National Geographic: Return To Everest
- Year:
- 1984
- 29 Views
Return to Everest
In the Himalayan foothills,
Kathmandu long has been a crossroads
its streets and holy places
filled with travelers enroute
to a thousand destinations
many may never reach.
Watched by the gods,
some go to market to sell or buy,
some seek to earn a higher form
in their next reincarnation,
some climb the steep
steps to Nirvana,
hoping to escape the tumult
of daily life.
Sometimes the destinations are
only disguised beginnings.
For sir Edmund Hillary,
first conqueror of Mount Everest,
his greatest journey would
only begin at the summit.
It would traverse not only
the great landforms of Earth,
but a less visible geography
the private landscapes of one man's
passage through the years.
At last among the long isolated
Sherpas of the Khumbu region
south of Everest,
it would bring a new challenge,
a new adventure,
hardly 20 miles from
where his journey began.
Today Hillary is a folk hero
in the Khumbu.
With ceremonial scarves or katas,
the great sahib
who climbs mountains
but the friendly giant
who has brought them
their first glimpses of a world
they never knew.
It has been a trade of sorts.
In changing their lives,
Hillary has changed his own.
In the Khumbu highlands of
Nepal each dawn is a discovery.
Again the peaks emerge
Ama Dablam, Kantega,
Thamserku, Everest
silent sentinels of Earth's
highest mountains, the Himalayas.
In the Sherpa villages
of Kunde and Khumjung,
less habit yaks and goats are sent to stony pas
and the juniper smoke from
a hundred scattered fires
carries morning prayers to the gods.
At 13,000 feet the gods
are never far away.
Formed forty million years ago
by the collision
of the Indian landmass
and the Eurasian continent,
Nepal is a country set on edge.
Here, near Everest,
Tibetan Sherpas long ago
found sanctuary.
Here for centuries they lived
in rigorous isolation,
an island in time.
One man has become
a major instrument of change,
bringing both blessings and danger.
With his son, Peter,
Sir Edmund Hillary has returned
this way many times,
but this year holds
a special meaning
it is the 30th anniversary
of the first conquest of Everest.
"I get quite a thrill every time
I come back to
these two main Sherpa villages.
There's so much here
that's pleasantly familiar.
There's also the thought of soon
being reunited with
so many old friends."
Again they walk the village lanes,
welcomed by the greeting
of clasped hands
and murmured "Namaste!"
Already fields are being prepared
and planted with grains or potatoes
for the short upland growing season.
Across a wall bounds
an old and irrepressible friend,
Phudorje, Hillary's companion
on many a climb.
Everywhere young life
explores a world made new.
It is spring.
At last father and son
enter the house
that long ago became a second home.
"Oh, Ang Dooli! Namaste!"
"Namaste!"
"Very good to see you."
"Yes, same. Namaste!"
"In this house I can always
be sure of a warm welcome
and a cup of Tibetan tea.
Over the years my family and
I have spent much time here
with Mingma Tsering and
his wife Ang Dooli.
And they're still
my closest Sherpa friends."
In daily tasks, Ang Dooli endures.
Having lost eight of eleven children
she eagerly welcomed
the Hillary family as her own.
Upon the wall hang snapshots,
fragments of life captured long ago...
Hillary's daughters Belinda
and Sarah...
his wife, Louise, and the children...
young Peter with protective god...
playful Belinda the youngest child.
"Ah, thank you, Ang Dooli!"
Now a painter,
surviving son Temba remains
a victim of iodine deficiency,
once common in the Khumbu.
"Hey, Temba!"
"Ah, what's that? What's that?"
"Thyangboche."
"Thyangboche."
"There."
Pivot on which so many destinies
have turned,
it was Everest that once joined
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay,
his Sherpa partner
on their historic climb.
Now, amid the peaks on the trail
to Everest, they meet again.
Still strong at 69,
Tenzing and his daughter Deki
have come from Darjeeling
to join the anniversary festivities.
"Oh, Tenzing! Good to see you."
"...Deki."
"Hi, Deki. How are you?"
"Fine."
"Very nice to meet you."
"Hi, Peter..."
"Hi. Long time, Tenzing.
It's good to see you again."
"Yes, did you have a good walk up?"
"Very well. Very fine, thank you."
In Britain today there will be
a more formal celebration,
but Hillary and Tenzing
have chosen to come here,
not only to be honored,
but to honor the families
of so many Sherpas
who have risked and often lost
their lives on many an expedition.
"Ah, that's good."
"Yes."
"Namaste, Tenzing."
"Namaste."
For a moment two aging heroes
pause to honor each other,
look back to the victory
they shared.
Remote, seemingly beyond
the reach of human effort,
the towering mass of Everest
at mid-century had defeated
all attempts to reach the summit.
Then, as Nepal opened to foreigners,
assaults at last were possible
from the south.
In the British Expedition of 1953,
guide Tenzing Norgay,
already veteran of
five failed attempts,
would be teamed with Hillary,
who earlier had sighted
a possible route via the South Col.
With the return of
the first assault team
the challenge was passed
to Hillary and Tenzing.
The earlier team had reached
a point hardly 300 feet
below the summit.
Now, exhausted and frozen,
they were somber evidence of
the tests that lay ahead.
But storm intervened.
Only after a night wracked by
winds could Hillary and Tenzing
at last climb the icy blade
to the summit.
There they left in the snow
a bar of chocolate and
some biscuits.
At a lower camp, the main party
waited in growing suspense
while leader John Hunt scanned
the ridges and icefalls above.
Then at last
the returning climbers appeared,
led by a teammate lifting
his thumb in a sign of triumph.
Briefly the triumph was shared
only with comrades.
Then word flashed to the world.
"This is the BBC Home Service.
Here is the news.
Mount Everest has been conquered
by members of the British Expedition
The news reached London
in a message to the Times.
It said that Mr. E.P. Hillary,
a New Zealander,
and Tenzing Bhotia, a Sherpa,
had reached the summit
last Friday, May 29th.
The message added, 'All is well."'
In London the coronation of
the Queen now was marked
by a fitting tribute.
For a new Queen Elizabeth,
an obscure New Zealand beekeeper
had set a flag in high, thin air,
passed a boundary
never crossed by man.
Quickly knighted by the Queen,
Sir Edmund soon pledged loyalty
to another lady - Louise,
the young musician
who became his wife.
Yet domestic bliss soon
would be exchanged
for the wintry wastes of Antarctica.
There, Hillary would lead
tractors to the South Pole,
setting up supply depots for
the first Antarctic crossing.
Hero to the world,
symbol of high adventure,
his life would become
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"National Geographic: Return To Everest" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/national_geographic:_return_to_everest_14561>.
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