Out-and-Outliars; PART 2, FALLACY. Hillary, Tenzing (Chapter 1, Part 1)

                              

                                           Hillary, Tenzing

       

                            “It was obvious he was likely to die. It was not the mountain’s
                               harshness that almost killed him, but his own hubris”.

 

In May 29^th, 1953, on the southeastern ridge of a mountain at an altitude of 28.776 feet a very conscious Norgay Tenzing stretched out and, with Herculean effort dragged a semi-conscious Edmund Hillary to the summit of Everest; there is no reason at all why the route leading up to the summit of Mount Everest is today called The Hillary Step.

Before two of Hillary’s frozen toes were sent back to England to Queen Elizabeth II on Coronation day as both present and proof of gallant ardour, the summit of Everest did not, like America and Australia, need to be discovered by short-sightedly grandiose caucasions; it was already there.  Indeed, at least two hours prior to the moment Norgay made the decision to help his dangerously ungrateful and eternally whiney climbing companion to the top and stick the flag of Empire through the permafrost, Nepal’s own flag had been fluttering away merrily at the summit of the world making a curiously mischievous tittering sound as it did so. It has been mentioned in subsequent largesse at The Royal Geographical Society lunches, that the two men hugged each other on simultaneously reaching the top; this was an out-and-out lie, Sherpa Tenzing hugged himself.

Due to a mix up in the boot department leading to the loss of nineteen toes even before the team had left base camp, Sherpa Tenzing was already au fait with the unBuddhist  Western doctrine called The Hierarchy of Death, traces of which are still flagrantly on display in such recent Soft-Power-point entertainments in supremacy in the film Impossible about the Tsunami in Thailand in which we are invited to believe the survival of one white family is worth pursuing and rooting for, over the factual deaths of two hundred and forty thousand among the Thai population;  Norgay knew, if any of them made it to the top, where he was supposed to stand . Some initial deaths among the Sherpas occurred as some returned along a narrow icy- ledge burdened with yet more more luggage; the white climbers simply did not know how break the rule of White of Way and would not, could not stand aside for their coloured helpers, it was deeply ingrained ; loss of luggage and the death toll among the Nepalese was deemed lamentable; but strictly in that order. Hillary, a remote and strange temperament was as yet unknown to the world around him and might have remained considering the lack of bonhomie -Hillary and Tenzing-did not get along.

The patriarchical claim Hillary had on the climbing glory of human endeavor was to be seen and loudly heard. At Camp II at an altitude of 21,240 feet a summary court house and jail was established to allay paranoid fears of insurrection bought on by thin air. This jail house was where the Sherpas were forced to weather several days of storm and without trial while the legitimate climbers enjoyed the shelter of an improvised tavern and the relative luxuries of a general store. Sherpa Tenzing had escaped imprisonment by dint of taking refuge inside a dead sacred cow a climber had shot dead out of bloody-minded boredom and in order to incite...well, an insurrection. One of the Sherpas complained about their conditions. The climbing team had an effective if somewhat brutal word with him. To the Nepalese helpers the trashed store was indeed a reminder; these were not pleasant people.

One night, in order to sharpen their Anglo-Saxon wits, the team devised a game of strip-poker heavily rigged against their porters, at 25,938 feet it could only have been an acute sense of sadism which overrode common-sense as prerogative, snide laughter laced with Schadenfreude emanated from the roof of the world. Half frozen, the Sherpas accused Hillary’s team of cheating and challenged them to a wrestling match. In a flurry of snow gunshots rang out and as the tiny Nepalese sat stiff in the snow staring at the holes in their chests, the remaining climbers retreated to the general store and smoked roughly hewn Havanna cigars. Tenzing was profoundly insulted and told Hillary so. That night one of Tenzing’s cousin attacked Hillary’s tent. The two men clashed outside. In the gunfire Little Tensing was shot and killed. Hillary’s men then went to Tenzing, their last and only guide, and ordered him to drag the body of his cousin away. He refused, “The most dangerous thing about Everest is everyone who is trying to climb it, you!”, He said pointing up to the peaceful peaks above.

Things quickly went from bad to worse. In a burst of altitude sickness Hillary became murderously delusional; he was convinced his friends were out to ambush him and turn him off the mountain-he flipped - killing them all. In the ensuing gunfire he shot off the two toes received by the Queen on the day of her coronation. While reloading, Hillary heard Tenzing coming after him. In the fight Tenzing’s respect for Hillary died. While Hillary rode upon Tenzing’s back tugging at his beard with one hand and firing into air with the other, a group of journalists at base camp were fleeing an avalanche, in vain. There were places on earth, far below at sea level, where people strove to live in harmony; Hillary and Tenzing were not among them.

“ Stop”, Tenzing shouted in a voice that resembled Hillary’s mothers’. Tenzing grabbed the gun from Hillary’s frozen dead fingers and tossed it over the side. “It’s not the mountain’s harshness that kills, it’s your own hubris, ”.  Sherpa Tenzing was to be first in a long line  to become acquainted with the ring of gunshot; the job would hereonin come with the expectation of a certain percentage of insanity-induced suicides. Hillary decided to say nothing and live. The rest, as they say, is history.