Back in the early 20th century, the British Empire was still
ruling a large portion of the world. It was a very expensive operation as
British troops were needed in many places to keep the peace and World War I had
been very costly. Yet even with all of the expense they were always up to a new
challenge, mapping and exploring far away places and one of them was the
countries of Tibet and Nepal. In the early part of the 1920’s they made several
trips to this area, which remained mostly reclusive because of its vast
geography of mountains and glaciers. It was here that Mt. Everest was a big
part of the mystery. They had not seen or conquered it, so not only did they
map and photograph it; they actually made plans to climb it. The Brits had long
been interested and active in mountain climbing and had mastered most of the
Alpine peaks in Europe over the years. But here was a mountain that was many
thousands of feet higher then anything the Alps had, had to offer and it had remained
a mystery and unclimbed. Something the British thought was a challenge they
just couldn’t pass up. There were a lot of reasons not to climb to the top of
this peak but they ignored them. They just couldn’t pass this up.
Some of the most obvious reasons, not to climb this mountain,
were the unknown. How would people react to breathing air that was one-fourth
the oxygen level of what they were used to breathing? How would they cope with
the cold and winds that constantly swept the mountain? How would they react to
the mental challenges of being one wrong step from death for weeks at a time?
They were about to find out and a young man by the name of George Mallory would
spearhead their efforts. Mallory climbed on Everest three times before he was
killed in a fall along with his partner Sandy Irvine. So great were the risks
that his death was a death, he felt was inevitable, if he kept climbing there.
His mummified body was found in 1999 and it remains where it was found. After
his death the Brits kept trying to climb Everest but it was not until 1953 that
the mountain was first climbed to the summit, by a New Zealander, namely Sir
Edmund Hillary. The Brits have long argued that there was no conclusive
evidence that Mallory and his partner Irvine did not reach the top in 1924 and
were killed on the way down but the fact remains, that to be successful you
have to get down alive or at least have a photo of yourself, standing on the
top.
So where am I going with this history lesson? Just to say
that I so admire people who’s level of personal achievement in life means
taking risks to get there. Sometime in the future, people will blast out into
space to conquer what may be the only frontier left to explore. We have climbed
the tallest Mountain on earth and been to the deepest part of the seas. There
will always be risks associated with this kind of exploration and even to this
day climbing Mt. Everest is not without its perils, although clipping into a
rope and climbing up a well worn path today, just isn’t the same as having to
find your way. No one can control the weather and that is and always will be
the biggest problem. There wasn’t any pot of gold on top of Everest and there
won’t be one in space either. The only reward will be in conquering the
unknown. Sir Edmund Hillary said and I quote, “Its not the mountain we conquer, it is ourselves.”
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