Nevada county people: Historian challenges Mt. Everest history

A Grass Valley resident and longtime Mt. Everest historian is fascinated by the prospect that someone might have climbed the highest mountain on earth 20 years earlier than the renowned Sir Edmund Hillary.

Tom Noy, 59, who hopes to climb the elite mountain next spring, is researching the travails of Englishman Maurice Wilson's 1933 climb and is planning to write a book on the man.

"There's compelling evidence that he may have succeeded, and he may have died on the way back (down)," Noy said.

Wilson was found just short of the summit more than two years after his climb, Noy said.

In 1960, a group of Chinese climbers discovered a tent at the summit, which was found 1,000 feet above Wilson and his group's original campsite. Noy suspects that the tent belonged to Wilson.

"There's only one of these on earth," said Noy. "It's a brutal, grim place."

Noy climbed his first mountain, Kennedy Peak near Yosemite National Park, when he was 11 years old, and he's been thrilled by the climbing challenge ever since.

"It's about people's potential," Noy said.

Mt. Everest is recognized as the pinnacle of personal physical challenges, Noy said.

This May, Noy, who has hiked to the Mt. Everest base camp at 18,000 feet, will watch climbers carry the Olympic torch up to the mountain's summit.

Noy was born in Grass Valley, lived in Bay Area communities and returned to Grass Valley two years ago after living in Seattle for 15 years. He is divorced and has a 24-year-old daughter.

He taught before becoming an entrepreneur in the mid 90s with an footwear accessory designed to stabilize people on ice. Noy sold his interest in his footwear company, Yaktrax, three years ago.

For more information on research of Wilson's climb of Mount Everest, visit www.mounteverest.net.

- Greg Moberly