Wednesday, August 12, 1998

The Complete History Of Rolex Conquering Mount Everest [Part 8 of 8]


The Complete History
Rolex Conquers Mount Everest
[Part 8 0f 8]


Son's of Everest Return

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest, National Geographic filmed a documentary that featured Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay's son, Jamling Norgay.


Jamling, Norgay is pictured above lighting incense as a tribute to his father Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the 50th anniversary of their famous climb. Jamling is wearing a Rolex Pepsi GMT Master.


Jamling Norgay (pictured above) and Peter Hillary (pictured below) were interviewed on the Charlie Rose show about their return to Everest. Jamling and Peter had both already climbed to the summit of Mount Everest before the National Geographic special.


For the 50th Anniversary special, Peter Hillary climbed to the top of Everest for the second time in his life and using a satellite photo, called his father, Sir Edmund Hillary in New Zealand to tell him he had safely made it to the top.


Rolex was an official sponsor for the 50th anniversary climb and Peter Hillary can be seen in the photo above and below wearing his white dial Rolex Explorer II, which I am officially dubbing today as "The Peter Hillary Explorer."



The DVD from National Geographic




Legacy

Sir Edmund Hillary returned to Nepal, and he asked a Sherpa what he could do to help them. The Sherpa responded by saying, "Our children have eyes, but they cannot see."



From that point forward, Hillary dedicated his life to raising money to build schools and hospitals for the people of Nepal. He built a total of 20 schools and 4 hospitals. Hillary also got remarried years after his first wife died.

The photo below is of the Sir Edmund Hillary monument located at the base of one of his favorite peaks to climb named Aoraki / Mount Cook located in the South Island of New Zealand..

The image below is of the Tenzing Norgay monument, which is located at the base of Mount Everest.


Tenzing and Hillary remained lifelong friends. In Tenzing's later life he suffered from depression because he was extremely famous, but he had very little financial wealth. Tenzing passed away in 1986 at the age of 71.


Together, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay looked down upon the earth from a view nobody had ever seen before. Together they changed the world and will always be remembered as pioneering explorer's who conquered the unconquerable.

"Why make a fuss over something that's done anyway? I was never one to obsess about the past. To much to do in the future!" –Sir Edmund Hillary