Climbing pioneer wants Everest memorial

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LONDON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The first man to ever climb Mount Everest has called for a pair of iconic huts in the Antarctic to be maintained by the British government.

The Daily Telegraph reported Sir Edmund Hillary, who climbed the famed mountain in 1953, said Britain should make an effort to preserve the pair of huts used by famed Antarctic explorers, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Capt Robert Scott.

"To find that these relics of a heroic age are barely supported by Britain is just a little bit disappointing," said Hillary of the Scott Base huts.

While the huts have been recognized as representations of the conditions endured by Scott and Shackleton in 1957, the British government has maintained their upkeep is not its responsibility.

Britain's claim is that despite the fact Scott was British, the huts' upkeep is entirely New Zealand's responsibility since they reside within that nation's Ross Dependency.

The paper said the Antarctic locale is significant to Hillary since he was only the second British citizen to reach the South Pole after Scott.