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VOLUME 29
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Happy New Year! Thanks to all the clients, production companies and speakers bureaus who helped us to a tremendous year in 2007. We hope you have a great 2008. And thanks to everyone who has told us that we helped them become better leaders, inspired the performance of their team, or just gave them a good morning perk up with our E-zine. As long as it is a positive difference, we're thrilled to be part of it! So welcome to 2008 and this month's E-zine. Last month we told you the incredible story of Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic adventure. Now it's not that we're stuck in winter, or in adventurers. But while there is no rest for the weary of the stories of Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, last week marked the passing of a more famous Hillary. It is almost de rigeur these days to climb a mountain of some kind - and I don't mean the psychological ones. Every day we hear another story of how someone climbed one of the world's highest peaks (on their way to the speakers' circuit!). But the man who broke the mould and created the path for them to do this is the man who passed away last week - Sir Edmund Hillary. While Shackleton's team's survival was the mark of his leadership, Hillary's ascent of Everest was just the first big mark in a long and influential life. Herein his story. I hope you enjoy it. Yours in leadership
Please visit our website at www.themarkofaleader.com |
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FEATURE
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SIR EDMUND HILLARY - THE MAN WHO CONQUERED EVEREST
TRIVIA QUIZ Who was the first to swim the English Channel? Who was the first to climb Mt. Everest? How is it that most people I know can answer the third question but not the first two? There lies the power of first mover advantage. For the last 55 years, Hillary has been a household name, arguably the most famous New Zealander in history. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, earned a rare honor for chivalry, became New Zealand's ambassador to India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and was the first living person to have his picture on New Zealand's currency. All for climbing a mountain first. 
But not just any mountain. A rugged, frigid climb that sucks the strength from the human climber's body, deprives it of oxygen, and attacks it with weather so fierce that expedition after expedition has been forced to give up, one almost at the summit. Many have given their lives in the attempt to conquer this giant. Everest. Bridging Nepal and Tibet, its celestial peak stands at one of the most awe- inspiring places on earth. No wonder the mountain - called "Chomolungma" by Tibetans and Sherpas, which means "Mother Goddess of the Earth" - holds a special place in the human imagination. Equally does the first Westerner to conquer it - Sir Ed - along with his Sherpa climbing partner, Tenzing Norgay. 
Today, scaling one of the world's highest mountains has become somewhat easier thanks to technology - clothing that retains body heat, lighter everything, and satellite communications. The earth's peaks now host regular excursions for the wealthy. Armed with the latest high tech gear (you must have a laptop to email your friends!), $60,000 will get a reasonably fit person to the top of a peak with a team for the photo opp of a lifetime if the weather permits. But in Sir Ed and Tenzing's time, it was a rare species who had the stamina or the willpower to endure the elements with only basic climbing gear, heavy packs of food, and minimal protection against the elements. Born in Auckland 19 July 1919, Hillary began climbing mountains as a teenager and soon earned a reputation as an ice climber. He was tall and gangly but found he had great endurance. 
He became a beekeeper, an occupation which allowed him to climb in winter. His first major success was Mt. Ollivier in the Southern Alps in 1939. Hilary was not without his climbing failures. But by 1953, he was well enough regarded that he was invited to be part of the Royal Geographical Society Everest expedition headed by Col. John Hunt. At the time, 7 previous expeditions had failed to reach the summit, and several climbers had been lost on the mountain. Nearly a century after British surveyors had established that Everest was the highest point on earth, many climbers considered the mountain unconquerable. The summit was 5 1/2 vertical miles above sea level (up where today's jets fly): an otherworldly place of yawning crevasses and 100-mile-an-hour winds, of perpetual cold and air so thin that the human brain and lungs do not function. 
Hunt's expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters and 20 Sherpa guides, the local Nepalese people famed for their climbing expertise. The expedition carried over 10,000 pounds of baggage. The entire assault took 7 weeks. Base camp was set up in March - but it was not until over two months later that the summit was reached. After a series of climbs by coordinated teams to establish ever-higher camps on the icy slopes and perilous rock ledges, Tom Bourdillon and Dr. Charles Evans were the first team to attempt the summit, but gave up just 315 feet from the top -- beaten back by exhaustion, a storm that shrouded them in ice, and oxygen-tank failures. 
Hillary and Norgay were chosen to make the next assault, stopping at 27,900 feet on a rock ledge six feet wide and sloped at a 30-degree angle. There, holding their tent against a howling gale as the temperatures plunged to 30 degrees below zero, they spent the night. At 6:30 A.M. on May 29, 1953, encouraged by clearing skies, they began the final attack. Carrying enough oxygen for seven hours and counting on picking up two partly filled tanks left by Dr. Evans and Mr. Bourdillon, they moved out. 
Roped together, cutting toe-holds with their ice axes, they inched up a steep, ridge. Stalled at a final 40 foot vertical rock face, Hillary ingeniously found a way up, earning the last section of his climb the nickname "Hillary's Step". Beyond it literally lay the top of the world at 29,035 feet. The two climbers stood on the dazzling "snow cone" summit looking down on the entire earth only 15 minutes because they were running out of oxygen. And, sadly, only Norgay had his photo taken at the top because he did not know how to use Hillary's camera. It took 7 weeks to summit and three days to get down. On June 2, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, word reached England that Everest had been conquered by a Kiwi and a Sherpa! 
Hillary became an instant celebrity, and through the rest of his life continued his twin loves of beekeeping and exploration. He climbed 10 other Himalayan peaks, and after traveling to both the south and north poles, became the first man ever to have reached both the top and the two "ends" of the earth. But more important, he made a pact with the beautiful people of Nepal to care for them and their country, a people whose innocence and close connection with the earth had moved him deeply. He established the Himalayan Trust which has helped build hospitals, clinics, bridges, airstrips and nearly 30 schools in Nepal. Through his life he was relentless in his protection of their environment, started a foundation to defend it, and railed against those who left litter and destruction in the wake of their climbs. 
He was also an outspoken critic of the new expeditions of affluent, self-centered climbers in it only for personal gain or satisfaction, particularly when an expedition left climber David Sharp to die on Everest in 2006. "I think the whole attitude toward mountain climbing has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave somebody under a rock to die." His opinions and learnings were carried not only in many speeches and articles penned through his life, but in 13 books! His passion for climbing and exploration was so infectious that his son Peter also took up climbing, reaching Everest's summit in 1996. And as a wonderful tribute, Peter climbed with Norgay's son as part of 50th anniversary of their fathers' 1953 expedition. 
Hillary died on January 11 at age 88, but his positive mark on the world, particularly on the people and environment of Nepal, will hopefully endure forever. |
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Please visit us at www.themarkofaleader.com. Copyright 2008 Mark of a Leader |
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