,

And it wasn't just Britain,

There were other nations

in the queue,

This really was Britain's

last chance to grab this great prize,

Nobody knew if someone

could survive at 29,000 feet,

Like the guys going into space,

you know, you're breaking frontiers,

There is a physiologic limit

of what human beings can take,

I'm sure they didn't want to die,

but you're taking risks in which

death is one of the outcomes,

You are going into the unknown,

Could it be done?

Back in 1953, it was

a great big question mark,

I think

it's all really a matter of challenge,

Not so much challenge

only with the mountain,

but challenge with oneself,

seeing if you can force yourself

to overcome your fears

and hopefully, ultimately,

get to the top,

Members of

the British Everest expedition

have begun assembling

on the Subcontinent

where deputy leader Major Wylie

is looking forward

to the adventure to come.

We are very pleased

that the first stage

of our journey

to Mount Everest is over.

We are now off towards the hills.

If we get some fine weather

towards the end of May

just before the monsoon arrives

we should have a chance

of getting to the top.

The first time I joined up

with the expedition

was at the British Embassy

in Kathmandu,

We had 13 Western members

of the expedition,

John Hunt, a senior army officer,

was expedition leader,

I'd really never heard

of John Hunt before

and the first time I met him

was in Kathmandu,

I was very keen

to have people I knew already

so I had big

question marks about Ed,

I can only say that

from the moment I met Ed

I knew that here was somebody

who would be a dominating influence,

He was a tower of strength,

Mr Hillary,

as a matter of interest,

how long have you been climbing?

Well,

I've been climbing, I suppose,

for altogether about 10 years.

And how many trips have you done

out of New Zealand climbing?

I have already had a couple

of expeditions to the Himalay a.

You were quite strictly

brought up, weren't you?

I was brought up

during the Depression

and my family was pretty

short on cash during that period,

I was just a rough

old country boy, as it were,

A beekeeper,

A beekeeper,

I used to wander around our farm

dreaming about great adventures

and climbing mountains

and all that sort of thing,

What a contrast between

beekeeping on the one hand

and climbing mountains,

Oh, not really,

In the beekeeping, I was constantly

lugging around

80-pound boxes of honey,

And my brother was also

doing beekeeping, and we competed,

And I think the sense of competition

carried on to

my mountaineering activities,

Well, the party were first

all together as a team in Kathmandu,

Before us we had 17 days

of marches to Tengboche,

which is where we were going

to place our first base camp,

We had to cross a succession

of high ridges and deep valleys,

We could really get gradually fit

and - most important -

get to know each other as a team,

Everything had been

calculated to the last detail -

7,5 tons of material,

443 packages, all numbered,

and the contents of each listed

down to the last matchbox or needle,

It is a team expedition

and it's very much in the form

of a pyramid of effort,

13 Western members of the expedition,

30 permanent high-altitude Sherpas,

These are men who will be carrying

loads for us to great altitudes,

Some 600 Nepalese porters

carried loads across country

into our climbing regions,

Because there had been no less

than seven British

attempts on the mountain,

we felt that by right, the mountain

should be climbed by Britain

and by extension

the British Commonwealth,

The Swiss so nearly

got to the summit in 1952,

The Americans were

waiting in the wings,

And so there was huge

pressure on John Hunt

with this colossal expectation

that this quest had to succeed,

Mr Hillary,

how many New Zealanders

are in this year's expedition?

Well, only two of

us. There's George Lowe and myself.

George Lowe and my father

were great friends,

They had climbed extensively

in the Southern Alps of New Zealand,

They were very good

climbers together

and had a tremendous rapport,

We had 18 days of trekking

and during that period

of getting to know one another

there was always

a little bit of a funny edge

towards the New Zealanders,

Both Ed and I had been

to ordinary high schools,

They, of course,

the greater number of them,

had been to public schools,

We did come from a different

background, there was no doubt,

Kathmandu is only about

4,000 feet above sea level,

The foot of Everest is about 18,000,

Our 17 days approach march

was an essential part of my policy

of acclimatisation,

The whole thing

is a race against time,

There was a constant fear

that the monsoon would come,

So that's why John Hunt said,

"We want to be in a position

to climb Everest on May 15,"

The later in May, the more likely

that the monsoon would arrive,

It's always a race against time,

As we got steadily

higher, our excitement increased

and more and more great peaks

were coming into view,

And over it all towered

the summit pyramid of Everest

only 20 miles away,

but still 20,000 feet above us,

Mr Hillary, you started

climbing in New Zealand, didn't you?

Oh, yes,

I started in New Zealand.

And there's

Mount Cook, the 'Cloud Piercer',

reaching majestically skyward

for over 12,000 feet.

A friend and I decided

to have a short trip to Mount Cook,

The closer we got, the more impressed

I was with the magnificent mountains,

Those jagged peaks there

provide the real alpinist with some of

the best climbing outside Europe.

That night, inside

the Hermitage where I was staying,

two young men came in,

I heard the whisper go around -

"They have just climbed Mount Cook,"

These chaps were really living,

I felt, "What a hopeless life I lead,

"no great adventures,

nothing particularly exciting,"

And that's when I decided that I was

going to take up mountaineering,

Well, after 17 days

our caravans arrived at the Monastery of

Tengboche at over 12,000 feet,

Once they got up

to Tengboche Monastery

it's getting pretty cold,

The low-country porters

largely only had cotton clothes

so they get paid off

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