Climb your own Everest.
Not only did Jamling Tenzing Norgay make it to the top of the world’s most forbidding mountain - described by the Sherpa people as “The Mother Goddess of the World” - but he also helped capture it all on film.
As the Star of Director David Breashears Imax film Everest, Norgay helped to portray not only the physical challenges of the Mountain, but also the mental and spiritual challenges faced by the climbers.
Described as the “Titanic of Documentaries,” Everest has played to sold-out audiences across the country, capturing for the first time on large format film the breathtaking view from Everest’s summit. Filmed during the same spring that nine people on Everest died in a sudden storm, it depicts the selflessness exhibited by Norgay and his companions in risking their own lives to save their fellow climbers.
While filming on the mountain, Jamling thought often about his father, trying to imagine what he had gone through in the early days. ”It was much harder then,” Norgay said. “There was no route; he and (Hillary) didn’t even know if the summit was achievable. Many had failed.”
On his summit day, as the younger Norgay approached “The Balcony” (at 27,000 feet Hillary ‘s and his father’s last camp), Norgay looked for remnants -but of course, there was nothing but snow and ice.” I never felt so strong in my life. It was as if my father’s spirit was with me,” he says, describing his conditions as he inched closer to the top.” Just when I thought I’d never get there, I saw Ed Viesturs coming down and he said, ‘Hey, it’s right there”.
Norgay recalls feeling so happy that he cried. A Buddhist, he planted a lungta (prayer flag) and photos of the Dalai Lama and his late parents in the pristine summit snow. Then, just as his father had done 43 years earlier, he left a small toy of his daughter ‘s and struck “the pose” - the same dignified stance his father had assumed in 1953, which had etched an indelible image in the minds of the millions who had read about it afterward.
Current Work:
Norgay released his book Touching My Father’s Soul in the spring of 2001 in San Francisco, and it has been released in 18 languages since then. The story of his Father, told by Jamling, is enthralling. Few have heard it and even fewer know it. When Jamling was a child, Tenzing told his family ‘I climb so you do not have to’. Today, often asked if there are more big summits in his future, Jamling’s response is as simple as that of his father - ‘I promised my wife that after Everest, I would never climb again, I will not break my word’.
Today Norgay runs his adventure travel company “Tenzing Norgay Adventures” in Darjeeling, India and has been instrumental in bringing much needed social services to many of the more remote Himalayan villages.
A frequent speaker in the US and UK, Jamling is now coming to Australia for the first time, to tell us his story.
Talking Points
Touching My Father’s Soul - An Odyssey to the Top of Everest
Jamling uses expedition slides to illustrate not only the organization and dynamics of the IMAX Filming team’s Everest climb, but he explores the natural and human events that led to the loss of 8 climbers in one storm and 12 climbers over the season. The IMAX team responded to the tragedy skillfully and compassionately, by shifting gears and immediately dedicating all of their oxygen and resources to the rescue. Two weeks later, following intense soul searching, consultation with Jamling’s family priest and study of weather conditions, they reached the top with the IMAX camera. One seldom sees such a level of organization and team effort: to film from the summit required that 11 people reach the top along with the camera, while 40 others delivered supplies and provided critical backup.Touching My Father’s Soul - An Odyssey to the Top of Everest
Throughout, Jamling interweaves the little known story of his father’s historic first ascent in 1953, with Edmund Hillary, and shows how the mountain has changed in the past half-century - and how it hasn’t.
Video
Jamling Tenzing Norgay | Antarctica | Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic
Jamling Norgay's Story About Climbing Everest in the Footsteps of His Father
Jamling Norgay | Everest Trailer | Saxton Speakers
It was a great honour to meet you. All our guests enjoyed your wonderful presentation and your book is one of the best I've ever read. ... keep reading Fernbank
Your speech at the end of the event was the absolute high-point. It not only builds a new appreciation among the audience for the milestones you have achieved, but the way you portrayed it in such an elegant manner with such empathy that the entire partner community was uplifted and ready to take on the challenge. In closing the feedack from all the sales teams and the partner event was a resounding success.
Jamling proved an engaging and fluent Speaker. He held a large audience's attention throughout a talk of an hour or so on each occassion with a mixture of recollections of his father and a personal account of his experiences climbing Everest. I would recommend Jamling as a lecturer and very much enjoyed his company while he was with us in Hong Kong.
Your experiences, especially the challenges and hurdles, you went through during the expedition has given us all the encouragement that while it is 'difficult it's not impossible'. With strong insights and motivation that you shared with us we have completed an outstanding first quarter and are confident we will have a great year as well. Thanks for getting us to the top.
I would like to thank you for the inspired lecture you gave to our clients. Our mission statement, 'A Passion to Perform' was very thematic to your spectacular achievment of climbing Everest. Our clients thoroughly enjoyed the evening: thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us.
