Quomolangma [EVEREST] Climbed for the 1st Time »
Posted by: gamahuche 3 months, 1 week ago55 Years since Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary "conquered" Everest, news which arrived in the UK on 2nd June, the morning of Queens Elizabeth II's Coronation, when the British Empire still ruled!
Read Full Story at news.bbc.co.uk
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blinkers3 months, 1 week ago
Gama, you have a fine talent for plucking these totally unexpected stories out of the ether and then plonking them on the board for our elucidation, entertainment, or amazement! Kudos always.
I remember this news (just about), it seemed to go along with very grainy TV news images of the British Coronation, Agh, I'm that old?
I was only a kid at the time, but I do recall getting the impression that it was some British "bloke" up there, along with a local Nepali guide; perhaps I was confused by all the excitement and flag-waving going on in London. It was some time later that I discovered Hillary was in fact a New Zealander, and a very great one, at that.
And you're quite right -- in 1953 a lot of territory, especially in Africa, was under the sway of the British. How quickly that era passed.
Excellent story.
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
When I realized this morning that this anniversary was today it put a spring in my step and joy in my heart remembering the excitement of that day that the news came through and the Queen's Coronation took place - and it poured and poured!
A couple of years later "Seven Years in Tibet" increased my fascination with that part of the world, which has endured ever since. In 1990 my daughter Tara, named for a Tibetan goddess, was kissed by the Dalai Lama at an ecumenical event at Middlebury College in VT.
On June 21st she'll get married at Cherry Hill in Central Park, NYC.
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blinkers3 months, 1 week ago
Remarkable story.
Everest sits smack on the border between Nepal and Tibet(China). I glimpsed it, far off in the distance, 11 years after it was first climbed. My 1974 visit to Nepal remains one of the high points (no pun intended) of my life.
Other than that, my links with the story are not as close as yours, gama, though I am married to a New Zealander!
Attempts to see the DL in Dharamsala, later, came to nought.
Hope you'll be in NY on 21 June.
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
"Hope you'll be in NY on 21 June"
You betcha!
I never physically made it out East, though a lot of my energies have also been involved with things Eastern..
I had a deal with my ex that when our daughter was 3 or 4 we'd go and live and study in Japan for at least a couple of years but as a New Yorker by adoption she could not bring herself to leave - at that time even New Jersey was a step to far..
Our Japanese teacher in NYC was born in Hiroshima and survived the bombing.
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aceofspades13 months, 1 week ago
Gam - June 21 is my birthday & I got an early Bday gift that year - A Hallicrafter's short wave radio & heard the news over a very static BBC Overseas service.
I was a lot more excited about some guys climbing Mount Everest (it was like landing on the moon then) than I was about some Queen being coronated.
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Spadecaller3 months, 1 week ago
Aye g!
Thanks for "heads-up". I was only five when this event took place, but I remember as a child seeing old films of their climb over the next several years back in the late fifties.
Btw... I was watching the Dalai Lama conversing with the politicians and ambassadors on TV earlier this week. When they suggested that the Dalai Lama meet with the higher ups of other countries concerning the plight of Tibet, his response was quite humorous. He expressed delight in meeting anyone from any station ... that he would be meeting another human being was quite a delightful prospect in itself. He seemed to be his best audience...LOL
For a moment it reminded me of the movie "Being There" with Peter Sellers, if you ever saw that hilarious movie.
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Radiofreeeuropa3 months, 1 week ago
Fantastic movie and novel! Jerzy Kosinski story...
Love it. Dalai Lama is wise beyond comprehension, with an innate ability to explain very complex ideas in ways that are as simple as a bean. I guess that is what Buddhism is, when you boil it down. Three cheers for Sir Edmund Hillary. I erroneously believed he was English too. Nice submit Gamahuche!
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vor3 months, 1 week ago
Reminds me of a fascinating book I read a few years back on George Mallory and his failed expedition. To even think that someone got so close more than 30 years before Hillary is remarkable. And Mallory took the sinister Northern Route and was using primitive equipment. Imagine being at such altitudes wearing a regular polarfleece jacket. That would be the rough thermal equivalent to the wool and sealskin Mallory used. There are theories that Mallory made it, but doubtful considering how treacherous the final stages of the Northern ascent would be. His body was found high on the mountain in 1999.
All the more reason to give kudos to Sir Edmund. Although many have climbed Everest since, even today it is a magnificent achievement to come back alive. Laughable when you see media types describe such a thing as "relatively easy" because of modern equipment.
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
That was one heck of a story! And it was of course what they needed NOT to happen!
Tenzing had taken part in several expeditions prior to this one, as a sherpa, basically a load-carrier. His early life is somewhat unclear - it is stated by some sources that he was born Tibetan and had been bonded to a sherpa family.
Later he received a medal from the Queen - perhaps the George Medal.
Here's a site which describes some of his later career: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/history/no...
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
I just discovered this - somehow it passed me by - that Sir Edmund died on the 8th January this year.
http://celebrities.propeller.com/story/2008/01/...
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blinkers3 months, 1 week ago
He had a state funeral in Wellington, the first layman to have one. Apparently the whole country paid attention, and mourned the passing of its most famous son. There were also ceremonies in Nepal, among the Sherpas for whom he'd done so much. He was definitely a person I'd liked to have met.
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Bkumm3 months, 1 week ago
Yikes. What the hell was he thinking? I look at it this way, if I have to have a parachute to slow me down enough so that I don't achieve orbital velocity I shouldn't be skiing the damn thing!
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Radiofreeeuropa3 months, 1 week ago
Ricky, The first time I saw that on the discovery channel my jaw hit the floor. I was mesmerized by what struck me as an inherently ill conceived notion. Bravery or foolishness? It struck me as foolish, but open for debate....
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ciera-marie3 months, 1 week ago
Krakauer's book and one by mountain climber Jim Whitaker really pulls you back to reality. Krakauer's about the $ and commericalism to climb Everst (may affect people's judgment regarding staying at base due to conditions).
Whitakers book is his autobiography. How climbing almost destroyed his marriage, what it took to get to know his children, the money it took (he's an International Attorney) the training involved, that climbers die on mountains training to climb Mt Everest, the friends who he watched die, how many times he tried to climb Mt. Everest and failed (everyone).
In short after reading them both, I still admire the people that need to climb. I'm not one of them.
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blinkers3 months, 1 week ago
CM, any book by the NZ climber, Joe Simpson, would strengthen your aversion to mountain climbing. He's been in some absolutely petrifying situations, including being given up for dead on some South American mountain, and writes brilliantly about his experiences.
Excellent for the armchair adventurer!
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texangelwings3 months, 1 week ago
Good reminder of the courage that exists in human kind! I wonder if the adventure starts when we are young? There were two young boys, here at the lake, a couple years ago, that built a raft out of shoreline remnants. Pieces of dock foam, boards strapped together, a tall tree limb with a shirt attached and a piece of lumber for a paddle. The two boys would follow the shortline on their homemade raft. They did catch a fish now and then! Tom and Huck!..;)
Thanks to all for the great comments above, too!
Good article, thanks gama!
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Mdiar3 months, 1 week ago
Hah, Gama, did you notice the two sinks? Do they remind you of any other stories you recently posted? Anyway, my apologies in getting to this so late! My ISP has given me a HELL of a time today, it was down when I awoke and its been down up until now! Mountain climbing is NOT for me! I'm just not built for it :O
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blinkers3 months, 1 week ago
Let's see, serio and yyodi,joined June 17 '07 and November 29 '07, respectively. Recent activity: total 4 comments between them -- all one-liners, all no-brainers. Both specialize in sinking gama's stories or disparaging positive commentators.
Well, I guess it takes all types to make a discussion board, Mdiar!
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gamahuche
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