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Lord Hunt Dead at 88
"It was my ambition just as much as everybody else's in the party to be first at the top," Hunt said in 1978. But he didn't put himself on either of the two planned summit teams, believing instead that his role as a coordinating leader would be more crucial to the success of the team as a whole. He followed the first summit team in a supportive role, helped establish a high camp above the South Col, and cached gear that would prove essential to Hillary and Tenzing in their attempt. Though he had been climbing in the Alps since he was 15 and had made significant attempts in the Karakoram and Himalaya, Hunt was a surprising choice as leader of the '53 expedition, a role that was supposed to have gone to elite British climber and explorer Eric Shipton. But, the deciding body, called the Himalayan Committee, doubted Shipton would have the drive to force an ascent and Everest permits were hard to come by: the French had the one for 1954, and the Swiss, who had already nearly succeeded, were going back in 1955. "Only the first time counts," Everest author Walt Unsworth said of the pressures weighing on the Committee. Committee members knew though that the upcoming coronation of Queen Elizabeth would make a perfect platform from which to announce the first successful ascent of Everest. Thus the deal was clinched — this expedition had to be a success and they gave the job to Hunt, a kind yet determined army colonel with a reputation for getting things done. Though there were those in the climbing community who didn't believe Hunt was the man for the job, he carried out the monumental task of organizing the major expedition with a skill that even his detractors had to admire. A correspondent who accompanied the expedition described him as "authority and responsibility incarnate." In a letter to Hillary, who had been outraged at the loss of Shipton from the expedition, Hunt wrote, "you will, I am sure, agree with me that there is only one way of looking at it — we must go ahead with the planning with a firm determination to get to the top." Among the best known stories about Hunt is of his actions following the expedition's first failed summit attempt. The two climbers who had turned around at the South Summit (at 28,000', this was the highest anyone had ever climbed), returned to camp exhausted, one near collapse. They had to descend immediately, and as the leader, Hunt had to decide who would accompany them. Being a support climber for the first team and already having climbed on the upper mountain, Hunt would have been the natural choice, but that would have meant the end of any chance he would have for a summit attempt. In the only recorded instance of asserting his power unjustly, Hunt decided a support climber from the second team would accompany the climbers on the descent. The climber protested aggressively, but Hunt wouldn't budge. It wasn't until the climbers were packing to leave that Hunt reconsidered and chose to go down himself. Hillary later wrote, "I have never admired him more than for this difficult decision." Carrying 50 and 60lb packs on the upper mountain, Hillary and Tenzing made the historic ascent days later. Using the only communication source available to them, the expedition sent off a message from a public radio post in Namche Bazar: "Snow conditions bad..stop...advanced base abandoned yesterday...stop... awaiting improvement," which decoded to read, "Summit of Everest reached on 29 May by Hillary and Tenzing." As expected, several newspapers intercepted the message and reported on the failure of the expedition. On June 2, the queen's coronation day, The Times scooped the world with the summit story. Hunt had not only given Britain the summit of Everest but helped pull off a masterful coup in giving them full possession of the story. Hunt was knighted in 1953, retired from the army in 1956, and elevated to the House of Lords in 1966, taking the title Baron Hunt of Llanfairwaterdine. He has written a book about the 1953 expedition titled" The Ascent of Everest." Hunt is survived by his wife of 62 years and their four daughters. — Mountain Zone Staff
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