Edmund Hillary, who passed
away on 11 January 2008, was a New Zealand mountain climber and Antarctic
explorer, who with the Tibetan mountaineer Tenzing Norgay was the first to
reach the summit of Mount Everest (29,035
feet [8,850 metres]; the highest mountain in the world.
Hillary’s
father was a beekeeper, an occupation he also pursued. He began climbing in New
Zealand’s Southern Alps while in high school. After military service
in World War II, he resumed climbing and became determined to scale Everest. In
1951 he joined a New Zealand party to the central Himalayas and later that
year participated in a British reconnaissance expedition of the southern flank
of Everest. He was subsequently invited to join the team of mountaineers
planning to climb the peak.
The well-organized expedition
was launched in the spring of 1953, and a high camp from which to mount
attempts at the summit was established by mid-May. After a pair of climbers
failed to reach the top on May 27, Hillary and Tenzing set out for it early on
May 29; by late morning they were standing on the summit. The two shook hands,
then Tenzing embraced his partner. Hillary took photographs, and both searched
for signs that George Mallory, a British climber lost on Everest in 1924,
had been on the summit. Hillary left behind a crucifix, and Tenzing, a
Buddhist, made a food offering. After spending about 15 minutes on the peak,
they began their descent. They were
met back at camp by their colleague W.G. Lowe, to whom Hillary reputedly said,
“Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.” Hillary described his exploits
in High
Adventure (1955). He made other expeditions to the Everest
region during the early 1960s but never again tried to climb to the top.
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