Edmund Percival Hillary

New Zealand mountaineer and explorer, one of the first two men, alongside Tenzing Norgay, to reach the summit of Everest

Personal details

name: Edmund Percival Hillary
date of birth: 20 July 1919 - Auckland, New Zealand
Died: 11 January 2008 - Auckland, New Zealand (heart failure, aged 88)
Nationality: New Zealander
Occupation: beekeeper, mountaineer, explorer
Affiliation: founder of theHimalayan Trust; honorary president of the American Himalayan Foundation

Biography

Edmund Percival Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. Self-taught through reading from an early age, he discovered his physical stamina at the age of 16 during a school trip; as an adult, he worked as a beekeeper, a profession he continued for most of his life even after becoming a public figure. During the Second World War, he served as a navigator in the New Zealand Air Force.

His mountaineering career began in New Zealand: in 1948, he took part in the first ascent of the South Ridge of Mount Cook, alongside Ruth Adams, Harry Ayres and Mick Sullivan. His move to the Himalayas came a few years later, with a reconnaissance expedition to the Everest region in 1951 and an unsuccessful attempt on Cho Oyu in 1952. He was then selected for the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest, led by John Hunt: on 29 May of that year, Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, the first ascent ofEverest for which direct confirmation exists. The news reached London on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, with which it has remained associated in the British public memory ever since.

An older question remains unresolved regarding the summit of Everest: in 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine went missing whilst attempting the ascent, and no direct evidence has ever been found to suggest they reached the summit before their fall. Hillary and Norgay’s ascent is therefore the first confirmed one, not necessarily the first ever: this distinction is not a mere formality, and it is appropriate to make it explicit rather than presenting 1953 as an undisputed first.

In the years that followed, Hillary continued to visit theHimalayas, taking part in numerous expeditions between 1956 and 1965 and helping to build Lukla Airport in 1965, which remains the gateway to the Everest region to this day. In 1958, he reached the South Pole by land on 4 January as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Vivian Fuchs: he was the third man in history to do so overland, following the expeditions of Amundsen and Scott in 1911–1912.

He devoted much of the rest of his life to supporting the Sherpa communities of Nepal, founding the Himalayan Trust and promoting the construction of schools and hospitals in the Everest region; he was also honorary president of the American Himalayan Foundation. He described this commitment, in a statement often quoted, as the achievement of which he was most proud, even more so than his mountaineering successes. In 1975, he lost his wife Louise Mary Rose and his daughter Belinda in a plane crash shortly after take-off from Kathmandu; he remarried in 1989 to June Mulgrew. He died on 11 January 2008 in Auckland; in 2003, he had been awarded honorary citizenship of Nepal, the first foreigner to receive it.

Mountaineering achievements

• Mount Cook (3,724 m) - 1948 – first ascent of the south ridge, with Ruth Adams, Harry Ayres and Mick Sullivan

• Everest (8,849 m) - 1951 – British reconnaissance expedition to the area

• Cho Oyu (8,201 m) - 1952 – attempted ascent, not completed

• Everest (8,849 m) - 29 May 1953 – first confirmed ascent, with Tenzing Norgay, as part of the British expedition led by John Hunt

• South Pole – 4 January 1958 - reached by land with the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Vivian Fuchs, the third in history after Amundsen and Scott [an exploratory feat, not an ascent in the strict sense – included for historical significance]

Places and commemorations

• Tenzing-Hillary Airport – Lukla, Nepal – named after Hillary and Tenzing Norgay following Hillary’s death in 2008

Collections

• New Zealand mountaineers | list - map

• explorers | list - map