Guide's son - Sherpas are unsung heroes of Everest

NEW DELHI, India -- It was, recalled Sir Edmund Hillary, like riding a runaway elevator down a tube of ice, plunging deep into the crevasse and wondering whether the rope would stop him before he met his death.

Fifty years have passed since the New Zealander and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the mountaineer at the other end of the rope, became the first men to scale 29,035-foot Mount Everest, but the story still enthralled the audience gathered in New Delhi on Tuesday to mark the anniversary.

Norgay and Hillary reached the summit on May 29, 1953. Tenzing Norgay died in 1986, but Hillary, 83, is taking part in commemorations in India, Nepal and Britain, which sponsored the 1953 expedition, and on Tuesday night nearly 100 climbers set out from base camp in Nepal to reach Everest's summit.

"The Sherpas are the unsung heroes of the mountain," said Jamling Tenzing Norgay, who reached Everest's summit in 1996 and now runs a mountaineering firm.

Sherpas must put up the ropes, carry supplies to camps high on the mountain and tote oxygen bottles for climbers who pay up to $65,000 each for a chance at reaching the top of Everest.

Paying customers will climb the 26,000-foot South Col only once -- but Sherpas make the trek an average of eight times per expedition, carrying supplies and fixing ropes and ladders.

When books are written by Everest adventurers, Norgay said, "sometimes they just say, 'There were five Sherpas.' It would be nice, with respect, to write their names and where they are from."

He noted there are few other job opportunities for Nepal's Sherpas.

"If they don't climb, they have to go back to farming potatoes," he said.

Apa Sherpa, who has the record for Everest climbs -- 12 -- is making his 13th attempt, but not for another record. "It's his work," said Norgay. Sherpas also hold the records for fastest climb, most time on the summit without oxygen, and youngest climber.

At the anniversary celebration, Hillary said: "Team work got Tenzing and me to the top of Everest."

Who actually was first to set foot on the peak? In Norgay's lifetime, neither man would say. But in his autobiography, published after Norgay's death, Hillary wrote it was he who was first.

That claim has reputedly caused bad blood with Norgay's family, but none of it was evident Tuesday as he and Norgay's son met and shook hands.