Sherpas: 'Unsung heroes' of mountain

Hillary recalled how Norgay saved his life before their historic climb.
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Climbing the world's tallest mountain is much more dangerous for Sherpas than for their customers, and their contributions have not been properly recognized, the son of one of Mount Everest's pioneers said.
"The Sherpas are the unsung heroes of the mountain," Jamling Tenzing Norgay said in an interview last week in New Delhi during celebrations ahead of the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the 29,035-foot peak.
Norgay's father, Tenzing Norgay, reached Everest's summit for the first time with Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand on May 29, 1953. Tenzing Norgay died in 1986. Hillary is taking part in commemorations in India, Nepal and Britain, which sponsored the 1953 expedition.
In New Delhi, Jamling Norgay, who reached Everest's summit in 1996 and now runs a mountaineering firm, said Sherpas risk their lives "a lot more than anyone else."
Sherpas must put up the ropes, carry supplies to camps high on the mountain and tote oxygen bottles for climbers who now pay up to $65,000 each for a chance at reaching the top of Everest.
Paying customers will climb the 26,000-foot South Col only once -- but Sherpas make the trek an average of eight times per expedition, carrying supplies and fixing ropes and ladders.
Wants recognition
When books are written by Everest adventurers, Norgay said, "sometimes they just say, 'There were five Sherpas.' It would be nice, with respect, to write their names and where they are from."
He noted there are few other job opportunities for Nepal's Sherpas.
"If they don't climb, they have to go back to farming potatoes," he said.
Apa Sherpa, who has the record for Everest climbs -- 12 -- is making his 13th attempt, but not for another record. "It's his work," said Norgay. Sherpas also hold the records for fastest climb, youngest climber and most time on the summit without oxygen.
At the same anniversary celebration in India, Hillary recalled Tuesday how Tenzing Norgay saved his life just before their historic climb.
"Teamwork got Tenzing and me to the top of Everest," Hillary told an audience of mountaineers and children, as the government handed out awards to Indian sportsmen in honor of Norgay, who was born in Nepal but lived in India for much of his life.
Controversial claim
Hillary did not mention his claim -- made in his autobiography published after Norgay's death in 1986 -- that it was he, not Norgay, who first stepped onto the summit.
That claim has caused bad blood with Norgay's family, because during Norgay's lifetime neither man would say who reached the summit first.
But the reputed ill feeling was not evident Tuesday as Norgay's son shook hands with Hillary and heard him praise his father.
Hillary told a rapt audience how he almost died before the Everest climb as he and Norgay headed up the icefall "just to prove how fit we were." On the way back down from 21,000 feet, the two men were trying to reach camp before dark.
"We were roped together and I pounded down in the lead, when we reached another of the innumerable crevasses, very deep ... and too wide to step across," Hillary recalled.
A chunk of ice was attached to the wall of the crevasse.
"Without too much sense, I leapt into the air and landed with both feet on the chunk of ice," said Hillary. "[It] broke off and fell down into the crevasse with me on it."
Describing a rocketing elevator ride down a tube of ice, Hillary said as time passed he "came to the conclusion that if Tenzing didn't tighten the rope soon" he and the ice would hit the bottom and "smash into smithereens."
"[Just then] the rope came tight, and I swung into the ice wall," Hillary said. "[After that] it was just a routine matter of cutting steps in the wall and climbing up."