Hillary heads Everest anniversary parade

Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Gyalzen, one of three surviving Sherpas from the first Everest expedition, today led a parade through the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the world's tallest mountain.

Gyalzen, 85, climbed into a horse-drawn carriage with Sir Edmund, 83, and his wife, June, and placed yellow scarves around their necks.

They set off at the head of a procession of carriages bearing other famous Everest mountaineers, while a Gurkha army band played bagpipes and drums, and children waved flags.

"Today has been a fantastic celebration of the warmth of the people of Nepal," Sir Edmund told a cheering crowd that filled the square and the steps of several surrounding temples.

He said he spoke on behalf of all the mountaineers "who have climbed the great Everest".

The climbers were due to be honoured by Nepal's King Gyanendra and prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand on Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the day on which Sir Edmund and Sherpa Tenzing reached the summit.

Jamlin Norgay, son of the late Tenzing Norgay, who with Sir Edmund was the first to reach the 29,035ft summit on May 29 1953, described the parade as "an honour bestowed on my father and Hillary".

"It's a historic moment for Nepal. And I feel it's being done in the right way," said Mr Norgay, who reached the summit in 1996. He rode in the second carriage, with Junko Tabei from Japan, the first woman to climb Everest.

"More women have got to climb Everest now," Ms Tabei said, adding that only 5% of the 1,200 Everest summitters have been women.

"In the 1950s, it was very hard to get to the summit. These days everybody climbs. I thought the mountain may have become lower than it was before," Sherpa Gyalzen said.

He wore a cowboy hat and a medal issued by the Queen for those who participated in the first successful expedition. He said he had received the medal from Tenzing Norgay at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute where he taught mountain climbing, before his death in 1986.

Two-thirds of those who have climbed Everest in the past 50 years are believed to be still alive, but only about 100 have come to Nepal's week-long anniversary celebrations.

Some were on the mountain, meeting old friends, or trying to make new climbs. A sherpa named Appa, 42, made a record 13th climb yesterday, and more than 110 climbers and their sherpas have reached the summit during the anniversary climbing season, which ends on May 31.

At least 10 foreign climbers and 12 Nepalese sherpa guides scaled the mountain yesterday. In total, 137 people have reached the summit this month from the south face of the mountain in Nepal.