PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP
Sir Edmund Hillary (C) waves to wellwishers during a felicitation ceremony for him in Kathmandu, 27 May 2003, as part of the Mt Everest Golden Jubilee Celebration. Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to scale the world's highest mountain, reaching the summit on 29 May 1953. At far (L) is Italian Reinhold Messner, Hillary's wife, June 3rd (R) and Japanese Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Everest (2nd R).