Sir Edmund Hillary

Youth

Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Hillary, née Clark, in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 July 1919.^[1] His family moved to Tuakau (south of Auckland) in 1920, after his father (who served atGallipoli) was allocated land there.^[2] His grandparents were early settlers in northern Wairoa in the mid 19th century after emigrating from Yorkshire, England.^[3]

Hillary was educated at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School.^[2] He finished primary school two years early, but struggled at high school, achieving only average marks.^[4] He was initially smaller than his peers there and very shy so he took refuge in his books and daydreams of a life filled with adventure. His daily train journey to and from high school was over two hours each way, during which he regularly used the time to read. ^] 

^{He gained confidence after he learnt to box. At 16 his interest in climbing was sparked during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu. Though gangly at 6 ft 5 in (195cm) and uncoordinated, he found that he was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his tramping companions.[5] He studied mathematics and science at The University of Auckland, and in 1939 completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, near Mt. Cook in the Southern Alps.[2] With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper,[1][6] a summer occupation that allowed him to pursue climbing in the winter.[7]His interest in beekeeping later led Hillary to commission Michael Ayrton to cast a golden sculpture in the shape of honeycomb in imitation of Daedalus’s lost-wax process. This was placed in his New Zealand garden, where his bees took it over as a hive and “filled it with honey and their young”.[8]}

World War II

Upon the outbreak of World War II Hillary applied to join the air force, but withdrew the application before it was considered because he was “harassed by my religious conscience“.^[9] Following the introduction of conscription on the outbreak of war in the Pacific, in 1943 Hillary joined the RNZAF as a navigator and served on Catalina flying boats. In 1945 he was sent to Fiji and to the Solomon Islands where he was badly burned in a boating accident, after which he was repatriated to New Zealand.^[9]

Expeditions

Hillary was part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest in 1951 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 Eric Shipton that attempted Cho Oyu. After that attempt failed due to the lack of route from the Nepal side, Hillary and Lowe crossed the Lho-La into Tibet and reached the old Camp II, on the northern side, where all the pre-war expeditions camped.

Shipton was named as leader but was replaced by Hunt. Hillary considered pulling out, but both Hunt and Shipton talked him into remaining. Hillary was intending to climb with Lowe but Hunt named two teams for the assault: Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary therefore made a concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing.^[10]

The Hunt expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters, twenty Sherpa guides and 10,000 lbs of baggage,^[11][12] and like many such expeditions, was a team effort. 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.^[10]

The expedition set up base camp in March 1953. Working slowly it set up its final camp at the South Col at 25,900 feet (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 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit.^[12][13] Hunt then directed Hillary and Tenzing to go for the summit.

Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with a support trio of Lowe, Alfred Gregory and Ang Nyima. The two pitched a tent at 27,900 feet (8,500 m) on 28 May while their support group returned down the mountain. On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent wearing 30-pound (14 kg) packs.^[10] The crucial move of the last part of the ascent was the 40-foot (12 m) rock face later named the “Hillary Step“. Hillary saw a means to wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice and Tenzing followed.^[14] From there the following effort was relatively simple. They reached Everest’s 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit, the highest point on earth, at 11:30 am.^[15][1] As Hillary put it, “A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top.”^[16]

They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. They looked for evidence of the 1924 Mallory expedition, but found none.^[17] Hillary took Tenzing’s photo, Tenzing left chocolates in the snow as an offering, and Hillary left a cross that he had been given.^[10] Because Tenzing did not know how to use a camera, there are no pictures of Hillary there. Additional photos were taken looking down the mountain in order to re-assure that they had made it to the top and that the ascent was not faked.^[18] The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow had covered their tracks, complicating the task of retracing their steps. The first person they met was Lowe, who had climbed up to meet them with hot soup.

In 1992 Hillary appeared on the updated New Zealand $5 note, thus making him the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during his or her lifetime, in defiance of the established convention for banknotes of using only depictions of deceased individuals, and current heads of state. The Reserve Bank governor at the time, Don Brash, had originally intended to use a deceased sportsperson on the $5 note but could not find a suitable candidate. Instead he broke with convention by requesting and receiving Hillary’s permission — along with an insistence from Hillary to use Aoraki/Mount Cook rather than Mount Everest in the backdrop. The image also features a Ferguson TE20 tractor like the one Hillary used to reach the South Pole on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.^[38]

To mark the occasion of 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. He was the first foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese government.^[39]

In 2008, the same year he died, the Indian Government conferred him with Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour of the country.^[40]

A 2.3-metre (7.5 ft) bronze statue of “Sir Ed” was installed outside The Hermitage hotel at Mt Cook village, New Zealand, in 2003.