Peter Hillary, while celebrating the achievements of the Himalayan Foundation over 40 years, recognizes the terrible contradiction that remains between the hard-core trekker's pursuit of an idyllic life in nature, and the desire to improve life for the Nepalese, whose existence lacks much that we take for granted.
"Part of our success has been because we have focused on a small area, one that we know very well," Peter Hillary said. Ask why the Trust, given its success, has not extended its operations to other parts of Nepal, and one is quickly brought up against the intimate nature of its basic conception. In a sense it is almost a family relationship, one expressed in the friendship that has developed between Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay, who carry on a dream first envisaged by their fathers.
Adding to the themes of fathers and sons, the expedition covered in Surviving Everest also includes Brent Bishop, the son of Barry Bishop, who was part of the first American expedition to the summit of Everest in 1963. Like Hillary and Jamling Norgay, he is also heavily involved in environmental work in the Kumbu region, having led a number of important cleanup expeditions both to Everest and to the Boltoro region of Pakistan, collecting rubbish that has been left by decades of mountaineers.
The new program, Surviving Everest raises -- without answering -- many questions, providing an opportunity to think about the many conflicting issues concerning Western assistance for developing countries.
What is heartening, and another element that has made Nepal such a haven for people seeking something other than the Western norm, is how something as mundane as geography can create faith -- the kind of faith that may even change the world.
It was a simple thing that created the Himalayan Foundation: a lyrical phrase by a captain of porters, speaking to Edmund Hillary: "Our children have eyes but they cannot see," spoken during one of the many long nights spent at the base of Everest.
Now the foundation supports 42 schools, providing the basics of education and medical facilities for one of the world's poorest regions.
Surviving Everest will premiere on April 27 at 8pm. It will be followed by a weekly series of programs on Everest. The new program will be repeated on May 29, the actual date of the 50th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's conquest of the Everest summit.
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