Here's your incredible friendship story of the day:
In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first two people to ever summit the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Before the commercialised hiking expeditions of the 21st century, Hillary and Norgay had to make the climb without a pre-fixed route, discovering their own path to the top (one of which later became known as the Hillary Step in the Everest climbing trail).
The pair did not know each other well beforehand but met through their mountaneering peers. Norgay (a sherpa, Himalayan locals well-known for their mountaneering prowess) apparently made a lasting first impression on Hillary due to his incredible mountaneering skills, patience, complete with his "flashing, irresistible smile".
In one ocassion during their few earlier expeditions together, Hillary stepped on a crumbling ice and almost fell to his death before Norgay saved his life. This made him determined to ask Norgay to be his partner for his Everest Summit expedition.
Amongst other members of the expedition, their pairing became the first one who were successful, reaching the highest point on Earth at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953.
At the top, Hillary hilarously recalled extending his hand to shake Tenzing's hand in "a good Anglo-Saxon fashion," but his Nepalese-Indian friend jumped him on the back and gave him a massive hug instead. As he said, it was the “great moment for which I had waited all my life, [...] I waved my arms in the air and then threw them around Hillary, and we thumped each other on the back until, even with the oxygen, we were almost breathless!”.
But beyond this monumental achievement, the gentlemen's agreement they made at the top was perhaps an equally impressive commitment.
Being the only people in the world who were present, Norgay and Hillary made a promise to present their a success as a joint effort. Both countrymen were under international pressure to divulge who was actually the first to step foot on the summit. Despite the rising colonial tension at the times, both Norgay and Hillary refused to say anything other than they reached the summit together as a team, carrying the secret to their deathbeds.
After Everest, Hillary devoted his life to assisting the overlooked sherpa people of Nepal. He established the Himalayan Trust, constructing many schools and hospitals in Nepal. Norgay continued to climb mountains all over the world for the rest of his life and died in his beloved Himalayas.
Hillary and Norgay remained lifelong friends, bonded for life. When Tenzing Norgay died in India in 1986, the country was in a massive political turmoil and all the streets in Darjeeling were closed due to confrontations with Nepalese separatists.
Edmund Hillary was the only foreigner allowed to enter the region, as reporters recounted how protesters parted ways to enable him to pay respects to his old friend.
In 2003, their sons Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay climbed Everest together, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their fathers' memorable climb that changed the world forever.
