The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal

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Update

August 31, 2021

Dr. David Holmberg and Dr. Kathryn March have been selected to receive the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal, jointly, at a public event in Ithaca NY (USA) from 5 to 7 pm on 11 December 2021. The venue is Southside Community Center, and the event is free of charge and open to the public. More

July 1, 2021

We are currently accepting nominations (including self-nominations) for a Hillary Medal to be presented in Nepal on 29 May 2022. For more information, see our Nomination page.

October 29, 2019

Congratulations to Mountain Legacy President Dr. Kumar P. Mainali on joining the Conservation Innovation Center of Chesapeake Conservancy. Dr. Mainali assumes a position funded by a grant from the Grayce B. Kerr Fund. Mainali, a geospatial data scientist, holds a Ph.D. in ecology and M.S. in statistics, both from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the University of Maryland’s department of biology as a postdoctoral associate where he was advised by Bill Fagan, professor and chair of the department. His research career includes 31 projects in conservation biology, ecology, biogeography, climate change, human microbiome, animal behavior, and remote sensing. An expert in artificial intelligence (AI), Mainali's focus at Chesapeake Conservancy will be on accelerating the science behind their precision conservation data.

May 29, 2019

Mountain Legacy is pleased to announce that Pakistani national Didar Ali, a prominent Wakhi advocate and cultural preservationist, will accept the eleventh Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara, Nepal, on December 11, 2019, in conjunction with the Nepal Mountaineering Association's Mountain Festival and in observance of the United Nations' International Mountain Day. More

May 29, 2018

On the occasion of the 11th International Sagarmatha (Everest) Day observances, organized by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), NMA President Santa Bir Lama and Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal project director Dr. Seth Sicroff signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to the collaborative presentation of the next three Hillary Medals (2018-2020) at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara in conjunction with the NMA's annual Mountain Festival, timed to coincide with observance of the United Nations' International Mountain Day (December 11).

On the same occasion, President Lama and Dr. Sicroff announced that Dr. Daniel Mazur will receive the upcoming Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal. The SEHMLM will be presented to Dr. Mazur at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara on the occasion of the NMA's Mountain Festival, on December 11, the UN-designated International Mountain Day.

Mazur, who holds a PhD in Social Policy Analysis from the Heller School at Brandeis University, is one of the most successful Himalayan mountain climbers and expedition leaders in the history of the sport; his prolific achievements include seven ascents of Mount Everest and two of K2. But, as Sicroff noted in explaining Mazur's selection, he is being accorded the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal in recognition of his many years of work in numerous projects on behalf of mountain communities in Nepal and Central Asia. One project that the SEHMLM Selection Committee deemed particularly meritorious is the rehabilitation of Devoche Convent, in the Khumbu. (See Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nepal/Tibet.)This nunnery had long languished in the shadow of the world-famous Tengboche Monastery, and Mazur's work has not only alleviated the hardships of life at Devoche but also served as a reminder that gender equity issues persist even in the relatively enlightened Sherpa society. At the other end of the development spectrum, Dan has been developing waste-management technology to help clean up the Everest area.

Just as impactful as the projects undertaken at the personal initiative of Dr. Mazur is his recruitment and mentorship of other humanitarians to engage in their own projects; most of these were drawn into the work as a result of participation in expeditions organized by Dan's parallel enterprises, Summit Climbs and Summit Treks.

In announcing Dr. Mazur's selection, Sicroff emphasized the classic mountaineering values that Mazur has adhered to in his personal and commercial recreational climbs: respect for the mountains and for the communities that they sustain; comradeship, and absolute commitment to the safety and survival of all climbers, whether members and staff of his own team or participants in other expeditions; devotion to the conviction that adventure is essential to the physical, moral and spiritual welfare of all human beings, of all societies, and of the human species in general. In these respects, Dr. Mazur is a worthy steward of the legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary.

December 11, 2016 (International Mountain Day)

The eighth Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal was presented to Peruvian engineer César A. Portocarrero Rodríguez at the Hotel Tibet International in Boudhanath, Kathmandu.

Above left: Cesar Portocarrero, engineer. Above right: Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate

October 15, 2016

Hillary Model, Hillary Medal, an 87-page article by Dr. Seth Sicroff, explores the originality of the development assistance model established by Sir Edmund Hillary, and the relation between that model and the selection of recipients of the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal.

The article appears in Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate, recently published by the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Sciences (HimAAS). The volume is available on Amazon.com.

December 13, 2017

Dr. Johan Reinhard received the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal on December 11 (International Mountain Day) at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara, Nepal, as part of the fourth annual Mountain Festival. More

Above: Dr. Johan Reinhard on Lhotse during American Bicentennial Everest Expedition (photo courtesy of J. Reinhard)

Nominations for SEHML Medal now open

The twelfth Hillary Medal will be presented in Pokhara, Nepal, on a date as yet to be announced. Applicants must be willing to participate in the presentation event should they be selected. For more information, see our Nominations page.