Welcome to another one in the series One Day in the Life of … of people from all walks of life. If we live to be 80, we have lived around 29,200 days. We get to 10,000 days at the age of 27. So there are plenty of days for all kinds of things to happen. Something spectacular. Something life-changing. Or just a pretty ordinary day that still held something very memorable.

Anyway, Tenzing Norgay had a birthday coming. He was turning 39 on this particular day, Friday May 29th, 1953. It was to be a very special day for another man as well as Tenzing was to accompany him to new heights! To be quite precise, to 8,848 meters, i.e. 29,029 feet.

Tenzing Norway was of course the sherpa mountaineer who accompanied Edmund Hillary from New Zealand to the top of Mount Everest, which they reached at 11.30 am that memorable day.

Once they got there, they spent about 15 minutes at the summit. Edmund took a picture of Tenzing posing with his ice axe. Then Tenzing offered to take a picture of Edmund of course, but for some reason he declined, and just proceeded to take photographs looking down the mountain, in order to document that they really had made it to the top.

So the only “personal” photo taken at the top that day remained that of Tenzing Norgay. Later that year Edmund was knighted, and Tenzing awarded the George Medal by Queen Elizabeth II, this being a British expedition. Tenzing Norgay died 33 years later in Darjeeling, India at the age of 71. But his 39th birthday sure was a happy one!

PS. Can you think of any specific events that proved to be life-changing for you? This article series welcome personal stories, either of relatives long past, or living people who have consented their stories to be published. Either way, you are welcome to contact us, preferably with pictures included.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest