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First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on June 3, 1953
British Party Conquers Everest-“All Well”
LONDON, June 2
(A A.P.).-“The Times” announced to-day that the British expedition last Friday reached the 29,000ft peak of Mount Everest, highest mountain in the world. The news was published in a special edition only a few hours before the Coronation, and was greeted by cheering multitudes in the streets.
“The Times” said that the news came in a cryptic radio flash from the expedition’s leader, Colonel H. J. C. Hunt, last night. The message said: “Hillary and Tensing climbed on May 29. All well.”
The news was taken by runner from the expedition’s base camp on Khumbu Glacier to the radio post at Namche Bazar and from there was transmitted to the British Embassy in Katmandu (Nepal) so that it could be sent by Diplomatic channels to London for the Queen to be informed on the eve of her Coronation.
The Queen received the news at Buckingham Palace last night.
Everest: The Crowning Glory (Editorial)
There could not have been a happier conjunction of events than the conquest of Everest and the Coronation. Brave men in the storied past would not have deemed their mightiest achievement a more fitting offering to lay before a young Queen, on her day of dedication, than this British victory over the last great obstacle of Nature. Small wonder that the news from the Himalayas thrilled the immense throngs in London not only as a dramatic adornment of the most royal of Royal occasions, but as a splendid augury that the skill, courage, and purpose of her Majesty’s peoples will make the second Elizabethan age a vivid reality.
The deed and the time were the better matched in that it was E. P. Hillary, a New Zealander in Colonel Hunt’s expedition, who scaled with a Sherpa hillman, Tensing, the last daunting slope to the top of Everest. But if the pride in a superb mountaineering feat, like the pride in the Monarchy so magnificently evinced yesterday, is shared by a far-ranging Commonwealth, the credit for this triumph stretches wider still. It is 32 years since the first Everest assault and all except two of the eleven attempts upon its 29,002ft peak have been British, but the knowledge of the mountaineer in all such calculated adventures rests upon the experience of great climbers in many countries, and not least upon the fine traditions of the Swiss.
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