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On May 29, 1953, at 11:30 a.m., two men stand on the highest point on Earth. Almost everyone knows the picture. Less well known is what lies beneath them: nine camps, weeks of groundwork and a summit attempt that ended three days earlier, about a hundred meters short of the goal. To understand the first ascent of Everest, you have to look at the mountain from below. An example of the Team Principle of Necessity.
More Than 400 People and 10,000 Pounds of Baggage
Situation
The 1953 British expedition is organized and funded by the Joint Himalayan Committee. It is led by Colonel John Hunt, who replaces Eric Shipton, a man opposed to large, competition-style expeditions. The team includes 14 climbers, plus the physiologist Griffith Pugh, the cameraman Tom Stobart and the reporter James Morris of The Times. Twenty Sherpas climb with them, led by their sirdar Tenzing Norgay; for him it is the sixth attempt on Everest. Another 362 porters haul in the baggage. In all, more than 400 people and some 10,000 pounds of equipment are on the move, about four and a half tons.
Connection to the team principle
The Team Principle of Necessity says: a team pays off only when the task is bigger than any one person. On Everest, this is a matter of physics. No one can haul weeks’ worth of tents, fuel, food and oxygen above 8,000 meters alone. The team is not an add-on to reaching the summit. It is the precondition for it.
Nine Camps to the Summit
Situation
The winter before, the team is already training in Snowdonia, in Wales, and testing the oxygen sets. On April 12, base camp is set up at 17,900 feet, about 5,450 meters. By May 17, Camps II to VII are in place. On May 21, Wilfrid Noyce and the Sherpa Annullu reach the South Col. Hunt plans several summit attempts, each with two climbers and two different oxygen systems.
Connection to the team principle
The bigger the task, the more a team pays off – on a mountain, you can take this literally. Every higher camp needs all the camps below it. The expedition resembles a pyramid: many at the bottom, few at the top. If you want the summit, you have to build the base. And Hunt does not bet on two heroes but on several attempts. He plans the team so that the goal does not hinge on two people.
May 26: Turning Back a Hundred Meters Below the Summit
Situation
The first summit team is Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans. On May 26, at 1 p.m., they reach the South Summit at 8,750 meters, about 100 meters below the main summit. Problems with an oxygen set and exhaustion force a decision. At 1:20 p.m. they turn back.
Connection to the team principle
The two get within about a hundred meters of the summit, yet hardly anyone knows their names. Their attempt is still part of the success: they pave the way for the second team. In a task bigger than any one person, even the abandoned attempt is part of the team’s achievement.
May 29, 11:30 a.m.
Situation
Three days later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set out from Camp IX at 6:30 a.m. At 9 a.m. they are on the South Summit, at 11:30 a.m. on the summit. On May 30, James Morris sends the news in code by runner to Namche Bazar. It reaches London on June 2, the morning of Elizabeth II’s coronation.
Connection to the team principle
The final climb takes five hours. Behind it lie weeks on the mountain and months of preparation before that. Even the news from the summit needs a team: a reporter, a code and a runner. The visible moment is short. The task behind it is long.
Who Gets Honored
Situation
Edmund Hillary and John Hunt are knighted. Tenzing Norgay receives the George Medal. The Coronation Medal goes to all 37 members of the team. Tom Stobart’s 1953 film “The Conquest of Everest” is nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Connection to the team principle
The honors differ, and the 362 porters do not appear in them at all; in the sources, most of the porters and Sherpas remain nameless. That is the blind spot of almost every team achievement. We tell the story through those who stood at the top. The principle calls for a second look: at everyone without whom no one would have stood at the top.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Draw your project as a pyramid. Who forms the base, who the camps in between, who goes for the summit? If one level is missing, the summit is missing.
- Plan more than one attempt. Don’t make your goal depend on two people and a single try.
- Count the attempt that turns back just short of the goal as a contribution. Ask: what did it give the next attempt?
- Practice beforehand and test the equipment before things get serious – with the whole team, not just those at the top.
- When you succeed, name the people at the base. Where you don’t know their names, learn them.
Summary
Two men stood on Everest in 1953; more than 400 people carried them up there: 14 climbers, 20 Sherpas, 362 porters and a handful of specialists. Nine camps, several planned attempts and a first summit team that turned back a hundred meters short of the goal are all part of this success. The expedition shows the Team Principle of Necessity in its purest form: a team pays off only when the task is bigger than any one person – and the bigger the task, the more it pays off.
Sources