Everest conqueror and untarnished hero - Tribute

WELLINGTON, (Reuters) - New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, together with Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, on May 29, 1953 became the first to scale the 29,028 foot (8,848 metre) summit of Mount Everest. He was New Zealand's best known son, revered in his native country, and the picture of his craggy face is on the country's five dollar note.

In an age where, increasingly, heroes' reputations are tarnished, Hillary's, if anything, grew through his life. New Zealanders warmed to the self-effacing “ordinary bloke” who liked to be known simply as “Ed” and whose number was listed in the Auckland telephone directory. Many Kiwis believed his earthy directness and dry humour epitomised the best in their countrymen.

Sir Edmund Hillary (L) and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa smile after summitting the Mt. Everest in 1953 in this undated handout photograph.

“We knocked the bastard off,” was the famous phrase he chose to tell his companions of the conquest of the world's highest mountain. British expedition leader John Hunt chose the strapping six foot (1.83 metre) New Zealander, then a beekeeper from near Auckland, because of his experience in the Himalayas and reputation for immense energy and strength.

The second pairing in the 14-man party to attempt the summit, Hillary and Tenzing set off on a cloudless morning after spending a night at high altitude on the south peak of the South Col.Encumbered by clothing and oxygen equipment that modern climbers would deem museum pieces, they inched ahead until they reached the most formidable problem on the final ridge, a 40 foot (13 metre) rock now known as the Hillary Step.

Hillary “jammed” his way up a narrow crack running vertically up the rock using all his strength and determination. He then hauled Tenzing up and they moved on with little left to impede them. At 11.30 a.m. they became the first to step onto the summit of the highest mountain on earth. For years neither would say who stepped foot on the summit first, but after Tenzing's death, Hillary revealed it was him.

By late afternoon they were back at the South Col camp and on June 2 word of the conquest was broken by the London Times.
The news won huge media coverage, with the “British” triumph coinciding with the coronation day of Britain's Queen Elizabeth. During the trek away from Everest, a runner arrived bearing a letter addressed to “Sir Edmund Hillary KBE”. Hillary was reported to be somewhat peeved that someone had accepted a knighthood from the new queen on his behalf.

For him the conquest was a beginning rather than an end. Unlike many climbers, he did not see mountaineering as a spiritual experience. An author of several books about his adventures including the autobiography “Nothing Venture, Nothing Win”, Hillary wrote that he felt “no great surge of overwhelming joy”.

“For me it's more a sense of challenge and overcoming my own physical weaknesses and to be able to persist, overcome the problems and reach the summit: this sense of challenge and doing it myself, that's far more important to me,” he wrote. After Everest, Hillary led a number of expeditions. In 1958, he and four companions travelled overland in three modified tractors to become the first to reach the South Pole by vehicle.

In the 1960s he returned to the Himalayas in search of the elusive Yeti and in 1975 he led a jetboat expedition to the source of the Ganges. But most of his energy was devoted to helping Nepal's Sherpa people who live in the shadow of Everest. His Himalaya Trust raised around US$250,000 annually and he personally helped build schools, hospitals, bridges, pipelines and even an airfield.

He became inextricably tied to the area, not least because his first wife Louise and daughter Belinda died in a plane crash as they flew to join him at a hospital he was helping to build.Nicknamed “Bari Sahib”, meaning the big man, he was even more popular in Nepal than in his homeland. In 1985 he was appointed New Zealand Ambassador to India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

His climbing partner, Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer, died in 1986. In modern times, what Hillary termed the “penny a dozen” people who have climbed Everest included his son Peter, who used his cellphone to speak to his father from the summit. Born in Auckland on July 20, 1919, the son of Percival and Gertrude Hillary, Edmund Percival Hillary led an uneventful life until he achieved his Everest triumph at the age of 33.

When not on his adventures, he worked as a beekeeper from 1936-70, interrupted by World War Two service as a Catalina flying boat navigator. Working on into his late 70s, Hillary provided an expert commentary on the Antarctic for luxury cruise boat expeditions.

Last year, he visited both Nepal and Antarctica, where he celebrated the 50th anniversary of New Zealand's Scott Base scientific station, which he helped to establish.