EDMUND P. HILLARY: THE FIRST TO REACH MT EVEREST

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

Joseph de Ca'th Lon is climbing down Mount Cook with Tonyi Tamaki and Claire Fontaine.

Meanwhile, The Grandma and Tina Picotes are resting in a wonderful hut and waiting their friends' arrival.

The Grandma is studying a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Grammar 27).

Tina Picotes is also reading. She is learning more information about Edmund Hillary one of the most famous New Zealanders, a mountain climber who was the first to reach Mount Everest.

More information: Phrasal Verbs II

 

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919-11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.

Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school. He made his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier. He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II. Prior to the Everest expedition, Hillary had been part of the British reconnaissance expedition to the mountain in 1951 as well as an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952.

 More information: Mount Everest

As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest.

Hillary served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force

Following his ascent of Everest, Hillary devoted himself to assisting the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he established. His efforts are credited with the construction of many schools and hospitals in Nepal.

From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal. Hillary had numerous honours conferred upon him, including the Order of the Garter in 1995. Upon his death in 2008, he was given a state funeral in New Zealand.

Hillary was born to Percival Augustus and Gertrude Hillary in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 July 1919. His father Percy had served at Gallipoli with the 15th North Auckland Regiment, and was discharged medically unfit from the Army in 1916; he had married Gertrude after his return to New Zealand. His grandparents had emigrated from Yorkshire to northern Wairoa in the mid-19th century.

More information: New Zealand History

In 1938 he went to hear Herbert Sutcliffe, the proponent of a life philosophy called Radiant Living, with his family. The family all became foundation members, and his mother became its secretary in 1939. He went to Gisborne as Sutcliff’s assistant, and in 1941 sat examinations to become a teacher of Radiant Living, getting a 100% pass mark. His test lecture was on Inferiority, cause and cure.He said of his five year association with the movement that I learned to speak confidently from the platform; to think more freely on important topics; to mix more readily with a wide variety of people. Tenets included healthy eating, the salads that June took to university for lunch, and pacificism.

He joined the Radiant Living Tramping Club, and further developed his love of the outdoors in the Waitakere Ranges.

More information: SBNation

In 1939 he completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, near Aoraki/Mount Cook in the Southern Alps. Climbing brought new friends; Harry Ayres and George Lowe became the first real friends I'd ever had.

At the outbreak of World War II, Hillary applied to join the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) but quickly withdrew the application, later writing that he was harassed by my religious conscience. 

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

In 1943, with the Japanese threat in the Pacific and the arrival of conscription, he joined the RNZAF as a navigator in No. 6 Squadron RNZAF and later No. 5 Squadron RNZAF on Catalina flying boats. In 1945, he was sent to Fiji and to the Solomon Islands, where he was badly burnt in an accident.

In January 1948, Hillary and others ascended the south ridge of Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak. In 1951 he was part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest led by Eric Shipton, before joining the successful British attempt of 1953.

In 1952, Hillary and George Lowe were part of the British team led by Shipton, that attempted Cho Oyu. After that attempt failed due to the lack of route from the Nepal side, Hillary and Lowe crossed the Nup La pass into Tibet and reached the old Camp II, on the northern side, where all the previous expeditions had camped.

In 1949, the long-standing climbing route to the summit of Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled Tibet. For the next several years, Nepal allowed only one or two expeditions per year. A Swiss expedition, in which Tenzing took part, attempted to reach the summit in 1952, but was forced back by bad weather around 240 m below the summit. In 1952 Hillary learned that he and Lowe had been invited by the Joint Himalayan Committee for the 1953 British attempt and immediately accepted.

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Shipton was named as leader but was replaced by Hunt. Hillary was immediately impressed by Hunt's energy and determination. Hillary had intended to climb with Lowe, but Hunt named two teams for the ascent: Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary, therefore, made a concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing.

Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary

The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362 porters, 20 Sherpa guides, and 4,500 kg of baggage. 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 and, working slowly, set up its final camp at the South Col at 7,890 m.

On 26 May, Bourdillon and Evans attempted the climb but turned back when Evans' oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the South Summit, coming within 91 m of the summit. Hunt then directed Hillary and Tenzing to attempt the summit.

Snow and wind delayed them at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with the support of Lowe, Alfred Gregory, and Ang Nyima. The two pitched a tent at 8,500 m on 28 May, while their support group returned down the mountain.

More information: National Geographic

On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them over a stove before he and Tenzing, wearing 14 kg packs, attempted the final ascent. The final obstacle was the 12 m rock face now called Hillary Step.

Tenzing later wrote that Hillary took the first step onto the summit and he followed. They reached Everest's 8,848 m summit, the highest point on earth, at 11:30 am.

They spent about 15 minutes at the summit. Hillary took a photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe, but there is no photo of Hillary. BBC News attributed this to Tenzing's having never used a camera; Tenzing's autobiography says that Hillary simply declined to have his picture taken. They also took photos looking down the mountain.

Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary

Tenzing left chocolates at the summit as an offering, and Hillary left a cross given to him by John Hunt. Their descent was complicated by drifting snow which had covered their tracks. The first person they met was Lowe; Hillary said, Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.

On 6 June 1953 Hillary was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal the same year.

On 6 February 1987, he was the fourth appointee to the Order of New Zealand. He was also awarded the Polar Medal in 1958 for his part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu, 1st Class of the Kingdom of Nepal in 1953, and the Coronation Medal in 1975.

More information: The Telegraph

On 22 April 1995 Hillary was appointed Knight Companion of The Most Noble Order of the Garter. On 17 June 2004 Hillary was awarded Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. The Government of India conferred on him its second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, posthumously, in 2008.

To mark 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, Nepal. He was the first foreign national to receive that honour.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

On 22 April 2007, while on a trip to Kathmandu, Hillary suffered a fall, and was hospitalised after returning to New Zealand.

On 11 January 2008 he died of heart failure at Auckland City Hospital. Flags were lowered to half-mast on New Zealand public buildings and at Scott Base in Antarctica, and Prime Minister Helen Clark called Hillary's death a profound loss to New Zealand.

On 21 January, Hillary's casket was taken into Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, to lie in state. A state funeral was held on 22 January 2008, after which his body was cremated.

On 29 February 2008 most of his ashes were scattered in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf per his desire. The remainder went to a Nepalese monastery near Everest; a plan to scatter them on the summit was cancelled in 2010.

In January 2008, Lukla Airport, in Lukla, Nepal, was renamed to Tenzing–Hillary Airport in recognition of their promotion of its construction.

On 2 April 2008, a service of thanksgiving in Hillary's honour at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was attended by Queen Elizabeth, New Zealand dignitaries including Prime Minister Helen Clark, and members of Hillary's and Norgay's families; Gurkha soldiers from Nepal stood guard outside the ceremony.

More information: The New York Times

I have never regarded myself as a hero,

but Tenzing undoubtedly was.

Edmund Hillary