Hillary's oxygen tank

Hillary & Tenzing's oxygen pack
Originally uploaded by eT le snap

In honour of tomorrow's 60th anniversary of the scaling of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953, here's a crucial piece of their expedition. The tank is part of the collection of the Science Museum in London, and was photographed on 23 March 2009. Interestingly, the Surveyor-General of India after whom the British named the mountain, Colonel Sir George Everest (1790-1866), actually pronounced his surname with the 'Eve' portion identical to the woman's name, rather than the pronunciation commonly in use, 'Ever-est'.