Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain - well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.

Ever since the morning of May 29, 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and I became the first climbers to step onto the summit of Mount Everest, I've been called a great adventurer.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.