Nepal marks 60 years since Everest summit victory

NEPAL: Nepal marked 60 years since the first ascent of Everest on Wednesday, celebrating the summiteers whose success has bred an industry that many climbers now fear is ruining the world’s highest peak.

Four days of ceremonies which have been dubbed the “Everest Diamond Jubilee” conclude on Wednesday with a gala at the former royal palace in the capital Kathmandu in honour of the first successful climbers, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

The British expedition in 1953 changed mountaineering forever and turned New Zealander Hillary and Nepalese guide Norgay into household names and heroes in many parts of the world.

“Hillary and Tenzing were rock stars of the 1950s and into the 1960s,” Hillary’s son Peter told AFP in an interview. “The biggest thing about 1953 is that they were going into the unknown.

“People didn’t know what was up there, they didn’t know whether or not you could remain conscious, they didn’t know whether they could climb that final summit knife-edged ridge and get up what is now called the Hillary Steps,” he added.

A host of famous mountaineering figures will be at the gala on Wednesday night, including Everest legend Reinhold Messner of Italy, as well as Kancha Sherpa, the last remaining member of the 1953 expedition.

Sherpa, who is 81, remembers the expedition as an arduous but ultimately joyous affair, although he regrets that the glory is not more equally shared among the team.

“Everyone knew Tenzing and Hillary climbed Everest but nobody knows how hard we worked along the way,” Sherpa told AFP in an interview.

AFP