New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali-Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay may not have been the first humans to reach the 29,035-foot summit of Mt. Everest. It’s possible a pair of British explorers reached the top three decades previous. But since they died near the top, no one knows if they were still climbing, or on their way down. And for many years the public didn’t know if it was Hillary or Norgay who reached the peak first.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: May 29, 1953--
Norgay was the most experienced Everest veteran on the planet, holding the world height record from a previous attempt. During the 1953 climb, led by British Army Officer John Hunt, no one knew who would be summiting until they got near the top. That was left to the last proverbial minute to see who was in the best shape.
Edmund Hillary was almost not in any shape to try, because he slid into a crevasse and was probably saying oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck, but before smacking into the bottom Tenzing leapt into action with his ice axe to secure Edmund’s rope and save his life. Afterward, Edmund said uh dude I’d really like it if we could be climbing partners from now on.
A couple of Brits in the Hunt expedition made it 330 feet from the summit on May 26 but had to turn back due to exhaustion and a dwindling oxygen supply. So it fell to Hillary and Norgay. Just before noon on May 29, 1953, the pair reached the summit. But who was first?
Hillary and Norgay didn’t give a shit if one got there a few seconds before the other. They saw it as a team effort that neither could have done without the other, and they formed a gentleman’s agreement to say they’d done it together. There were anti-colonial sentiments attached to the feat, and so it was decided they would not say. But then rumors took over.
In Nepal some said an exhausted Hillary was dragged to the top by Norgay. Of course the British could not imagine anyone but a white man being first. Hillary and Norgay proclaimed they reached the summit together.
But that is not what happened. At least, according to Edmund. In the official archives, a memo written by Hillary said he stood upon the summit then quickly pulled up Tenzing via rope. John Hunt and the British ambassador to Nepal agreed to change the memo to “we stood on the summit” to help defuse those anti-colonial feelings. After Tenzing Norgay died in 1986, Sir Hillary broke his silence and confirmed he led the final assault on the summit, beating Norgay by about ten feet. “I got tired of people saying Tenzing got to the top first,” he said. In 2003 Hillary said it didn’t matter who led the way because it “was very much a team affair.” But that Norgay was “deferential” and held back. Once at the top Edmund shook Tenzing’s hand, but the Sherpa wasn’t having it. He embraced his climbing partner in a bear hug for several minutes.
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