Hillary's ashes near Everest

The ashes of Sir Edmund Hillary will be kept at a memorial near the mountain and not be scattered on the peak as he had desired, a Sherpa official said yesterday.

Sir Edmund, who climbed Mt Everest in 1953 with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, had wished that his ashes be scattered on the world's highest mountain and over Auckland's harbour.

But Ang Tenzing Sherpa, chief of a Sherpa citizens group, Khumbu Civil Society, said scattering the ashes on the mountain, considered God by the Sherpa community, would be against their culture and tradition.