Sir Edmund Hillary, born as Edmund Percival Hillary, [Titles: "Order of the
Garter", "Order of New Zealand", "Order of the British Empire"]
(20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008), was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer.
On 29 May 1953, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers
known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth
British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
Edmund Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Hillary,
née Clark, in Tuakau (south of Auckland), on 20 July 1919. His grandparents
were early settlers in northern Wairoa in the mid 19th century after emigrating
from Yorkshire. Edmund Hillary was educated at Auckland Grammar School. His
daily bus journey to and from school was over two hours each way, during which
he regularly used the time to read. 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 16 his interest in climbing was sparked during a school trip to
Mount Ruapehu. Though gangly and uncoordinated he found that he was physically
strong and had greater endurance than many of his tramping companions. In 1939
he completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Oliver in the
Southern Alps.
With his brother, Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper, a summer occupation that
allowed him to pursue climbing in the winter. In 1943, Edmund Hillary joined
the RNZAF as a navigator and served on Catalina flying boats. In 1945 he was
sent to Fiji and to the Solomon Islands where he was badly burned in a boating
accident, after which he was repatriated to New Zealand. Edmund Hillary was
part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest in 1951 led by Eric Shipton
before joining the successful British attempt of 1953.
In 1952, Edmund Hillary and George Lowe were part of the British team led by
Eric Shipton that attempted Cho Oyu. After that attempt failed due to the lack
of route from the Nepal side, Hillary and Lowe crossed the Lho-La into Tibet
and reached the old Camp II, on the northern side, where all the pre-war expeditions
camped.
The route to Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal only
allowed one expedition per year. A Swiss expedition (in which Tenzing took part)
had attempted to reach the summit in 1952 but was turned back by bad weather
800 feet (260 m) from the summit. During a 1952 trip in the Alps, Edmund Hillary
discovered he and his friend George Lowe had been invited for the approved British
1953 attempt and immediately accepted.
Shipton was named as leader but was replaced by Hunt. Hillary considered pulling
out but both Hunt and Shipton talked him into remaining. Edmund Hillary was
intending to climb with Lowe but Hunt named two teams for the assault: Tom Bourdillon
and Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Edmund Hillary therefore made a
concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing.
The Hunt expedition, like many such expeditions, was a team effort. Lowe supervised
the preparation of the Lhotse Face, a huge and steep ice face, for climbing.
Hillary forged a route through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.
The expedition set up base camp in March 1953. Working slowly it set up its
final camp at the South Col at 7,900 metres (25,900 ft). On 26 May Bourdillon
and Evans attempted the climb but turned back when Evans's oxygen system failed.
The pair had reached the South Summit, coming within 100 metres (330 ft) of
the summit. Hunt then directed Edmund Hillary and Tenzing to go for the summit.
Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out
on 28 May with a support trio of Lowe, Alfred Gregory and Ang Nyima. The two
pitched a tent at 8,500 metres (27,900 ft) on 28 May while their support group
returned down the mountain. On the following morning Hillary discovered that
his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them
before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent wearing 30-pound (10 kg) packs.
The crucial move of the last part of the ascent was the 40-foot (12 m) rock
face later named the "Hillary Step". Edmund Hillary saw a means to
wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice and Tenzing
followed. From there the following effort was relatively simple. They reached
the summit at 11.30 am. As Hillary put it, "A few more whacks of the ice
axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top."
They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. They unsuccessfully looked
for evidence of the earlier Mallory expedition. Edmund Hillary took Tenzing's
photo, Tenzing left chocolates in the snow as an offering, and Hillary left
a cross that he had been given. Because Tenzing did not know how to use a camera,
there are no pictures of Edmund Hillary there.
The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow
had covered their tracks to complicate the task. The first person they met was
Lowe, who had climbed up to meet them with hot soup.
News of the successful expedition reached Britain on the day of the coronation
of Queen Elizabeth II. The group was surprised by the international acclaim
that they received upon arriving in Kathmandu.
Hillary 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 led a jetboat expedition, titled "Ocean to Sky",
from the mouth of the Ganges River to its source in 1977. In 1979, he was scheduled
to act as a commentator on the ill-fated Air New Zealand Flight 901, an Antarctic
sightseeing flight, but had to pull out due to work commitments elsewhere. He
was replaced by his close friend Peter Mulgrew, who perished as the aircraft
crashed on Mount Erebus.
Edmund Hillary took part in the 1975 general election, as a member of the "Citizens
for Rowling" campaign. His involvement in this campaign was seen as precluding
his nomination as Governor-General, with the position instead being offered
to Keith Holyoake in 1977. However, in 1985 he was appointed New Zealand |High
Commissioner (ambassador) to India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and spent four and
a half years based in New Delhi.
In 1985 he accompanied Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski plane over
the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole. He thus became the first man
to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest.
In January 2007, Hillary traveled to Antarctica to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the founding of Scott Base. He flew to the station on 18 January 2007 with
a delegation including the Prime Minister. While there he called for the British
government to contribute to the upkeep of Scott's and Shackleton's huts.
On 22 April 2007, while on a trip to Kathmandu he is reported to have suffered
a fall. There was no comment on the nature of his illness and he did not immediately
seek treatment. He was hospitalized after returning to New Zealand.
Edmund 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. 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).
In 1992, Edmund Hillary appeared on the updated New Zealand $5 note; Hillary
was the only living New Zealander to appear on a banknote.
To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent
of Everest the Nepalese Government conferred honorary citizenship upon Edmund
Hillary at a special Golden Jubilee celebration in Kathmandu. He was the first
foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese.
A 2.3-metre (7.5 ft) bronze statue of Sir Ed was installed outside The Hermitage
hotel at Mt Cook village, New Zealand, in 2003.
Edmund Hillary married Louise Mary Rose on 3 September 1953, soon after the
ascent of Everest. A shy man, he relied on his future mother-in-law to propose
on his behalf. They had three children: Peter (1954), Sarah (1955) and Belinda
(1959).
In 1975 while en route to join Edmund Hillary in the village of Phaphlu, where
he was helping build a hospital, Louise and Belinda were killed in a plane crash
near Kathmandu airport shortly after take-off.
Edmund Hillary married June Mulgrew, the widow of his close friend Peter Mulgrew,
on 21 December 1989.
His son Peter Hillary has also become a climber, conquering Everest in 1990.
In April 2003 Peter and Jamling Tenzing Norgay (son of Tenzing) climbed Everest
as part of a 50th anniversary celebration. Edmund Hillary has six grandchildren,
including Amelia Hillary who is also involved in Edmund Hillary's work in the
Himalayas.
He devoted all of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the
Himalayan trust, which he founded and to which he had given much of his time
and energy. Through his efforts he had succeeded in building many schools and
hospitals in this remote region of the Himalayas. He was the Honorary President
of the American Himalayan Foundation, a United States non-profit body that helps
improve the ecology and living conditions in the Himalayas.
Edmund Hillary spoke of his disdain for the attitudes displayed by many modern
mountaineers. In particular he publicly criticized 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."
On 11 January 2008, Edmund Hillary died of a heart attack at the Auckland City
Hospital at around 9 am NZDT at the age of 88.
Edmund Hillary's death was announced by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark
at around 11.20 am during which she stated that his death was a "profound
loss to New Zealand". His death was recognised by the lowering of flags
to half-mast at the New Zealand Parliament, Auckland Harbour Bridge and at Scott
Base in Antarctica. He was in hospital at the time of his death but was expected
to come home that day according to his family. A state funeral has been planned.
