Beyond the Edge
1
Well, now, the Himalay as...
Well, we introduce to you this morning
Ed Hillary, a very interesting
personality in the alpine world.
- Good morning, Ed.
- Good morning.
How many attempts have been
made on Everest altogether?
Well, there have
been at least 10.
Well, why have
the others failed?
A combination of circumstances
which hasn't been right.
Well, do you think
it's possible to climb Everest?
Yes, I definitely think
and, well, I'm sure
it will be done some day.
It's only 60 years ago, but
it was a completely different world,
and the idea that
to stand on the highest
point on earth
is a quest, a romantic quest,
There was a real race on
for the world's highest peak,
And it wasn't just Britain,
There were other nations
in the queue,
This really was Britain's
last chance to grab this great prize,
Nobody knew if someone
could survive at 29,000 feet,
Like the guys going into space,
you know, you're breaking frontiers,
There is a physiologic limit
of what human beings can take,
I'm sure they didn't want to die,
but you're taking risks in which
death is one of the outcomes,
You are going into the unknown,
Could it be done?
Back in 1953, it was
I think
it's all really a matter of challenge,
Not so much challenge
only with the mountain,
but challenge with oneself,
seeing if you can force yourself
to overcome your fears
and hopefully, ultimately,
get to the top,
Members of
the British Everest expedition
have begun assembling
on the Subcontinent
where deputy leader Major Wylie
is looking forward
to the adventure to come.
We are very pleased
that the first stage
of our journey
We are now off towards the hills.
If we get some fine weather
towards the end of May
just before the monsoon arrives
we should have a chance
of getting to the top.
with the expedition
was at the British Embassy
in Kathmandu,
We had 13 Western members
of the expedition,
John Hunt, a senior army officer,
was expedition leader,
of John Hunt before
and the first time I met him
was in Kathmandu,
I was very keen
to have people I knew already
so I had big
I can only say that
from the moment I met Ed
I knew that here was somebody
who would be a dominating influence,
He was a tower of strength,
Mr Hillary,
as a matter of interest,
how long have you been climbing?
Well,
I've been climbing, I suppose,
for altogether about 10 years.
And how many trips have you done
out of New Zealand climbing?
I have already had a couple
of expeditions to the Himalay a.
You were quite strictly
brought up, weren't you?
I was brought up
during the Depression
and my family was pretty
short on cash during that period,
I was just a rough
old country boy, as it were,
A beekeeper,
A beekeeper,
I used to wander around our farm
dreaming about great adventures
and climbing mountains
and all that sort of thing,
What a contrast between
beekeeping on the one hand
and climbing mountains,
Oh, not really,
In the beekeeping, I was constantly
lugging around
80-pound boxes of honey,
And my brother was also
doing beekeeping, and we competed,
And I think the sense of competition
carried on to
my mountaineering activities,
Well, the party were first
all together as a team in Kathmandu,
Before us we had 17 days
of marches to Tengboche,
which is where we were going
We had to cross a succession
of high ridges and deep valleys,
We could really get gradually fit
and - most important -
get to know each other as a team,
Everything had been
calculated to the last detail -
7,5 tons of material,
443 packages, all numbered,
and the contents of each listed
down to the last matchbox or needle,
It is a team expedition
and it's very much in the form
of a pyramid of effort,
13 Western members of the expedition,
30 permanent high-altitude Sherpas,
These are men who will be carrying
loads for us to great altitudes,
Some 600 Nepalese porters
into our climbing regions,
Because there had been no less
than seven British
attempts on the mountain,
we felt that by right, the mountain
should be climbed by Britain
and by extension
the British Commonwealth,
The Swiss so nearly
got to the summit in 1952,
The Americans were
waiting in the wings,
And so there was huge
pressure on John Hunt
with this colossal expectation
that this quest had to succeed,
Mr Hillary,
how many New Zealanders
are in this year's expedition?
Well, only two of
us. There's George Lowe and myself.
George Lowe and my father
were great friends,
They had climbed extensively
in the Southern Alps of New Zealand,
They were very good
climbers together
and had a tremendous rapport,
We had 18 days of trekking
and during that period
of getting to know one another
there was always
towards the New Zealanders,
Both Ed and I had been
to ordinary high schools,
They, of course,
had been to public schools,
We did come from a different
background, there was no doubt,
Kathmandu is only about
4,000 feet above sea level,
The foot of Everest is about 18,000,
Our 17 days approach march
was an essential part of my policy
of acclimatisation,
The whole thing
is a race against time,
There was a constant fear
So that's why John Hunt said,
"We want to be in a position
The later in May, the more likely
that the monsoon would arrive,
It's always a race against time,
As we got steadily
higher, our excitement increased
and more and more great peaks
were coming into view,
And over it all towered
only 20 miles away,
but still 20,000 feet above us,
Mr Hillary, you started
climbing in New Zealand, didn't you?
Oh, yes,
I started in New Zealand.
And there's
Mount Cook, the 'Cloud Piercer',
reaching majestically skyward
for over 12,000 feet.
A friend and I decided
to have a short trip to Mount Cook,
The closer we got, the more impressed
I was with the magnificent mountains,
provide the real alpinist with some of
the best climbing outside Europe.
That night, inside
the Hermitage where I was staying,
two young men came in,
I heard the whisper go around -
"They have just climbed Mount Cook,"
These chaps were really living,
I felt, "What a hopeless life I lead,
"no great adventures,
nothing particularly exciting,"
And that's when I decided that I was
going to take up mountaineering,
Well, after 17 days
our caravans arrived at the Monastery of
Tengboche at over 12,000 feet,
Once they got up
to Tengboche Monastery
The low-country porters
largely only had cotton clothes
so they get paid off
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