Sir Edmund...

Mt. Everest had only been summited(for the first time) 10 years before I was born, but as a young'n I remember reading about Everst, and Ed Hillary and Tenzig Norgay's feat in wide eye'd wonder, in fact its one of the first things I remember being able to read. It amazed me that there were still places on Earth where no one had stood before, (believe it or not there are still a few of those left) and I'm sure that the hard backed Britannica book of the year 1953 is still sitting on my parents book shelf to this day. In it, Hillary and Norgay are standing on the summit still wearing their supplimental oxygen masks, an ancient black and white photo that was burned into a young boys mind. No doubt that my love of high places came from imagining myself as the "Great Explorer and Climber" even though I grew up in the flatest place on Earth.

At 29,028 feet above sea level Everest has been the end all climbing experience since it was "knocked off" in 1953. although literally hundreds have climbed it over the years, it remains as deadly now as it ever was, and to return from the summit alive requires as much luck as it does skill. Ed Hillary and Tenzig Norgay did it with a style of modesty and humility, and never forgot the people or the mountain that made them famous. If you asked me who my heroes are this man would be at the top of my list.

Godspeed Sir Edmund