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Hillary arrives in Nepal to mark Everest golden jubilee
Kathmandu, May 23: A visibly tired Sir Edmund Hillary, confined to a wheelchair, arrived in Nepal Friday to be the guest of honour on the 50th anniversary of his conquest with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa of Mount Everest.
"But I'm happy to be back in Kathmandu."
While Hillary had appeared in good health in India, he
has been medically evacuated twice before out of Nepal.
The famed climber was driven immediately after arrival in Kathmandu to the office of the Hillary Himalayan trust, a charity he founded to help the Sherpas, a Nepalese mountain people who are the often forgotten keys to success in climbing expeditions.
One of them, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, climbed with Hillary on the historic expedition 50 years ago. He died of natural causes in 1986.
Hillary has raised money through the lecture circuit to
fund projects aimed at aiding the Sherpas, including a school
for Sherpa children and a hospital in the Mount Everest
region.
Some 15,000 Sherpas work in the mountaineering industry,
holding jobs ranging from cooks and kitchen staff to porters
and high-altitude guides.
Bureau Report