Sir Edmund Hillary - 1996 Interview
CHATTING WITH SIR ED
The following interview was granted during a 1996 benefit for the American Himalayan Foundation. Proceeds from the event went to support schools, hospitals and reforestation in the Everest region of Nepal.
Sir Edmund Hillary |
MountainZone.com: Are you pleased that your son Peter has followed in your footsteps?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Oh, I never tried to persuade him. When he was young...I think
children ought to be encouraged to be interested in the out-of-doors but
I never really tried to persuade him to be interested in the technical
side of mountaineering. That was really something he decided to do for
himself and I think he has done it very well. I wish him well obviously.
Since those very early days we have never climbed together anyway. He's
gone toward very technical mountaineering and the technique and
equipment are very different now.
MountainZone.com: With the growing popularity of Nepal's mountains can the region
realistically be saved from over use and be preserved in a wild state?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Tourism trips have far more people today than mountaineering. On
the big mountains, to tell you the truth, I think the Nepalese
government has to be a bit more restrictive about permission for groups.
I mean we had an enormous advantage when we were climbing in those early
days because we were the only people there. You never saw another party
or another climber. You had to pioneer your own routes and be able to
take care of yourself. Now days on mountains like Everest they have
thousands of feet of fixed ropes in all the difficult places. They have
sixty aluminum ladders on the ice fall. I mean the whole mountain is
sort of tied down almost. Made tamer by all this sort of equipment. I
feel lucky to have been up there climbing when it was a different sort
of mountaineering. Now there are still a lot of very good expeditions
going up the extremely difficult routes of the mountain and they are
much to be admired but I don't particularly like the commercialized
side of mountaineering.
MountainZone.com: What do you think of polypropylene? Do you still wear wool or do you
wear polypropylene?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Both. I think there is a place for both of them. Certainly some of
the modern equipment is very effective but there is still a place for
some good woolen clothing as well. But, clothing has become a lot more
efficient than it ever was in my day.
MountainZone.com: Are you familiar with the World Wide Web? The Internet?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Oh no. I know very little about it but I read about it all the
time. But I really know nothing about it except that everybody seems to
go all gaga about it these days.
MountainZone.com: What are your favorite foods for high altitude?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Well the food we had for high altitude was very simple really. One
of the problems at altitude is that you often get nauseated as far as
food is concerned. I would say that we got the majority of our energy
from hot drinks with lots of sugar in them. We used to particularly have
weak tea with a lot of sugar in it, not what you would regard as a
healthy diet down here, but for the relatively short time you were at
high altitude, that sugar gave quite a lot of energy. I think now days
there is quite a variety of food... much better freeze dried food than
there was in my day so people can eat better than we did. However, we
got there in spite of it.
KIRO: Sir Edmund, I know from reading of you that this is a cause that
is very close to you, the people of the Himalaya. What touched you most
on your early trips over there and caused this wonderful outpouring of
your thoughts and efforts?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Well, I have built up a very close relationship with the Himalayan
people. I have always admired their strength and enthusiasm and their
sense of humor. I have never really felt sorry for them even though
their way of life is a pretty harsh one. But, I decided many years ago
to give them help in establishing schools and medical facilities and
I've been doing it now for 35 years, or so, and it has been very worth
while I find.
KIRO: What do see as your influence of the schools and also the impact
of tourism, the trekking industry and the climbing industry that is
really pretty big business there... How does that impact the traditional
Sherpa life?
Sir Edmund Hillary: Well I think that the tourism is a very big economic benefit to the
Sherpa people and also they have very strong ties to their own social
attitudes and their own religion, so fortunately, they're not too
influenced by many of our Western attitudes. They are affected a little
I guess. I can remember when I first went into the Himalayan area way
back in 1951 money for instance was not important at all to the local
people. But now, finance has become just as important to them as it is
to us, and this is a change maybe not for the better.
But they have very strong culture and very strong village spirit. They
work together on projects and so on and much of this I think is very
admirable.
— MountainZone.com Staff
The American Himalayan Foundation provides crucial education, cultural preservation, health care and environmental conservation in the Himalayan region. In the Everest area of Nepal, the AHF works with Sir Edmund Hillary to fund schools and hospitals, reforestation and sacred site restoration. The AHF also helps Tibetan refugees in their difficult struggle to survive and to preserve their culture.
For Information and Donations:
The American Himalayan Foundation
909 Montgomery Street
Suite 400
San Fransisco, CA 94133
(415) 288-7245
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