Mt Everest legend's final ascent.......

Aishah

George Medal is one of the highest medal honours (Victoria Cross another) UK has to bestow.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Dilliwala

but - Oi, u provided the tel no. link! Now I'm getting flak for clicking on it! Is there no justice in this world?
How do u know I wasn't asleep in between? You're right I keep odd times (luckily I have that flexibility). So sometimes I'm up till late, or get up early. Or sometimes both - if I wake too early, rather than read a book till I fall asleep again, what's to stop me from turning the PC on instead? This is the 21st century after all! And once the PC's on, IM is just as good a site as any other, innit?

British expedition - British flag, Indian flag, even UN flag. India was only a transit point to the summit, no other official involvement, other than that Tenzing was a resident already. That was good enough for him to pack the Tricolour - maybe Hillary just forgot his at home. I do think and hope NZ had it's flag by then (wasn't it till only recently that u guys were singing GStQ?).

Crocodile tears, Capt? There's no real evidence that she won't be using the croc teeth instead, if elected. Another 4 long years, perhaps.

vistet

Looking at the pictures when they set out from last camp , you can see that this decision had been made from the start : the flags were already wrapped around Tenzing´s ice axe.

Another nice point for Hillary and the expedition was that they didn´t put the the British flag on top. Look carefully and you´ll see ...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ngonSummit.jpg

the blue of the UN flag. Nice thought , nice bloke(s) .

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high road to ..

Aishah

Dilliwalla - there's been a NZ flag for years (can't be bothered looking up when it first started). Certainly one when Mt Everest was conquered. We used to salute the flag as kids in school as a daily Assembly thing and it wasn't the Union Jack!

brownboy66

so that's a long winded way of saying yes...you are a nerd? It wasn't the fact you clicked on the link - its that you took the time to theorize and find out who the other hillary was in the phone book!



and no we don't sing GSTQ anymore (and I've never understood - what does she need saving from)?

Prashant.M

Her progeny?

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Dilliwala

Aishah,
Yes, I did read up on the GM (googled it in my sleep, bb ) - nevertheless that's not what EH and Hunt got, they got 'better' (cough) awards. I shud quickly point out that Col. Hunt's experience and expertise (9 years as Army officer in India, many summits, fluent Hindi - born in 'Simla' don't u know!) was absolutely vital towards the success of the expedition. Not many people know this, I didn't (google zindabad) - they WALKED! all the way from Kathmandu in 1953 - 20 days, 175 miles, about 400 men (not sure if this included the climbers and sherpas - the latter were probably from Namche and nearby areas).
An excellent article will give a good idea of the absolutely staggering magnitude of the enterprise - the summit was only the tail-end of what truly was an EXPEDITION - brownboy's quote from EH is truly apt, "It was not a bloody race".
Nowadays they just fly into Lukla and zip up and down in a matter of days - the traffic is like an expressway on the slopes, it's that easy (cough) to do it now.

Hillary put it in very proper context at the time (expedition, not race), but as in football the goal-kicker gets all the accolades and profits, not the goalie.
'Sensationalist' media, feeding a 'sensationalist' society, whatya gonna do?
(I think that's why all this talk of "who was first?" has survived till this day anyway - becos it was a conscious effort of Hillary, Tenzing and Hunt over the years to stress that it truly was team-work that enabled any kind of ascent at all. Had they just been low-brow and brazen enough to say flat out from day 1, "Hillary was first", there wud have been no further discussion.
But I don't think we cud have expected some thing like that from guys of such calibre).

So to keep all of the logistics together and for something of that magnitude to finally succeed, Hunt's role as leader was absolutely crucial, and in no way can his knighthood be grudged on that account. I only mentioned him previously to highlight Tenzing's NOT getting the same honour, at least the same as Hillary's. Unfair, in one word. But, as everywhere, it's the 'Establishment' and bureaucrats deciding these things! We won't start about them.
And it's also not to suggest that the British establishment only discriminated against foreigners - in the context of an NDTV programme last night on cricket, they were perfectly happy to discriminate against their own kind -
if u were of the Establishment/upper class/whatever and played cricket in England for free in those days, u were a 'Gentleman' - u were feted, u went in the front entrance of the pavilion, u were invited to tea with the monarchy, etc. But if u were so poor that u played cricket for MONEY , just so u cud PROVIDE for the family, then u were merely a Player - not fit for polite society, u went in the side-entrance, no high teas, etc. 'Nuff said - as others noted, thankfully a time long past (I won't even start on the discrimination in Indian society then. Or now.)

In the Olympics, it's the entire football or hockey team that wins that gets the gold, not just the captain. In 2001, the Foreign Minister of S. Korea, and by rotation Pres. of the UN General Assembly received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the awardee, the UN. He cannot and has never claimed to be a Nobel Laureate. Similarly, when the IPCC received the prize (along with Gore) last year, its head Dr. R K Pachauri (a well-respected scientist in his own right) received the award on behalf of the IPCC, the Nobel-laureate.
Similarly, the honour shud then have gone to the whole expedition, to be received by Hunt (or hand out 400 medals Olympic style, but there wud have been no chance of that ). But if it was to be selective to the extent it was, I still don't see why Tenzing wasn't good enough for the same honour.

My 4 paise - like I said, I wasn't looking to stoke another fire, so I'll just shut up now on this theme.

Dilliwala

No, it's a long-winded () way of saying I keep odd hours (I'll refrain from "the kettle calling the kettle black" syndrome ).
TWO sentences is theorizing?!! Whatcha mean, find out - the name was right there! U'll note I asked a Q, didn't say it WAS so. In the latter case, I wud have called the guy first to confirm .

I was going to say someting like - her family, but Prashant beat me to it.

Aishah

All a hangover from the days of the Raj, Dilliwalla. Interesting history re the expedition that you have posted.It makes the ones today look like a climbing exercise doesn't it? And of course advances in gear - lighter everything - make a huge difference.
As to the medal v. a knighthood - maybe because he was not belonging to the BE as suggested previously? Does anyone know if a knighthood has been conferred by the Queen to anyone from outside BE, or the Commonwealth subsequently?

brownboy66

don't we all? (respective progeny that is, not her's....well maybe).



OMG! I didn't know that - I'm surprised they had the energy to do anything once they reached the mountain. By the way - I'm thinking google should be renamed "doogle" in your honour - considering you seem to be its single biggest user!

Dilliwala

What rubbish. I'm not even the biggest user among IMers.
And don't tell me u don't use em, search engines.

Oops, sorry, I forgot - there's not much a search engine can teach you!

Dilliwala

Airport to be named Tenzing-Hillary

"Nepal plans to name the only airport in the Mount Everest region after the first two men to reach the world's highest peak more than five decades ago, a government minister said Tuesday.

Tourism Minister Prithvi Gurung said the government was planning to name the airport at Lukla as Tenzing-Hillary airport after Sir Edmund Hillary and his climbing partner, Tenzing Norgay, who scaled the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953."

more...

Aishah

That is nice... thanks for posting Dilliwalla.

brownboy66

wouldn't you like a search engine named in your honour! I live by them - and when in comes to technical problems - often the search engines and online forums are more useful then any documentation you get from the supplier (especially if its a fault they don't want to advertise).

that's lovely. good posting dilli.

Prashant.M

Absolutely right BB. For trouble shooting you can't beat search engines and online forums. The answer is usually out there.