National Geographic: Return To Everest Page #2

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a continuing odyssey,

seeking new challenges

around the globe.

Sometimes,

with the indomitable Louise

on less spectacular expeditions

in New Zealand or

the Alaskan wilderness,

he discovered the new adventure

of watching his children grow.

But always Hillary

came back to Nepal.

Long a forbidden kingdom

locked from the world,

Nepal had barely 200 miles of road

when at last opened to

foreigners in 1949.

Its few vehicles, machines,

and even grand pianos were brought

over the southern ridges

on the backs of men.

Its terraced uplands,

built by the labor of centuries,

were joined by a labyrinth

of trails on which

astonishing burdens were carried

by the hardy hill folk or

their caravans of yaks.

Later each return of the family

would become a journey

of discovery,

particularly for Louise

whose lighthearted accounts

of their travels soon

became best-selling books.

Learning the country

by climbing it,

the children were taken by

their father to seethe great peak

that changed his destiny and theirs

For the first time 12-year-old

Peter would glimpse the mountain

that one day would draw him like

an inescapable challenge.

With deepening regard for

the warmhearted Sherpas,

the Hillarys eagerly lent

a hand wherever needed,

opened the door to a culture

distant from their own origins.

On a mountainside at Thami

not far from the Tibetan border,

they helped build a supporting

wall for a Buddhist monastery.

Its new leader was

a 12-year-old boy,

believed to be the reincarnation

of a previous head lama or rimpoche.

"When I first went to the Himalayas,

my major interest really was

in climbing mountains.

I got to know the local people,

the Sherpas,

and enjoyed them very much.

And by spending time in the villages,

it became impossible for me

not to realize that

there were so many things lacking.

So many things that we took for

granted in our society,

they simply didn't have.

And because I was very fond

of my Sherpa friends,

I had this sort of nagging

worry all the time

shouldn't we be trying to

do something

about the future of the Sherpas?

And to help them to

withstand the changes

that were likely to take place?"

Around Hillary, often watching,

were the beautiful Sherpa children

open, quick to laugh,

endlessly inventive in play.

Yet untaught, their innocence

one day could become a prison.

In all of the Khumbu there was

not a school to help them grow.

He would always remember

the words of a village leader:

"Our children have eyes,

but they are blind."

"And it was then at

that particular occasion

that I decided that

instead of sort

of thinking about it for years

and talking about it,

maybe I should try and

do something about it."

Abruptly, Sir Edmund Hillary

became a part-time carpenter.

Drawing help from contributors in

New Zealand and the United States,

he formed the Himalayan Trust

to support the program.

Today, still building after

more than two decades,

he has completed and staffed

no fewer than 22 schools

across the Khumbu.

"We have a good,

experienced team to do the job.

My brother, Rex, is a builder

by trade back in New Zealand.

And he's come over here quite a few

times to help on these projects.

But without Mingma's organization

and authority amongst the Sherpas,

I could have done nothing."

The patterns of construction

have changed little

since the building

of the first school in 1961.

Some children help

some children watch

some children imitate.

For some,

classes have already begun.

"...has entered."

"He has entered."

"His house."

"His house."

"The men are climbing the mountain."

"The men are climbing the mountain."

"The mountain."

"The mountain."

"The mountain."

"The mountain."

"The men have climbed the mountain."

"The men have climbed the mountain."

"This is the thing I've

always liked about the Sherpas.

They always are prepared

and know what they can do.

And they know that

they don't have money,

but they have the strength

of their hands.

In days gone by,

even my own children,

Peter, Sarah, and Belinda,

used to work in with

the local children,

carrying rocks and

carrying chunks of timber,

and I really think they enjoyed it.

It is quite exciting

to watch a school rise up

from its foundations

and to see the rock

I used to climb

being fashioned into

schoolhouse walls."

A rudimentary structure, unheated,

dependent on natural light,

the new school at Chaunrikarka

is a center of village pride.

Quickly the people gather,

bringing bottles of chang,

the local spirits,

for the celebration.

"I always feel a slight degree

of apprehension about

get-togethers like these.

Any Sherpa gathering tends to

become a somewhat festive occasion

with the local beer and spirits

flowing rather freely and

mostly in my direction.

And it's really quite a challenge

to survive these functions

in an upright position."

"On behalf of the Himalayan Trust

and all those who have helped

build this school,

I have much pleasure now

in declaring the school open."

For the first time the children

enter the still empty classroom.

Here, in this vacancy,

each will embark on

a new journey of discovery,

find new mountains to climb.

Today across the Khumbu

the school bells ring,

many the empty oxygen flasks used

by Hillary and other climbers.

Over the highland ridges more than

a thousand Sherpa children

hurry to class each day,

some to schools more than

a three-hour journey from home.

"Are you sleeping,

are you sleeping?

Brother John, Brother John.

Morning bell is ringing,

morning bell is ringing.

Ding done ding,

dong ding dong."

At Khumjung, Hillary remains

close to its day-to-day activities,

still enjoys visiting

the first school he ever built,

watching children draw pictures

of a wider world they have never

seen outside a book.

Largest of Khumbu schools with

an enrollment of nearly300,

Khumjung has a proud record of

outstanding students,

some already entering leadership

roles in Nepal.

The soccer team, of course,

remains invincible to lowland teams

who quickly struggle

for breath at 13,000 feet.

But schools are only part of

a wider effort by Hillary

and his associates.

Under his direction,

three landing strips have been

carved on the mountainsides,

ending forever the centuries-long

isolation of the Sherpas.

In the mysterious symbols

printed on the cargo,

passing children sometimes

try to imagine the wonders

of the world from which it came.

Built by Hillary,

scattered clinics and two hospitals

at last provide medical care

and have brought a new awareness

among the Sherpas

that smoky dwellings and

lack of sanitation

cause many of their chronic maladies

At Kunde even the local lama

has found a new trust

in modern medicine.

In a region where formerly half

the youth died before twenty,

there has been

a dramatic improvement

in the treatment of

children's afflictions

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