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$ADV 16
ADV Mon PMs Feb. 16
Tenzing Norgay 490 2 Takes 980
With Wirephoto
By PAUL FINCH
Associated Press Writer
    DARJEELING, West Bengal, India (AP) - Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who
coconquered Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, has been
training other mountaineers and trekking the Himalayas ever since.
    ''I first tried to climb Everest in 1936. After I finally did it I
gave it up,'' says the 63-year-old Tenzing, as he prefers to be
called. ''But for me the training of climbers, a trek sometimes as a
vacation, that is my life.''
    The first impression on meeting Tenzing is his ready and flashing
white smile. This writer joined a 19-member group in December for a
high-country trek with Tenzing as ''sirdar,'' the professional in
charge of Sherpa and Nepalese porters. After four weeks with Tenzing
the other strong impressions were his personal charm, sense of humor,
and physical condition.
    Tenzing was one of 13 children born to a peasant couple in a village
in Nepal. He left home as a boy, became famous, and lives now in this
8,500-foot hillside city, a traditional staging area for Everest
expeditions, as a citizen of India.
    ''I have also been to many countries, many mountains,'' said
Tenzing. ''Some day I want to see the Rockies of Colorado and climb in
them.''
    A peak in the Rockies might seem too easy for the conquerer of the
world's highest mountain. Everest is 29,028 feet; the higest peak in
the Rockies is Mt. Elbert at 14,431 feet.
    ''Indian people cannot leave the country with their own money,''
Tenzing added. ''I will need a sponsor to visit the Rockies.'' He has
climbed in the Alps and the Sierra of California.
    ''I tried to climb Everest six times before Hillary and I did it,''
he said one day on the trek. ''Once, when I was very young, a crazy
man from South Africa and I tried it by ourselves. We did pretty good
but we had to give up. We went up the Tibet side with no permission.
A lot of trouble. Crazy. I never saw him again.''
    More than 40 climbers - including members of an unsubstantiated
climb by Communist Chinese - have reached the top of Everest, but
Tenzing and Hillary were first nearly 23 years ago.
    Sherpas are a small tribe with no written language and a forgotten
history, but they are believed to be descended from Tibetans, whose
country was seized by Communist China in 1957.
    Few Sherpas rise above porter status to become full-fledged
climbers. Tenzing is the best known ''Tiger Sherpa,'' one who has
distinguished himself on a major climb, usually above the 25,000-foot
level.
    Tenzing is tall for a Sherpa, 5 foot 8, although photos showing him
next to Hillary after their victory 23 years ago make him appear
shorter next to the lanky New Zealander. He is a Buddhist who neither
smokes nor drinks. Some Sherpas drink ''chang,'' a home brew of
fermented rice, millet, or corn.
    He lives in a three-story hillside villa with his wife, four of his
six children, and 25 dogs. For most of the year, he works in an
office or a training camp near Everest in Nepal as director of field
training for the Indian government's Himalayan Mountaineering
Institute.
    More
    
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a096  0825  10 Feb 76
$ADV 16
ADV PMs Feb. 16
Tenzing Norgay Take 2 490
DARJEELING, West Bengal, India - Tenzing Norgay add: Institute.
    The institute, on sprawling hilly property a short jeep ride outside
of Darjeeling, is also the site of the museum on Himalayan climbers,
wildlife and culture. Darjeeling, with a view of Everest and
Kanchenjuga, at 28,146 feet the world's third highest mountain, is a
center for mountaineers as well as tea planters, general trade and
Indian tourism.
    ''Every year I train hundreds of Indians and Europeans to climb as
professionals or amateurs,'' said Tenzing. ''The Nepal government
charges too much now to have many Everest climbing permits and the
Tibet side is closed by China. But there are still many difficult
mountains that never have been climbed.''
    Tenzing likes to talk about a 1948 trip he took to Tibet, far north
of the ancient capital of Lhasa, while working for an Italian
scholar, Giuseppe Tucci, whose collections of ancient scrolls and holy
artifacts were sent to museums in Rome.
    Lhasa to a Buddhist is the most holy of locations, and Tenzing is
devout although, he said, he wishes that Buddhist monks would work as
well as pray.
    ''From Tucci I learned Italian, broken Italian. I also speak broken
French . . . and broken English,'' smiles Tenzing.
    At least once a year Tenzing is sirdar for a trek through the
Singalili Ridge of the Darjeeling District across the borders of Nepal
and Sikkim, last year annexed as the 22nd state of India.
    He is likely to wear tennis shoes or oxfords, a white cap, a sweater
or a windbreaker while Europeans or Americans on the trek might be
dressed for blizzards. On some treks he takes either his 10-year-old
son Jamling or his 13-year-old son Norbu.
    One night, around the campfire, he spoke of his climb with Hillary,
recalling how they had to thaw Hillary's boots over a stove flame
before making the final phase of their ascent.
    Tenzing does not like questions about which man actually put the
first foot on top but has said over the years that it was Hillary.
    Tenzing was asked about another Himalayan legend, the ''yeti,'' or
abominable snowman. ''I think it is a bear that people mix up with a
man,'' he said. ''I do not think it is a man. Sometimes our mountain
people like to tell stories.''
    For some of the trekkers on the high-country journey, the finest
moment was on the afternoon that Tenzing, usually a mild taskmaster,
especially after a 14-mile day, urged them to hurry up a hill at the
12,000-foot level near Sandakphu.
    Over the crest was the first close view of Everest, flanked by
Lhotse - 27,890 feet - and Malalu - 27,790 feet. To the south were the
five peaks of Kanchenjunga.
    They were white and towering, engraved against a flawless blue sky,
with a wisp of snow blowing from the tip of Everest, which in the
Sherpa language has a name that means ''mountain so high no bird can
fly over it.''
    ''I have never seen Everest from here with such good weather. A good
view,'' said Tenzing. Some thought he spoke wistfully.
    End Adv Mon PMs Feb. 16, sent Feb 10
    
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