George Band, a Briton who was the youngest member of the first team to conquer Everest, recalls the friend he knew as “Ed”:

I first met Ed in March 1953, in the garden of the British Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, where the whole team first assembled for the expedition.

Two months later the team had done it. And in that time I first got to know a man whose life was remarkably rich, and who truly appreciated the Himalayas and the people who lived there.

We had been picked by the leader, John Hunt, as being potentially capable of getting to the summit. Some people had expressed doubts about my abilities – I was just 24, one of two who had never been to the Himalayas before. I had become a keen climber after three seasons of climbing in the Alps.

Ed stood out because he was one of two tall lean and lanky New Zealanders who had a real enthusiasm. I got to know him on the 17-day walk from Kathmandu to a monastery close to Everest. It was a delightful period. We were walking 10 or 15 miles a day. We learnt about Ed’s expertise with ice climbing. It was that expertise that proved so useful on the final few steps at the summit.

As we closed in on base camp, we all did different jobs in preparation. We joked that if you were not doing anything else you would assume “the Everest position”, which was lying flat in your tent waiting for a Sherpa to thrust a hot mug of tea into your hands.

In the early exploration, Ed and I were part of a four-man team chosen to choose a safe route up that treacherous ice fall that comes down the slopes of Everest. As Ed and Tenzing moved towards the summit, I was part of a group congregating at Camp 4. We had had a little walkie-talkie but at that high altitude they were not working properly.

We only finally heard of their success when the advance party came down and told us. They were only a few yards from the tent when George Lowe, the other New Zealander on the expedition, waved his thumb up. We Anglo-Saxons normally just shake hands. But on this occasion some people embraced. Ed and I shook hands and slapped each other on the back. Very happily, we went back to the tents and sat Ed and Tenzing down on a couple of packing cases to repeat, hour after hour, the details of the final climb.

Since then, I have met Ed at reunions every few years, and we have met at tours and lecture tours. Ed dedicated much of his work to helping fund schools and hospitals in Nepal.

Ed led an extraordinary life and was always willing to try something and work hard at it. Above all, he appreciated the work that he had done for the Sherpas and hoped that would be the main memorial to his life.

Mr Band was speaking to Rajeev Syal

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