January 11, 2008

Sir Edmund Hillary: Top of the World

A farewell to the man who conquered Mount Everest

By Simon Robinson, TIME Magazine

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood on top of the world. Around them spread the snow-covered ridges and peaks of the Himalayas. The explorers had conquered Everest, the highest of the mountain range's peaks.

MICHAEL BRADLEY—GETTY IMAGES Sir Edmund Hillary won acclaim for reaching the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Here he is at his home in Auckland, New Zealand.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary died on January 11 at the age of 88, almost 55 years after the ascent that made him and Tenzing two of the great heroes of the 20th century.

Humble beginnings

Hillary grew up in Tuakau, New Zealand, a small town about 30 miles south of Auckland, the country's most populous city. His father, Percival, a strict man, edited the local newspaper. His mother, Gertrude, was a teacher.

Hillary studied law for two years, but left to work with his father as a beekeeper. Except for the last two years of World War II, when he served as a navigator, Hillary worked as a beekeeper until 1970. He enjoyed skiing and hiking in the hills outside. As his climbing skills improved he visited the New Zealand Alps in the South Island, a mountain range that reaches more than 12,300 feet. "I didn't visualize myself becoming a renowned mountaineer," he explained later. "It happened gradually. Very few (people) suddenly decide they're going to be a world champion at something."

The Adventures Begin

After World War II, the lure of the mountains grew stronger. In 1950, Hillary climbed the Swiss and Austrian Alps and a year later joined a New Zealand expedition to the Himalayas. "I was very impressed," he recalled of his first view of the towering mountain range. Hillary was quickly becoming known as a talented and aggressive climber. "I don't believe I was unpleasantly aggressive," he said later. "But I think I rather enjoyed grinding my companions into the ground on a big hill."

At the end of 1951, Hillary joined a British Everest Reconnaissance expedition and a year later was invited on another British expedition, this time to Cho Oyu, another mountain also in Nepal. Now 32, Hillary was reaching his peak as a mountaineer.

The Summit Grows Closer

Although many had tried, no team had managed to fuse the stamina and pace needed to conquer Everest. Between 1921 and 1953 eight major expeditions had attempted the climb, mostly from the north through Tibet. All had failed, with some 16 deaths.

After World War II, several factors combined to make the climber's job slightly easier. Nepal opened its doors to fee-paying western expeditions, who discovered more accessible routes. Improvements in clothing and equipment helped dull the freezing temperatures and assisted breathing at high altitude. Nepalese Sherpas, experienced climbers, were recruited to help western adventurers.

Step by step, the summit grew closer. In 1952, Swiss climber Raymond Lambert and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached around about 27,100 feet on Everest. That was the highest anyone had ever climbed.

Success!

The following year, a British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt had begun establishing a succession of camps up Everest. In May, they were ready for an attempt. Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans made the first on assault on May 26. They got within 300 feet of their goal before being forced back. Three days later Hillary and Tenzing set out in fine weather from their ridge camp at 27,900 feet. At 11.30 a.m., after a five-hour climb, they reached the summit of Mount Everest: 29,028 feet above sea level. "My initial feelings were of relief," wrote Hillary in 1953.

Success was theirs! Even before the expedition had reached base camp, news of their feat had made London--in time for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. The Queen knighted Hillary and New Zealand's Prime Minister accepted the title on his behalf. For New Zealand, with a population of less than two million, the achievement confirmed its proud place in the British Empire and marked an important step in its own course.

A Life of Adventure and Service

Through the years, Hillary's passion for adventure remained undiminished. In 1958, he became the first person ever to reach the South Pole in a motorized vehicle. In 1968, he took a jet boat through the wild rivers of Nepal. And, in 1977, he traveled up the Ganges, in India, again in a jet boat.

Beginning in 1962, Hillary began working with the Nepalese Sherpas, the people who had so often helped him. Raising funds through his Himalayan Trust, he helped install bridges and pipes, built nearly 30 schools, two hospitals, 12 medical clinics, two mountaineering clinics, restored monasteries and planted more than a million seedlings in and around the towns of the rugged and poor Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal.

Much of the last years of his life were dedicated to the work of the Trust, which opened offices in New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Britain and Germany. Even into his 70s Hillary spent an average of five months away from New Zealand every year raising money through lectures and visiting the projects in Nepal. "I would like to see myself not going (to Nepal) quite so often," he told TIME in 1996. "But at the moment... the responsibility is there. It has to be done." His family was involved in many of these projects.

Hillary maintained that his image was largely a media creation. "I never deny the fact that I think I did pretty well on Everest," he told a reporter in 1992. "But I was not the heroic figure the media and the public made me out to be."

The first man to stand on top of the world didn't see himself as a hero. Others will.

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