“Though the credit of actually reaching the summit of the apparently unconquerable mountain belongs in general to the Hunt Expedition and in particular to Hillary, an experienced and indomitable mountaineer, and Tensing, it would be no exaggeration to say that part at least of the credit should be allotted to all the previous expeditions to Everest. The data and the knowledge gathered by everyone of these expeditions have been of great assistance to succeeding attempts…. The memory of men of heroic mould like Mallory and Irvine and the sherpas who lost their lives during the previous assaults on Mount Everest, will naturally come into our minds. They died so that others might succeed.”
JUNE 3, 1953
Everest conquered
EVEREST HAS AT LAST YIELDED TO MAN’S INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. Sherpa Tensing and New Zealander, E. P. Hillary, of Colonel John Hunt’s ninth British Expedition, have reached the summit of the tremendous peak. The news has come on the eve of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and will add to public rejoicing in Britain. From the time Peary reached the North Pole and Amundsen the South Pole two years later in 1911, Everest has been one of what W. H. Murray, himself an Everest expeditioner of note, has called “one of the last great adventures left to man”. In India and Asia there will be particular satisfaction over the fact that Sherpa Tensing was one of the two members of the Hunt Expedition who actually reached the top of the world. Along with Lambert of the first Swiss Expedition he had already climbed to a height of about 28,215 feet; but they could go no farther upon the occasion. When they returned to a lower camp Tensing lay for a whole day in a state of coma and had continually to be awakened and forced to drink.
Though the credit of actually reaching the summit of the apparently unconquerable mountain belongs in general to the Hunt expedition and in particular to Hillary, an experienced and indomitable mountaineer, and Tensing, it would be no exaggeration to say that part at least of the credit should be allotted to all the previous Expeditions to Everest. The data and the knowledge gathered by every one of these Expeditions have been of great assistance to succeeding attempts. The path to the top, the type of equipment to be used, the most favourable weather conditions and the qualities essential in all those who make up an Everest Expedition; on these and other points much was learnt only by actual experience. There was a sober and cautious optimism that the Hunt Expedition, manned and equipped in the best manner possible in the light of experience gathered during the last thirty-two years, stood a good chance of winning its objective; and that hope has now been fulfilled. Never at any moment was there any inclination to underestimate the hazards of this very difficult task. The memory of men of heroic mould like Mallory and Irvine and the sherpas, who lost their lives during the previous assaults on Mount Everest, will naturally come into our minds. They died so that others might succeed.
Despatches from the leaders of the Expeditions, which have appeared from time to time in THE HINDU, have always been read with great care, even when they spoke only of preliminary (but absolutely vital) reconnaissance and ultimate failure. When the chronicles of final success reach us in due course they will be followed with breathless interest. Some of these mountaineers have had a streak of poetry in them and their powers of expression were appropriate to the task they had undertaken. Mallory, for instance, was an outstanding example. Murray, Shipton, Chevalley and others have been equally competent. When the descriptions of the final assault reach us from Col. Hunt, Hillary and Tensing, a saga of human endurance would be unfolded before us. It would be of interest to know, for instance, whether oxygen was used for the final climb. And, above all, what were the feelings of the two on the top who, from this peerless “snowy summit old in story” looked down upon the rest of the world? It has been said that “the true value of these Expeditions will not be found at any moment of victory, or of defeat, but in the striving and the discovering for which all men are made”. But nothing can equal the satisfaction that comes to men when success crowns their striving, especially when what they strive after has been on a grand scale, something not within the reach of normal men. Such satisfaction will be shared by Col. John Hunt and the members of his Expedition. The congratulations of the world will deservedly pour in on them.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I