Edmund Hillary
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Sir Edmund Hillary in 1957 after accompanying the first plane to land at the Marble Point ground air strip - Antarctica |
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE (born
20 July 1919) was a
New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. He and
Tenzing Norgay were the first climbers to reach the 8,848 m (29,028 ft) summit of
Mount Everest. They achieved this on
29 May 1953 at 11:30 a.m. local time.
The feat was accomplished as part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by Sir
John Hunt. After descending, Hillary stated that he and Tenzing had "knocked the bastard off", a phrase which has found its way into colloquial
New Zealand English.
Born in
Tuakau (south of
Auckland), he attended
Auckland Grammar School. The trip to school was over two hours each way, time which he spent reading. As he grew up he was smaller than his peers and very shy so he took refuge in his books and daydreams of a life filled with adventure. At age 16, his interest in climbing was sparked during a school trip to
Ruapehu. He found that his gangly and uncoordinated frame was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his
tramping companions.
During
World War II he was a
RNZAF navigator. He was part of a British reconnaisance expedition to Everest in
1951 led by
Eric Shipton before joining the successful
British attempt of
1953. He climbed ten other peaks in the
Himalayas on further visits in
1956, 1960-61 and 1963-65. He also reached the
South Pole, as part of the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition for which he led the New Zealand section, on
4 January 1958. He also led a
jetboat expedition from the mouth of the
Ganges River to its source in
1977.
In
1979, he had been scheduled to act as a commentator on the ill-fated
Air New Zealand Flight 901, but had to pull out due to work commitments elsewhere. He was replaced by his close friend
Peter Mulgrew, who perished on the flight.
Hillary was created a Knight Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (KBE) on
16 July 1953; a member of the
Order of New Zealand (ONZ) in
1987; and a Knight of the
Order of the Garter (KG) on
23 April 1995. He is the only living New Zealander to appear on a
banknote. Various streets, schools, and organisations around New Zealand and abroad are named after him. A few examples are Hillary College (
Otara), Edmund Hillary Primary School (
Papakura), and the Hillary Commission (now SPARC).
To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest, the Nepalese Government conferred honorary citizenship upon Sir Edmund at a special Golden Jubilee celebration in the capital,
Kathmandu. He is the first foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese.
He has devoted much of his life to helping the
Sherpa people of Nepal through the
Himalayan Trust which he founded and to which he has given much of his time and energy. Through his efforts he has succeeded in building many schools and hospitals in this remote region of the
Himalayas. He has stated that he regards this as his most important achievement. He is also the Honorary President of the
American Himalayan Foundation, a
United States non-profit body that also helps improve the
ecology and living conditions in the Himalayas. During the mid-1980s, he was New Zealand's
High Commissioner to
India (the equivalent of an Ambassador between Commonwealth countries), where he was in frequent demand as a guest of honour.
Hillary has recently spoken of his disdain for the attitudes displayed by many modern mountaineers. In particular he publicly criticised New Zealander
Mark Inglis and 40 other climbers who, in various groups, left British climber
David Sharp to die in May 2006. He said
"I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top, it was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say good morning and pass on by." He also told the
New Zealand Herald that he was horrified by the callous attitude of today's climbers.
"They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.".Former
US President Bill Clinton said in his autobiography (p830),
My Life, that his wife
Hillary Clinton was named after Edmund Hillary. The claim is interesting in that Hillary was an unknown when he climbed Everest in 1953, and Hillary Clinton was then already five years old.
* "We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest. And even using oxygen as we were, if we did get to the top, we weren't at all sure whether we wouldn't drop dead or something of that nature."
*
NZEdge bio*
NZ Geographic profile*
Himalayan Trust UK site*
American Himalayan Foundation* Academy of Achievement Profile http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hil0pro-1
* Academy of Achievement Biography http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hil0bio-1
* Academy of Achievement Interview http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hil0int-1
* Academy of Achievement Photo Gallery http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hil0gal-1
*
Hillary lands in Antarctica*
TIME: The Greatest Adventures of All Time - The Race to the Pole (interview with Sir Edmund)
{{Persondata
NAME=Sir Edmund Hillary | ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | SHORT DESCRIPTION=Mountaineer, explorer | DATE OF BIRTH=20 July 1919 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Tuakau, New Zealand | DATE OF DEATH= | PLACE OF DEATH=
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