One of the most triumphant images of human endeavour , Hillary ’ s photograph shows Tenzing posing on the summit of Everest shortly after the pair reached it at 11.30 a . m . on 29 May . ( Unlike Bourdillon and Evans , who went from the South Col in one push , they made an intermediary overnight camp at 27,600 feet .) Using a Kodak Retina II camera , Hillary shot three frames of Tenzing , who is brandishing an ice-axe bearing the �lags of Britain , Nepal and the United Nations . The image raises one immediate question : why is there no equivalent photograph of Hillary ? It is a question that Hillary was later to �ind embarrassing . Tenzing in fact offered to take the photograph but Hillary turned him down on the grounds that Tenzing , so Hillary believed , had never used a camera before and the summit of Everest was no place to teach him . Tenzing clearly felt that this was a patronising remark and took his revenge in his autobiography by saying he was surprised Hillary ’ s photographs turned out so well . When I questioned Hillary about this some 50 years later , he ruefully admitted that he had been ' probably a bit naïve ”. Another issue concerned who had reached the summit �irst . The two men had made a pact not to disclose the answer but after incessant questioning Tenzing eventually revealed it was Hillary .
Everest : From Reconnaissance To Summit ( two volumes ), edited by Peter Gillman , with introduc�on by Wade Davis and preface by Jan Morris , is published by the Folio Society (£ 199 ). Full details at www . foliosociety . com
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