The Mountains We Climb

The start of the year has seen the loss of two important New Zealanders – Sir Edmund Hilary and Hone Tuwhare – both of whom described and defined us and our place in the world.

I wanted to focus on one of these two people – Sir Edmund Hilary – who is famous as much for his modesty, his self effacing nature and his efforts to assist the people of Nepal as he is for his climbing achievements. 

As we know on 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, as part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.

The comment Sir Edmund made to his lifelong friend, George Lowe – who climbed up to meet them on their decent from the summit with hot soup is the stuff that legends are made of :

“Well George, we  knocked the bastard off!” 

However – not so well known is the fact that this was not Sir Edmund Hilary’s first attempt to climb Everest – Hilary was part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest in 1951 led by Eric Shipton before joining the successful attempt of 1953. His comments at the end of this expedition reveal a lot about his character:
“You defeated me! But you won’t defeat me again! Because you have grown all you can grow…. but I am still growing!”  

Following his ascent of Everest he devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he founded. Through his efforts many schools and hospitals were built in this remote region of the Himalayas. He was the Honorary President of the American Himalayan Foundation, a United States non-profit body that helps improve the ecology and living conditions in the Himalayas.

Whilst we may not be mountaineers – we all have our own mountains to climb and an opportunity to make a difference.  As Sir Edmund said – It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.