Edmund Hillary Biography - family, childhood, children, story, death, history, wife, school, book, information, born, time
Edmund Hillary Biography
Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealander explorer and mountaineer
Edmund Hillary was one of the greatest explorers and mountaineers of the       twentieth century. His conquest of Mount Everest and the South Pole       inspired generations of adventurers and dreamers.
Early years in New Zealand
Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 20, 1919. He         spent his childhood in Tuakau, a rural area just south of Auckland where         he went to the local primary school. Hillary was gifted with an active         imagination and had a passion for reading adventure stories. Later he         traveled daily to the city for secondary schooling, where he was a shy         and awkward boy. As a child he helped in his father's beekeeping         business and eventually quit school to work with his father full-time.
In 1935, during a ski weekend on a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, Hillary         discovered his joy in the mountains and it never left him. He would         often escape to the mountains to enjoy skiing and hiking, and he         developed a love of climbing. A few years later he climbed his first         mountain, the 7,500-foot Mount Oliver in New Zealand.
Hillary enlisted with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in World War II         (1939–45), where New Zealand aided the Allied powers of America,         England, and Russia in their war against the Axis powers of Germany,         Italy, and Japan. While serving as a navigator in the South Pacific, he         was wounded in battle. Despite the physical setback, Hillary was         determined to make a full recovery and resume mountain climbing.
Conquering Everest
During the 1940s, Hillary made many climbs in New Zealand, particularly         in the Southern Alps. He quickly became recognized for his daring,         strength, and reliability. Then came climbs in Europe that brought the         invitation to join Sir John Hunt's expedition to Mount Everest,         in the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal. For two years, Hillary joined Hunt         in the Scottish Highlands to prepare themselves for Everest. The highest         point on Earth, Mount Everest measures 29,028 feet high, roughly six         miles. No one in history had successfully completed the climb, and many         lives were lost during attempts. Famed climbers George Malloy and Andrew         Irvine came close before they disappeared somewhere near the         mountain's peak.
In March 1953, Hillary and Hunt, along with twenty other of the best         climbers in the world, gathered at Everest. Their company also included         350 Nepalese workers carrying 10,000 pounds of food and equipment, as         well as thirty-six Sherpas, people who are familiar with the rugged         terrain and are invaluable guides for climbers.
With the party's base camp just 1,100 feet from the summit, Hunt         sent a two-man team the rest of the way. They failed but returned to         camp with valuable information about how to attack the summit. Next,         Hunt chose Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay (1914–1986) to         make an attempt. After a heroic and death-defying climb, the two           reached the summit on May 29, 1953, becoming the first two people to         reach the top of the world.
The South Pole and beyond
After the Everest expedition, Hillary gained worldwide fame and a         reputation as an adventurer. Vivian Fuchs, who later would be knighted,         asked Hillary to become part of the Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1957         and 1958 that would cross the southern Atlantic Ocean to the South Pole.         Hillary's job was to set up supply dumps from base camp towards         the South Pole so that Fuchs's party could complete the crossing         of Antarctica.
Hillary wanted to use the sophisticated Snow-Cats available to Fuchs,         but he had to settle for Ferguson farm tractors for transport and         hauling. When the last dump was established, Hillary made his own         decision to head for the Pole, which he reached with his three tractors         on January 4, 1958. He was the first person to travel there by land in         forty-six years.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Hillary continued to explore the Himalayas.         He also led a renowned expedition by jet boat and on foot from the mouth         of the Ganges River to its source. Like his other adventures, it was         animated by his zest, good humor, and joy.
Adventurer to activist
Although Hillary had achieved worldwide fame for his adventures, he         never lost touch with the Nepalese people and devoted much of his time         to their environmental and social causes. Hillary built hospitals and         schools in the mountains of Nepal by raising the money, buying the         materials, and working on many of the buildings.
Edmund Hillary.