{"id":6138,"date":"2008-01-28T06:50:38","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T14:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/?p=6138"},"modified":"2020-08-30T07:36:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T14:36:38","slug":"sir-edmund-hillary-1919-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/sir-edmund-hillary-1919-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 – 2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Memorial to an Intrepid Traveler<\/h2>\n

by W. Ruth Kozak<\/em><\/p>\n

Author\u2019s note: Several years ago I interviewed a young man, Mitch Grave, who had climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest with his school group from Vancouver when he was only 13 years old, the youngest boy on the trek. One of the adventures he encountered was this remarkable meeting with the famous mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary<\/p>\n

Excerpt from CLIMBING EVEREST Published 2001 in ‘Teensizzle’ ezine<\/em><\/p>\n

MEETING HILLARY: LEGENDARY MOUNTAINEER<\/h3>\n

One of Mitch\u2019s most memorable moments on that adventure was the day he met Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand climber who, with his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, was the first man to ever conquer Mount Everest\u2019s summit in May 1953. At first Mitch\u2019s friends thought Hillary was just \u201csome old man\u201d when they saw him at the hotel. But Mitch thought he looked familiar and asked, \u201cExcuse me, Sir. Are you a famous mountain climber?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy yes. I\u2019m Sir Edmund Hillary,\u201d replied the legendary mountaineer.<\/p>\n

Then in his 70\u2019s, Sir Edmond was making his last visit to Nepal. The altitude and his age had conquered him. Climbing such a daunting summit as Mount Everest had become too risky. But he still continued to visit and donate to local charities and schools. With the aid of his Himalayan Trust Fund, the Nepalese government has established the Sagarmantha National Park, in order to preserve the remaining soil and forest around Mount Everest.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"Knighted in 1953 after conquering Mount Everest\u2019s summit, to the locals Sir Edmund was like a god. They bedecked him with garlands of flowers and almost worship him.<\/p>\n

Mitch says Sir Edmund\u2019s calmness and poise impressed him. \u201cIt was an unexpected treasure meeting him,\u201d Mitch says.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>Sir Edmund has spent half his life in that area. His first wife and daughter were killed in a plane crash on Everest some years ago. This time, his son and second wife accompanied him. His son, Peter does the climbing now. He had already reached the summit when he was 22, following in his father\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n

Several years later, Mitch had the good fortune to meet Sir Edmund again, at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver when the mountaineer had come there to speak. Afterwards, Mitch went back stage and spoke to him. Although Sir Edmund didn\u2019t remember the exact details of their meeting in Nepal, he did remember the photos that Mitch had taken. He spent some time looking through Mitch\u2019s photo album and asked if he could have one of the photos to use in his slide show. It was a special picture of Mount Everest, one Mitch had taken as a farewell to the Mountain.<\/p>\n

Mount Everest Photo Gallery<\/h3>\n
\"Himalaya
Mt. Everest is on the left, with the wisp of cloud.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"mountains\"
On the trail from Macermo (4400 meters) to Goyko Village (4790 meters).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"painted
Rocks painted with Buddist prayers on trail from Lukia
(2476 Meters) to Namche Bazzar (3440 meters).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Namche
Town of Namche Bazaar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"view
The view from Goyko.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Edmund
Museum dedicated to Sir Edmond Hillary at Namche Bazaar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Goyko
Trekking over rocks on the way to Goyko Lakes.
Close to 4800 meters above sea level.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kathmandu and Everest Base Camp Tours Now Available:<\/h3>\n

Everest: Half-Day Helicopter Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathmandu: 15-Day Everest Base Camp Trek<\/a><\/p>\n

Everest: 12-Day Trek from Lukla to Kala Patthar<\/a><\/p>\n

From Kathmandu: Private Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

4-Day Tibet Tour With Everest Base Camp<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazing Everest Base Camp Trek<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAnnapurna Sunrise Trek from Kathmandu<\/a><\/p>\n

More Information:<\/h3>\n

Edmund Hillary on Wikipedia<\/a>
\nTenzing Norgay on Wikipedia<\/a>
\nPBS: Sherpas on Everest<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"About the author:<\/em>
\nW. Ruth Kozak has been a historical fiction writer since her teens and a travel journalist for more than 15 years. What began as a personal journey to visit, then live in Greece, motivated by her life-long interest in ancient history, has now emerged into this travel \u2018zine where other writers can share their experience of travel and life abroad. She also instructs classes on travel writing, creative and novel writing and memoirs. She has travelled extensively, often solo and always on a budget. Her website is www.ruthkozak.com<\/a>
\nContact:\u00a0contact@travelthruhistory.com<\/p>\n

Photo Credits:<\/em>
\nSir Edmund Hillary, 2006: The original uploader was Andeggs at English Wikipedia.<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA<\/a>
\nAll other photos\u00a0 are by Anup Parmar, taken when she was trekking in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memorial to an Intrepid Traveler by W. Ruth Kozak Author\u2019s note: Several years ago I interviewed a young man, Mitch Grave, who had climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest with his school group from Vancouver when he was only 13 years old, the youngest boy on the trek. One of the adventures he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[1065,1064,1063],"class_list":{"0":"post-6138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asia-travel","8":"tag-everest-base-camp-tours","9":"tag-kathmandu","10":"tag-sir-edmund-hillary","11":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}