Even Everest is in shadow today

When Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, it took no less than five days for the news to spread around the world (although The Times broke the story on the day of the coronation so perhaps there was a bit of news management).

By contrast, Sir Edmund's death this morning at the age of 88 was beamed around the world in minutes and the tributes soon flooded back. A quick trawl of the online reaction to his death shows one thing very clearly: despite a lifetime in public view, this man enjoyed worldwide respect.

From the hundreds of tributes left on the New Zealand Herald website a few common themes emerge: 'Sir Ed' was an 'icon'; he was the 'greatest New Zealander ever'. Many remember both his courage and humility. Some demand a day of mourning or even a national holiday to remember him.

One asks whether people might hoard the New Zealand five-dollar note, which features Sir Ed, in the same way that Americans hoarded Kennedy half dollars after the death of JFK.

Our favourite came from Kerry Smith in Te Atatu South, who wrote: "A cloud passes the summit, the mountain is now in shadow, the legend sleeps in peace. Like the mountain, his deeds, his accomplishments and his name will endure. Rest well Sir Ed, the last climb is over."

Tim Cotter, a New Zealand climber who has scaled Everest four times, took up the theme. He told the newspaper that Kiwi mountaineers had always lived in Sir Edmund's shadow - but "it was the best shadow to live in".

In this Time magazine interview, Sir Edmund speaks of the Everest trip and of his later adventures - speedboating down the Ganges or driving tractors to the South Pole. He is also highly critical of the virtually untrained climbers allowed to attempt Everest nowadays, as long as they've paid their money to the Nepalese Government.

Or try this salon.com profile from 1998, in which Don George describes Sir Edmund as "the last branch in the great historical tree of terrestrial explorers, a direct descendant of such adventurers as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Lews and Clark, Standly and Livingston, Perry and Scott and Amundsen, Sir Richard Burton, Charles Lindbergh".

The website of Sir Edmund's Himalayan Trust shows some of his other achievements post-Everest. His foundation has built two hospitals, 13 health clinics, at least 30 hospitals, as well as planting a million trees in the Himalayan kingdom. For many, that will be his real legacy.

Comments

[JFR]

Um, except the JFK half dollar was issued as a memorial after his death, right?

[Pep from Catalonia]

You'll always be in the summit!