Death of a Hero

In the year 2000 I finally fulfilled a long standing dream, that of going to Nepal and trekking to Everest. I had had this dream for a long time and it was worth the wait. As Jazz and I were trekking in the Khumbu, we could always see the great dark grey pyramid of Everest looming at the horizon. It is not the most beautiful mountain, for me Ama Dablam is, but it is imposing even partially hidden behind Lotse and Nupse. (In the photo Everest is the pyramid on the left behind Nupse.)
Last Friday Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who first climbed to the summit, died at age 88 in New Zealand. This tall rangy hero was a modest man and for the longest time after having won renown, still listed himself as a "beekeeper" the job he had done before climbing into fame. He was also a true gentleman and friend and always said that Tenzing and himself had arrived together at the summit when in fact he had gotten there a few minutes before his friend. That shows a real sense of chivalry, because even today, the role of the sherpa is often down played.
On May 29th, 1953, Edmund Hillary and his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay made history by being the first to climb to the top of the 29035 feet or 8850 meter Mount Everest or Sagamatha for the Nepalese. That is about the height that modern jets fly. At that altitude you are in the killing zone, where your body is slowly dying from lack of oxygen. (Believe me it is deadly, Everest has killed over 200 people since Hillary climbed it for the first time and that doesn't count those that disappeared like George Mallory before Hillary's time)
Many people would have been content with this, but Edmund Hillary went on to explore other mountains, cross Antarctica, touching the South Pole in the process, landed at the North Pole in a ski plane becoming the first man to touch both poles and the summit of Everest.
More importantly, he never forgot the sherpas and the Khumbu. He raised millions of dollars to build 30 schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and many other things that the region needed. In fact the Nepalese made him an honorary citizen of their country, the only foreigner to have been so honoured.
He was also an environmentalist, spearheading the clean up of Everest. When he pushed for the cleanup by climbers, there were tons of garbage such as used oxygen bottles, tents, packs, ropes and just plain garbage that had been left on the mountain. There were even many bodies and everything would be perfectly preserved for all time by the freezing temperature and lack of oxygen. (In fact George Mallory disappeared on the mountain in 1924 and when they finally found his body in 1999, they where able to see what had happened to him.) Because of his leadership the Nepalese government has put a garbage tax on the expeditions, they have to post a bond for a large sum of money (thousands of US $) and their equipment, food and stuff is then weighed and they must bring it back. They then pay so much for every kilogram they left. So everyone is forced to follow the trekker's credo, "What goes up, comes down!"
They don't make men like him anymore. Being an atheist, I don't really believe in an afterlife, but I'd like to think that if it exists, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are now together on the summit of the Sagamatha, the mother of all mountains.