A curious place this. The exterior looked promising enough - all stainless steel cladding and angular smoked glazing - presumably to mimic one of the nearby Himalayan peaks. Moments after entering though, it becomes obvious that they've been beholden to other hilly nations for the majority of their exhibits.
Fair enough, but unfortunately only a handful of countries have bothered sending anything in. So there's loads of stuff from minor league minnows such as Slovenia and absolutely nothing from Africa or North America. No reference to Kilimanjaro then, no Rockies and due to Franco-Italian apathy no mention of Mont Blanc either.
Japan had sent in some dodgy watercolours of Mount Fuji, there was a pen once used by Austria's most famous explorer (can't remember his name) and the Swiss had contributed some old sleeping bags from the 1960's.
Funniest of all was a fibre-glass mini Mount Everest that, from what we could gather, was knocked together locally. The model itself was unremarkable, it was the 'please do not climb' sign that tickled us.
But it's not all rubbish, and to be fair, there are some real gems on show in the museum too.
I didn't realise, for example, that Hillary was such a dab hand with a camera. Some of his photography from the famous 1953 Everest expedition was outstanding. Then there was an interesting section dedicated to his sidekick Tensing. A right hard little bugger by all accounts and a much loved character among his peers. Born into extreme poverty he was illiterate yet sharp enough to become fluent in 4 languages. Oh, and he got to the top first in case you didn't know.
Also found out I was wrong to refer to the porters we came across on the Annapurna trail as Sherpas. Your genuine Sherpa (Tensing included) are actually Tibetan, the name translates as 'Man of the East' in Sanskrit.
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