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CNN Live At Daybreak

Everest Anniversary

Aired May 27, 2003 - 05:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well the top of the world is becoming a very busy place. Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.
And as CNN's Satinder Bindra reports, the times and the mountain have changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set foot on this majestic mountain, it still beckons, still attracting adventurers who regard it as a frontier worth conquering.

Now as Nepal marks the 50th anniversary of Hillary and Norgay's climb, approximately 100 people have scaled Everest this week alone.

(on camera): These climbers are now Nepal's new heroes, people who are being publicly honored at such functions for their feats of stamina and endurance, for being the youngest, the fastest or even the oldest to climb Everest. One Nepalese, Aba Sherpa (ph), has just smashed his own record by reaching the top of the world's highest mountain for the 13th time.

(voice-over): For all the public affection showered on the new record breakers, tourists like Rheinhold Messner say many of them are no climbers, just clients of companies looking to market a mountain.

RHEINHOLD MESSNER, VETERAN CLIMBER: They get nothing from Mount Everest. You cannot buy the adventure. You cannot buy the experience you have up there.

BINDRA: Messner climbed Everest in 1978 becoming the first to summit without bottled oxygen. He also climbed alone, without a team of sherpas and without prepared ropes and ladders showing him the way.

MESSNER: So important that we encounter real mountains and not mountains in chase (ph).

BINDRA: One climber says he wants to be the first to climb Everest without shoes. Messner laments such efforts and complains tourists are building a highway to Everest, disrespecting the mountain he and Sir Edmund Hillary once matched their wits with.

MESSNER: This mountain is losing a place, losing power. And on the long term, it will not anymore attract people from outside. BINDRA: Messner wants the Nepalese government to restrict the number of climbers to Everest every year. Nepalese officials say they understand Messner's concerns, but there's no quick fix because climbers provide jobs and Nepal desperately needs the $50,000 each expedition pays as license fees.

Environmentalists are also concerned. Everest is becoming the world's highest dumping ground. This week alone, a Japanese climber removed tons of trash, including 51 discarded oxygen cylinders. Messner says he'll never climb such a mountain again because he believes that gods just don't dance there anymore.

Satinder Bindra, CNN, Katmandu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 27, 2003 - 05:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well the top of the world is becoming a very busy place. Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.
And as CNN's Satinder Bindra reports, the times and the mountain have changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set foot on this majestic mountain, it still beckons, still attracting adventurers who regard it as a frontier worth conquering.

Now as Nepal marks the 50th anniversary of Hillary and Norgay's climb, approximately 100 people have scaled Everest this week alone.

(on camera): These climbers are now Nepal's new heroes, people who are being publicly honored at such functions for their feats of stamina and endurance, for being the youngest, the fastest or even the oldest to climb Everest. One Nepalese, Aba Sherpa (ph), has just smashed his own record by reaching the top of the world's highest mountain for the 13th time.

(voice-over): For all the public affection showered on the new record breakers, tourists like Rheinhold Messner say many of them are no climbers, just clients of companies looking to market a mountain.

RHEINHOLD MESSNER, VETERAN CLIMBER: They get nothing from Mount Everest. You cannot buy the adventure. You cannot buy the experience you have up there.

BINDRA: Messner climbed Everest in 1978 becoming the first to summit without bottled oxygen. He also climbed alone, without a team of sherpas and without prepared ropes and ladders showing him the way.

MESSNER: So important that we encounter real mountains and not mountains in chase (ph).

BINDRA: One climber says he wants to be the first to climb Everest without shoes. Messner laments such efforts and complains tourists are building a highway to Everest, disrespecting the mountain he and Sir Edmund Hillary once matched their wits with.

MESSNER: This mountain is losing a place, losing power. And on the long term, it will not anymore attract people from outside. BINDRA: Messner wants the Nepalese government to restrict the number of climbers to Everest every year. Nepalese officials say they understand Messner's concerns, but there's no quick fix because climbers provide jobs and Nepal desperately needs the $50,000 each expedition pays as license fees.

Environmentalists are also concerned. Everest is becoming the world's highest dumping ground. This week alone, a Japanese climber removed tons of trash, including 51 discarded oxygen cylinders. Messner says he'll never climb such a mountain again because he believes that gods just don't dance there anymore.

Satinder Bindra, CNN, Katmandu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com