The Tenzing Hillary Airport and International Mountain Day

The government of Nepal has recently enacted two new measures after the recent death of Sir Edmund Hillary on January 11, 2008. The first measure officially changed the name of the Lukla Airport, the closest terminal (if you want to call it that) to Mt. Everest, to the Tenzing Hillary Airport. The name change comes in memory of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and the contributions each of them had made to further Nepal’s development and promotion of tourism in the country.

The second measure enacted by the Nepali government concerns a new day of celebration. They have passed a motion to officially declare May 29–International Mountain Day–a celebration of the mountains and mountaineering in the Nepal/Himalayan region. May 29 is the official day that Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary first stepped upon the world’s highest peak way back in 1953

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay have both been a big influence in Nepal. Sir Hillary has been involved with numerous causes to help build schools and hospitals around Nepal as well as helping out Nepali communities try to turn their ecenomic cycles around. Tenzing Norgay Sherpa died in 1986.