Mt. Everest has loomed larger than life -- at 29,028 feet -- formidable as it rises out of the mists, with its icy crevasses. Like a fairy palace, the mountain is a place of mystery and foreboding. For many mountaineers, the place has proven insurmountable, or worse, deadly. But, Mt. Everest is also the setting for tragedies and triumphs, offering an elaborate tapestry for great men to become heroes.
On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest. He was not the first man to attempt an attack on the peak, nor would he be the last. In this memoir, Hillary recounts all of the exhilarating details of his groundbreaking achievement.
The Awe & Extraordinary Adventure
"I couldn't help a feeling of childlike awe as I looked again on that mysterious country. I'd always been rather interested in comparative religion, and down there was the home of ancient magic and holy Lamas." Hilllary found himself in a land of almost unbelievable beauty, filled with waterfalls, lush vegetation, and a rich culture of myth and legend. He says, "I enjoyed every moment of it, for it was the most beautiful valley I had ever seen... And I knew that, given half a chance, I'd come back again to see its flowers and sparkling streams, and to accept the challenge of its unconquerable mountains."
Quite apart from the thrill of reaching the top of Mt. Everest, his adventures on the hills of Tibet offer another look at the lives and adventures of Hillary and his comrades.
The Awe & Extraordinary Adventure
"I couldn't help a feeling of childlike awe as I looked again on that mysterious country. I'd always been rather interested in comparative religion, and down there was the home of ancient magic and holy Lamas." Hilllary found himself in a land of almost unbelievable beauty, filled with waterfalls, lush vegetation, and a rich culture of myth and legend. He says, "I enjoyed every moment of it, for it was the most beautiful valley I had ever seen... And I knew that, given half a chance, I'd come back again to see its flowers and sparkling streams, and to accept the challenge of its unconquerable mountains."
Quite apart from the thrill of reaching the top of Mt. Everest, his adventures on the hills of Tibet offer another look at the lives and adventures of Hillary and his comrades.
Training Grounds
"What we'd do to get on a trip like that!" The newspaper clippings of attacks on Everest captured his imagination, and led him on toward what would become his goal. The first expedition was in 1921, with "unbelievable feats of courage and endurance" in the intervening years.
Hillary was training his body and his mind for that ultimate challenge, when he would overcome the frustrations: "chaotic icefalls force costly detours, unstable snow ledges promise to avalanche at the slightest misstep, and brutal weather shifts from pulse-stopping cold to fiendish heat in mere minutes."
It's the stuff nightmares are made of, and most rational humans would run away from such an adventure instead of plodding steadily further into the deadly dangers. Time loses all meaning, as the body gasps for air. It's pure torture! But, it's also the stuff legends are made of: "A few more whacks of the ice-axe, a few more weary steps, and we were on the summit of Everest."
"What we'd do to get on a trip like that!" The newspaper clippings of attacks on Everest captured his imagination, and led him on toward what would become his goal. The first expedition was in 1921, with "unbelievable feats of courage and endurance" in the intervening years.
Hillary was training his body and his mind for that ultimate challenge, when he would overcome the frustrations: "chaotic icefalls force costly detours, unstable snow ledges promise to avalanche at the slightest misstep, and brutal weather shifts from pulse-stopping cold to fiendish heat in mere minutes."
It's the stuff nightmares are made of, and most rational humans would run away from such an adventure instead of plodding steadily further into the deadly dangers. Time loses all meaning, as the body gasps for air. It's pure torture! But, it's also the stuff legends are made of: "A few more whacks of the ice-axe, a few more weary steps, and we were on the summit of Everest."
High Adventure
In his high-mountain adventure, Hillary did not make it alone. He climbed with a group of men, who shared the hardships, the disappointments, and eventually celebrated the triumph of making it to the very top of the world. As Hillary explains in his preface, "Today, it is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search for the pleasure of searching, and not for what he may find." The adventure goes ever on.
