On 60th anniversary, Peter Jackson remembers his Everest scoop

The tale has been told many times and today - 60th anniversary of the conquest of Everest - it was told again: how Peter Jackson, Reuters correspondent on the mountain, scooped the world with exclusive interviews and photographs from the 1953 climb.

Jackson, now 87 and living in London, brought out cardboard boxes of photos, some of them never published until today. Several of the pictures show his long and arduous journey across the Himalayan ranges towards Everest to cover the story. He needed 11 porters to carry his equipment and supplies - one just to carry a heavy box of coins because the hill people did not use paper money, and another to carry a portable radio and spare batteries.

Everest was the ultimate climb and reporters were desperate to break the news first. But The Times sponsored the expedition and had exclusive access to the climbers. It was Jackson, however, who got the interviews and photographs of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

At the Thyangboche Monastery in Nepal, monks looked after him while he waited for news. It was agonising not knowing what was happening to the climbers, he told the BBC. “I sat out under the sun with a wonderful view of Everest but not learning a thing because the Times insisted on not telling anyone,” he said. Two weeks later, a messenger raced through the monastery with an urgent despatch.

Jackson discovered the runner had been offered 200 rupees to get to Kathmandu in six days and he suspected the mountain may have been climbed. He trekked down to the small town of Namche Bazar where an Indian police officer manning communications let him see the message. It was from the expedition leader, Colonel John Hunt. “It said, ‘snow conditions bad, advance base abandoned, yesterday’,” Jackson recalled. “The policeman said I could send a message as well but I didn’t. I knew it must be wrong as I thought they had got to the top.”

Jackson’s hunch had been correct - the message had been sent out in a pre-arranged code. “Snow conditions bad” meant Hillary, and “advance base abandoned” meant Tenzing.The Times reporter, James (now Jan) Morris, had not taken photographs and was rushing to Kathmandu to file the story.

Jackson waited for the climbers to come down to the monastery and was thrilled to be able to meet them. There were no other journalists in this remote place, and it was there he interviewed them and took the iconic picture of Hillary and Tenzing smiling at each other. “Hillary said to me, ‘I feel very happy, I feel bloody good’. I changed it to ‘damn good’ as they wouldn’t have printed it otherwise. Tenzing said he was happy but not tired... and having attempted the Everest climb seven times, he said he wouldn’t do it again.”

Jackson spent the night with the team and then followed them down to Kathmandu, taking more pictures. The expedition included an official photographer, but his work was published after the team got home. Jackson’s work was splashed first across the Sunday Express and then newspapers all over the world.

Soon afterwards he received a telegram from Morris. It said: “Ed Hillary and I send our warm congratulations. Here’s to our next adventure!”

PHOTO: Peter Jackson, then aged 27, trekking through the ranges near Mount Everest in 1953.

Peter Jackson tells the BBC about his Everest scoop ■