Tibetan Buddhist monks play horns prior to ceremonies in Katmandu, Nepal, Thursday, May 29, 2003, honoring mountaineers on the 50th anniversary of the conquering of Mount Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to scaled the 8,850-meter (29,035 foot) summit on May 29, 1953. (AP Photo/David Longstreath) rš12 Káthmandu - Tibetskí buddhistickí mnísi hrajú na rohoch 29. mája na oslavách 50. výročia prvého dobytia Mount Everestu v nepálskom Káthmandu. Sir Edmund Hillary a šerpa Tenzing Norgay 29. mája 1953 ako prví ľudia na svete zdolali 8850 metrov vysokú horu. TASR/AP
KATHMANDU - Nepal celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest on Thursday by making Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who „knocked the bastard off“, an honorary citizen. Hillary, who reached the summit with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay at 11:30 on the morning of May 29, 1953, was spending the day in Nepal‘s low-lying capital Kathmandu, at the age of 83 no longer able to handle the lack of oxygen in the mountains. When the pair returned to camp after scaling the peak, Hillary, a New Zealander, famously told the expedition leader „we knocked the bastard off“.
His son Peter, who has also scaled Everest, celebrated in the mountains at the Tengboche Buddhist monastery, where teams are blessed en route to the 8,850 metre summit. Solo Russian climber Sergey Larin radioed his support team to say he had made it to the top on Thursday from the Chinese side, the only climber so far to claim the summit on the anniversary. Larin‘s climb has not yet been officially confirmed.
Events in Kathmandu were relatively muted after almost a week of street parades and celebrations. Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand handed Hillary a certificate making him an honorary citizen at a ceremony for summiteers before the former beekeeper met the monarch of the world‘s only Hindu kingdom, King Gyanendra. „It‘s been an absolutely marvellous day. I feel completely overwhelmed,“ Hillary told reporters after being welcomed to the ceremony by a group of monks and fanfare of alpine horns. He was to end the day with a dinner with hundreds of Sherpa friends. About 450 summiteers joined the celebrations, which Nepal hopes will help revive a tourism industry shattered by a bloody Maoist revolt.
More than 1,200 people have now climbed Everest. But where Hillary and Tenzing cut their own way, most climbers today pay guides up to $65,000 to lay ladders across the gaping crevasses of the Khumbu icefall and rig ropes along the Hillary Step just below the summit to help them reach the top. Equipment has also changed dramatically, with climbers using ultra-light titanium oxygen bottles developed as part of the Soviet space programme, and lighter and warmer clothing. Hillary and other pioneering climbers are scathingly critical of the commercialism that has taken over the mountain.
But while it is easier than in Hillary‘s day, climbing the world‘s highest mountain remains dangerous.
Over the years, 175 people have died – including nine in one day in 1996 – and many of their bodies remain frozen on the mountain. On Wednesday, two people died when a helicopter crashed as it came into base camp. Reuters
