Kanchha Sherpa: Last Link To Everest's First Summit

Kanchha Sherpa remembered the first Everest ascent as an arduous but ultimately joyous affair -- although he regretted that the glory had not been more equally shared among the team (Credit: AFP)

Kanchha Sherpa was the last surviving member of the 1953 expedition that saw Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa become the first to summit the world's highest mountain.

Born in 1933, Sherpa was 19 when he was engaged as a porter on the expedition, and climbed above 8,000 metres (26,200 feet) -- close to the peak -- with no prior mountaineering experience.