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A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

outsideonline.com

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#11

It's funny that they mention a Canadian climber being a threat to the Crown getting the Everest mantle. Pretty sure in the 1940s Canadians were still British subjects, much like Kiwis (of which Hillary was one). So, a Canadian summiting would have been the same as a Kiwi summiting.

1931. Not 1940s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Westminster_1931

>>Most of the remaining colonies in North America – everything north of the United States with the exception of Newfoundland – were merged into a federal polity known as "Canada" in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Canada was termed a "dominion", a term previously used in slightly different contexts in English history, and granted a broad array of powers between the federal government and the provincial governments. Australia was similarly deemed a dominion when it federated in 1901, as were Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State in the first decades of the 20th century.

>> No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the commencement of this Act shall extend, or be deemed to extend, to a Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless it is expressly declared in that Act that that Dominion has requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof.

In that language was/is Canadian independence from britain.

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#12
post #7

Not sure it's so good to make promotion of Mount Everest and their climbers in the current situation. It's full of literal shit (including the smell) and empty oxygen bottles due to too many tourists and everyday it gets worse. It's like the highest open defecation place in the world. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/pea... though there are some initiatives to solve that: https://www.mensjourn…

I'd bet a substantial amount that nobody is learning that Everest exists from this article.

I agree that the current state of Everest is an embarrassment. But that doesn't change the fact that it's the tallest mountain in the world, and the efforts (both successful and failed) to be the first to summit were audacious and inspiring to many people. Stories like the one in the OP should not be suppressed just because decades later the mountain has turned into a pile of shit.

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#13
post #7

Not sure it's so good to make promotion of Mount Everest and their climbers in the current situation. It's full of literal shit (including the smell) and empty oxygen bottles due to too many tourists and everyday it gets worse. It's like the highest open defecation place in the world. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/pea... though there are some initiatives to solve that: https://www.mensjourn…

Why should I care if there is a bunch of garbage and feces in a place that no one can even access without paying $70k? There's beaches where normal people actually go that are covered in trash and have raw sewage pumped into the nearby waters...surely that is a more important aspect of the environment to clean up or care about than a mountain in the middle of no where that only rich people visit.

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#14

It's funny that they mention a Canadian climber being a threat to the Crown getting the Everest mantle. Pretty sure in the 1940s Canadians were still British subjects, much like Kiwis (of which Hillary was one). So, a Canadian summiting would have been the same as a Kiwi summiting.

Nah, you're wrong. There was a reason they waited a day to declare war on Germany in WWII, where as in WWI they were automagically at war.

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#15
post #7

Not sure it's so good to make promotion of Mount Everest and their climbers in the current situation. It's full of literal shit (including the smell) and empty oxygen bottles due to too many tourists and everyday it gets worse. It's like the highest open defecation place in the world. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/pea... though there are some initiatives to solve that: https://www.mensjourn…

The amount of virtue signalling going on to turn this article into some kind of moral issue is just wild

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#16
post #14

It's funny that they mention a Canadian climber being a threat to the Crown getting the Everest mantle. Pretty sure in the 1940s Canadians were still British subjects, much like Kiwis (of which Hillary was one). So, a Canadian summiting would have been the same as a Kiwi summiting.

Nah, you're wrong. There was a reason they waited a day to declare war on Germany in WWII, where as in WWI they were automagically at war.

I remember that in Canadian history. They did not go to war because England did, but I think it was they went to war because the monarchy declared it (?) (Please don't knock me too hard Canadian history was over 25 years ago for me.)

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#17
post #7

Not sure it's so good to make promotion of Mount Everest and their climbers in the current situation. It's full of literal shit (including the smell) and empty oxygen bottles due to too many tourists and everyday it gets worse. It's like the highest open defecation place in the world. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/pea... though there are some initiatives to solve that: https://www.mensjourn…

So, just as a fun exercise - what would it take to remove the top 250m from Mount Everest, making it only the second highest mountain?

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#18
This includes one of my favorite details, which is the coded message sent to confirm the ascent:

>Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop awaiting improvement

Wikipedia[1] has the breakdown, as well as the rest of the code for other individuals[2]:

>Snow conditions bad" was the agreed code to signify that the summit had been reached; "advance base abandoned" referred to Hillary and "awaiting improvement" referred to Tenzing.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_British_Mount_Everest_exp...

2:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_British_Mount_Everest_exp...

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#19
Amazing story by Ang Pemba Sherpa! Only crossed paths briefly a few times at the outdoor store mentioned in the article (Next Adventure!) but I'm a big fan of all of his work and photography [0,1].

[0] http://angpembasherpa.com/

[1] https://www.instagram.com/angpembasherpa

Re: A Man Who Raced to Tell the World That Mount Everest Had Been Climbed

#20
post #14

It's funny that they mention a Canadian climber being a threat to the Crown getting the Everest mantle. Pretty sure in the 1940s Canadians were still British subjects, much like Kiwis (of which Hillary was one). So, a Canadian summiting would have been the same as a Kiwi summiting.

Nah, you're wrong. There was a reason they waited a day to declare war on Germany in WWII, where as in WWI they were automagically at war.

Yeah but New Zealand also separately declared war in World War II, so if that is your yardstick then there is still no difference between a Kiwi and a Canadian getting there first.
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