Bloomberg
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (88)
Jan. 11 : Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand-born adventurer who defied the failed efforts of countless climbers by reaching the peak of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, has died. He was 88.
Hillary's death "is a profound loss for New Zealand,'' Prime Minister Helen Clark said in a statement today.
Hillary, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, conquered the 29,035 foot (8,850 meter) summit on May 29, 1953. His love of the mountains and affection for Nepal's Sherpa people who live on the slopes of the Himalayas developed into a lifelong effort to raise money for schools, hospitals and airfields.
"He is definitely the greatest New Zealander of modern times,'' Graeme Dingle, a fellow Everest veteran, said in an interview from Auckland today. ``His legacy to the people of Nepal and his contribution to that region will never be forgotten. He was a giant.''
In recent years, Hillary railed against the environmental damage to Everest caused by ever-increasing numbers of climbers. Mountaineering had also lost the camaraderie that characterized its early days, he said in 2006, when as many as 40 climbers left a British mountaineer on Everest rather than attempt a rescue.
``The whole attitude to Mount Everest has become rather horrifying,'' Hillary told New Zealand's Otago Daily Times newspaper. ``People just want to get to the top. 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.''
`Big in Heart'
Hillary, known to the Sherpa people as Burra-sahib, meaning ``big in stature, big in heart,'' returned to Nepal many times to climb. In 1977, he journeyed by jet boat to the source of the Ganges River. He was New Zealand's high commissioner to India from 1984 to 1989, the equivalent of an ambassador among British Commonwealth countries.
The Himalayan Trust, established by Hillary in 1960, has helped build three hospitals, 13 health clinics and more than 30 schools, according to its Web site. He successfully pushed for the creation of the Sagarmatha National Park in the valleys below Everest, funded by the Nepal and New Zealand governments and now a World Heritage site.
Mallory Dispute
By 2006, more than 3,000 climbers had successfully reached Everest's summit. There have been 203 deaths, according to Explorersweb.com. Hillary's claim to the title of first person to scale Everest has been disputed. Some researchers and the family of George Mallory, a British climber who disappeared while on a 1924 expedition, maintain he made it to the summit.
Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine were last seen about 800 feet from the summit. The discovery of his body some 2,000 feet from the peak in 1999 triggered speculation Mallory and Irvine scaled the peak and were on their way down when Mallory fell, injuring them both, according to the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Edmund Percival Hillary was born on July 20, 1919, in Tuakau, New Zealand. He grew up in the city of Auckland, where he attended the local grammar school and indulged in his passion for reading. His interest in mountaineering was sparked at the age of 16 after a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, the highest mountain in the North Island of New Zealand.
By 1939 he had climbed his first mountain -- Mount Olivier in the Southern Alps of the country. He followed his father into the family beekeeping business, interrupted by two years' service as an Air Force navigator in World War II. He climbed in New Zealand and in Europe before visiting the Himalayas in 1951.
British Knighthood
By 1953, about 15 expeditions had attempted and failed to reach the Everest summit. Hillary, 33 at the time, was identified as the most likely member of John Hunt's expedition to succeed.
``He was incredibly good at altitude, there's no doubt about that,'' Dingle said. ``When he climbed Everest he was at the top of his strength. Few people would have been able to carry the kind of weight at that altitude that he could.''
Hillary had to lead Tenzing up a 40-foot vertical rock face just below the summit, thereafter known as the Hillary Step. Famously, on his descent, he met another New Zealand member of the party, George Lowe, commenting ``Well, George, we've knocked the bastard off.'' Hillary received a British knighthood two months later.
Hillary didn't confine his achievements to the mountains of Nepal. In 1957, he traveled to Antarctica where he established Scott Base, now New Zealand's scientific station. The following year, he headed toward the South Pole setting up food and fuel depots for a U.K. expedition, which was attempting to reach the pole from the opposite side of the continent.
Scott Base
Driving modified farm tractors, Hillary's team pushed on and reached the pole first, to the annoyance of British team leader Vivian Fuchs.
In January 2007, he again visited Scott Base for its 50th anniversary and to name the Hillary Field Centre, a heated all- weather storage unit that upgraded the capacity of the station to support large-scale projects.
``New Zealanders just relate to his kiwi sense of adventure and his love of the outdoors,'' Lou Sanson, chief executive officer of Antarctica New Zealand, the national body responsible for running Scott Base, said in a March 2007 interview.
``When we took him out on the ice earlier this year he just couldn't stop beaming. He didn't wipe the smile off his face the whole time he was down there and asked to stay an extra week,'' Sanson said.
Hillary, named one of Time magazine's 100 heroes and icons of the 20th century, was also close to New Zealanders in another way: His image has been used on the nation's $5 note since 1991.
Hillary had three children with first wife Louise Mary Rose, who died in a plane crash in Nepal with their daughter Belinda in 1975. Fourteen years later, he married June Mulgrew. He died of ``too many years of old age,'' Dingle said today.
Hillary died in Auckland City Hospital. He is survived by son Peter, who has also climbed Everest, and his daughter from the first marriage, Sarah. Norgay, his mountain- climbing partner, died in 1986.