Ok, How do we really know you made it to the top? Seriously…who’s there to witness it? :dubious:
Photographs are usually taken, for one thing. Even in 1953.
But that is just some guy standing on some snowy slope somewhere. Doesn’t look to be convincingly atop anything. The slope appears to keep going up to the right of the photo.
True, but reports from the time say that Hillary took a number of photographs of the scenery atop the mountain. Can’t find them online, but that’s not to say they don’t exist.
Are all photographs of climbers who made it to the top after Hillary similarly in doubt, as well as statements by witnesses?
I love this from the contemporary article:
*Mr E. P. Hillary, aged 34, is a beekeeper in New Zealand. *
Since I am at this moment watching a one hour documentary about his life on Australian TV, it seems in retrospect so oddly understated.
That’s why I put in my post in the obit thread over at MPSIMS that the beekeeper had a good innings. Understatement was one of his bywords. Cool guy, Hillary.
I’m just joshing. I read Into Thin Air and know lots of people have made it and found the relics of previous successful attempts.
These days you’re unlikely to be alone. Something like 500 people made it to the summit last year during the two month climbing season.
I heard some Australian who knew him well (didn’t catch the name) talking about how Hillary didn’t think much of climbing Everest and was prouder of the building he did for the Sherpas. He said that when Hillary talked about building schools he actually meant physically doing it - being there with a hammer and nails.
Apparently even when he was High Commissioner to India his contract allowed him to take leave to go to Nepal and work as a builder.
So yeah, pretty cool.
A heck of a lot of relics. The slopes are even an archaelogical site (I think they’re still looking for the 1920s Brit expedition which didn’t make it).
Ice Wolf, the body of George Mallory was found in 1999.
And, as I said, and your link confirms, they’re still looking. Thanks for the info on Mallory’s body being found (I didn’t know that, so cheers) – they’re still looking for Irvine and expedition debris, though.
IIRC, the thinking now is that they did make it to the top, but that they succombed on the way down. I remember hearing something about a recent expedition to the mountain which used the same kind of clothing and gear as the 1920s effort. They managed to make it up and back, I think (or at least got very high up before heading back down, they did survive), and they seemed to think that it was possible.
Hillary was an extremely cool dude (BTW, he eventually had to give up his beekeeping as he was too busy with his other work. In short, he was busier than a bee! ;)). The others who’ve climbed Everest? Not so much. Apparently, there’s oodles of trash up there now, and that’s even after an expedition in the late 1980s (partially funded by Mother Earth News) to go up there and clean the place up a bit.
The poor bugger had no witnesses or even photographic evidence that’s been found to prove it for certain. Poor soul. As Jinx raises in his OP – without witnesses, who’s to know? 
Well, if he left something on the summit that someone finds, then I suppose we’d have proof. However, the title should still go to Hillary, as he was successful in the attempt.
There’s a risk that some of the evidence may already have been souvenired.
…and Tenzing.
Sorry to hijack this thread slightly but could I broaden the question by asking how anyone proves that they have climbed a certain mountain? This months National mag has an article on Polish climbers in the 80’s/90’s and their solo climbs and I was thinking “Well what’s stopping them from only going half-ways but claiming that they made it to the top?”
Do you have to take photos?
Is the climb peer-reviewed?
IS climbing an honorable sport in which no-one ‘cheats’?
The linked article you refer to has a cropped, blurry version of the photo. Here is a link to the actual color picture taken by Sir Edmund. Tenzing Norgay is clearly standing on a ridge or slope that is higher than any surroundings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TenzingonSummit.jpg
Sir Rhosis
Read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer which has amazing tales of mountain climbing, including people claiming to have climbed mountains when virtually carried up by support personnel. The book has more detail than his original article but it is fascinating enough and it is all here on the Outside site.