RIP - Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, Age 88

My Story - I Was The First To Conquer EVEREST - “RELIVE Edmund Hillary’s trek to the top of the world." Image Credit: Scholastic Inc.

RIP - Sir Edmund Percival Hillary -- July 20, 1919 - January 10, 2008

See Panorama View From The Top Of Mount Everest Here (interactive using cursor)

Sir Edmund Hillary was credited with being the first person to climb to the top of the tallest mountain on Earth. Many thought that this point was the place on Earth closest to the heavens but as we found out a little less than one year ago, that point is on the top of a volcano named Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

Sir Edmund Hillary (left), a beekeeper from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay (right), a Sherpa from a mountain village in Nepal, won the race to summit Everest in 1953. The climbers made a pact to not reveal who reached the summit first. Hillary wrote in a press statement that they reached the summit "almost together." Years later, Norgay revealed that Hillary reached the top first, by a mere six feet -- the length of the rope that held the two together. Image Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

This point of definition will never take away the fact that Hillary lived his life in a very special and accomplished way. He not only is credited with being the first person to scale Mount Everest, in 1985 he accompanied United States astronaut Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined airplane outfitted with skis over the Artic Ocean and landed on the North Pole. This made Hillary the first person to stand at both poles and on the summit of Mount Everest!

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary rest in peace, and may your spirit of adventure and discovery touch each and everyone of us for at least one moment in our lifetime here on Earth.

Mount Everest from afar. Image Credit: Bungatech

This excerpted from BBC News -

Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88
BBC News - Last Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008, 23:34 GMT

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing.

Sir Edmund's health had reportedly been in decline since April, when he suffered a fall while visiting Nepal.

He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.

Since his ascent, Sir Edmund has devoted his life to helping the Sherpas of Nepal's Khumbu region. He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

'Quintessential Kiwi'

Announcing Sir Edmund's death on Friday, New Zealand's prime minister described him as a "heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility and generosity".

"The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived," Ms Clark said.

"But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi."

"He was ours - from his craggy appearance to laconic style to his directness and honesty. All New Zealanders will deeply mourn his passing."

Born 19 July 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund served as a pilot during World War II and earned renown as an ice climber.

In the 1980s he also served as New Zealand's ambassador to India.
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See Panorama View From The Top Of Mount Everest Here

New Everest Records That Are NOT From The Highest Point On Earth ...

In this photo released by Japanese mountain guide Hiroyuki Kuraoka, 71-year-old Japanese mountain climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa, foreground, climbs towards the summit of Mount Everest to become the oldest person to scale it, on Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Yanagisawa, a retired junior high school teacher from central Japan, was 71 years, 2 months and 2 days old when he reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak on May 22, becoming the oldest Everest climber and beating the previous record set last year by another Japanese climber, Takao Arayama, who was aged 70 years, 7 months and 13 days. Image Credit: AP Photo/Hiroyuki Kuraoka, HO

New Everest Records That Are NOT From The Highest Point On Earth ...

... a change in the MSM template is in order.

As documented here at Oblate Spheroid, in a post at the end of March, Mount Everest is NOT the highest point on Earth … or to put it another way … the closest place on Earth to the universe is NOT Mount Everest.

This is an important point to re-emphasize in that the reporting from Mount Everest this climbing season is no longer accurate.

Story after story, report after report, dispatch after dispatch highlights the non-fact that someone has just set a new record “From The Highest Point On Earth”!

A few examples --- first is the latest from the Washington Post –

71-Year-Old Is Oldest Everest Climber
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA - The Associated Press - Wednesday, May 30, 2007; 2:42 AM

KATMANDU, Nepal -- A 71-year-old has become the oldest person to climb Mount Everest, mountaineering officials confirmed Wednesday, after the Japanese retired schoolteacher returned from scaling the world's highest peak.

Katsusuke Yanagisawa was 71 years, 2 months and 2 days old when he reached the 29,035-foot peak on May 22, beating the previous record set last year by another Japanese climber, Takao Arayama, who was 70 years, 7 months and 13 days old.

"I didn't think I would make it," Yanagisawa told The Associated Press in the Nepalese capital of Katmandu on Tuesday, after returning safely from his expedition. "No more high mountains," he added.
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Just to be safe, someone should be kind enough to tell him that he should now book a trip to Ecuador and scale the world’s tallest point … Mount Chimborazo, really!

Then this from IT News, Australia –

World's highest phone call made from Everest
By Iain Thomson, 28 May 2007 06:30

I'm on the mountain ....

British climber Rod Baber has set a world record for the highest mobile phone call after dialling from the top of Everest.

Baber was sponsored by Motorola to make the attempt and managed to make the call from 29,035 feet above sea level in temperatures of -30 degrees.

Baber called from 29,035 feet/8848 metres on the highest peak of Mount Everest. For the call, Baber will use a Moto Z8 phone, a consumer-grade GSM phone that Motorola announced earlier this week and will ship in Europe and Asia in June. No plans for shipping the phone in the U.S. have been made, although Motorola has many GSM phones sold by U.S.-based carriers. Pricing has not been announced. Image Credit: Motorola

"Everest symbolises the greatest challenge to any climber. To reach the summit and achieve world records with Motorola is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Baber from Everest Base Camp. advertisement

The call involved a number of technical challenges. The Chinese government had to set up a base station within line of sight of the summit, and the phone's batteries had to be taped to Baber's body to keep them warm enough to function.

The climber made two calls, one for publicity purposes and another to let his wife and children know he was OK. The calls had to be kept short to stop Baber passing out from lack of oxygen. He also sent one text message.
Reference Here>>

… And the one text message? NOT made from the highest point on Earth as measured from the center core starting point.

Then there is this dispatch from The Rising Nepal –

Three courageous women climbers Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayndon and Janet Belarmino reached the summit in the morning of May 16 and arrived in Everest Base Camp in Nepal side in the afternoon on May 18. Upon arrival at EBC, the Philippine Support group of PAL Mountaineering Club headed by its chairman John Fortes greeted the climbers. - "I met some climbers reaching the summit from Nepal side and saw some mountain peaks below me. It was snowing heavily as we were climbing up," said Noelle Wenceslao, who was the first among the three to reach the summit. Image Credit: Pinays On The Summit

Filipino women set records on Everest
By A Staff Reporter - Kathmandu, May 24, 2007

The members of the Pinay Mount Everest Expedition 2007, the first Filipino women's team to scale the world's tallest peak, are very happy that they have successfully reached the summit Mt. Everest.

Carina Dayondon on the summit. Image Credit: Pinays On The Summit

All three women members of the team have not only become the first Filipino women to climb the world's highest peak but also the first women climbers from the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

They are also the first women climbers to cross the mountain from the north route in Tibet to the south route in Nepal. Until now, only very few male climbers have crossed the mountain. Crossing the traverse was an uphill challenge for them because they had to pass through an unfamiliar route while descending.

Noelle with Philippine flag. Image Credit: Pinays On The Summit

"As we are from a tropical country, climbing Everest was a dream for us," said team leader Art Valdez told a press conference organised here this evening.
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This is sad. Why can’t we help these people from making the same tragic mistake.

I know if I were these people, after spending tens of thousands of dollars to get to the bottom of the wrong mountain in pursuit of an ego driven goal that can no longer be truthfully described as the “World’s Tallest”, ( … biggest mountain as measured from the base to the summit, maybe, but not the world’s tallest point on Earth) I'd be PIxxED!

We all should be more compassionate, we should issue tickets to Ecuador to all of these new “Record Holders” and give them a free pass to climb the recently defined “World’s Tallest Point” on Earth.