Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary
It is hard to imagine a single event having such a profound and life-changing effect on one man as Sir Edmund Hillary’s successful 1953 Mountaineer Sir Edmond Hillary summit of Mt Everest. Arguably New Zealand’s best known son, Sir Edmund Hillary has remained largely anonymous among his peers at home despite a lifetime of adventure and humanitarian achievement. Some might even go so far as to describe Sir Edmund as aloof. As an adventurer, Sir Edmund never sought or welcomed publicity, avoiding where possible the media spotlight and the trappings of fame. Interestingly, Sir Edmund Hillary is perhaps more genuinely revered among the mountain Sherpa people of the high-altitude regions of Nepal. Since the early 1960s, it is in the shadows of Mt Everest that Sir Edmund has made his greatest contribution and where his legacy will survive him for many generations.

Sir Edmund’s interest and involvement with the wellbeing of the Sherpa people was crystallised in 1960 on his return from a Himalayan expedition researching the effects of high altitude on the human body. It was then that Sir Edmund was presented with a petition from the local Sherpa children. It ostensibly read: “We have eyes but cannot see; we have ears but cannot hear; we know there is a big world out there, can you help us to have a school.”

Himalayan Trust Hospital in Khunde Village

Sir Edmund then established the Himalayan Trust and that year a three-room school house was built at Khumjung with funds raised by Sir Edmund. Troughout the 1960’s Sir Edmund’s commitment to Nepal broadened as he returned every year to build medical clinics, hospitals and schools. Over the next 40 years Sir Edmund’s Himalaya Trust funded the construction of more than 30 schools, two hospitals and 13 health clinics. He also raised funds to build two mountain airstrips to aid the delivery of supplies for the mountain Sherpas.

Nepal was also the site of Sir Edmund’s greatest personal tragedy – the death of his wife Louise and their 16 year-old daughter Belinda in a light plane crash soon after take off from Kathmandu for Paphlu in the Himalayan foothills.

In May 2003 Sir Edmund returned to Nepal to join golden jubilee celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of his and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s historic 1953 summit of Mt Everest. It was then that Sir Edmund was bestowed with honorary citizenship of Nepal in recognition of his achievements and work with the Sherpa people. Sir Edmund is the first and only foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese government.

Humble beginnings
Edmund Percival Hillary was born in Auckland in 1919 but moved 40km (25 miles) south to Tuakau where his father, Percival Hillary, established a weekly newspaper, The Tuakau District News. Sir Edmund often described his father, a Gallipoli war veteran, as a strict disciplinarian with rigid principles. His father quit his post as editor after philosophical differences with the newspaper’s board of directors and turned his hand to full-time beekeeping. A student at Auckland Grammar School, Edmund Hillary would spend his two-hour commute back and forth to Tuakau reading. Sir Edmund has often said that, as a boy, he was awkward and socially inept, preferring his own company to that of his classmates.

It was at age 16 while on a school trip to Mount Ruapehu that Sir Edmund discovered his interest in mountaineering. He discovered, too, that while he was not a natural athlete he had a much higher endurance for climbing and trekking than many others on the trip. Mountaineering and trekking were soon to become his greatest passion.

Sir Edmund’s first notable climb occurred in 1939 when at age 20 he climbed Mount Olivier in the Southern Alps. Four years later he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force and trained as a navigator. A year later in 1945 Sir Edmund was posted to Fiji and the Solomon Islands. It was during this posting that Sir Edmund received burns to 40 per cent of his body in a boating accident. He was sent home to New Zealand to convalesce.

The next few years of Sir Edmund’s life were some of his happiest. With climbing friend and instructor George Lowe, Sir Edmund got a job refurbishing climbing and trekking huts in the Southern Alps in preparation for a return to recreational climbing after the war. Among his notable achievements during those years was a successful summit of New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mount Cook (3,764 metres).

In 1949 Sir Edmund travelled to Europe and climbed in the Austrian and Swiss Alps. In 1951 his climbing companion George Lowe invited Sir Edmund to join a New Zealand Himalayan climbing expedition. The three-man team scaled previously unclimbed ridges on the Tibetan border. It was on this expedition that Sir Edmund developed a reputation as a skilled mountaineer. Later in 1951 Sir Edmund was invited to join a team led by British explorer and mountaineer Eric Shipton. The expedition was tasked with identifying a route to the summit of Mt Everest via the south-western (Nepalese) side of the mountain.

Everest Summit Expedition
Two years later Sir Edmund was invited to join another British expedition and attempt on the summit, this time led by Britain’s Colonel John Hunt. The expedition was made up of nine climbers including Sir Edmund and his fellow countryman and friend George Lowe. The team also secured Hillary and Tenzing after successful first summit of Everest the services of Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay who had very nearly reached the summit of Everest the year before with a Swiss expedition. Hunt’s expedition was nothing if not organised with 34 Sherpas and 350 porters to carry equipment and food. A base camp was established in March 1953 at Solu Khumbu in Nepal. A final camp was established on the South Col at 7,900 metres. On 26 May, 1953, two members of the expedition struck out for the summit but failed to top out due to exhaustion.

Tenzing holding up flags on the summit of Everest for the first time Two days later a party of five climbers including Sir Edmund and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made another summit attempt. At 8,500m Sir Edmund and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay pitched a tent and over-nighted while the other three members returned to the South Col camp. The morning of 29 May was clear and fine and the two climbers set off again for the top, reaching the summit at 11.30am. They spent about 15 minutes taking photographs and looking for any sign of a successful 1924 summit by British climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. Mallory and Irvine never returned from the mountain and there had been considerable speculation that the pair had reached the top of the world nearly 30 years before.

Sir Edmund left a small crucifix on the summit while Sherpa Tenzing buried chocolate as an offering to the Gods. The pair climbed back down, reaching the South Col camp late that afternoon to be greeted with adulation by the expedition leader and team.

News of the success travelled to Britain quickly but was withheld from the public to coincide with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Sir Edmund was knighted for his effort and returned to New Zealand and married Louise Rose. He resumed the life of a beekeeper. Their son Peter was born in 1954 and their daughter Sarah a year later.

After Everest
In the same year (1955) Sir Edmund was asked to join an entirely different British expedition - a planned crossing of the Antarctic using tractors. It was led by British explorer, Dr Vivian Fuchs. Sir Edmund’s job was to establish food and fuel depots from the Ross Sea to the South Pole. He sailed with his team for the Ross Ice Shelf on 20 December, 1956 and wintered over at the newly-established Scott Base.The next spring Hillary and his party began setting up depots. When close to the South Pole, Hillary and four of his team decided to travel the extra distance to the Pole on Ferguson tractors, arriving on 4 January, 1957, 16 days before Fuchs. Together they completed the journey back to Scott Base. Hillary returned to New Zealand and his second daughter, Belinda, was born.

In September 1978 Sir Edmund led a jet boat expedition up the Ganges River in India to find the Himalayan source of the sacred river. Forced to leave the boats at a waterfall, the party, including son Peter Hillary, continued on foot. Sir Edmund, however, was forced to retire through altitude sickness during an attempt to climb one of two previously unclimbed mountains.

In 1979 Sir Edmund was scheduled to provide the in-flight commentary to passengers on the ill-fated Air New Zealand DC10 flight that crashed into Mt Erebus killing all on board. Sir Edmund was unable to make the flight because of work commitments and was sadly replaced by close friend Peter Mulgrew.

In 1984 Sir Edmund was appointed High Commissioner to India, a post he held until 1989. During his tenure as High Commissioner Sir Edmund continued fundraising work for his beloved Himalayan Trust. He tackled many issues including the conservation and protection of the natural Everest environment. Sir Edmund was keenly aware of the negative impact climbing and trekking were having on the Everest region with the dumping of climbing equipment and rubbish and random felling of trees to provide cheap fuel. Sir Edmund still maintains Mt Everest should be closed to climbers and tourists for five years.

Tourism, however, has become the Sherpas’ main source of income. Portrait of Sir Ed in his eighties At 87 years-old Sir Edmund is still actively involved in the management of his trust and various other trusts that carry his name around the world. In 1990 he married his lifelong friend June Mulgrew. He lives in Remuera, Auckland, and is still active. In fact, in early 2007, Sir Edmund flew back to Scott Base in Antarctica with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke to speak at the 50th anniversary celebrations for Scott Base. Hillary and his team established the base in 1957. At the celebration he said; "I'm thrilled to come back here, to see all the old mountains and to see everything that has been done."

Recognition
Sir Edmund was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) on July 16, 1953, a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ) in 1987 and a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) on April 23, 1995. He is the only living New Zealander to appear on a New Zealand banknote ($5). Many streets, schools, and New Zealand organisations carry the Hillary name. Examples include Hillary College (Otara), Edmund Hillary Primary School (Papakura), and the former Hillary Commission (now SPARC). In 2002 the New Zealand government set up the Sir Edmund Hillary Trust to acknowledge Sir Edmund's achievements and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest. The Trust supports groups and organisations assisting young people to take part in outdoor activities in New Zealand.

Books written by Sir Edmund Hillary:

High Adventure, 1955
East of Everest, 1956
No Latitude for Error, 1961
High in the Thin Cold Air, 1963
Schoolhouse in the Clouds, 1965
Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, 1975
From the Ocean to the Sky, 1979
Two Generations, 1984
The View from the Summit, 1999