When Edmund Hillary’s Everest expedition conquered the summit in 1953, it was considered one of the greatest highlights of human endeavour.

But explorers 60 years on are faced with a shorter list of possible achievements and few ‘firsts’ left to conquer, according to a modern ‘adventurer’.

Ed Stafford’s comments come on the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s successful expedition on May 29, 1953, when he and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the 8,848-metre summit.

Since then, conquests range from putting a man on the moon to Hollywood director James Cameron’s solo descent to the deepest place in the ocean last year.

Among the array of extraordinary achievements, the conquest of Everest remains one of the best-known ‘firsts’ in the world of exploration and adventure, but Stafford said the list is rapidly dwindling.

In 2010, the 37-year-old became the first person to walk the length of the Amazon River in an epic expedition that took two-and-a-half years.

“It was something that everybody said was impossible but I decided that I didn’t think it was and so set out to do that,” the ex-British army captain said.

“It took two-and-a-half years, I got a Guinness World record for doing it, no one’s done it since so that’s my foot in the door in the world of exploration.

“The amount of things there are left to do are certainly slimming down.

“Increasingly, people are just looking to beat other people’s times or do it with less kit or whatever.

“I think things like Everest are in a group of their own now.

“The world is mapped now, we’ve got Google Earth and things like that so we aren’t writing maps, we aren’t exploring in that sense at all.

“But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t feats of endurance or feats of human endeavour that haven’t been done before that are very impressive.”

He said the modern-day equivalent of Everest would be circumnavigating the world with no vehicles or help.

“I think the holy grail of modern-day exploration is circumnavigating the world via both poles man-powered. That’s something that no one has ever done before,” he added.

“People have circumnavigated the world, people have done it via both poles, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, but using Ski-Doos and motor-powered vehicles and things like that.

“It’s never been done man-powered and I think you have to extract certain things that make things easier in order to find something that’s pure enough to count as a world first.”

Stafford, who lives in London, has now taken a step back from adventuring – he sits on a board of trustees that oversees money going to other expeditions who are trying to get off the ground, and is making a survival series with the Discovery Channel.

Despite being mistakenly arrested for murder and travelling through areas filled with drug factories along the Amazon, he never considered giving up: “It was one of those things, if you say you’re going to do something, you’ve got to see it through.”

‘Flashmob’ of mountaineers

A “flashmob” of mountaineers yesterday gathered to mark the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic ascent of Mount Everest at the signing of a newly released book on the expedition.

The sons of Sir Edmund and Tenzing Norgay, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing Norgay, joined mountaineers Sir Chris Bonington, Stephen Venables and Doug Scott, as well as Kenton Cool, who this month became the first person to scale the three peaks of Everest’s Western Cwm in one climb, at Stanfords bookshop in central London.

The Conquest Of Everest - Original Photographs From The Legendary First Ascent features a previously unpublished images collated by the late George Lowe, a member of Hillary’s team, with help from family friend and historian Huw Lewis-Jones.

It includes landscapes, candid portraits and action shots portraying day-to-day moments of the historic expedition.

Mr Lowe was the last surviving team member until he died earlier this year aged 89.

Dr Lewis-Jones said yesterday’s signing had proved to be “quite a mountaineers’ flashmob”.

“It’s right that we do everything we can to remind the world of the story of the guys of ‘53, quite amazing men,” he said.

Having Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing Norgay there was particularly special, he added.

The anniversary celebrations continued with a reception at the Royal Geographical Society that was to be attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

From sardines to ‘top of the world’

Sixty years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest, climber after climber has achieved the feat.

The tinned apricots were a great treat, but it was necessary first to thaw them out of their frozen state over our roaring Primus

But the experience of an Everest climb in 2013 is undoubtedly poles apart from that of Hillary and Norgay.

In their expedition, climbers hauled loads of nearly 20 kilos each, with food including tinned fruit and sardines.

Nowadays, adventurers enjoy lightweight, state-of-the-art gear, with packs sometimes weighing less than half of Hillary’s load, to help them in the arduous task, swapping heavy steel equipment for aluminium equivalents and canvas tents for modern replacements designed to stand up to Himalayan winds.

Twenty-first century Everest climbers can even send text messages and make calls from the summit, using far lighter and more reliable technology than the heavy radios used by Hillary and his team.

In John Hunt’s The Ascent of Everest, first published in 1953, Hillary gives an insight into his and Tenzing’s final ascent, describing the fascinating moments that formed the reality of his historic efforts.

In a chapter entitled The Summit, he described having to hold their tent down to prevent it being swept away, dining on sardines on biscuits, tinned apricots, and thawing his boots over a Primus stove.

The night before their final push to the top, he said: “As the sun set we crawled finally into our tent, put on all our warm clothing and wriggled into our sleeping bags.

“We drank vast quantities of liquid and had a satisfying meal out of our store of delicacies: sardines on biscuits, tinned apricots, dates and biscuits and jam and honey.

“The tinned apricots were a great treat, but it was necessary first to thaw them out of their frozen state over our roaring Primus.”

As they went to sleep, he described having to hold their tent down to prevent it being blown away by gale force winds.

He added: “We had been experiencing extremely strong gusts of wind every 10 minutes, and whenever I received warning of the approach of such a gust by a shrilling whine high on the ridge above, I could brace my feet and shoulders and assist our meagre anchors to hold the tent steady while it temporarily shook and flapped in a most alarming manner.”

In the morning, Hillary thawed his frozen boots by ‘cooking’ them on their Primus.

“We started up our cooker and in a determined effort to prevent the weakness arising from dehydration we drank large quantities of lemon juice and sugar, and followed this with our last tin of sardines on biscuits.

“I dragged our oxygen sets into the tent, cleaned the ice off them and then completely rechecked and tested them.

“I had removed my boots, which had become a little wet the day before, and they were now frozen solid.

“Drastic measures were called for, so I cooked them over the fierce flame of the Primus and despite the very strong smell of burning leather managed to soften them up.”

As they made their way up the final part of the ascent, he noticed Norgay was having trouble breathing – before spotting that his oxygen supply had frozen.

“On one of these occasions I noted that Tenzing, who had been going quite well, had suddenly slowed up considerably and seemed to be breathing with difficulty.

“The Sherpas had little idea of the workings of an oxygen set and from past experience I immediately suspected his oxygen supply.

“I noticed that hanging from the exhaust tube of his oxygen mask were icicles, and on closer examination found that this tube, some two inches in diameter, was completely blocked with ice.

“I was able to clear it out and gave him much-needed relief.”

As they reached the top, achieving the coveted title, Hillary described the elation as he and Tenzing stood on what many see as the “top of the world”.

“I looked upwards to see a narrow snow ridge running up to a snowy summit.

“A few more whacks of the ice-axe in the firm snow and we stood on top.

“My initial feelings were of relief – relief that there were no more steps to cut – no more ridges to traverse and no more humps to tantalize us with hopes of success.

“I looked at Tenzing and in spite of the balaclava, goggles and oxygen mask all encrusted with long icicles that concealed his face, there was no disguising his infectious grin of pure delight as he looked all around him.

“We shook hands and then Tenzing threw his arm around my shoulders and we thumped each other on the back until we were almost breathless.”