5. Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer, became one of the first two people to scale Mount Everest when he climbed it alongside British mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. While Sherpa is often believed to be a vocational term for mountaineers, it is actually the name of an ethnic group native to the mountains around Nepal, Bhutan, China, and India. The name comes from the Sherpa words for east and people, referring to their geographic location in the Himalayas.
Norgay began mountaineering in the 1930s, when British mountaineer Eric Shipton chose him, partly based on his warm, attractive smile, to accompany a British led expedition in 1933. He was part of several unsuccessful British attempts to scale Mount Everest throughout the 1930s and 40s. Norgay was named a sirdar, which is a term used among Sherpa mountaineers to denote a leader after he rescued another sirdar who had fallen and become injured on an expedition. Sir Edmund chose Norgay to accompany him on his successful Everest journey due to a previous climb where Norgay’s quick thinking saved him from falling into a crevasse.
It isn’t surprising that Eric Shipton noticed Norgay’s smile, as he had a broad, beaming grin with perfect bright white teeth. This is a feature that he maintained throughout his life, with later photos often showing his radiant smile.
