Editing Tenzing Norgay (section)

==Success on Mount Everest==
{{Main|1953 British Mount Everest expedition}}

In 1953, Tenzing Norgay took part in [[John Hunt, Baron Hunt|John Hunt]]'s expedition; Tenzing had previously been to Everest six times (and Hunt three).{{sfn|Hunt|1953|pp=29,60}} A member of the team was [[Edmund Hillary]], who fell into a [[crevasse]] but was saved from hitting the bottom by Norgay's prompt action in securing the rope using his ice axe, which led Hillary to consider him the climbing partner of choice for any future summit attempt.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575208/Sir-Edmund-Hillary.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575208/Sir-Edmund-Hillary.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Sir Edmund Hillary |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=21 February 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

At the time, newspaper reports variously referred to him as Tensing, Tenzing, Tenzing Bhotia, Tenzing Norgay, Tensing Norkey, Tenzing Sherpa or Dan Shin, as one Indian academic suggested.<ref>Everest 1953, Mick Conefrey, Mountaineers Books, 2014</ref>

The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362 [[Porter (carrier)|porters]], 20 [[Sherpa people|Sherpa]] guides and {{convert|10000|lb}} of baggage,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/story/0,,966102,00.html |title=Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing reach the top &#124; World news |work=theguardian.com |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=28 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028182039/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1953/jun/02/everest.nepal |url-status=live }}</ref> and like many such expeditions, was a team effort.

The expedition set up [[base camp]] in March 1953. Hillary wrote in 1975 about first meeting Norgay in Kathmandu on 5 March 1953:{{sfn|Gill|2017|p=188}}{{quote|
I was eager to meet Tenzing Norgay. His reputation had been most impressive even before his two great efforts with the Swiss expedition ... Tenzing really looked the part – larger than most Sherpas, he was very strong and active; his flashing smile was irresistible; and he was incredibly patient with all our questions and requests. His success in the past had given him great physical confidence – I think that even then he expected to be a member of the final assault party ... One message came through however in very positive fashion – Tenzing had substantially greater personal ambition than any Sherpa I had met.}}

Working slowly, the expedition set up their penultimate camp at the [[South Col]], at {{convert|25900|ft}}. On 26 May, [[Tom Bourdillon]] and [[Charles Evans (mountaineer)|Charles Evans]] attempted the climb, but turned back when Evans' oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the [[South Summit (Everest)|South Summit]], coming within 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit.<ref name="Reaching-the-top">{{cite web |url=http://www.unlockingthearchives.rgs.org/resources/documents/Reaching%20the%20Top3.pdf |title=''Reaching The Top'' |publisher=Royal Geographical Society |access-date=13 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216030022/http://www.unlockingthearchives.rgs.org/resources/documents/Reaching%20the%20Top3.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2008 }}</ref> Hunt then directed Norgay and Hillary to go for the summit.

Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with a support trio comprising Ang Nyima, [[Alfred Gregory]] and [[George Lowe (mountaineer)|George Lowe]]. Norgay and Hillary pitched a tent at {{convert|27900|ft}} on 28 May while their support group returned down the mountain. On the following morning, Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent, wearing {{convert|30|lb|adj=mid}} packs.<ref name="HighAdventure">{{cite book |author=Hillary, Edmund |title=High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest|year=2013 |isbn=9788174369390 |url=https://archive.org/details/highadventureour0000hill |url-access=registration }}</ref> The last part of the ascent comprised a {{convert|40|ft|adj=mid}} rock face later named the "[[Hillary Step]]". Hillary saw a means to wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice, and Norgay followed.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hillary |first= Edmund & Peter |title= Ascent: Two Lives Explored – The Autobiographies of Sir Edmund and Peter Hillary  |year= 1986 |publisher= Doubleday |location=  New York |isbn= 978-0-385-19831-8 }}</ref>

From there, the following effort was relatively simple. They reached Everest's {{convert|29028|ft|adj=mid}} summit, the highest point on Earth, at 11:30&nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1478658.htm |title=Environment & Nature News&nbsp;— Everest not as tall as thought – 10/10/2005 |publisher=Abc.net.au |date=10 October 2005 |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511184616/http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1478658.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> As Hillary put it, "A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top."<ref name="pbsnova">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/history/firstsummit2.html |title=NOVA Online &#124; Everest &#124; First to Summit (2) |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=25 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225143204/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/history/firstsummit2.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Edmund Hillary & Sherpa Tenzing.jpg|thumb|[[Edmund Hillary|Sir Edmund Hillary]] greets Tenzing Norgay, {{circa|1971}}.]]

They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. Hillary took the famous photo of Norgay posing with his ice-axe, but since Norgay had never used a camera, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded. However, according to Norgay's autobiography ''Man of Everest'',<ref name="Ullman" /> when Norgay offered to take Hillary's photograph Hillary declined—"I motioned to Hillary that I would now take his picture. But for some reason he shook his head; he did not want it."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3740536.stm |title=Asia-Pacific &#124; Obituary: Sir Edmund Hillary |work=BBC News |date=11 January 2008 |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=27 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227071557/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3740536.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Norgay left chocolates in the snow as an offering, and Hillary left a cross that he had been given.</ref> Additional photos were taken looking down the mountain, in order to re-assure that they had made it to the top and to document that the ascent was not faked.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/concepts/Virtual_Everest/-285.html |title=The Photographs |publisher=Imagingeverest.rgs.org |date=29 May 1953 |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=5 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905191639/http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/concepts/Virtual_Everest/-285.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow had covered their tracks, complicating the task of retracing their steps. The first person they met was Lowe, who had climbed up to meet them with hot soup.

Afterwards, Norgay was met with great adulation in Nepal and India. Hillary and Hunt were [[knight]]ed by Queen [[Elizabeth II]],<ref name="gazetteKnighthood">{{London Gazette|issue=39886|page=3273|date=12 June 1953}}</ref> while Norgay received the [[George Medal]] for his efforts on the expedition.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Man of the mountains Tenzing dies |first=Paul |last=Vallely |work=The Times |date=10 May 1986}}</ref> It has been suggested that Indian prime minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] refused permission for Norgay to be knighted.<ref name="ODNB"/>

{{cquote|It has been a long road&nbsp;... From a mountain [[coolie]], a bearer of loads, to a wearer of a coat with rows of medals who is carried about in planes and worries about income tax.|||Tenzing Norgay<ref name="Ullman" />}}

Nonetheless, there was some inequity, according to ''[[National Geographic]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2018/08/sherpas-and-ethics-everest |title=Sherpas and the ethics of Everest |date=8 April 2018 |publisher=NGS |access-date=17 May 2019 |quote=Often overlooked and rarely adequately rewarded, Nepal's 'people of the east' have been helping adventurers up Mount Everest for a century, but at what cost? |archive-date=17 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517124643/https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2018/08/sherpas-and-ethics-everest |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>"Hillary was knighted for being the first known person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. But Tenzing, who simultaneously reached its summit, only received an honorary medal. In the years since there's been growing disquiet at the lack of official recognition."</blockquote>

Norgay and Hillary were the first people to conclusively set foot on the summit of Mount Everest, but journalists were persistently repeating the question: "Which of the two men had the right to the glory of being the first one, and who was merely the second, the follower?" Colonel Hunt, the expedition leader, declared, "They reached it together, as a team."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/asia/11iht-obits.3.9154035.html|title=Sir Edmund Hillary, 88, a conqueror of Everest|last=Mcfadden|first=Robert D.|date=1 January 2008|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=18 January 2017|archive-date=19 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119052647/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/asia/11iht-obits.3.9154035.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Norgay eventually ended the speculation by revealing that Hillary was first in his 1955 autobiography. It was ghost-written by American writer [[James Ramsay Ullman]] as Tenzing could speak several languages but could not read or write. They were roped six feet apart, with most of the 30 foot rope in loops in his hand:{{sfn|Gill|2017|pp=214,215}}<ref>Tenzing & Ullman p. 268</ref>
{{quote| A little below the summit Hillary and I stopped. ... I was not thinking of 'first' and 'second'. I did not say to myself, there is a golden apple up there. I will push Hillary aside and run for it. We went on slowly, steadily. And then we were there. Hillary stepped on top first. And I stepped up after him ... Now the truth is told. And I am ready to be judged by it.}}