The world lost a legend yesterday with the passing of Kancha Sherpa, the last living member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition and, along with Jim Whittaker, the only living members of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition.

I didn't know Kancha well, but was fortunate to spend a couple days with him in 2012 in Namche while shooting our 2013 film High and Hallowed: Everest 1963. Kancha and his wife opened up their simple home, plied us with chiyaa and biscuits and chapati, as we sat and listened.

Kancha and Jim Whittaker - who reached the summit on May 1, 1963, with Ngawang Gombu, becoming the first American to do so - told stories of '63, from tragedies like the death of Jake Breitenbach to Jim and Gombu's summit to the daring and audacious climb of the West Ridge three weeks later by Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld.

Later, Brent Bishop - multiple-time Everest climber and son of Barry Bishop who reached the summit with Lute Jerstad on May 22, 1963 - shared his own stories with Kancha. When Brent was a young boy, his family moved to remote Humla and Mugu districts of western Nepal for his father's PhD research, and Kancha was tasked with taking care of rambunctious young Brent and his sister, Tara.

Kancha spoke of Himalayan legends, sharing rememberances of Col. Jimmy Roberts, Tenzing Norgay, Norman Dyhrenfurth, Sir Edmund Hillary, Gombu, and tales of adventure and misadventure during his decades of trekking and expedition work.

With a broad grin, Kancha at 80 giggled like a school child and moved like one half his age.

He was a man of kindness and integrity, and one of the last remaining ties to an Everest quite far in the rearview mirror.

Dhanyabhad, Kancha-la. You will be missed.