You most likely know the story of Pheidippides, the Greek courier who ran all the way from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of the Greek victory in that battle, and fell down dead as soon as he delivered the message. While that story may be true or not, there's a real 20th century version from Nepal.
When Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest and return alive on May 29, 1953, the news of their achievement had to be relayed to the outside world. London Times reporter Jan Morris took the news from the camp at 21,000 feet and rushed it down to Base Camp. That's where the mail runners were, men who were part of the expedition charged with carrying news. A Sherpa mail runner, who was never named in news accounts, took that message on foot to Kathmandu, 200 miles away. He ran for five days, delivered the message, and then went home. Within weeks he was dead.
We now know that man was Ten Tsewang Sherpa, a 20-year-old father of four. His grandson, photographer Ang Pemba Sherpa, teamed up with journalist Peter Frick-Wright to run that route again. They were not able to do it, and hiked the 200 miles instead. In the fascinating account of that trip, we learn about Ten Tsewang Sherpa and his family, the 1953 British Expedition, the Sherpa people, low-altitude sickness, and the climbing culture of Nepal. -via Strange Company