Edmund Hillary

New Zealand mountain climber

• Born: July 20, 1919
• Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand
• Died: January 11, 2008
• Place of death: Auckland, New Zealand

Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 29,035 feet. Hillary also was the first person to drive a land vehicle across Antarctica to the South Pole.

Early Life

Edmund Hillary (HIHL-ah-ree) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Clark Hillary, who also had an older daughter. The couple would later have a second son. Like many New Zealanders, Hillary’s parents had their roots in England. On his mother’s side, Hillary’s great-grandmother had emigrated to New Zealand from Yorkshire in England. His grandfather, Clark, had come to New Zealand in the mid-1800’s, also from Yorkshire. Hillary’s father, Percival, had been a watchmaker who settled in New Zealand in the early 1880’s, and Percival’s mother, Ida Fleming, had been an Irish governess with an English family who had emigrated to New Zealand.

Hillary’s relationship with his father was not an easy one. He described his father as a moral conservative who also had much pride and independence, who was intelligent and who hated the poverty in which he had been reared. Percival managed a small newspaper outside Auckland in the years after he served in World War I. He kept a close eye on his three children and supervised all of their activities. Hillary grew to resent this treatment. By his teenage years, he argued frequently with his father, and he credited his mother with giving him the affection and support he needed as he matured.

Hillary attended the Tuakau Primary School for his first grades. Since his mother had been a teacher, she also educated him at home. He was a good student and was able to finish his primary grades by age eleven instead of the usual age of thirteen. He next attended an Auckland grammar school, commuting there by train to save the boarding expenses. He commuted for more than three years, until his family moved to Auckland. At this time, Hillary’s father gave up journalism to become a beekeeper. At age sixteen, Hillary would put all of his time not spent on school into his father’s business. Once, however, during some free time, Hillary went on a ten-day skiing trip with some friends. He discovered then that he loved the snow.

Although Hillary entered college, he stayed for only two years. Despite being an avid reader, he was unhappy because he did not socialize easily. When he left college, he became a full-time beekeeper, working long hours for his father. In late 1939, Hillary and some friends took a trip to the Southern Alps in New Zealand, where he climbed his first snow-covered peak, Mount Olivier. Hillary found the experience to be exhilarating, experiencing an intense feeling of freedom. It was an experience he wanted to have again.

When World War II began, Hillary continued at first to work as a honey farmer at his father’s request. By 1944, however, he was restless and was glad to be called up by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, for which he had previously applied. During his basic training, Hillary continued to climb mountains for his amusement on weekends. He scaled Mount Tapuae at 9,465 feet. During his special training as a navigator, he climbed Mount Egmont (8,260 feet). Next he climbed a series of mountains at about this same height, including Mount Seally (8,600 feet).

After the war, in January of 1946, Hillary tested the knowledge of mountaineering techniques he had acquired through his reading. He scaled Malte Brun (10,000 feet) in the Southern Alps. After this, he saved all of the money he could to buy proper climbing equipment. In the summer of 1947, he climbed Mount Cook (12,349 feet), thereby fulfilling his first major ambition as a climber.

In April of 1950, when his family visited England for his sister’s wedding, Hillary first saw the European Alps. He spent time climbing in both Austria and Switzerland and reached the top of the Jungfrau (13,642 feet) and Aletschhorn (13,784 feet).

Life’s Work

On his return to New Zealand from Europe, Hillary prepared for his trip to the Himalayas. He was a member of a four-man New Zealand group, the first of their country to make a Himalaya expedition alone. This group included George Lowe, who had climbed with Hillary before and who would become a lifelong friend and climbing companion. This expedition left New Zealand in May of 1951. After traveling by boat, then through India to the Himalayas, they were ready to begin a climb in early June. On June 8, they reached the Kuari Pass at 12,400 feet, which offered the climbers an excellent view of the major Himalayan mountains. When the group scaled Mukut Parbat (23,760 feet), it was Hillary’s first time at more than 20,000 feet.

While in the Himalayas, Hillary read that the British explorer Eric Shipton was planning to study the area around Mount Everest in the next few months. Hillary excitedly wrote to the explorer, asking if he or his New Zealand friends could accompany Shipton. On August 25, a telegram arrived for Hillary, stating that he was chosen to go on Shipton’s reconnaissance mission. Hillary was elated at this news.

In September, Hillary was back in Nepal near the base of Everest. It was an extremely treacherous mountain that climbers had been attempting to scale for the previous thirty years (some dying in the effort). No one had yet been successful. Shipton’s group was on the southern side of Everest in Nepal, where they were studying a feasible approach to the summit. Most earlier climbers had used a northern route that began in Tibet. During the month of October, Hillary aided Shipton personally in investigating the southern side of Everest. The worst hazard from that approach seemed to be a dangerous ice fall.

Although Hillary returned to beekeeping after this mountaineering mission, the return was short-lived. He was back in Nepal in 1952 on premission training for the British Everest Expedition that would begin in 1953. On this trip, the team scaled Cho Oyu at 26,870 feet, the seventh highest peak in the world. When the British expedition started out in 1953, Hillary and his friend Lowe were both included, but the leadership was given to John Hunt, not Shipton. Hunt, a military man, seemed to have the extra drive, determination, and discipline necessary to reach the top of Everest. Hillary also met for the first time Tenzing Norgay , a Sherpa climber and guide, on this expedition.

Hillary recalled his feelings as the expedition began its preparations: He felt restless (a mood he always experienced just before a climb), and he also felt competitive and somewhat argumentative (he always strove to control his rather quick temper). Those were the very qualities that were to help Hillary reach the top of Everest. He always drove himself hard physically (even at beekeeping), and he often relied on his own judgment in climbing situations. He admitted that he was never one who could take orders well. Hillary was paired with Tenzing because the two, among those on the expedition, were the most physically fit and most determined to scale Everest.

In May of 1953, Hillary, paired with Tenzing, experimented with an open-circuit oxygen system that they would need at the high altitudes near the top of Everest, where the air is too thin for efficient breathing. During May, a series of support camps was built along the approach to the summit. The route had seven camps, the highest at 24,000 feet. Lowe, an experienced trail cutter, dug into the ice and snow on the approach. On May 28, Hillary and his support crew established a camp at 27,900 feet. The temperature there was about -27 degrees Celsius, and three liters of oxygen were consumed by each climber per minute. On the morning of May 29, Hillary and Tenzing moved out of camp toward the summit. They took a snow-covered route to avoid the icier areas, and at about 9:00 a.m. they reached the peak of the South Summit, below a dangerous ridge. Tenzing was feeling somewhat sluggish, but since they were consuming oxygen at a safe, steady rate, the two continued climbing. At 11:30 a.m. they were standing on the top of Mount Everest the first ever to do so. They planted four flags affixed to a climbing pole: those of the United Nations, the United Kingdom, India, and Nepal. They shook hands and took some photographs for about fifteen minutes, then they descended. The highest peak in the world had been climbed.

Hillary finished this expedition thin, exhausted, and suddenly famous. Queen Elizabeth II of England immediately knighted Hillary and Hunt. Tenzing also became a celebrity, but mainly in Nepal, Tibet, and India. After the expedition he took a position as director of field training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, located in Darjeeling. He also operated a trekking company called Tenzing Norgay Adventures.

For the rest of the year, Hillary was pressed by reporters and photographers. He has a rugged appearance in pictures from this era, with his long, thin face with a large, toothy smile, a sturdy nose, and bright eyes, along with a tuft of thick, unruly hair. At six feet, three inches, he presented a tall, lean figure. In all the confusion of sudden fame, Hillary was certain of one thing: He wished to marry Louise Mary Rose, a music student he had known in Auckland. They were married on September 3, 1953, which was Louise’s twenty-third birthday. Her openness and enthusiasm helped the shy and soft-spoken Hillary through the numerous receptions in his honor.

Hillary quickly became restless for more challenges, and he found an opportunity for action in the middle of 1955, when he was asked to aid Vivian Fuchs in leading an expedition to Antarctica to cross that continent to the South Pole. Both Hillary and Lowe were to support Fuchs in this effort. Hillary was to establish bases where Fuchs and his crew would stop for food and fuel. Hillary took with him to Antarctica, for his own travel use, reconditioned farm tractors. On December 21, 1956, he left New Zealand, planning to be away for the next sixteen months. After Hillary and his crew had established and supplied the support bases, his customary restlessness set in. He became convinced that he could cross the South Pole at about the same time as could Fuchs. Thus, he set out on his farm tractors, which were enhanced with multiple wheel drives to run on the ice and snow, and were fitted with a canvas cab to protect the drivers from the frigid air. Hillary left from the last supply depot, some five hundred miles from the South Pole, on December 20. On January 4, 1958, he reached the pole several days before Fuchs.

On his return to New Zealand, Hillary was happy to spend some time with his wife and their three young children, two girls and a boy. He would have other wilderness adventures in the coming years but none as famous as those at Mount Everest and the South Pole. Tragedy would also touch him in 1975, when his wife and their younger daughter, age sixteen, died in an airplane crash.

In 1960, Hillary led an expedition of scientists and climbers to Nepal, where they studied two phenomena: the possible existence of the yeti (or “abominable snowman”) and the effect of high altitudes on humans and their ability to acclimatize. The first of these studies tried to prove that the yeti is only a legend. The second study demonstrated firsthand the life-threatening aspects of high altitude: Hillary suffered a cerebral vascular accident at more than 21,000 feet. Other climbers on this expedition did reach 27,000 feet without oxygen, but they could go no farther. On his return from this expedition, Hillary decided on his next Himalayan project to build a school for the children of Khumjung, the home village of the Sherpa climbers who were on the major Everest expedition.

The Sherpas, members of an ethnic group that lived mainly in the high altitude and harsh terrain of the Himalaya region, desperately needed basic facilities most notably schools, hospitals, bridges, and water pipelines. Living in such an environment means living with an obsolete, even nonexistent, infrastructure. Hillary’s plan, which he maintained through the decades, was that the Sherpas themselves take control of each building project, starting with the first school, which opened in 1961. Hillary’s role was primarily that of financier, with much support from numerous good friends.

To properly fund the Sherpa projects, six trust foundations were established around the world to solicit and manage money. The first was the Himalayan Trust (of New Zealand), established in 1963 by Hillary himself; the second was the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada, established in 1973; followed by the Hillary Foundation (United States) in 1975; the American Himalayan Foundation (San Francisco, California) in 1981; the Sir Edmund Hillary Trust (United Kingdom) in 1989, founded by George and Mary Lowe; and the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation (Germany) in 1991. These combined trusts have helped build twenty-seven schools, two hospitals, twelve clinics, and numerous pass-spanning bridges and fresh water pipelines in Nepal. As a result the number of infant deaths has greatly decreased, as has the number of cases of goiter, tuberculosis, and smallpox all once common among the Sherpas.

Hoping to counter the detrimental effects of the modernization of Nepal (including an influx of tourists and climbers), Hillary helped plan, in 1976, a reforestation project that led to the establishment of Sagarmatha National Park. The park comprises 480 square miles of parkland and includes Mount Everest. In addition, Hillary also served his native New Zealand. In 1985 the newly elected prime minister, David Lange, called on Hillary to serve as high commissioner to India, a post he kept until 1989. This was a sensitive assignment because of difficulties in trade relations in the previous few years between the two countries. To this post, Hillary took June Mulgrew, who had been married to a deceased friend of his. The two would spend much time together as companions, followed by a wedding at Hillary’s New Zealand home in November of 1989.

Hillary died after suffering a heart attack on January 11, 2008, in Auckland, fifty-five years after his historic climb. He was eighty-eight years old.

Significance

Hillary’s best-known legacy is that of a pathbreaking and record-setting mountain climber and explorer. Little known to many was that he was a humanitarian and author as well. His concern for the welfare of the Sherpas the silent and even forgotten climbing partners and guides of Himalayan mountaineers went far beyond making token gestures on their behalf. Hillary wrote several books that reexamine not only his great feats of endurance in some of the harshest environments on Earth (the Himalayas and the top of Everest as well as the South Pole) but also his humanitarian work in partnership with the people of Nepal.

Bibliography

Fuchs, Vivian, and Edmund Hillary. The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958. A detailed account of the famous South Pole expedition. Includes a helpful glossary as well as appendixes explaining airplane and land-vehicle specifications. The Antarctic landscape comes alive here in numerous pages of photographs, many in color.

Hillary, Edmund. High Adventure. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Hillary writes of his climbing expeditions prior to his ascent of Mount Everest. A fine account of the 1951 reconnaissance and climb of Cho Oyu. Vividly demonstrates the dangers of climbing such treacherous peaks. Includes many excellent explanatory illustrations and maps, as well as stunning pictures.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Nothing Venture, Nothing Win. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1975. Hillary’s autobiography, written with an honesty and sincerity that are hallmarks of his character. His style is simple and direct. He covers more of his personal life here than in his other books and describes his developmental years in detail.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. View from the Summit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. An exceptional memoir written to celebrate Hillary’s adventures. Hillary also includes personal accounts of his family’s many travels, his work with the Sherpas, and his role as high commissioner to India. A few vivid color photos are included.

Hillary, Edmund, and Desmond Doig. High in the Thin Cold Air. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962. This book records the events of the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition of 1960-1961, in which Hillary and his party searched for the yeti and also studied high-altitude human acclimatization. It is an interesting narrative that relates much about Sherpa life. Much space is given to the search for the yeti.

Johnston, Alexa. Reaching the Summit: Edmund Hillary’s Life of Adventure. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2005. This is an authorized biography full of rich detail, written as a lively narrative. One special feature is the inclusion of family and personal mementos collected by Hillary such as news clippings, family photos, and telegrams. The book has an exceptionally beautiful format and excellent color photos of Everest.

Norgay, Jamling Tenzing, with Broughton Coburn. Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. A book by the son of Hillary’s climbing partner Tenzing Norgay. A rare look at the personal life of a Sherpa mountaineer.

Ortner, Sherry B. Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. A scholarly study by an anthropologist who has spent her career studying the Sherpas of the Himalayas, who have aided climbers in the region since the first decade of the twentieth century. Notes, bibliographical references, index, and illustrations.

Ramsay, Cynthia Russ. Sir Edmund Hillary and the People of Everest. Kansas City, Mo.: Andrew McMeel, 2002. A well-formatted book that depicts the daily lives of the Sherpas through photos. Includes a brief afterword by Hillary. Photographs by Anne B. Keiser.

Unsworth, Walt. Everest: The Mountaineering History. Seattle, Wash.: The Mountaineers, 2000. A definitive 789-page history of mountaineering and climbs of Mount Everest.