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Edmund Hillary

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geographers and explorers

   Edmund Hillary in 1957 after accompanying the first plane to land at
   the Marble Point ground air strip - Antarctica
   Enlarge
   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) is a New
   Zealand mountaineer and explorer. He and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing
   Norgay were the first climbers to reach the 8,848 m (29,028 ft) summit
   of Mount Everest, highest mountain in the world. 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 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.

Youth

   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.

Expeditions

   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 1985, Hillary accompanied Neil
   Armstrong in a small, twin-engine ski plane over the Arctic Ocean and
   landed at the North Pole. He thus became the first man to stand at both
   poles as well as the summit of Everest. That same year, Hillary was
   appointed New Zealand High Commissioner (Ambassador) to India, Nepal
   and Bangladesh, and spent four and a half years based in New Delhi.

   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.

Recognition

   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.

Philanthropy

   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.".

Quotes

   Arriving back at base after climbing Everest, Hillary's first words
   were "well George, we finally knocked the bastard off." Other sayings
   of note were,

     "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."
     "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."

Trivia

     * Hillary took part in the 1975 general election, as a member of the
       " Citizens for Rowling" campaign. His involvement in this campaign
       is seen as precluding his nomination as Governor-General , with the
       position instead being offered to Keith Holyoake in 1977.
     * While The Lord of the Rings was filming in New Zealand, Hillary
       came to visit the set meeting the cast, crew, and director Peter
       Jackson.

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