00:00:04:03 - 00:00:33:16 Don George This year marks the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's highest peak, Mount Everest. This extraordinary accomplishment by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary on May 29th, 1953, captured the world's imagination. But the crowning achievement has been the enduring legacy of these two men whose lasting impact in the Everest region has changed countless people's lives, not only in the Himalayas but around the globe. 00:00:33:24 - 00:00:58:14 Don George I recently had the chance to sit down with Tenzing Norgay’s, son Norbu, who is the vice president of the American Himalayan Foundation. We talked about his father's legacy, the life-changing humanitarian projects that the AHF sponsors throughout the Himalayan region, and the long and deep relationship between the AHF and Geographic Expeditions. I hope you enjoy our conversation. 00:01:01:12 - 00:01:22:21 Don George Thank you, Norbu, for making time to sit down with me and talk. I'm really excited to be about to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest by your dad. I wanted to begin by asking you, as a child, growing up with your famous father, what did you understand about his accomplishment of summiting Everest? 00:01:22:22 - 00:01:28:09 Don George What did it mean to you then, and how did that understanding kind of evolve over time as you grew up? 00:01:28:13 - 00:01:49:16 Norbu Tenzing You know, my father had climbed Everest before I was born, which in a way, I guess is a good thing. And we know we grew up in a very normal household. But we definitely knew that there was something different about my father because we had a constant stream of visitors. But he was very patient. He was very humble. 00:01:49:17 - 00:02:15:01 Norbu Tenzing He really instilled this sense of treating everybody equally, respecting your elders. November of, this goes back many years, 1969. I was about to turn seven and he took me on my first trip to Everest base camp. It was not until then that I got a small sense of what he had accomplished. Looking at Everest, or Chomolungma as we call it, for the first time. 00:02:15:03 - 00:02:42:09 Norbu Tenzing I was really mesmerized by the beauty and the size and and along the way, the the respect and the adulation that I saw Sherpa people had for him to me showed how much he was admired. I came to America in 1988, 1981 to go to school, and I still didn't really grasp what a daring thing and what a son of a yak herder to aspire to climb Everest was. 00:02:42:21 - 00:03:01:10 Norbu Tenzing It wasn't until I met his Western counterparts that I started to get a sense of what he had really accomplished because, you know, he had been on Everest six times before he climbed on the seventh attempt. You know, now, 70 years later. The name Sherpa, for example, I mean, he is the one who put that name in the dictionary. 00:03:01:19 - 00:03:17:19 Norbu Tenzing Right. And and they say there couldn't have been two nicer to people to have summited Everest first, than my father and Hillary, you know, they came from such humble backgrounds and and, you know, the work they did afterwards is it was more important to them. Yeah. 00:03:18:06 - 00:03:39:19 Don George Yeah, exactly. And I think that's fascinating to me that in many ways, the real achievement for I think both of them was what they did afterwards. You know, it's a world changing and kind of mind boggling, certainly imagination captivating that they summited Everest. But can you talk about the legacy and how it relates to your own involvement. 00:03:40:06 - 00:04:08:22 Norbu Tenzing Well, you know, my my father, just like Ed Hillary, spent his life helping people afterwards. For him, it was the establishment of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute that produced opportunities for many Sherpas and adventurers from around the world to learn to climb safely to, to instill a sense of adventure. He cared deeply about the issues of risk inequity that continue to exist today. 00:04:08:22 - 00:04:36:00 Norbu Tenzing So this narrative of our uncle's taking off in the mountains and not coming back is real to us. And as recently as two weeks ago, the first casualties on Everest was my first cousin and my first cousin’s son. And so it hits home really hard. And so that's that issue has not changed. So that kind of shaped my thinking and belief in giving back. 00:04:36:00 - 00:04:40:17 Norbu Tenzing And I was very fortunate to join the AHF in 1993. 00:04:40:22 - 00:04:47:18 Don George That's a long that's a long time. Norbu But how did that first come about your relationship with AHF? 00:04:48:12 - 00:05:07:09 Norbu Tenzing There was a very important monastery the Tengboche Monastery up in the Everest region caught on fire. I was on the East Coast when my patron at the time was Lars Erik Lindblad. He brought me to America to go to school and he said, Hey, Norbu, I just read that Tengboche Monastery has burnt down and what should we do? 00:05:07:16 - 00:05:30:01 Norbu Tenzing And I said, Why don't you write a check to Richard Blum and the American Himalayan Foundation? And I flew over, and I gave Mr. Bluhm a check. We sat down, and he said, listen, you should consider moving here. Richard Blume invited me to join the board of the AHF. And so that's how I first became involved in what I thought would be a one or two year journey has now become a lifetime. 00:05:30:01 - 00:05:35:10 Norbu Tenzing And so I want to continue the work that we're doing and the impact that we are having. 00:05:35:10 - 00:05:42:23 Don George And that's fabulous. Can you talk about some of the programs that you're most proud of or that you think have had the biggest impact that AHF does? 00:05:43:05 - 00:06:00:22 Norbu Tenzing In Nepal, you can do a lot with very little. One of the programs we have, for example, is the Stop Girl Trafficking program. There are some 12,000 girls across 500 schools in Nepal that, you know, it's a preventative program that puts them in school for $100 a year. They go to government schools; we provide tuition, we provide mental support. 00:06:01:05 - 00:06:18:00 Norbu Tenzing There's a lot of education that goes. And so we go to the villages, talk to the community, the police, the families. And so that's one program. The project that is dear to my heart is the Disabled Children's Hospital, it is run by Dr. Bibek Banskota. It's good to see these kids getting surgery and the work that they're doing. 00:06:19:01 - 00:06:44:13 Don George It's really great. It's really inspiring, and your programs really run the gamut from, you know, restoring monasteries to absolutely affecting people's lives on a really individual level, changing their lives. You know, it's I get goosebumps kind of thinking about what you're doing. It's fantastic. And, you know, just thank you. Thank you for doing that; that's great work. 00:06:44:13 - 00:07:05:06 Don George And when I think about GeoEx and AHF, I remember Doctor Uprety came to our office to talk about the Stop Girl Trafficking program some years ago, and the work that she's doing is just extraordinary, and I know GeoEx has been supporting that for, I think, ten years now. 00:07:05:13 - 00:07:06:01 Norbu Tenzing Exactly. 00:07:06:10 - 00:07:13:03 Don George Yeah. And I know GeoEx has roots with AHF even back before that, in lots of ways. 00:07:13:03 - 00:07:13:11 Norbu Tenzing Yes, yes. 00:07:13:17 - 00:07:19:01 Don George Can you talk a little bit about just what the relationship with GeoEx means to you? 00:07:19:19 - 00:07:43:10 Norbu Tenzing Well, you know, GeoEx is one of these great partnerships that we've had over over time where, you know, you have this kind of responsible tourism where people come to this part of the world. A lot of times people make promises to the locals over here and don’t fulfill them, but GeoEx is really committed to making an impact in a part of the world that they work in. 00:07:43:11 - 00:08:12:08 Norbu Tenzing And so for these many years, and especially the last year, for example, we had a couple of groups that visited numerous AHF projects, and we have some more folks coming soon to visit the projects. And so, you know, the collaboration is getting even stronger, especially with the relationship with Peter Hillary. This year especially. I think GeoEx has been extremely helpful in being a part of this sort of “Join the Summit” campaign. 00:08:12:08 - 00:08:36:05 Norbu Tenzing You know, we thought the climbing of Everest 70 years ago was something that was celebrated around the world. You know, it was something that brought us all together. We have hoped to raise funds and awareness for the work that we're doing, especially up in the Everest area. And especially during COVID. You know, we've been there during COVID, and it's one of the things that AHF really does well is crisis response. 00:08:37:00 - 00:09:00:05 Norbu Tenzing And just to shift gears a little bit and whether it's COVID, where we provided 6 million meals to people in the region, up in the Khumbu, up in Mustang, up in the Terai, up in Kathmandu. During the earthquake, for example, we had all kinds of reconstruction projects, but we need to be there. We're ready to step up and do what's necessary and fill the void that others don't. 00:09:00:09 - 00:09:30:23 Don George Yeah, thank goodness you're there. I know in the last year, GeoEx celebrated its own 40th anniversary and we worked with you all to put together that Hidden Nepal trip, which takes people behind the scenes to see what you're doing and really celebrate your great work. That trip has been incredibly successful. We're continuing to do it, and I love that it introduces people not just to the culture and people of the region, but also to the work that you're doing to impact those cultures and those peoples. 00:09:31:07 - 00:09:56:22 Don George And now listening to you talk about you, Peter, Hillary, and you and us all working together as we approach the 70th anniversary of the summiting, it's just really a family feeling. It's like a family celebration, and we're all working together with one common goal to help preserve and sustain and help this incredible region. What's the best way for people to help you? 00:09:57:06 - 00:10:07:23 Norbu Tenzing Well, the best way for people to help us would be to go online and see our work and, you know, make a donation. 00:10:08:16 - 00:10:29:00 Don George Well, thanks. Norbu, thank you for taking the time to talk with me and to celebrate the great achievements of your father and the great achievements of you and of AHF, and the wonderful partnership that you have, that we have with you, and that you have with GeoEx. We're really, really honored to be able to work with you and help support the great work that you do. 00:10:29:00 - 00:10:29:23 Don George So thank you very much. 00:10:29:23 - 00:10:30:09 Norbu Tenzing Thank you.