The late Sir Edmund Hillary led a full and varied life. In an old interview replayed on the BBC World Service this morning, he said that he considered his conquest of Everest not to be the high point of his life, but merely the beginning of a lifelong connection to the Sherpas of Nepal, which continued through his philanthropic work, particularly his Himalayan Trust.
One point that has been ignored by all coverage of Sir Edmund’s death I’ve seen today is that his achievements may have inspired a pregnant Dorothy Rodham in 1947 to name her daughter after the mountaineer. On a trip to Nepal in 1995, the two Hillarys bumped into each other at Kathmandu airport, apparently coincidentally, and speaking to the press afterwards, the first lady said that her mother had once told her that she had been named after Sir Edmund.
Given recent events in the US, you might think it surprising that the obituaries don’t seem to have picked up on this pleasing story. This may, however, be something to do with the fact that it’s probably codswallop. Hillary Rodham was born six years before Sir Edmund’s Everest ascent, and although in 1947 he was a serious climber, and may possibly have been profiled in some periodical or other, it’s unlikely that what were then his fairly modest achievements would have inspired Dorothy Rodham to take his name for her daughter. More at the essential urban legends reference guide Snopes.
Dear Sir:
A fitting tribute to Sir Edmund to lay on a state funeral. Those of us who have practised the dangerous art of mountaineering know that one false footstep and one is history for all time.
Up there in the dizzy clouds around the Zugspitzer or the Sauling or the Everest one begins to appreciate the importance of real genuine communion with the Creator, especially when trespassing on his creation, as we have done now for some time throughout the Himalayas.
It is surely time that the Himalayas were designated a sacred zone for the monks up there and that Westerners ceased to leave their detritus all over its once pretty slopes.
In memory of Sir Edmund I did take the advice he left in his memoir on one occasion when I was tempted to step off at the last few metres of a 9,000 ft peak - hold on, grip the craggy surface, say a prayer and bite one’s lip. Terrible business mountaineering but very good for the humility of the human race.
Padre Riccardo
Mmmmmm I am not so sure it is a good idea to turn mountaineers into international stars or even into icons as it encourages young men to take unnecessary risks.
Rather like asking these whalers in the Antarctic to undertake culling for some misguided notion that the oceans are farms and that we are in charge - there is nothing especially noble about whaling, at least not since the invention of the rocket harpoon.
Humans can ameliorate the odds of their survival by some lethal technology, but why do we imagine that we are always numero uno in the world as a species. Surely the whale is also worthy of survival?
So too in the world of mountaineering; why do we imagine that we are always the worthy ones - conquerors of the planet’s forbidden zones?
Tim