Only someone who has tried to climb a formidable mountain knows what it takes to make it to the top. For 32 years, between 1920 and 1952, seven major expeditions tried—and failed—to make it to the top of Mount Everest. Tenzing Norgay, a *Sherpa born in the high altitudes of Nepal, was on six of those expeditions, as well as many other high climbs to other mountains. He became respected, and he learned a lot. The greatest lesson was that no one should underestimate the difficulty of the climb. He had seen people do it at the ultimate cost to themselves.
In 1953, Norgay embarked on his fifth expedition to Everest with a British group led by Colonel John Hunt. By then, he was respected not only as a porter who could carry heavy loads at high altitudes, but also as a mountaineer and a full-fledged expedition member, an honor unusual at that time for a Sherpa.
Tenzing was also engaged to be the British group's Sirdar for the trip, the Sherpa leader who would hire, organize, and lead the porters for the journey. This was no small task. To hope to get just two people from base camp up to the summit, the team brought ten high-altitude climbers, including a New Zealander named Edmund Hillary. Altogether, the men would require two and a half tons of equipment and food. Those supplies couldn't be trucked or airlifted to the base of the mountain. They had to be delivered to Katmandu and carried on the backs of men and women 180 miles up and down Himalayan ridges and over rivers crossed by narrow rope-and-plank bridges to the base camp. Tenzing would have to hire between two and three hundred people just to get the supplies in the vicinity of the mountain.
Supplies needed by the party above the base camp would have to be carried up the mountain by another 40 porters, each a Sherpa with extensive mountain experience. The best third of that team would continue working higher up the mountain, carrying up the 750 pounds of necessary equipment in 30-pound loads. Only Tenzing and three other porters would have the strength and skill to go to the high camps near the summit.
For each level that the climbers reached, a higher degree of teamwork was required. One set of men would exhaust themselves just to get equipment up the mountain for the next group. Two-man teams would work their way up the mountain, finding a path, cutting steps, securing ropes. And then they would be finished, having spent themselves to make the next leg of the climb possible for another team. Of the teamwork involved, Tenzing remarked,
“You do not climb a mountain like Everest by trying to race ahead on your own, or by competing with your comrades. You do it slowly and carefully, by unselfish teamwork. Certainly I wanted to reach the top myself; it was the thing I had dreamed of all my life. But if the lot fell to someone else I would take it like a man, and not a crybaby. For that is the mountain way.”
The team of climbers, using the "mountain way," ultimately made it possible for two pairs to make an attempt at reaching the summit. The first consisted of Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans. When they tried and failed, the other team got its chance. That team consisted of Tenzing and Edmund Hillary. Tenzing wrote of the first team:“They were worn out with exhaustion, and, of course, terribly disappointed that they had not reached the summit themselves. But still … they did everything they could to advise and help us. And I thought, Yes, that is how it is on a mountain. That is how a mountain makes men great. For where would Hillary and I have been without the others? Without the climbers who had made the route and the Sherpas who had carried the loads? Without [those many] who had cleared the way ahead and who were there only to help us? It was only because of the work and sacrifice of all of them that we were now to have our chance at the top.”
They made the most of their chance. On May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary accomplished what no other human being ever had: They stood on the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak!
Could Tenzing and Hillary have made it alone? The answer is no. Could they have made it without a great team? Again, the answer is no. Why? Because as the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. That's the Law of Mount Everest
(The Sherpa (Tibetan:ཤར་པ། "eastern people", from shar "east" + pa "people") are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300-400 years.
The term sherpa is also used to refer to local people, typically men, who are employed as guides for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, particularly Mt. Everest. They are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain, as well as having good physical endurance and resilience to high altitude conditions. However, a sherpa is not necessarily a member of the Sherpa ethnic group.)
Sobre Homens e Montanhas
Curto é o tempo de vida que te resta. Vive como se estivesses numa montanha.
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180 DC, Meditações)
As montanhas sempre estarão onde estão. O negócio é você também estar lá.
- Hervey Voge, montanhista americano do século 20.
Não é possível ficar no cume para sempre. Cedo ou tarde, terá que descer. Então, por que se dar o trabalho? É simples: Quem está em cima, conhece o que está em baixo, mas o que está em baixo não sabe o que tem lá em cima. Quem escala, vê. Quem desce, deixa de ver, mas já viu. É a arte de se conduzir nas regiões mais baixas pela lembrança do que viu nas terras altas. E quando não for possível mais ver, ainda será possível saber.
Rene Daumal (1908-1944), escritor, filósofo e poeta francês
Se a conquista de um pico grandioso traz momentos de júbilo e felicidade, aos quais em nada se compara a existência monótona e materialista dos tempos modernos, traz consigo grandes perigos. Correr riscos não é a meta dos grandes alpinistas, mas um dos testes que tem de passar o
merecedor da alegria de se erguer por um momento acima dos vermes rastejantes. Nesta bela e soberba montanha, vivemos horas de nobreza fraternal, amiga e magnífica. Aqui, por alguns poucos dias, deixamos de ser escravos e nos tornamos homens de verdade. É difícil voltar à servidão.
- Lionel Terray (1921-1965), montanhista francês
Se você não consegue entender que existe algo no homem que responde ao chamado desta montanha e ao qual ele sai para atender, que a luta é a própria luta da vida para subir e sempre subir, então não entenderá por que escalamos. O que ganhamos com essa aventura é alegria pura. E a alegria é, afinal, a razão da vida. Não vivemos para comer e ganhar dinheiro. Comemos e ganhamos dinheiro para desfrutar a vida. É isso o que a vida significa e a razão da própria existência.
- George Leigh Mallory (1886-1924), montanhista inglês
Na montanha, as pessoas se tornam melhores. Você fica mais perto de Deus e do paraíso.
- Ulrich Inderbinen, guia de montanha suíço, aos 103 anos de idade.
Se você for escalar uma montanha, precisa realmente considerar que vale a pena morrer por ela! Qualquer montanha - a montanha desta vida, a montanha das realizações, a montanha dos obstáculos e das dificuldades. Se a for escalar, tem de valer a pena morrer por ela, enfrentar o vento, o frio e a tempestade, que simbolizam as adversidades. Mas no alto da montanha, sozinhos, sentimo-nos bem mais próximos do Senhor. Ali, a voz do Seu Espírito é tão alta que é quase como se estivesse trovejando! É fascinante!
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