Manila, Philippines – In 1953, a ninth British Mount Everest expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Since the North Col route on the Tibetan side was closed by the Chinese government, the expedition attempted to reach the summit via the South Col route in Nepal.
Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair came within 100m of the summit, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. Two days later, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali Sherpa climber.
They reached the summit at 11:30 am on May 29, 1953. They had succeeded where others had failed, and had survived a journey that had taken the lives of great explorers before them. Hunt and Hillary were knighted in the Order of the British Empire for the ascent.
After his success on Mount Everest, Hillary (20 July 1919-11 Jan. 2008) led the New Zealand’s Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. In 1958, he was a part of the first mechanized expedition to the South Pole. In 1985, Hillary and Neil Armstrong flew over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and the summit of Everest.
He returned often to Nepal and dedicated much of his life to environmental causes and humanitarian efforts for the Sherpa and Nepalese people by building clinics, hospitals, and schools. He also founded the Himalayan Trust, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of people in the Himalayas. He persuaded the government to make the forest around Mount Everest a national park to protect the unique environment of the Himalayan Mountains.
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