British Party Conquers Everest-“All Well”
LONDON,June 2
(A A.P.).-“The Times” announced to-day that the British expedition last Friday reached the 29,000ft peak of Mount Everest,highest mountain in the world. The news was published in a special edition only a few hours before the Coronation,and was greeted by cheering multitudes in the streets.
![Edmund Hillary[L] and Tenzing Norgay.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_300%2C$height_150/t_crop_auto/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/e986b49ffc6559b452191b637672bc7709d61880)
Edmund Hillary[L] and Tenzing Norgay.AP
“The Times” said that the news came in a cryptic radio flash from the expedition’s leader,Colonel H. J. C. Hunt,last night. The message said:“Hillary and Tensing climbed on May 29. All well.”
The news was taken by runner from the expedition’s base camp on Khumbu Glacier to the radio post at Namche Bazar and from there was transmitted to the British Embassy in Katmandu (Nepal) so that it could be sent by Diplomatic channels to London for the Queen to be informed on the eve of her Coronation.
The Queen received the news at Buckingham Palace last night.
Everest:The Crowning Glory(Editorial)
There could not have been a happier conjunction of events than the conquest of Everest and the Coronation. Brave men in the storied past would not have deemed their mightiest achievement a more fitting offering to lay before a young Queen,on her day of dedication,than this British victory over the last great obstacle of Nature. Small wonder that the news from the Himalayas thrilled the immense throngs in London not only as a dramatic adornment of the most royal of Royal occasions,but as a splendid augury that the skill,courage,and purpose of her Majesty’s peoples will make the second Elizabethan age a vivid reality.
The deed and the time were the better matched in that it was E. P. Hillary,a New Zealander in Colonel Hunt’s expedition,who scaled with a Sherpa hillman,Tensing,the last daunting slope to the top of Everest. But if the pride in a superb mountaineering feat,like the pride in the Monarchy so magnificently evinced yesterday,is shared by a far-ranging Commonwealth,the credit for this triumph stretches wider still. It is 32 years since the first Everest assault and all except two of the eleven attempts upon its 29,002ft peak have been British,but the knowledge of the mountaineer in all such calculated adventures rests upon the experience of great climbers in many countries,and not least upon the fine traditions of the Swiss.
There is,indeed,a kind of universality in the challenge of high and rugged mountains which encourages a kinship between all who seek to take that challenge up. This explains in part the warm generosity with which explorers of all nations have saluted the success of Colonel Hunt’s expedition. It should not be expected,however,that the general enthusiasm will blanket all disputation in the alpine clubs. W. H. Murray,the deputy-leader of the 1951 Everest Reconnaissance,wrote last year that “the summit won with oxygen apparatus would leave very many mountaineers dissatisfied.”
With or without oxygen,it is significant as well as romantic that a New Zealand beekeeper and a native porter should plant their feet upon the topmost peak of the earth’s highest mountain. “Chomolungma” - Goddess Mother of the World - the Tibetans call it. Man will not dispute that primitive title,least of all now that he has placed upon the vast and desolate altar of the Himalayas one further proof of his indomitable spirit.