Another beautiful stamp that India post released a while back was one commemorating the 50 years of the ascent of the Everest.
One of the first serious attempts to climb the Everest was done by the great explorer George Mallory & Andrew Irvine in June 1924. The two never returned & it remained a great mystery till 1999 as to if they had indeed climbed the Everest before perishing. In 1999, the Mallory & Irvine research expedition finally found their bodies and it was established that the two had not been able to make it to the top.
It was much much later in 1953 that Tenzing & hillary finally made it to the top of Everest. Apparently they only stayed on top for about 15 minutes as they were low on oxygen and then made their way down again. They barely had time to bury a few sweets, plant a flag & click a few pictures.
As I have mentioned earlier, this type of a miniature sheet is my favourite where the stamp is only a part of the bigger picture. Every time I hold a miniature sheet like this, I feel like going in a corner & giving an evil snicker at all the suckers who got conned into buying the incomplete picture for the same cost. :)
One great site for people interested in this is the national geographic which has a neat page hosted for this occasion.
EDITED- 14.08.07
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All those who actually did read through this post till here, really must read the comment no 2 from Jake who actually was part of the Mallory & Irvine expedition of 1999. Thanks for dropping by & correcting me Jake!
3 comments:
Hello!
Great Blog on Indian stamps. I'll recommend it to my blog readers also. Please visit my blog, give some comments and lets exchange links. Thank you.
Thanks for the post and information about the stamp.
Just one correction, for the record. In 1999, we did find the remains of George Mallory at roughly 27,000 feet on Everest, as you state. However, our discovery did NOT establish that Mallory & Irvine did not reach the top. Actually, our discovery shed more light on their final climb, their final days and hours, but left eh mystery just that - a mystery. We still cannot say Mallory & Irvine did summit Everest in 1924, nor can we say they did not.
Thanks again for your post, and if your interested in reading more about Mallory and Irvine, please visit my blog at http://mountainworld.typepad.com or look at some of my photography at www.mountainworldproductions.com.
Have a great day!
-Jake Norton
Hi jose. Thanks for the comment. I have put up your link. :)
Jake: Wow! It really is great that you dropped by here. I stand corrected & will put up a note on the main post itself.
Also I think your blog is great. Cheers,
Velu
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