The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal is awarded every one or two years to an individual "for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions." The medal both recognizes the service of Sir Edmund Hillary on behalf of mountain people and their environment and also encourages the continuing emulation of his example. The Hillary Medal is a project of Mountain Legacy, a Nepalese non-governmental organization ; the president is biologist Kumar P. Mainali. The Hillary Medal was personally authorized by Sir Edmund in 2002, and ratified by the Namche Consensus, the declaration resulting from the 2003 Namche Conference: "People, Park, and Mountain Ecotourism." Hillary Medal presentations have taken place at various venues, including two in Tengboche, Nepal, ; two in Melbourne, Australia ; one in Khumjung, Nepal ; two in Kathmandu, Nepal ; and one in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The 2017 Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal was presented to Peruvian engineer César Portocarrero in Kathmandu, on December 11, 2016.
History
As a member of John Hunt's British Everest Expedition, Edmund Hillary earned international fame as a result of his achieving the first ascent of Mount Everest, along with Tenzing Norgay, in what Time magazine has characterized as "the last major earthly adventure and also the last great symbol of Empire." Reaching the "Top of the World" was one of a series of adventures that brought Hillary world attention; these included the ascent of ten other Himalayan peaks between 1956 and 1965, an expedition to find the yeti; and an expedition to the South Pole as a member of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1958, a jetboat expedition up the Ganges in 1977, and a flight to the North Pole along with Neil Armstrong in 1985. Starting in the 1960s, Sir Edmund undertook numerous small-scale development projects on behalf of the Sherpa communities of the Solu, Khumbu, Pharak and Rolwaling districts of eastern Nepal. Working with friends, family, and volunteers, Hillary built some 27 schools, 3 airstrips, 2 hospitals, and an indeterminate number of bridges, water supply systems, clinics, and other infrastructure. He founded the Himalayan Trust to facilitate fundraising, and this non-governmental organization was joined by Himalayan Trust UK, the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, the American Himalayan Foundation, the Hillary-Stiftung Deutschland, and other non-profit organizations. The idea for the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal came from the Nepal-based ecotourism and volunteer organization, Bridges: Projects in Rational Tourism Development, directed by Seth Sicroff. The award was conceived as a means of both honoring the humanitarian accomplishments of Sir Edmund and also encouraging their emulation by others. It was authorized by Sir Edmund himself in December 2002, and formally ratified by the Namche Consensus, the final declaration of the 2003 Namche Conference. The Nepalese NGO Mountain Legacy was founded to carry out the selection and presentation of Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medals.
