Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

July 20, 1919 - January 11, 2008
ON MAY 29, 1953, at the age of 33, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
This amazing feat, made an ordinary Kiwi, an extraordinary person and thrust his life into the international spotlight.
His fame enabled him to fulfill his dreams of helping others and to begin to eliminate poverty throughout the world.
On January 11, 2008, Sir Edmund Hillary died of heart failure at the Auckland City Hospital at around 9am, at the age of 88.
Hillary's death was announced by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark at around 11:20am. She stated that his passing was a 'profound loss to New Zealand'.
A state funeral has been planned for January 22. Hillary will lie in state at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, with his funeral at St Mary's Church. It is known that Hillary wished to be cremated, and for his ashes to be spread over Waitemata Harbour in Auckland.
Edmund Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Hillary, n?e Clark, in Auckland, on July 20, 1919.
Hillary was educated at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School. At 16-years-old his interest in climbing was sparked during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu.
He studied mathematics and science at Auckland University College, and in 1939, completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, near Mt Cook in the Southern Alps.
With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper, a summer occupation that allowed him to pursue climbing in the winter.
1953 Everest Expedition
The route to Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled Tibet, and Nepal only allowed one expedition per year.
During a 1952 trip in the Alps, Hillary discovered he and his friend George Lowe had been invited for the approved British 1953 attempt and immediately accepted.
Eric Shipton was named leader of the edpedition, but was replaced by John Hunt. Hillary was intending to climb with Lowe, but Hunt named two teams for the assault: Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary therefore made a concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing.
The Hunt expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters, 20 Sherpa guides and 10,000lbs of baggage, and like many such expeditions, was a team effort.
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 May 26, Bourdillon and Evans attempted the climb, but turned back when Evans's oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the South Summit, coming within 300 vertical feet (91m) of the summit. Hunt then directed 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 May 28, with a support trio of Lowe, Alfred Gregory and Ang Nyima. The two pitched a tent at 8,500 metres on May 28, 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 14 kg packs.The crucial move of the last part of the ascent was the 12 metre rock face later named the 'Hillary Step'. 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 Everest's 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit, the highest point on earth, at 11:30am. As
They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. They unsuccessfully looked for evidence of the 1924 Mallory expedition.
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 Hillary there.
After Everest
Hillary climbed 10 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 January 4, 1958. His party was the first to reach the Pole overland since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912, and the first ever to do so using motor vehicles.
In 1985, he was appointed New Zealand High Commissioner to India (concurrently High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to Nepal) and spent four and a half years based in New Delhi.
Also that year, he accompanied Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski plane over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole, becoming the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest.
Public recognition
Hillary was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on June 6, 1953, a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1987; and a Knight of the Order of the Garter on April 22, 1995.
He was also awarded the Polar Medal for his part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
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, Hillary appeared on the updated New Zealand $5 note; Hillary was the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during his or her own lifetime.
To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest the Nepalese Government conferred honorary citizenship upon Hillary at a special Golden Jubilee celebration in Kathmandu. He was the first foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese government.
Family life
Hillary married Louise Mary Rose on September 3, 1953, soon after his ascent of Everest. They had three children: Peter (1954), Sarah (1955) and Belinda (1959).
In 1975, while en route to join 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.
Hillary married June Mulgrew, the widow of his close friend Peter Mulgrew, on December 21, 1989.