George Lowe dies at 89; climber was on Everest expedition with Hillary
After Sir Edmund Hillary's historic ascent of Mt. Everest, everyone knew Hillary's name. Far fewer knew about his indispensable partner, George Lowe.
Hillary and his friend Lowe were the only two New Zealanders on the 1953 expedition to the top of the world's highest peak. If they could have had their way, they would have trekked to the summit together, but a number of circumstances, including the politics of giving two non-Brits on a British-led team the prime roles, conspired to leave Lowe among the unsung.
Hillary and Lowe were almost cut off the team by expedition leader John Hunt. But Hunt reinstated them at the urging of the English climbers, who recognized that the New Zealanders' alpine skills were formidable. Both Hillary and Lowe led the way through the icefall. But it was Lowe, who wielded an ice ax with legendary skill, who cut the route up the daunting glacial wall known as the Lhotse Face. And it was Lowe who helped cut the steps to the final camp 1,000 feet below the mountain's summit on May 28, 1953.
The next day, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reached the 29,035-foot peak. When Hillary returned to camp, he met Lowe, walking toward him with soup and emergency oxygen. "Well, George," Hillary recalled saying, "we knocked the bastard off."
Lowe and Hillary "climbed together through life, really," said travel writer Jan Morris, who was part of the Everest expedition as a journalist. "And when it came to the point near the summit, George had to play a subsidiary role. He climbed very high, he climbed to top camp and said goodbye to Hillary, then helped him come down. He played a very important role."
Hillary often referred to Lowe in his autobiographies as a pillar of strength. "Calm and competent, he rode through the storm like a great ocean liner," Hillary wrote. "With his strong hand on the rope, I knew I couldn't fall far."
Almost 4,000 people have now successfully climbed Everest, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Assn., but that 1953 expedition remains one of the iconic moments of 20th-century adventure. Morris said she was now the only survivor of the 1953 group.
She said Lowe was "a gentleman in the old sense very kind, very forceful, thoughtful and also a true adventurer, an unusual combination."
George Lowe dies at 89; climber was on Everest expedition with Hillary - Los Angeles Times
"George Lowe on the wireless radio, with Edmund Hillary listening in alongside."
"Looking down into the Western Cwm from the Lhotse Face. The Southwest Ridge of Everest, Lhotse, and the long ridge of Nuptse form a cirque of high mountains that almost encloses a unique formation known as the Western Cwm." Photo: George Lowe, 1953
Mount Everest Expedition 1953