Blues' victory lifts Sir Ed in Kathmandu

By TIM WATKIN in Kathmandu

Sir Edmund Hillary was in high spirits yesterday, recovered after ill health in India and thrilled at the Blues' Super 12 victory.

Sir Edmund was unwell when he arrived in Kathmandu on Friday and had to be taken from the airport in a wheelchair.

Lady June Hillary said he had been exhausted from the heat and public engagements in India and family friends said that he had drunk some unclean water. But on Saturday he went for a walk in the morning and watched the Super 12 final in the afternoon, local time, on a satellite channel.

An avid Blues fan, when asked in an interview with the Herald last month what motivates him, he replied, when the Auckland rugby team wins "I get very wound up".

On their way to dinner with friends involved in the Himalayan Trust, Sir Edmund smiled and waved, while Lady June said: "Ed's much better today. He's spot on."

Sir Edmund is visiting Nepal as part of celebrations of his ascent of Mt Everest 50 years ago this week with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

Yesterday he met the Himalayan Trust's advisory committee. Members had flown in from around the world for the meeting and anniversary events.

As he went into a meeting, he said he was feeling well rested after a quiet weekend in Kathmandu surrounded by family and friends.

Today he is resting before a procession through the streets of Kathmandu tomorrow.

He will ride in a horse-drawn carriage leading a parade of over 200 of the 1252 climbers who have reached the summit of Mt Everest in the years since his first ascent.

The trust has had its first annual meeting since Sir Edmund handed the reins to a Sherpa-led advisory committee last year.

The nine committee members now co-ordinating the trust's development work in Nepal's mountainous Solu-Khumbu region were all educated in Hillary-built schools, Sir Edmund said yesterday.

"We have decided that it's now time that all the executive activities in Nepal are carried out by our committee here.

"They're all very experienced and we know they're strong, honest people. We'll raise funds and so on overseas, but the work's going to be done by our Sherpa team and we think that's a great step forward."

Sir Edmund was delighted with the calibre of the committee members.

The committee is made up of eight men and one woman.

Chairman Ang Rita Sherpa said a self-determining committee finding Sherpa solutions to Sherpa problems had long been Sir Edmund's dream.

He said they were delighted to have appointed the first Sherpa doctor to work at the Khunde hospital.

They were also developing teacher-training programmes for Sherpa teachers, and while their success so far had been limited, the trust was committed to getting more Sherpa teachers into the region.