New Zealand High Commission celebrates 70th Anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay Mount Everest conquest
Jun 06, 2023
New Delhi [India], June 6 : The New Zealand High Commission in India on Tuesday celebrated the 70th Anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay becoming the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point in the world.
It was on May 29, 1953, seventy years ago that Hillary, a beekeeper from South Auckland and Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, became the first humans on earth to conquer the Everest summit.
The occasion was celebrated by the New Zealand High Commission in India with events in Nepal, New Delhi and London.
In New Delhi, it co-hosted the 70th-anniversary celebrations together with the British High Commission.
A panel discussion 'Mountains to Move' was held which reflected on the legacy of Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary inspiring people to engage with nature around the world. It focused on ways to lift equitable access and balance the impact of tourism on our natural environment as more people seek to engage more closely with the natural world.
The panel discussion talked about Peter Hillary, mountaineer, philanthropist and author who is the son of Sir Edmund Hillary. Peter completed his first summit of Everest in 1990. This made the Hillarys the "first family" of Himalayan mountaineering with two generations of Everest climbers. They are also the first two generations of one family to have each established new routes across Antarctica to the South Pole.
Peter reached the South Pole in 1999 and completed the Seven Summits in 2008.
Talks were also held on the legacy of Jamling Tenzing Norgay, a mountaineer, author and motivational speaker who is an Indian-Nepalese mountaineer. In 1996, Jamling retraced his father Tenzing Norgay's footsteps and summited Mount Everest, which was the subject of the IMAX documentary 'Everest'.
He is a motivational speaker and the author of the bestselling book, Touching My Father's Soul. He runs Tenzing Norgay Adventures which was founded in 1978 by his father.
