Team Blitz India
KATHMANDU: Nepal honoured record-holding Sherpa guides and climbers to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
On May 29, 1953, Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand and his Sherpa guide Norgay scripted history by becoming the first human beings to scale the treacherous terrains of the world’s highest mountain peak.
Thousands of Sherpa guides and government officials participated in a rally here to mark the 70th anniversary on May 29 and waved banners that read “Save the Himalayas.”
Among those honoured include Sherpa guides Kami Rita, who climbed Everest for a record 28 times, and Sanu Sherpa, who climbed all the world’s 14 highest peaks twice.
Hillary died on January 11, 2008, and Norgay on May 9, 1986. Coincidentally, Republic Day and Mt Everest Day fall on the same day in Nepal.
Since their herculean efforts seven decades ago, 7,621 mountaineers have scaled Everest.
