published by Creative Education P O Box 227 Mankato Minnesota 56002 Creative Education is an imprint of The Creative Company www thecreativecompany us design and production by Ellen Huber art direction by Rita Marshall printed by Corporate Graphics in the United States of America photographs by Alamy Royal Geographical Society Corbis Association Chantal Mauduit Namaste Hulton Deutsch Collection Galen Rowell STR Keystone Getty Images AFP Express Newspapers Keystone Roger Mear Matt Olson Popperfoto Fred Ramage Keystone Three Lions The Granger Collection NYC Ullstein Bild iStockphoto Mike Bentley Brandon Laufenberg Library of Congress Royal Geographical Society Copyright 2012 Creative Education International copyright reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher library of congress cataloging-in-publication data for the hardcover edition Bodden Valerie To the top of Mount Everest by Valerie Bodden p cm Great expeditions Includes bibliographical references and index Summary A history of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 summit of Mt Everest detailing the challenges encountered the individuals involved the discoveries made and how the expedition left its mark upon the world ISBN 978-1-60818-070-7 hardcover ISBN 978-1-56660-046-0 eBook 1 Hillary Edmund 1919 2008 Juvenile literature 2 Tenzing Norkey 1914 1986 Juvenile literature 3 Mountaineers Everest Mount China and Nepal Biography Juvenile literature 4 Mountaineering Everest Mount China and Nepal History I Title GV199 92 H54B63 2011 796 5220922 dc22 2010033553 CPSIA 110310 PO1383 First Edition 246897531
Table of Contents Chapters Chomolungma 7 To Base Camp 17 Up the Mountain 27 On Top of the World 35 1953 Everest Expedition Profiles Edmund Hillary 13 Tenzing Norgay 23 John Hunt 33 Tom Bourdillon 41 Expedition Journal Entries An Admirable Companion 9 No Longer Just a Dream 19 Nothing Would Stop Us 29 Our Band of Thirteen 37 Timeline 44 Endnotes 45 Selected Bibliography 46 For Further Reading 47 Index 48
7 T o t h e T o p o f M o u n t E v e r e s t Chomolungma For hundreds of years people have climbed mountains out of necessity to get from one place to another But during the 18th century adventurers in Europe began to scale mountains for sport and soon peaks around the world were being summited It was not until the 1920s however that mountaineers began to set their sights on the highest mountain in the world Mount Everest Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet this 5 5-mile-high 8 9 km peak had defeated climbers for more than 30 years before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay stood on its summit in 1953 The roof of the world had finally been reached professional climbing For more than four centuries before Hillary and Tenzing successfully summited Everest Tenzing’s people the Sherpas had lived in its foothills The Sherpas whose name means eastern people had migrated from Tibet to a re gion of northeastern Nepal known as Solu-Khumbu in the 15th century Here at the foot of Everest a Trekking through the Himalayas was a common everyday occurrence for the Nepalese people before the advent of mountain they called Chomolungma meaning mother goddess of the world or goddess of the valley in Tibetan Sherpas grew potatoes and barley and raised yaks for the animals milk and hides Although their crops were planted at altitudes of up to 14,000 feet 4,267 m and they took their yaks as high as 17,000 feet 5,182 m to graze Sherpas did not climb the great peaks of the Himalayas before Europeans arrived Informed by the most ancient traditions of Tibetan Buddhism they believed that the mountains were the homes of gods and goddesses Chomolungma itself was known as the home of the goddess Miyolangsangma whom the Sherpas believed offered good fortune and wealth
