In 1953, Tenzing Norgay took part in
John Hunt's expedition; Tenzing had previously been to Everest six times (and Hunt three). A member of the team was
Edmund Hillary, who fell into a
crevasse but was saved from hitting the bottom by Norgay's prompt action in securing the rope using his ice axe, which led Hillary to consider him the climbing partner of choice for any future summit attempt. At the time, newspaper reports variously referred to him as Tensing, Tenzing, Tenzing Bhotia, Tenzing Norgay, Tensing Norkey, Tenzing Sherpa or Dan Shin, as one Indian academic suggested. The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362
porters, 20
Sherpa guides and of baggage, and like many such expeditions, was a team effort. The expedition set up
base camp in March 1953. Hillary wrote in 1975 about first meeting Norgay in Kathmandu on 5 March 1953: Working slowly, the expedition set up their penultimate camp at the
South Col, at . On 26 May,
Tom Bourdillon and
Charles Evans attempted the climb, but turned back when Evans' oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the
South Summit, coming within 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit. Hunt then directed Norgay and Hillary to go for the summit. Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with a support trio comprising Ang Nyima,
Alfred Gregory and
George Lowe. Norgay and Hillary pitched a tent at on 28 May while their support group returned down the mountain. On the following morning, Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent, wearing packs. The last part of the ascent comprised a rock face later named the "
Hillary Step". Hillary saw a means to wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice, and Norgay followed. From there, the following effort was relatively simple. They reached Everest's summit, the highest point on Earth, at 11:30 a.m. As Hillary put it, "A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top." greets Tenzing Norgay, . They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. Hillary took the famous photo of Norgay posing with his ice-axe, but since Norgay had never used a camera, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded. However, according to Norgay's autobiography
Man of Everest, Additional photos were taken looking down the mountain, in order to re-assure that they had made it to the top and to document that the ascent was not faked. The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow had covered their tracks, complicating the task of retracing their steps. The first person they met was Lowe, who had climbed up to meet them with hot soup. Afterwards, Norgay was met with great adulation in Nepal and India. Hillary and Hunt were
knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II, while Norgay received the
George Medal for his efforts on the expedition. It has been suggested that Indian prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru refused permission for Norgay to be knighted."Hillary was knighted for being the first known person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. But Tenzing, who simultaneously reached its summit, only received an honorary medal. In the years since there's been growing disquiet at the lack of official recognition." Norgay and Hillary were the first people to conclusively set foot on the summit of Mount Everest, but journalists were persistently repeating the question: "Which of the two men had the right to the glory of being the first one, and who was merely the second, the follower?" Colonel Hunt, the expedition leader, declared, "They reached it together, as a team." Norgay eventually ended the speculation by revealing that Hillary was first in his 1955 autobiography. It was ghost-written by American writer
James Ramsay Ullman as Tenzing could speak several languages but could not read or write. They were roped six feet apart, with most of the 30 foot rope in loops in his hand: ==After Everest==