(July 20, 1919 – January 11, 2008)
The summit of Everest. An almost otherworldly beautiful place, endless silence, eternal snow and ice, gaping abysses, terrifying stormy winds, and air so thin that the human brain and lungs cannot function normally in it… As far as we know, it was first discovered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay when they reached it on May 29, 1953. This achievement forever marked Hillary’s life and turned him into a living legend.
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a simple and humble man of restless spirit and a big heart, leading a very rich and fulfilling life, always on the trail of some of the adventures he dreamt of as a shy child immersed in the books he loved to read. This is how he described himself: “I think I somehow represent the average New Zealander: of modest abilities, combining them with a lot of determination, and I quite like success.”
His interest in climbing was awakened during a school trip.
He went to Mount Ruapehu when he was sixteen years old, and he conquered his first summit in 1939 – Mount Ollivier in the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Hillary’s restless spirit failed to maintain his studies of natural sciences at the University of Auckland, so he left his studies and joined his brother Rex and father Percy in beekeeping. Thus, he spent his summers with bees and winters with climbing.
Ascent of Everest
Many mountaineers declared Everest unconquerable. This was supported by numerous failed expeditions and lost lives of dozens of experienced mountaineers who were buried under avalanches or got lost and froze in sudden ice storms that would sweep over the sheer slopes, and who continue to die to this day.
Sir Edmund Hillary was part of a great expedition led by the British Royal Geographical Society, headed by John Hunt, which consisted of 12 climbers, 35 Sherpa guides, and 350 porters who carried almost 5 tons of food and equipment.
Ascending through the dangerous South Col from the Nepalese side, the members of the expedition The expeditions were raising camps higher and higher on icy slopes and dangerous rocky outcrops, slowly approaching their goal.
The first ones who attempted to climb directly to the top were Tom Bourdillon and Dr. Charles Evans, however, they had to give up a hundred meters from the summit, overcome by exhaustion, a storm that engulfed them with ice, and malfunctions of their oxygen bottles.
In a new attempt, Hillary and Norgay set off. First, they set up a shelter at 8500 meters, on a narrow rocky outcrop that was less than two meters wide. There they spent the night, struggling to keep the tent against howling gusts of wind, while the temperature dropped thirty degrees below zero.
In the morning at 6:30 am, encouraged by the clearing sky, they started the final ascent. Tied together, using ice axes as anchors, with one leading and then the other, they slowly made progress along the steep sharp ridge southeast of the summit.
Halfway, they encountered soft snow. “I immediately realized that we were on dangerous terrain. Suddenly, with a muffled sound of breaking, a snow crust with a diameter of two meters on which I was standing broke off.” Hillary slid about five to ten meters before he managed to catch himself. “It was a nasty shock. Between my legs, I could see 3000 meters below…”
They came across a twelve-meter-high vertical bare rock and ice obstacle that Hillary called “the toughest challenge on the ridge”. Luckily, they found a vertical crevasse and managed to climb up by leaning on their backs and legs against the sides of the crevasse. The last few meters to the top were relatively easy compared to that: “A few more strikes of the ice ax, and we stood at the summit.”
The magnificent panorama of the Himalayas now lay before them: fluffy clouds and pastel shades to the north, and in all directions a long series of jagged mountain ranges, valleys hidden by clouds, large natural amphitheaters of snow and rock, and the gleaming Kangshung glacier 3000 meters below them.
“We shook hands and patted each other on the back.” “With our backs until we were forced to stop because we ran out of breath,” Hillary recalls. In the snow at the summit, they left a cross in Hunt’s name, as well as biscuits and chocolates that Norgay offered as a sacrifice to the mountain gods. Then they started the dangerous journey back: “I was completely aware that we still had to safely descend the mountain… In fact, I only felt true excitement when we reached the base and everything was behind us.”
“Respect, wonder, humility, pride, excitement – those should definitely be the jumbled feelings of the first man to step onto the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed,” Hillary later said. “But what prevailed in me were feelings of relief and surprise. Relief because the long, arduous work was finished and the unattainable was achieved. And surprise because it happened to me – old Ed Hillary, a beekeeper, once the top student in the Tuakau regional school, a hopeless case in high school in Auckland, and lacking any special talent.” “In the case of the university – first at the top of Everest! I just couldn’t believe it.”
After Everest
“The news of a successful ascent traveled around the world and coincided with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Soon, the tall, lanky beekeeper from the edges of the empire received news that he would be knighted. When he found out, Hillary was incredulous. “Well, that was hard for me to accept. I didn’t really feel like someone who would be ideal to receive such a title.” As someone who often walked around his hometown of Papakura in New Zealand in an old jumpsuit, he couldn’t relate to the Order of the British Empire, but it wasn’t his familiarity with labels that brought him to the top of Everest, but his inherent inner strength and perseverance.”
His brother Rex recalls the ceremony: “Some people led us into a room. They were probably lords and ladies and the like. And then the queen came. She was very young and beautiful. Ed knelt down, Elizabeth lightly touched him on both shoulders with a small sword and said : “Rise, Sir Edmund.”
Excited about his newfound honor and fame, the newly knighted Sir Edmund stopped in Auckland on his way back to Sydney to propose to his future wife, Louise Mary Rose. However, he later mentioned, “I was definitely not skilled with women. The thought of proposing terrified me. Luckily, my future mother-in-law was tough and had no problem asking Louise on my behalf.” And so, the first conqueror of Everest managed to escape the temptation of proposing.
Edmund and Louise had three children: Peter, Sarah, and Belinda. In 1975, Hillary experienced a great personal tragedy when he lost Louise and Belinda in a plane crash. They were supposed to join him in the village of Sherpa Phaphlu, where he was working on building a hospital. Hillary spent years recovering from that blow. He found solace in the physical labor required for his Himalayan charitable projects. In fact, during his climbs, he got to know and genuinely love the Sherpas. After conquering Everest, he achieved a goal he had set during his time with them: establishing a school and a hospital in the Sherpa community. He dedicated a part of his life to improving living conditions in their villages. He also founded the Himalayan Trust Foundation, which is still active today. Thanks to him, many schools, hospitals, bridges, etc. were built in this remote part of the Himalayas, and as a result, he became the honorary president of the American Himalayan Foundation, a US non-profit organization that takes care of ecology and improves general living conditions in the Himalayas.
After Everest, Hillary climbed ten other Himalayan peaks, drove to the South Pole on a modified tractor, sailed the Ganges River from its mouth to the source, searched for yeti in Nepal, and described it all in his books.
In 1979, he narrowly escaped certain death when he had to give up his commentator position on an Antarctic tourist flight due to business obligations and give it to his good friend Peter Mulgrew – all 257 passengers died, and ten years later, Hillary married his widow, June. In 1985, he flew with the famous astronaut Neil Armstrong. In a small plane to the North Pole, becoming the first man to step on both poles and the summit of Mt. Everest. Just last year, in 2007, at the age of 88, he traveled to Antarctica and Nepal.
Until his death, they invited Hillary to various ceremonies to honor him as the hero of Everest, and he saw it this way: “In a way, it surprises me that all of this is still happening. But I think I know why. I think many people like the fact that I didn’t just climb mountains, but also built schools, hospitals, and everything related to it. So in a way, I repaid the people for the help they gave me on the mountain.”