21 May 2024, Nepal, Mount Everest: Climbers and mountain guides are stranded between the South Summit and the Hillary step of Mount Everest after an ice collapse destroyed the fixed ropes used for climbing. Photo: Narendra Shahi Thakuri/dpa (Photo by Narendra Shahi Thakuri/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
In the first two parts of this interview series with American Himalayan Foundation president Norbu Tenzing Norgay and renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker, we covered a lot of ground on Everest (links below). Here, in the third final part, we ask Norgay about the use of Xenon gas to aid with high-altitude climbing; who got to the top of Everest first, his father Tenzing or Sir Edmund Hillary; the 1924 George Mallory/Sandy Irvine mystery; and the idea of Guinness records. Following are edited excerpts from a longer conversation.
Jim Clash: What do you make of the team of four that used Xenon gas to get from Great Britain to the top of Everest and back home in a week?
Norbu Tenzing Norgay: Yeah, you can do the peak in like four days that way. I’m not a climber, but part of the adventure is going over there, meeting with the people, enjoying the commraderie, the spirit of the mountain. This kind of thing sucks the spirit out of the experience, the thing that really should motivate you, you know?
Clash: Speaking of Xenon, it seems that more and more folks are climbing for Guinness records. I remember Ed Viesturs joking with me that now it’s the first person with a blue and a red shoe to the top carrying a potato. I’m sure those Xenon climbers will want a “fastest” Everest record, too.
Norgay: For those kinds of people, the records might mean something, but on a bigger scale, I don’t think they mean anything. It’s just for individual ego, I guess. A lot of people up there have no business, and they are risking the lives of others. Sherpas only make about $5,000 for the [10-week] Everest climbing season, taking a whole lot of risks.
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary drink tea in the Western Cwm, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary drink a celebratory cup of tea at Camp IV in the Western Cwm after their successful ascent of Mount Everest, Nepal, 30th May 1953. Mount Everest Expedition 1953. (Photo by George Band/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images)
Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
Clash: It can be downright dangerous, too.
Norgay: A few years ago, two women were climbing Shishapangma to compete for a Guinness record. They both ignored weather warnings, and went for the top from different sides of the mountain on an iffy day. Both were killed, unfortunately, in separate avalanches.
Sometimes people are willing to take it that far, and the consequences there were not good. We live in a very different world today, Jim. Their two Sherpas – Mingmar and Tenjen Lama – unfortunately died as well. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the deceased.
Clash: I’ll ask you this, and I’m sure you’ve addressed the subject many times. In 1953, did your father or Ed Hillary set foot on the Everest summit first?
Norgay: What they had always said was they had made it to the top together, and that’s what we always believed. It wasn’t the two of them, by the way, but the 500 support people behind them. Later, I think Ed said in his book, that he, physically at least, was the one to step on top first.
Clash: As for the George Mallory and Sandy Irvine mystery, do you personally think they made it to the top of Everest in 1924?
QOMOLANGMA, TIBET – APRIL 29: (CHINA OUT) An Olympic flag waves in front of Mt. Qomolangma (Mount Everest) from the media center at the Rongbuk Base Camp as organisers prepare to cover the ascent of the Beijing Olympic flame to the world’s highest peak on April 29, 2008 in Qomolangma, Tibet. The torch bearers are waiting for some good weather before they start the relay. (Photo by Cui Jun/Visual China Group via Getty Images)
Visual China Group via Getty Images
Norgay: I think what they did was an amazing feat at the time. I remember when Conrad [Anker] found Mallory’s body in 1999, one of the members of his expedition I spoke with afterword said he didn’t think so. Mallory’s route on the North (Tibetan) side of the mountain is even tougher than the Nepalese side [the route Tenzing and Ed took]. In any case, getting to the top is just half of the journey. You need to make it back alive. But it’s still a mystery. I think they found Irvine’s boot last year, and I’m sure somebody’s going to go look for his camera next.
