Sir Edmund Hillary passed away today.

[carter]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday. He was 88.

Hillary took his fame in stride and considered himself just an ordinary beekeeper.

The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called "Ed" and considering himself just an ordinary beekeeper.

"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity," Clark said in a statement.

"The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived," she said.

Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement -- and by his personal humility. Humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of climbing companion Norgay.

One of the Legends in Mountaineering has passed away.
He'll move on to greater peaks than any here on earth.
May he Rest in Peace.

I'll raise a glass to him later this evening. :cheers1:

 

[KilroyCD]

One of the Legends in Mountaineering has passed away.
He'll move on to greater peaks than any here on earth.
May he Rest in Peace.

I'll raise a glass to him later this evening. :cheers1:

As shall I. :cheers1: As a side note, Hillary was also a former RNZAF Navigator, having served on Catalina flying boats during WWII.

 

[Smithy]

I was just going to post a thread on this.

Being a Kiwi this is very sad but what a life, and what a life well lived.

Apparently everyone back home is in mourning.

Kia kaha Sir Edmund, ake ake kia kaha...

 

[pgoat]

Sad indeed but he had a full life and an amazing adventure or two in his day!

 

[J. M. Stovall]

R.I P.

 

[PADDY]

What a life...!!

What a man!! May he be scaling many more peaks up above. Rest in Peace Sir Edmund.

 

[Mojito]

I'm terribly sad he has passed...but there's something so very joyful in a life so richly and fully lived. And what a monument he has left behind him, not only in his remarkable achievements in exploration, but also in his character.

One of the things I most admired him for was his deep and genuine concern and affection for the Nepalese - so often limited to a neglible role in tales of mountaneering derring-do. I admire all the early pioneers on Everest, but I'm glad that when it was finally summitted, Norgay was with Hillary.

 

[Alan Eardley]

Indeed, he was one of my boyhood heroes and one of the great male role models of the 20th century. He will be sadly missed in Nepal, where he was regarded with almost religious affection by the Sherpa people. I will be visiting Nepal in the summer, and I'm sure people there will remember him and want to talk about him, as he visited the country regularly as an honoured guest. He was particularly liked for the credit he gave to the Sherpas (particularly Tenzing Norgay) for their part in the expedition. Sir Edmund was placed in a difficult position diplomatically and weathered is as well as anyone could.

Eerily, I have just acquired a first edition of Sir John Hunt's book on the ascent of Everest and was in the middle of reading a passage about Sir Edmund as I went to sleep last night.

Rest in peace, Sir Edmund Hilary, first summitter of Chomolungma.

Alan

 

[Spitfire]

He climbed halfway to heaven - I am sure he can find the rest of the way too.
RIP Sir Hillary.

 

[Flitcraft]

The end of an era...

what I always admired most about Sir Edmund was not just what he accomplished, but how he accomplished it. Men of his grace and modesty are always few and far between, but seem in especially short supply these days.

 

[CharlesB]

one of the last great explorers. rip

 

[BellyTank]

Yes... fairwell to Ed.
...and now, sadly, the controversy will come back to life...
Was it actually Hillary, or Norgay who touched the summit first..?

B
T

 

[nobodyspecial]

I'm afraid you're right about the controversy beginning again. I've never understood why some get wound up about such trivia. Two men started together, got to the top together and most importantly got back down together. In all of that time, one boot had to hit the top of the summit first but in the larger picture it's not relevant, at least not to me.

I'm more interested in whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the top, not as a discredit to Hillary and Norgay, but simply as the climbing involved, given the time period, is amazing. The fact Mallory and Irvine made it as high as they did in the 1920's speaks volumes of their abilities and drive. I have the same regard for the US K2 expeditions of the 1930's in spite of the fact they did not make the summit.

 

[cookie]

Yes... fairwell to Ed.
...and now, sadly, the controversy will come back to life...
Was it actually Hillary, or Norgay who touched the summit first..?

B
T

Or did Mallory get there first? RIP to a great Kiwi and an inspirational human being of which there are few and far between these days. I was born the year he climbed.

 

[Mojito]

I have a rather romantic desire to think that Mallory and Irvine did, indeed, stand on top of the world, but that's my heart speaking - my head thinks that, all things considered, it was very unlikely indeed. Irvine, while talented, was just too inexperienced, and they had to face the second step (unless they chose another route).

Hillary was always very gracious about the possibility that they may have made it before him (although he did modestly point out that he also made it back down), although that is unsurprising as he was a gracious gentleman about every aspect of his achievements.

It reminds me of a short article I read over the weekend about the media beat-up concerning a "race" between to the South Pole during the Fuchs-Hillary Trans-Antarctic expedition. Hillary, responsible for depot laying and route finding from the other side of the continent to Fuchs, was originally not supposed to go as far as the Pole. As circumstances eventuated - poor weather, transport being provided at the Amundsen-Scott Station, etc - there was a change of plan, and Hillary went on to the Pole, arriving first. He was only the third, after Amundsen and Scott in 1912, to make it there over land.

The gist of the article was how the media speculated about bad blood between the two men as a result of Hillary's supposedly deliberate upstaging of Fuchs. And the truth? It was all nonsense, according to the witness who wrote the article. The two men met with a handshake and the utmost in courtesy, with no bad blood between the two.

One thing I was slightly disappointed in was a news report yesterday that credited Hillary with the "Because it's there" quote on why he mountaineered - it was, of course, Mallory who said it.

 

[Alan Eardley]

In climbing safety convention, when two climbers are roped together, one is leading and the other is, by definition, following. Both are credited with an ascent. People who argue about this are obviously not climbers. The men who were first to summit the world's highest peak and return were Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

In later years I think Hillary made it reasonably clear that he was leading on the last pitch. He had lead the Step. The amazing thing to me is that by his own admission Tenzing was not a top-level technical climber. Recent research (e.g. the Altitude expedition of 2007 led by Ankers, which removed the Chinese ladder) has graded the Step as a difficult piece of rock work, irrespective of oxygen and altitude issues. The fact that Norgay made it up the Step is a tribute to that hardy little man.

Alan

Yes... fairwell to Ed.
...and now, sadly, the controversy will come back to life...
Was it actually Hillary, or Norgay who touched the summit first..?

B
T

 

[Alan Eardley]

Mallory and Hillary are often confused with one another by journalists, probably because of the similar names. In order to be formally credited with a 'summit' a mountain climber (unlike a rock climber) has to make it back to the bottom. Whatever their achievements, Mallory and Irvine clearly did not do this. We could say that they may have 'reached the summit', which is slightly different.

Your mention of the Transantarctica expedition led by Sir Vivien Fuchs (rhymes with 'ducks', rather than 'books') reminds me of a 1958 newspaper headline in the Times that produced much guffawing, "Hillary, Fuchs off to South Pole". Ah, well...it seemed funny at the time.

Alan

I have a rather romantic desire to think that Mallory and Irvine did, indeed, stand on top of the world, but that's my heart speaking - my head thinks that, all things considered, it was very unlikely indeed. Irvine, while talented, was just too inexperienced, and they had to face the second step (unless they chose another route).

Hillary was always very gracious about the possibility that they may have made it before him (although he did modestly point out that he also made it back down), although that is unsurprising as he was a gracious gentleman about every aspect of his achievements.

It reminds me of a short article I read over the weekend about the media beat-up concerning a "race" between to the South Pole during the Fuchs-Hillary Trans-Antarctic expedition. Hillary, responsible for depot laying and route finding from the other side of the continent to Fuchs, was originally not supposed to go as far as the Pole. As circumstances eventuated - poor weather, transport being provided at the Amundsen-Scott Station, etc - there was a change of plan, and Hillary went on to the Pole, arriving first. He was only the third, after Amundsen and Scott in 1912, to make it there over land.

The gist of the article was how the media speculated about bad blood between the two men as a result of Hillary's supposedly deliberate upstaging of Fuchs. And the truth? It was all nonsense, according to the witness who wrote the article. The two men met with a handshake and the utmost in courtesy, with no bad blood between the two.

One thing I was slightly disappointed in was a news report yesterday that credited Hillary with the "Because it's there" quote on why he mountaineered - it was, of course, Mallory who said it.

 

[Smithy]

"Hillary, Fuchs off to South Pole".

That's made Monday morning much easier to handle!