Mount Hillary

I was lucky enough to grow up a few miles away from the (Atlantic) Ocean. As a consequence, I love sea landscapes, walking along the shore, sailing on a boat, watching waves in a storm. Living in Geneva, I do miss all that of course, although I never lose an opportunity to enjoy the Ocean whenever I go back to my hometown. On the contrary, I've never been familiar with mountains: I was 10 when I saw them for the first time, and I had to wait 15 more years to get another chance! To exagerate a bit, the mountains were to me as boring as the sea is exciting: cold and immobile rocks. Huge indeed, but outside of time, forever boring.

Therefore it's not filled with excitement that I discovered my new region. But, as time goes by, I started to become acquainted with such funny neighbours. Of course, skiing almost every single weekend of these last winters certainly helped me to change my mind. Then, I discovered the beauty of these white and wild landscapes and soon realized that, rather than opposing vainly sea and moutains, I should see them as two heads of the same coin. And naturally, my attraction towards sailors turned into a fascination towards moutaineers. From amazing circumnavigations to exciting climbings of Himalayan peaks. Himalaya. I love this word. And what it means.

My interest in mountains has not only been triggered by skiing but also by various discussions with friends. I recall in particular one with David (remember it?), in a Tibetan restaurant (what else?!) in Seattle, a few years back from now. June 2003 to be precise. A week (and 50 years) before, a couple of guys, a sherpa and a kiwi, had just conquered Mount Everest. Precisely this kind of performances which make me dream. This is why I'm writing this post, just to tell you how sad I felt the other day when I heard on the radio that one of the two actors, Sir (thank you ma'am Liz) Edmund Hillary, 88, passed away. He finally joined Tenzing Norgay, his mate and friend on the roof of the World, on 29 May 1953. If you want to know more about that expedition, I can only recommend his book High Adventure (here on Amazon). The litterary style is not the best ever - after all Hillary is famous for his heroic mountaineering performance, not for his writing skills - but I find that book really thrilling, despite the fact I knew the happy end.

One last thing: Sir George Everest was a British surveyor and geographer, responsible for cartographying a sector of Northern India. His successor, Andrew Waugh, surveyed the highest mountain in the World and decided to name it after his predecessor. Of course, this name will never change and that's probably best like this. But these days, the only name which comes in my mind is Mount Hillary. Anyway, thank you so much Ed for this fantastic and pointless adventure. And thanks for this beautiful and surreal picture of Sherpa Tenzing.