Last week, the world lost a hero: Sir Edmund Hillary. A New Zealander - not British, as many have assumed, despite his knighting by Queen Elizabeth into the Order of the Garter, he was the first to ascend Mount Everest, in 1953 with his guide Tenzing Norgay.

He knew, of course, that thousands of adventurers would follow in his footsteps, as my sister and I did almost a decade ago - not specifically to climb the world’s highest mountain, but to experience the Kingdom of Nepal, which had just opened to the outside world when Hillary made his climb. Mementos of his and successive climbs form the decor of the Rum Doodle, the adventurer’s bar in Thamel, Kathmandu, where Sal and I stopped for a drink just to soak in the ambiance.

Hillary knew, and he acted. He devoted the rest of his life to helping the people of Nepal, raising funds for charity, overseeing improvements in the quality of schools, assisting with reforestation programs, and making a huge fuss to other adventurers to “pack it in, pack it out,” especially on the slopes of Everest.

National Geographic has an excellent video of Sir Edmund talking about his ascent.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 7:38 am and is filed under Diversions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.