All language subtitles for BEYOND THE EDGE

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(WIND WHISTLES)

(GENTLE MUSIC)

(SLOW, MUFFLED BREATHING)

(MUSIC BUILDS)

(STATIC ON RADIO)

MAN ON RADIO:
Well, now, the Himalay as...

(STATIC)

MAN ON RADIO:
Well, we introduce to you this morning

Ed Hillary, a very interesting
personality in the alpine world.

Good morning, Ed.
EDMUND HILLARY: Good morning.

How many attempts have been
made on Everest altogether?

Well, there have
been at least 10.

Well, why have
the others failed?

A combination of circumstances
which hasn't been right.

Well, do you think
it's possible to climb Everest?

Yes, I definitely think
it's possible to climb it

and, well, I'm sure
it will be done some day.

(RADIO STATIC)

MAN: It's only 60 years ago, but
it was a completely different world,

and the idea that
you would be the first man

to stand on the highest
point on earth

is a quest, a romantic quest,

MAN 2: There was a real race on
for the world's highest peak,

And it wasn't just Britain,

There were other nations
in the queue,

This really was Britain's
last chance to grab this great prize,

(RISING MUSIC)

MAN: Nobody knew if someone
could survive at 29,000 feet,

Like the guys going into space,
you know, you 're breaking frontiers,

MAN 2: There is a physiologic limit
of what human beings can take,

I'm sure they didn't want to die,

but you 're taking risks in which
death is one of the outcomes,

MAN: You are going into the unknown,

Could it be done?

Back in 1953, it was
a great big question mark,

EDMUND HILLARY: I think
it's all really a matter of challenge,

Not so much challenge
only with the mountain,

but challenge with oneself,

seeing if you can force yourself
to overcome your fears

and hopefully, ultimately,
get to the top,

(WONDROUS MUSIC)

(NEWSREEL FANFARE)

VOICEOVER: Members of
the British Everest expedition

have begun assembling
on the Subcontinent

where deputy leader Major Wylie

is looking forw ard
to the adventure to come.

We are very pleased
that the first stage

of our journey
to Mount Everest is over.

We are now off tow ards the hills.

If we get some fine weather
tow ards the end of May

just before the monsoon arrives

we should have a chance
of getting to the top.

(FANFARE CONTINUES)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

(MEN CHATTER INAUDIBLY)

The first time I joined up
with the expedition

was at the British Embassy
in Kathmandu,

We had 13 Western members
of the expedition,

John Hunt, a senior army officer,
was expedition leader,

I'd really never heard
of John Hunt before

and the first time I met him
was in Kathmandu,

MAN: I was very keen
to have people I knew already

so I had big
question marks about Ed,

I can only say that
from the moment I met Ed

I knew that here was somebody
who would be a dominating influence,

He was a tower of strength,

MAN ON RADIO: Mr Hillary,
as a matter of interest,

how long have you been climbing?

EDMUND HILLARY: Well,
I've been climbing, I suppose,

for altogether about 10 years.

And how many trips have you done
out of New Z ealand climbing?

I have already had a couple
of expeditions to the Himalay a.

INTERVIEWER: You were quite strictly
brought up, weren't you?

EDMUND HILLARY: I was brought up
during the Depression

and my family was pretty
short on cash during that period,

I was just a rough
old country boy, as it were,

INTERVIEWER: A beekeeper,
A beekeeper,

lused to wander around our farm
dreaming about great adventures

and climbing mountains
and all that sort of thing,

INTERVIEWER:
What a contrast between

beekeeping on the one hand
and climbing mountains,

EDMUND HILLARY: Oh, not really,

In the beekeeping, I was constantly

lugging around
80-pound boxes of honey,

And my brother was also
doing beekeeping, and we competed,

And I think the sense of competition

carried on to
my mountaineering activities,

MAN: Well, the party were first
all together as a team in Kathmandu,

Before us we had 17 days
of marches to Tengboche,

which is where we were going
to place our first base camp,

We had to cross a succession

of high ridges and deep valleys,

We could really get gradually fit

and - most important -
get to know each other as a team,

MAN: Everything had been
calculated to the last detail -

7,5 tons of material,

443 packages, all numbered,

and the contents of each listed
down to the last matchbox or needle,

EDMUND HILLARY:
It is a team expedition

and it's very much in the form
of a pyramid of effort,

13 Western members of the expedition,

30 permanent high-altitude Sherpas,

These are men who will be carrying
loads for us to great altitudes,

Some 600 Nepalese porters

carried loads across country
into our climbing regions,

MAN: Because there had been no less

than seven British
attempts on the mountain,

we felt that by right, the mountain
should be climbed by Britain

and by extension
the British Commonwealth,

The Swiss so nearly
got to the summit in 1952,

The Americans were
waiting in the wings,

And so there was huge
pressure on John Hunt

with this colossal expectation
that this quest had to succeed,

INTERVIEWER: Mr Hillary,
how many New Z ealanders

are in this year's expedition?

EDMUND HILLARY: Well, only two of
us. There's George Lowe and myself.

MAN: George Lowe and my father
were great friends,

They had climbed extensively
in the Southern Alps of New Zealand,

They were very good
climbers together

and had a tremendous rapport,

MAN 2: We had 18 days of trekking

and during that period
of getting to know one another

there was always
a little bit of a funny edge

towards the New Zealanders,

Both Ed and I had been
to ordinary high schools,

They, of course,
the greater number of them,

had been to public schools,

We did come from a different
background, there was no doubt,

HUNT: Kathmandu is only about

4,000 feet above sea level,

The foot of Everest is about 18,000,

Our 17 days approach march

was an essential part of my policy

of acclimatisation,

MAN: The whole thing
is a race against time,

There was a constant fear
that the monsoon would come,

So that's why John Hunt said,

"We want to be in a position
to climb Everest on May 15,"

The later in May, the more likely
that the monsoon would arrive,

It's always a race against time,

EDMUND HILLARY: As we got steadily
higher, our excitement increased

and more and more great peaks
were coming into view,

And over it all towered
the summit pyramid of Everest

only 20 miles away,

but still 20,000 feet above us,

INTERVIEWER: Mr Hillary, you started
climbing in New Z ealand, didn't you?

EDMUND HILLARY: Oh, yes,
I started in New Z ealand.

(ROMANTIC MUSIC ON NEWSREEL)

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: And there's
Mount Cook, the 'Cloud Piercer',

reaching majestically skyw ard
for over 12,000 feet.

EDMUND HILLARY:
A friend and I decided

to have a short trip to Mount Cook,

The closer we got, the more impressed
I was with the magnificent mountains,

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
Those jagged peaks there

provide the real alpinist with some of
the best climbing outside Europe.

EDMUND HILLARY: That night, inside
the Hermitage where I was staying,

two young men came in,

I heard the whisper go around -
"They have just climbed Mount Cook,"

These chaps were really living,

I felt, "What a hopeless life I lead,

"no great adventures,
nothing particularly exciting,"

And that's when I decided that I was
going to take up mountaineering,

HUNT: Well, after 17 days

our caravans arrived at the Monastery of
Tengboche at over 12,000 feet,

PETER HILLARY: Once they got up
to Tengboche Monastery

it's getting pretty cold,

The low-country porters
largely only had cotton clothes

so they get paid off
and they return to their villages

and Sherpa porters take over,

The Sherpas who stay
on the expedition

might have had previous
experience of climbing,

although not many did,

Tenzing was an exception to that

in that he did have
quite a lot of experience,

In fact, he really
had more experience

at climbing on Mount Everest
than anyone else,

MAN: Without the Sherpas
you can't climb Everest

and my father was the head man,

People respected him,

They knew that he had been climbing
Everest with foreigners since 1935,

You know, he'd been up
six times already,

EDMUND HILLARY:
I knew Tenzing by repute,

You know, he'd done
a lot of mountaineering

and I knew he was
very highly regarded,

But I wasn't able really
to communicate well with him,

His English was very limited
and my Nepali was very limited,

He had a flashing smile,
absolutely charming smile,

It was impossible not to like him,

In the next fortnight,
we had a period of training

and testing ourselves
and our equipment at altitudes,

MAN: Well, in 1953,
getting to the summit of Everest

in terms of physiologic capability
was a big unknown,

It was like sending
somebody into space,

They knew from altitude
experiments in chambers

that altitude can make you seize

and one of the ideas was that people
would haemorrhage in their brains

because their blood vessels
would be so dilated,

There were lots of reasons to think
that there might be a stroke,

Nobody knew whether or not
it could really be done,

MAN: When Ed was heading
up the mountain in 1953,

13 people had already
died on the mountain

and I think that for anyone
who would be climbing at that time

it would be something
of a daunting statistic -

13 deaths and zero summits
at that point,

HUNT: Now, about
six miles up from Tengboche

looking north is the Khumbu Glacier

where we were to place
our main base camp

for the attack on the mountain,

This icefall was to be
our next great obstacle

and I sent a party to explore it,

Ed Hillary led this first party,

(EERIE MUSIC)

EDMUND HILLARY: The Western Cwm
is guarded by a great icefall,,,

,,a tumbled mass of ice dropping
2,500 feet to the Khumbu Glacier,

We first had to discover whether it

was possible to ascend this icefall,

The icefall was a constant hazard

and we had no alternative
but to make a route through country

which we knew to be unjustifiable
in the ordinary alpine climb,

MAN: It's like a waterfall
that's come off and has frozen,

The weight of the glacier
above them is shoving,

It's all a jumble of ice,

It is unstable objective danger

that you have no control over,

Crazy! My God, You 're dumb
to be going up a route like that,

But you just can't go any other way
but through the icefall,

MAN 2: In '52, the Swiss
went up the icefall

and said, "It's a thing
that's always on the move,"

And it's a dangerous place
for that reason,

More people are killed in the icefall
than anywhere else on Everest,

(CREAKING AND CRACKING)

It's immense,
It's 2,500 feet high,

And we had to go
up the middle of it,

MAN 2: Ed Hillary, George Lowe,
Mike Westmacott and myself

were the four of us chosen
to make the first route through

in a week or five days if we could,,,

,,and then of course to make it safe

by a lot of step-cutting,
a lot of fixed ropes

so that eventually
it would be possible

for loaded porters to carry
the stores safely through it,

(TENSE MUSIC)

WESTMACOTT:
The icefall was a dangerous place

because things did collapse
without warning

and if you were in the way,
it was a thoroughly bad thing,

(CRACKING)

BAND: You had
these great towers of ice

and great lumps and strips
the size of a row of cottages

that could slump down at any moment,

We gave names
to the more dangerous parts,

There was Mike's Horror,
Hillary's Horror,

an area called the Nutcracker,
the Atom Bomb area,

WESTMACOTT: There are certain,,,

,,what climbers call objective dangers

which basically
you can't do much about,

There's also a risk
of falling into a crevasse,

BAND: We had these light
aluminium ladders about six feet long

which we could bolt together
across the crevasses,

And there were so many crevasses

that we soon ran out
of all the ladders we had,

So we had to send down
to where the nearest trees grew,

which would be about
three days' walk away,

to cut small tree trunks
to make little log bridges,

(WOOD CREAKS)

And you balanced
as well as you could,

For us, it was clearly going to be
the only way to climb Everest,

CONEFRE Y:
Ed Hillary wanted to please,

He wanted to be on the summit team,

He would've known
that only a few people

would get a chance
to go for the summit

so from very early on
he wanted to impress John Hunt

and he felt there
was time pressure on him

to recce the icefall
to get it prepared,

PETER HILLARY: My father
was never afraid of hard work,

but part of that was to cover
I think what Dad felt

were a lot of psychological
or emotional inadequacies,

He had been raised
with high expectations

and they sent him off
to Auckland Grammar School

two years too young,

EDMUND HILLARY:
I was only 11 years old

and I was rather terrified, really,

When lunchtime came,

I would go out
the back of the school

and there were a whole lot
of ants living there,

When I first went
to Auckland Grammar,

the only friends I really had
were the ants,

I was a dreamer
until I started climbing,

HUNT: The icefall was really chaotic

and yet they forced a way

and Ed's job of route finding
was a particularly good show,

BAND: The New Zealanders

had a lot more snow
and ice climbing experience

than the average European climber

because their mountains are
very like the Himalayas in miniature,

(SOARING MUSIC ON NEWSREEL)

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
The Southern Alps -

the great mountain tangle
which sprawls northw ards

in an almost unbroken chain
of rock and ice.

INTERVIEWER: Well, Ed,
how do the Southern Alps

compare with the Swiss Alps?

That's where the English climbers
get their training.

EDMUND HILLARY: Here in New
Z ealand, with our terrific glaciation,

a greater amount of our climbing
is done on snow and ice -

in many w ays very similar
to the Himalay a.

They're rather different
from the Swiss Alps

where the predominant feature
for climbing is rock.

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: Mount
Aspiring, New Z ealand's Matterhorn -

a shark's tooth of a mountain
whose dangerous slopes

demand skill and careful climbing.

EDMUND HILLARY:
Our New Z ealand mountains

are really a wonderful
training ground for the Himalay a.

VENABLES: Kiwis
have that tough resilience

so I think that
the younger British climbers

were somewhat in awe

of these formidable Kiwis
brought in to reinforce the team,

HUNT: Now, the next big doubt

was regarding the lip
of the coomb itself

at the very top of the icefall,

You see, there was
an enormous, gaping crevasse,

Could we get into the coomb?

PETER HILLARY: The decision
on who would be going

all the way to the top

was very much
the leader's prerogative,

John Hunt would evaluate the team

throughout the course
of the expedition,

So there was a fair amount of

sort of posturing
and positioning going on

as people tried to put
themselves in the best light

for that sort of opportunity,

BAND: I think
amongst the British

there wasn't any particular
jockeying for position,

but I think our two New Zealanders,
Hillary and Lowe,

were perhaps rather
more straightforward

in wanting to get
as high as possible,

They were the sort of colonials
that would make good

and we were perhaps
a little bit more inhibited -

the public school type that
wouldn't push our way forward

unless Hunt had said,
"Look, you 're the chap to do it,"

EDMUND HILLARY: I'd always hoped
that George Lowe and I

would be the final summit pair,

but there was no time
that John Hunt, our leader,

wanted to have two New Zealanders
stand on top of Mount Everest,

So I had to look around
and find someone

who was as fit as I was
and who could do a good job,

Tenzing was that person,

MAN: Nobody alive had more
experience of Everest,

He really understood the value of it

and how it could change his life,

Tenzing had been very, very poor,

He had struggled,

He wanted his children
to go to good schools,

He wanted more for them
than he'd had,

Tenzing understood
what climbing Everest meant,

My father was a bit of an anomaly
as far as a Sherpa goes

because he always
wanted to climb Everest,

That's very unusual
for a poor kid from Tibet,

So unlike many other Sherpas who
actually climb just to make a living,

he was a mountaineer at heart,

His drive was to go to the top
just like Ed Hillary,

HUNT: As we walked on into
the coomb, the crevasses grew fewer

and we realised that
the coomb itself was open to us,

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

HUNT: We are now
established at Base Camp

and the first problem
is to get our supplies

up to Camp 4 high up
in the Western Cwm,

Owing to the climbing
difficulties in the icefall,

laden porters require
three days to reach Camp 4,

CONEFRE Y: There was
this idea in those days

of laying siege to a mountain,

This meant you would do it
in a very systematic way -

you would set up a camp
and you would set up another camp

and get higher and higher,

VENABLES: You build up
this pyramid of camps

to get enough tents, food,
cooking fuel, oxygen -

to get enough of those supplies
where you can rest

before going up to the next stage,

And to do that, people have
got to go up and down the mountain,

Ideally, people go up to a camp
and then go back down again

'cause if everyone goes up to a camp
and then stays there

they then consume
all the food they've carried up,

CONEFRE Y: People tried
to come up with solutions

which would help the team
to get to the top,

people from around the world

sending in madcap
suggestions on inventions,

Somebody had an ingenious device

which was a type of harpoon

with an incendiary device
on the end of it,

The idea was that it would
burn its way into the ice

and give a secure holding

so people could haul themselves up,

Most of them were
completely crazy ideas,

VOICEOVER: My method
involves the use of a hand cable

laid in adv ance by aircraft...

VOICEOVER 2: With my relay w armth

personal heating apparatus,

air could be passed through
a heating chamber

and pumped via rubber tube

to the hands, feet and head...

VOICEOVER 3:
May I mention a Wonder Gun

for driving steel bolts
into concrete...

VOICEOVER 4: I suggest
that a woollen suit

be wired in much the same w ay

as an electric blanket...

VOICEOVER 5: It should be possible

to ascend the mountain
using a large helium-filled balloon.

A significant amount of helium
would be required.

MAN: Nearly all
of the technological innovations

that were used on the 1953 expedition

arose from things
developed by the military

during the Second World War,

They tested the windproof equipment
they were going to be wearing

in the wind tunnel
at Farnborough Aircraft Factory,

30 different firms, UK firms,

were involved
in designing the boots alone,

The ascent of Everest in '53 had
become a question of national pride,

When World War II ended,
Britain was completely bankrupt

and because of the austerity,
the postwar austerity in Britain,

the really awful days
that had past,,,

,,it was the last
great colonial project,

the last hurrah
of the British Empire,

PETER HILLARY:
My father and Tenzing

kept volunteering to help
in different situations

to demonstrate their competency
as being one of the summit teams,

Dad could see that there were
a whole lot of reasons

why this could be
a great combination for success,

They were very at home
in this alpine environment,

They were hungry,
They wanted the top,

CONEFRE Y: There's a point
where they were partnered together

and they were racing down
the Khumbu Icefall,

trying to prove that
they could do it quickly,

But as a sort of product
of his over-exuberance, really,

he's racing through it
and something goes wrong,

EDMUND HILLARY: Tenzing and I
headed back down to Base Camp,

When we were about
halfway down the icefall

we came to one of the crevasses,

On one side of it
there was a great chunk of ice

and we had used this
as a stepping stone

to reach the other side,

(TENSE MUSIC)

CONEFRE Y: It was slightly ironic

that it was Ed Hillary,
who was such a good climber,

that it should happen to him,

EDMUND HILLARY:
People have often said to me,

"You must've been very thankful,

"Tenzing having saved
your life like that,"

but I don't think I was,

You know, I'd have been very annoyed
if he hadn't saved my life,

HUNT: Camp 4
has now been established

and we have successfully carried

the three tons of supplies up here,

VENABLES: You don't
conquer a mountain,

If you 're lucky enough,

the mountain gives you a chance
to stand on the top,

You 're trying to overcome
your own weaknesses,

CONEFRE Y: Ed Hillary,
he was so kind of gung-ho

and he always
wanted to be out front,

he always wanted to be in the lead,

He wasn't brash, He was a quieter,
sort of more reserved, character,

PETER HILLARY: Dad was
quite a complicated person,

I think my father
had quite a few demons

born out of being a perfectionist,

but also the sense of inferiority -
nothing is ever quite good enough,

I think it came out of a very
complicated family background,

EDMUND HILLARY: My father
really wasn't very interested

in adventurous activities,

He was a man of very strong beliefs,

The climbing of mountains he probably
regarded as a bit of a waste of time,

I fought with my father,

And I would usually end up
being taken over to the woodshed

and being given a good thumping,

I'm rather proud of the fact

that I never actually
admitted I was wrong,,,

,,even if I had been,

(TYPEWRITER CLICKS)

(DING!)

WESTMACOTT: Well, of course it was
of tremendous interest to all of us

who would be chosen
for the final push,

VENABLES: In those days,
the leader's word was absolute,,,

,,particularly for men who had
all been in the armed forces,

Hunt had to make the decision,

He would say who were
going to be the lucky ones

who were going to have
a crack at the summit,

It was at our Base Camp

and John Hunt got everybody round

and outlined his plans
for the rest of the expedition,

The crucial thing, of course,
was the attempts for the summit,

VENABLES: At that meeting,

that extraordinary
meeting with this team

totally isolated
from the rest of the world,

thousands of miles from home,,,

,,those men, each thinking,
"Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful

"if I was one of the lucky ones,"

BAND: You 're all chosen
as basic climbers to go to the top,

but there are all these
other jobs to be done as well,

PETER HILLARY: My father
was absolutely determined

that he was going to have an opportunity
to climb this mountain,

NORBU TENZING:
One of the conditions

for my father to go
with the English team

was that he'd have a chance
to go to the top,

There was no other climber
quite as accomplished,

WESTMACOTT: All of us would have
liked to have a crack at the top,

but the first attempt on the summit

was to be made by
Tom Bourdillon with Charles Evans,,,

,,and, "If needed,
the second attempt," he said,

"is going to be made
by Ed Hillary and Tenzing,"

PETER HILLARY: I'm sure my father

would have loved to have
been in the first team,

Tenzing was probably
quite conflicted by it,

HUNT: The next stage,
and the really crucial one,

is up the Lhotse Face
to the South Col,

VENABLES: John Hunt said, "OK,
Tom Bourdillon with Charles Evans,

"We'll send the two
of them up first,

"They can do a huge leap
from the South Col

"right to the summit in a day,"

HUNT: The first major task
in this plan fell to George Lowe,

He was to make a route up
the Lhotse Face and prepare the way

for the high-carrying parties
to reach the col,

This was to be finished by 15 May,

CONEFRE Y:
Basically what he said was,

"We want to be in a position
to climb Everest on May 15,"

because there was a constant fear
in the back of Hunt's mind that

“The monsoon would come
and end all our hopes,"

But they had to get up this thing
called the Lhotse Face,

EDMUND HILLARY: This is a vast
4,000-foot snow-and-ice face

leading up steeply
to the South Col at 26,000 feet,

(WIND HOWLS)

George Lowe, my fellow New Zealander,
spent much time and energy

bashing a route
up this difficult problem,

LOWE: Well, the work on
the face was very difficult

and made more difficult
and atrocious

by the weather and daily falls
of snow which covered the tracks,

I shared my high perch
for a long time with Ang Nyima,

a splendid little Sherpa,

WESTMACOTT: George Lowe
worked on the Lhotse Face

without oxygen for over a week
up to about 24,500 feet,

LOWE: The cold was terrific
and the wind was bad

and all the time I was hoping
to get the traverse complete

and the route right through
to the South Col,

But I was thrashed by the weather
and the altitude was affecting me,

We didn't seem to be able to make
the last 1,000 feet to the col,

CONEFRE Y: John Hunt's big mistake

was that he underestimated
the Lhotse Face,

It's just so big,

He didn't give enough
support to George Lowe,

LOWE: It really was
myself and Ang Nyima,

Whenever they did send up support,

within 24 hours, they were
not able to carry on,

HACKETT:
Being at high altitude,

you never feel very well,

Each breath of air
we take in at high altitude

has fewer oxygen molecules

so we need more breaths in order
to get the same amount of oxygen,

WHITTAKER: Put a pillow
over your mouth

and try and breath through it
as you 're running,

(PUFFS) You just suck in air,
you 're trying to get enough air

and the oxygen debt builds up
until you just can't go any,,,

You have to stop, (PUFFS HEAVILY)

Take three, four breaths to a step,

five breaths to a step,
six breaths to a step,

15 breaths to a step,

You 're just not getting the air,

(WIND HOWLS)

LOWE: Up there, your mind
somehow gradually accepts slowness,

I thought I was going
extremely well,

but in fact we were staggering about
like men in a dream,

HUNT: We had spent
10 days on the Lhotse Face -

considerably more
than I'd reckoned on -

but we had still not broken through
to the South Col,

The time factor
was becoming critical,

BAND: Watching the progress
on the Lhotse Face,

there was no doubt that
the momentum of the attack

seemed to be winding down,

and the first inklings of the monsoon

were building up
in the Bay of Bengal,

VENABLES: It was
a very, very critical time,

You could imagine Hunt

feeling that this whole great enterprise
was just unravelling

and, "If we don't get
a grip on this thing soon

"we're going to lose our chance,

"The monsoon will arrive

"and we won't even have reached
the South Col, let alone the summit,"

(MORSE CODE BEEPS)

MAN: This is London calling
the British Mount Everest expedition.

Here is the latest weather bulletin.

Western disturbance
apparently moving eastw ards

across the extreme north of Nepal

is likely to cause
cloudy to overcast skies

with occasional thunderstorms...

CONEFRE Y: The later in May it was,

the more likely
that the monsoon would arrive,

When the monsoon comes,

you get huge dumps of snow and they
make climbing much more difficult,

You don't want to be climbing through
large amounts of soft snow,

wading your way through it,

The British expeditions
of the 1930s had all failed

because the monsoon had come early,

And so all of this was
piling on the pressure, you know?

BAND: So even though the route

hadn't actually been made
all the way to the South Col

John Hunt had to make
a sort of crucial decision

to start sending up
the team of 14 Sherpas

to carry all the stores we needed,

HUNT: Nothing must endanger
the getting of our stores to the col

in time for our
attempts on the summit,

EDMUND HILLARY: On 21 May,
Tenzing and myself

led a band of 14 high-altitude Sherpas
up the Lhotse Face,

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

13 Sherpas struggled up to
the col that day, without oxygen,

The 14th only just failed to make it,
and his load was carried on,

We were proud of them, and grateful,

It was a 10,5-hour day,

They carried 30 pounds each,
and their only nourishment

was a single cup of tea apiece
for breakfast,

BAND: And so we were able
to equip the camp properly

with tents, sleeping bags,
oxygen equipment and food,

and that was one of
the biggest achievements,

EDMUND HILLARY:
The South Col is probably

the most barren spot in the world,

The continual strong wind

is always blowing over
the dreary waste of rock and ice,

Adding an air of desolation

are the remnants of the Swiss tents
of the previous year,

with pieces of tattered cloth
still clinging to them,

NORBU TENZING: 1952, the Swiss
had invited my father to climb Everest,

and he had been up
where no human had been before,

but bad weather turned them back,

LOWE: I remember André Roch,
of the Swiss party, said,

"On the col
there's a smell of death,"

We thought that was
Continental dramatics,

but when we'd been there,
we understood,

WHITTAKER: I'm telling you, the cold,

you can feel it
coming up the extremities,

You know you 're gonna freeze
your hands and toes,

and you just feel the cold
creeping up,

It's a race between the body
and what you hope you can do,

You know that you 're dying
a little bit up there,

(WIND WHISTLES RELENTLESSLY)

EDMUND HILLARY: A major step
had been achieved,

and we then returned
once more to the Western Cwm,

Without wasting any time,
we brought into action our assault plan,

CONEFRE Y: Hunt wanted to have
two attempts on the summit,

but he realised
that he couldn't have two attempts

which were using
open-circuit oxygen sets,

WESTMACOTT: In the open-circuit,

when you breathe out, the
expired air goes to the atmosphere,

and when you breathe in,

the atmospheric air comes with
an addition of a puff of oxygen

from your oxygen set,

CONEFRE Y: The thing about
open-circuit oxygen sets

is that they use a lot of oxygen,

so he would have to get
an awful lot of oxygen

up onto the South Col
and to the Southeast Ridge,

so he sort of thought,

"Well, no, we're not gonna
be able to do this,"

But there was an alternative form
of oxygen set,

which was called a closed circuit,

WESTMACOTT: The closed-circuit,
when you breathe out

the carbon dioxide
goes through a canister

of something called soda lime,
which extracts the carbon dioxide

and gives you back the oxygen
into the set,

and you 're completely insulated
from the outside air,

Now, if it works, the closed system
can be more efficient

than the open-circuit system,

CONEFRE Y: The people who are using
the closed-circuit set

can start from lower down,

But the thing about
a closed-circuit set

was that the only person
who really knew how to use them

was the person who had
designed them, Tom Bourdillon,

WESTMACOTT:
And the first attempt on the summit,

using the closed-circuit oxygen,

was to be made by Tom Bourdillon
with Charles Evans,

John Hunt went ahead
to the South Col in support,

PETER HILLARY: Evans and Bourdillon
left Advanced Base

down in the Western Cwm

and climbed up the South Col
to camp,

WESTMACOTT: Tom and Charles
were to go all the way

from the South Col to the top,

I thought at the time
they had a chance,

but it was a hell of a long way,

PETER HILLARY: If Bourdillon
and Evans reach the summit,

John Hunt might go, "Job done,

"We're all going home,
Everyone's safe,"

But the weather closed in and
everyone got stuck for two days,

including Bourdillon and Evans
on the South Col,

My father and Tenzing
left Advanced Base

down on the Western Cwm

to come up to the South Col
to be the second summit team,

EDMUND HILLARY: Well, we left
Base Camp in the Western Cwm,

There was our support party -

George Lowe, Alf Gregory
and several Sherpas,

And then Tenzing and myself,
who were the actual assault party,

with the open-circuit,

PETER HILLARY: As my father and
Tenzing were departing from Camp 4,

Bourdillon and Evans were
making their summit bid,

EDMUND HILLARY: Well,
we went up the Lhotse Face

and across the long traverse
that leads up to the South Col,

And we're just about
up to the South Col

when we notice the support party,

George started shouting
and jumping around,

And we looked up
and we saw Evans and Bourdillon

going up the tiny little peak
far above us,

onto the top of the South Summit,

I think it was somewhere
around about 12:00 in the morning,

and we thought, "Ooh, they've,,,
South Summit, 12:00,

"They've time to get to the top,

"They're going to climb it,"

PETER HILLARY: You know, when
Bourdillon and Evans went out of sight,

there would've been
very high emotions,

because these guys wanted
to be up there,

EDMUND HILLARY: We crossed over
and reached the South Col,

A little later in the day,
we kept an eye out

for the clouds that
come over the mountain,

and we were a bit worried
about Evans and Bourdillon,

But, uh, I think
it was about 3:30,

George once again
caught sight of them

coming down the couloir
from the Southeast Ridge,

down towards the South Col,

LOWE: And it was a long time

before they actually started
to come down,

And when they were coming down,
they were clearly very, very tired,

PETER HILLARY: When Bourdillon
and Evans came down,

Dad walked out to meet them,

People tend to see it in terms of

this really good guy going out
to meet them and help them back,

and there was that, absolutely,

But there was another part,
which was inside, where he,,,

,,he wanted to climb this mountain,

He needed to know,
"Where did they get to?"

EDMUND HILLARY: And they told us

that they'd reached
the South Summit alright,

had a look at the summit ridge,

but hadn't had sufficient time or oxygen
or energy to go any further,

CONEFRE Y:
They were in a terrible state,

Most of the day Charles Evans
had been climbing with an oxygen set

which didn't work properly,

so he'd been inhaling
carbon dioxide as well as oxygen,

But I think also Tom Bourdillon was
very,,,emotionally in a bad state,

because it really meant
a lot to him, you know,

He had designed this oxygen set
which had failed,

So they were in a bad way,
physically and emotionally as well,

GREGORY: Tom Bourdillon kept saying,
"We should've had a go,

"We should've gone on,"
you know,

"We should've gone on,"

VENABLES:
Evans and Bourdillon

were very strong,
very experienced climbers,

Having climbed higher than any
human beings had ever been before,,,

,,having got to the South Summit

and looked across at this final,
almost knife-edged ridge,

Charles Evans did say to Ed Hillary
something like,

"That last ridge looks really hard,
I don't know if you can do it,"

(WIND RUSHES)

HACKETT: Above 26,000 feet
is what we call the death zone,

because you are slowly dying,

It's not a place for humans,

GREGORY: John Hunt was a leader
leading from the front,

And as the front now
was up above the South Col,

that's why he wanted to stay,

and we realised that he really
wasn't strong enough to stay,

VENABLES:
It was a classic case

of someone having been
too high too long,

GREGORY: He'd gone beyond the limit,

like Tom Bourdillon
and Charles Evans,

And he was eventually persuaded
to go down with them,

They were exhausted
and we were worried about them

and we dug out some oxygen
to help them,

HUNT: Well, I hated
to leave the col,

but after a certain amount
of discussion,

I saw that I could not weaken
the second party,

So I left Ed with the parting
instruction not to give in,

CONEFRE Y: This was a great moment
on the expedition

in which the leader sacrifices
his own personal ambition,

and Ed Hillary says,
"Never at any moment

"have I respected John Hunt more,"

LOWE: You know,
it was touch and go,

because the monsoon comes
in the first week of June,

and it was tight,
on the last days of May,

(WIND RUSHES)

CONEFRE Y: For Hillary and Tenzing
to make an attempt on the summit,

they couldn't go from the South Col,

because they would have to carry
too much oxygen,

So the only way was to start from
higher up, then go for the summit,

(WIND RUSHES)

EDMUND HILLARY: The following day
was extremely windy and cold,

and no movement upwards
was possible,

We spent the day preparing
the oxygen and gear,

with the hope that the following day
would prove clear and fine,

CONEFRE Y: They would use oxygen
at night, flowing at a very low rate,

because it would help them sleep

and make them feel
slightly warmer as well,

WHITTAKER:
Night-time is a tough time,

You lay there
listening to the mountain,,,

,,listening to the wind,
listening to the avalanche,

Thinking, "Oh, my God," you know,

Demons come,

LOWE: The original plan was
that Gregory and three Sherpas

would carry the high camp,

One Sherpa had collapsed on the col
and gone down previously,

leaving us two Sherpas,

On the morning of the day
we intended to do the carry,

we poked our head
into the pyramid tent

and found Sherpa Pemba
in a very bad condition,

It was obvious
that he wouldn't carry,

and so we had the job
of sharing the load,

GREGORY: First of all,
early in the day

we knew that we'd have to reorganise
the loads and take more,

George Lowe and I and Ang Nyima
left about a quarter to nine,

LOWE: Ed and Tenzing left
the South Col an hour behind us

to conserve their energy
and to go faster through our steps

and so conserve their oxygen,

And we took off carrying
between 50 and 60 pounds,

and Ed, I think we estimated his
at 63 pounds,

which is quite an enormous load
for that altitude,

The wind was very strong
on the col,

We had very difficult conditions,

We moved up this ridge
looking for a flat spot,

GREGORY: For a long time
we couldn't find a camp site,,,

,,until at last Tenzing found one,

a nearly flat spot
underneath a rocky bluff,

EDMUND HILLARY: They helped us
to the highest camp

ever put up on Everest
or any other mountain,

at 27,900 feet,

VENABLES: No-one had ever camped
this high before,

George Lowe and Alf Gregory
take a few pictures

and then shake hands and say,
"Well, 'bye now, Good luck,

"We'd better be off down,"

And then there's
a wonderfully poignant moment,

PETER HILLARY: Ang Nyima
is very tired, he should go down,

But he said to Dad
that he wanted to stay

so he could make some tea when
they came down, and help them,

I know Dad was
very touched by that,

But eventually they start
back down again,

VENABLES: Leaving Hillary and Tenzing
completely alone,

EDMUND HILLARY: It was with
certain feelings of sorrow

that we saw George and Greg
and Sherpa Ang Nyima

descending down the mountain,
leaving us up there all alone,

We'd have much preferred to have
a bit of company for the night,

However, they had to get down -
our oxygen was running short,

PETER HILLARY: You 're totally
on your own, really out on a limb,

There's no radio contact
with anyone,

You could disappear

and everyone will just wonder,
"Whatever happened to them?"

I think it would've been
very exciting,

very Ionely and very scary,

(WIND WHISTLES AND HOWLS)

EDMUND HILLARY: It took us two
hours of solid work to set up the tent

on two strips of ground
a yard wide and 10 feet long,

CONEFRE Y:
Towards the top of Everest,

you get these
very, very powerful winds,

and they were very precariously
attached to this slope

and all the time they're worried

they're gonna be
blown off the mountain,

DOUGLAS: When the wind
gets up in the evening

you 're in
quite a dangerous position

because you 're pinned
to the mountain,

The noise is really frightening,

(WIND HOWLS AND RUSHES
RELENTLESSLY)

CONEFRE Y: That night was the coldest
ever recorded on the expedition,

HACKETT: It's such
a dehydrating environment,

and there's only one way
to make water,

and that is you have to melt
snow or ice,

You 're breathing eight times more
than you are at sea level,

You can lose more than a litre a day

just from the heavy breathing
at high altitude,

In addition, the air is so dry

that it sucks the moisture
right from your skin,

EDMUND HILLARY: I made myself
as comfortable as possible,

half sitting and half reclining
on the upper shelf,

It wasn't comfortable, but I could
at least brace my feet and shoulders

to help our meagre anchors
hold the tent in the gusts of wind,

VENABLES: High-altitude climbing

is all about being comfortable
in uncomfortable places,

He was very good at basic
day-to-day survival, as was Tenzing,

and I think that's where
they really scored,

EDMUND HILLARY: Early in the night,
the wind dropped,

We had some oxygen,
which we used for sleeping purposes

for about four hours
out of the 16 hours we spent there,

For the four hours, at least,
we did doze,

but as soon as the oxygen cut out

we'd immediately wake up
and start feeling cold,

CONEFRE Y: He's all the time thinking,

"I don't want to use
tomorrow's oxygen,"

There's just little things go wrong,

They've lugged up an enormous
black oxygen cylinder

which they planned to use
for sleeping oxygen,

But, unfortunately,
having lugged this bottle up,

they discovered that somebody has
gone back with the adaptor for it,

so the bottle is useless,

EDMUND HILLARY: Well,
I didn't have the complete conviction

that we were going to be
successful,

I was very aware of the fact

that very good expeditions
had attempted the mountain

and had got very high
but had not succeeded,

At 6:30am we started off
from our tent,

We wasted no time in preparing
the oxygen apparatus and equipment,

CONEFRE Y: It's all about oxygen
at this point,

Hillary is constantly
thinking about this,

"How much oxygen do I need?

"What should the flow rate
of the oxygen be?" You know?

"If I have it flowing at
a higher rate, then I feel better,

"but I use up the bottle
more quickly,"

DOUGLAS: It's very, very cold,

They measure it at below -25,

And that kind of profound,
bone-chilling cold

is almost like an assault, you know?

It's just grim,

CONEFRE Y: The team physiologist had
said, "When you get to high altitude,

"you 've got to climb
using your oxygen sets

"at a rate of four litres per minute,

"Anything less than that, you 're not
gonna get real benefit from it,"

EDMUND HILLARY: Our progress
at first was pretty steady,

However, we examined
the oxygen supplies

and found we couldn't go on
our estimated four litres a minute

and have a chance
of getting to the top,

Had to cut it down to three,

PETER HILLARY: A fairly simple
calculation about the oxygen flow rate

is unbelievably difficult up there

because you 've got an addled,
oxygen-deprived mind,

EDMUND HILLARY:
After going for some time,

we reached the bottom
of a 400-foot slope

which led up to the South Summit,

and this slope
was a tremendously steep one,

We felt that this snow
could easily avalanche,

DOUGLAS:
There was a bit of a crust,

so you 'd think you were
standing on firm ground

and then it would give way -
it would be powdery underneath,

So Hillary is anxious about that,

And also fear of avalanche,

And they have this exchange,

EDMUND HILLARY: I remember
turning to Tenzing and saying to him,

"Well, what do you think
about it, Tenzing?"

He said he didn't like it at all,

thought it was
decidedly dangerous,

Then I said,
"Well, what do you think?

"Do you think we should go on?"

And he said, "Just as you like,"

We climbed up it with a good deal
of fear and trepidation,

I think this is the first time
I've ever had to make a decision

as to whether something
was justifiable or not,

decided it wasn't justifiable,
but we still went on,

DOUGLAS: You 're right on the edge
of what's possible

and every step you take is
putting you more into danger,

so the temptation to turn round
and go down is strong,

EDMUND HILLARY: I'm frightened
a great deal of the time

when I'm in dangerous country,

But I think being afraid
is one of the important factors,

It's a stimulating factor,

Of course, if you just get
petrified with fear,

then it would be hopeless,

PETER HILLARY: The crux of it is
whether or not you 're gonna survive,

You know,
none of that is guaranteed,

If anything goes wrong up there,

even a relatively minor accident

can very rapidly slide
into a fatal one,

EDMUND HILLARY: It was a great relief

when we reached
the South Summit at 9am,

Oxygen was running short,

so we wasted no time
and set off along the ridge,

But we were moving slowly
and time was against us,

PETER HILLARY: Evans and Bourdillon
had gone to the South Summit

and had had reservations
about the route ahead,

Evans had pointed out that there was
a very difficult knife-edged ridge,

It's serrated,

it's got these just horrifying drops
on both sides,

They must've had concerns about
whether or not they could climb it,

VENABLES:
On the left you 've got

the immense Southwest Face
of Everest,

and if you fell down that,

you 'd probably fall all the way
back down to the Western Cwm,

8,000 feet below,

And then to your right
is the even bigger precipice

of the Kangshung Face,

and that really concentrates
the mind,

EDMUND HILLARY:
For the mountaineer,

the thought of the process of dying

is more unpleasant

than the actual fact that
you may be dead at the end of it,

HUNT: In the meantime,
watching from below down at Camp 4,

we were all waiting most anxiously,

BAND: Obviously we'd hoped
to have our little walkie-talkies going

right up to at least the South Col,

but the one that was taken
to the South Col didn't work,

So in fact we realised
we wouldn't actually know

whether Hillary and Tenzing
had been successful

until they actually came down
and told us,

PETER HILLARY: No-one had any idea
where they were, how they were going,

would they be successful,
or, indeed, would they come back?

(SNOW CRUNCHES)

EDMUND HILLARY:
Our oxygen equipment

was not all that sophisticated,

It only had a pressure gauge on it,

so I never really knew
just how much oxygen still remained,

My brain was working
fairly energetically

working out
just how much time we had left,

HACKETT: One of the problems
with extreme altitude climbing

is failure of oxygen systems,

And people die on a regular basis
when their oxygen packs up,

DOUGLAS: And then
there's a bit of a problem,

Tenzing is really struggling,

where before he was
following Hillary quite nicely,

EDMUND HILLARY: I suddenly noticed

that Tenzing seemed to be
in some distress,

And when I looked at him closely,

I saw that he was breathing
very quickly indeed,

I immediately examined
his oxygen set

and found that the outlet
from his oxygen mask

was almost completely
blocked up with ice,

Fortunately I was able
to release this ice,

DOUGLAS: Because
you 're suddenly hypoxic

and you 're not
thinking straight,

you may not immediately think,

"Oh, this is because my oxygen
equipment isn't working right,"

You just think, "Oh, my God,
I'm incredibly tired all of a sudden,"

VENABLES: You have this strange,
slightly surreal blur

of images and thoughts and ideas
going through your head,

So you have to watch yourself
and watch each other very closely,

EDMUND HILLARY:
Well, after about an hour

we had made quite a distance
along the ridge,

and then we came to a rock bluff

which barred the way
along the ridge,

Now, I really thought that perhaps
this was as far as we were going,

I took photographs

because the actual rock itself
was very steep

and we knew that it could stop us,

PETER HILLARY:
Was that step even climbable?

And was it climbable
at 29,000 feet?

No-one had ever gone there before,

WHITTAKER: It's a hell of a step,

You look at that and you think,
"Oh, my God, What a decision,"

But Sir Ed took the gamble
and thought,

"What the hell,
I'm gonna go for it,"

EDMUND HILLARY: The only way
to climb it seemed to me a crack

where the ice was
sticking to the rock,

and I wasn't at all sure
that the ice would remain in place

when I was wriggling my way up,

I was scared stiff,

VENABLES: He just set forth
up this nearly vertical step

and wedged himself in this chimney
more or less with his feet,

his cramponed feet pressing
against the rocks on the left

and his back pushing out
against the snow on the right,

and just hoping
the snow wouldn't give way

and catapult him 11,000 feet
down the Kangshung Face,

Because it's doubtful whether
Norgay could've held him on the rope

if he'd come off,

(ROCKS TUMBLE)

PETER HILLARY:
Little slabs were breaking off

and Dad was not really
enjoying the conditions,

You know, if he was back
in the Southern Alps,

he'd probably turn around
and try it another day,

And then, um, that little
internal voice going,

"Ed, my boy, this is Everest,

"You 've got to go
the extra distance,"

EDMUND HILLARY: By jamming back
on the ice with my crampons,

or ice spikes on my boots,

and scrambling on the rock in front,

I was able to wriggle and push my way
up the crack and onto the top,

After recovering my breath,
I took the rope in

and, with many a heave,

and old Tenzing wriggling
and scrambling the same,

got him onto the top
of the rock too,

VENABLES: There are times in life,
you know,

when you have to be
bold and decisive,

So much hung on Hillary's ability
to pull out all the stops,

and he was able to give it
that little extra,

CONEFRE Y: When Hunt had to
go down from the South Col

he turned to Ed and he said,

"Look, you know,
this is our last chance,

"You 're carrying a lot
of people's hopes on your back,"

WESTMACOTT: What would we do
if they failed?

Because that was a feeling,
particularly in John Hunt's mind,

I don't think anybody dared
express an opinion,

EDMUND HILLARY: We continued on

and we were getting distinctly tired
and rather desperate,

for the summit seemed to be
continually eluding us,

VENABLES: Beyond the Hillary Step,

it's still a fair distance horizontally
to the summit

and you 're going over
three or four broad hummocks,

And as you get to the crest
of one of these hummocks,

there's another one beyond,

and you think, "Is this ridge
ever gonna end?"

DAVID SHLIM: There's just
certain human beings

able to put one foot
in front of the other,

you know, relentlessly,
psychologically able to do it,

whereas other people would fail,

EDMUND HILLARY: We cut steps
along the top, round bump after bump,

keeping looking for the top,

And finally we actually reached
the summit itself,

(STIRRING MUSIC BUILDS)

I looked at Tenzing,

and even underneath his oxygen mask
and balaclava

I could see his infectious grin
of sheer pleasure,

We shook hands,

To Tenzing this was not enough,

And we thumped each other
on the back

until we had no breath left,

I glanced at my watch,
It was 11:30,

(STIRRING MUSIC CONTINUES)

On top we only spent
quarter of an hour,

We were conscious all the time
that our oxygen was running short

and that we had no time to waste
and we must get down again,

I took my oxygen off
in order to take photographs,

Tenzing dug a little hole
in the snow

and in that he put
a gift to the gods,

Had a good look round at the view,

and also I took photographs

down all the main ridges
of the mountain

just to have some proof
that we'd been on top,

And photographed Tenzing waving his
ice axe with four flags tied to it,

It was a tremendous moment
for both of us,

(STIRRING MUSIC CONTINUES)

(STIRRING MUSIC CONTINUES)

('ONLY TO BE' B Y SIX 60 PLAYS)

♪ Only to be

♪ I live in expectancy

♪ No wonder it feels

♪ Like this wasn't meant for me

♪ But, girl, my mind is
so confined

♪ That there ain't no point
in reasoning

♪ Now that it's clear to see

♪ It was all in front of me

♪ And I'm right where
I'm supposed to be

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ I'm left just turning pages

♪ Mmm

♪ Yeah

♪ Well, I know
that it's worth the ride

♪ Ain't it good to be alive?

♪ So what will it be?

♪ My dreams or my company

♪ To lose what is me

♪ Or follow the path I see

♪ Boy, my mind is so confined

♪ That I don't even know
where to begin

♪ But it took me so long to find

♪ That I could leave it all behind

♪ 'Cause I've got
everything I'd ever need

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ I'm left just turning pages

♪ Mmm

♪ Yeah

♪ Well, I know
that it's worth the ride

♪ Ain't it good to be alive?

♪ 'Cause only to be

♪ Was all that you got from me

♪ You told me it's real

♪ And nothing comes easily

♪ 'Cause that was the truth

♪ I was losing all my youth

♪ To a world
that's fit for someone else

♪ Yeah

♪ I'll live just turning pages

♪ Mmm

♪ Yeah

♪ Well, I know
that it's worth the ride

♪ Oh, whoa, whoa

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ I'm left just turning pages

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ Yeah

♪ But I know it was worth the ride

♪ Ain't it good to be alive?

♪ Alive

♪ Ain't it good to be alive?

♪ Alive, ♪

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