Darjeeling mourns death of Hillary

DARJEELING: The hometown of Tenzing Norgay mourned the death of Sir Edmund Hillary on Friday with residents recalling the long association of the climber with the resort town and his role in putting Sherpas on the global mountaineering stage.
He was one of the persons who inspired Jawaharlal Nehru to set the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, first of its kind in the country, in Darjeeling a year after the 1953 Everest conquest.
"Sir Edmund visited the institute many times and helped train aspiring mountaineers. His contribution was crucial for putting the HMI on the world map. We shall remain indebted to him for this," HMI principal Col JS Dhillon said at a condolence meeting.
"He was a legend, a philosopher and a guiding light of the HMI," he added. Hillary was extremely popular among the Sherpas in both India and Nepal.
"Had it not been for Hillary, we (Sherpas) would have lived in oblivion," said Kusang Sherpa, who climbed the world's tallest peak five times.
Hillary dedicated much of his time to the uplift of the Sherpas. The Himalayan Trust, set up by him, ran a number of development projects in the Khumbu region, the Sherpa heartland in Nepal located at the foot of Everest.
In 2003, when the world celebrated the 50th year of the Everest conquest, Nepal conferred him honorary citizenship. Hillary sponsored a number of schools and colleges in Nepal and provided scholarships to Sherpa kids.
Most of Hillary's companions in the '53 Everest expedition are either dead or out of station. Tenzing's nephew, Nawang Gombu, was with Hillary as a porter during the 1953 expedition. Gombu, the first man to climb Everest twice, could not be contacted for comment as he was out of town.
Kusang Sherpa, a five-time Everest summiteer and a legend himself, vividly remembered his first meeting with Hillary in Darjeeling.
"Someone from the HMI introduced me to Hillary as the man who climbed Everest from two sides. Hillary congratulated me by patting me on the back. This gesture inspired me to climb Everest from all three ridges five times," Kusang Sherpa recalled with pride.