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Sir Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary is famous throughout the world - one of the most famous mountaineers to have lived. He shot to fame in 1953 from a simple background in his native New Zealand. Born in Tuakau, a little country township 40 miles from Auckland, New Zealand, Hillary spent his early years working on the family beekeeping business.
After the second world war, Hillary began a love affair with mountaineering and rapidly shot to prominence as one of the oustanding climbers of his generation - not a "hot shot rock climber" but an expert mountaineer of immense strength and determination.
With fellow New Zealander George Lowe (lifelong friend and first Chairman of The Himalayan Trust UK) he joined Lord Hunt's British Expedition to Mount Everest. In the dark of the morning of 29th May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay set off set off from Camp IX at 27,900', then past the South Summit, the highest point so far reached, and pushed on towards the summit at 29,035. The work was exhausting "Ed, my boy, this is Everest; you've got to push it a bit harder" he told himself. They had to overcome the challenge of a vertical 40 foot rock wall - Hillary led and it has ever since been known as the Hillary Step.
This was the last major obstacle and at 11.30 am Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood on the untouched summit of Everest 29,035 feet above sea level. The news travelled around the world and was greeted with euphoria.
Hillary's first words to his friend George Lowe, who set out to meet him from the South Col, were characteristically low key New Zealand slang - "Well, we knocked the bastard off".
Hillary continued his life as an adventurer with many famous expeditions around the world -from the Antarctic to the Ganges. But increasingly he focussed his life on the needs of the Sherpas.
Here is how Sir Edmund described in his own words how it began :
" I first visited the Khumbu area on the south side of Everest in 1951 and developed a warm respect and affection for the Sherpa people who lived there. Their life was a tough and hardy one but they had a most vigorous sense of humour. It was impossible not to like their cheerfullnes and generosity.
Over the next ten years, I developed many Sherpa friends and became aware of the things they lacked in their rugged existence - no schooling for their children and no medical treatment for the ill. I often felt there was much we could do to help them but never got beyond the stage of talking and dreaming."
Then in 1960 he had the vision and opportunity to set up The Himalayan Trust : read about it in the next section "Our Vision". You can read a full account of Sir Edmund's life in his biography. In 2005, Alexa Johnston, former curator of the Auckland Art Gallery, and a friend of the Hillary family, produced the splendid authorised, illustrated biography 'Sir Edmund Hillary - An Extraordinary Life', published by the Penguin Group (NZ).
Memories of Ed: A Mountaineer's Farewell
I first met Ed Hillary in the garden of the British Embassy in Kathmandu in March 1953 as we assembled for the Everest Expedition. He, and his fellow New Zealand climber George Lowe were both tall, lean and lanky six-footers, and I could see they were men of determination. Our leader, John Hunt, was also meeting them for the first time, and in his book 'The Ascent of Everest' he later described Ed Hillary: "He was quite exceptionally strong and abounding in a restless energy, possessed of a thrusting mind which swept aside all unproved obstacles".
From Kathmandu, there followed the delightful 170 mile walk through the glorious Himalayan foothills to the monastery at Thyangboche. Ed would be among the first to enjoy a quick dip before breakfast in one of the icy streams flowing down from the glaciers to the north. Then to warm up, he might borrow Mike Westmacott's butterfly net to try to chase and capture an elusive blue morpho. During those 17 days, chatting as we strolled along the mountain trails, we got to know each other, swopping stories about the climbs we had done. How Ed had learnt his craft from the great guide Harry Ayres on New Zealand's magnificent ice climbs, and then teamed up with George Lowe and others to create brilliant first ascents like the South Ridge of Aoraki Mount Cook and the North Ridge of Mount Elie de Beaumont. Ed had been on three Himalayan Expeditions in the previous two years, performing well at altitude, so was clearly very fit and a strong candidate for one of the two planned aasaults on the summit.
After just a week of acclimatisation above Thyangboche, Hunt chose four of us, Ed, George Lowe, Mike Westmacott and myself to have the honour of the first brush with the mountain: finding a safe route up the treacherous, unstable Khumbu Icefall. It took us five days and called for all our ice-climbing skills. Back at the Base Camp we soon learnt how to adopt what became popularly known as the 'Everest Position': lying flat out on your sleeping bag waiting for a kind Sherpa to thrust a mug of hot tea into your hands. How times have changed! Now with thirty or more commercial expeditions crowding the mountain, the task of making the route each year through the Icefall is contracted out to a team of Sherpas. How lucky we were to have the mountain entirely to ourselves!
Although I was not particularly aware of it at the time, Ed has since related how he was keen to establish who he might partner if picked for one of the summit pairs. We were chosen by Hunt as a team of ten climbers, each potentially able to go to the top, plus Tenzing who had already been higher than any of us the previous year with the two Swiss expeditions. Hillary thought that Hunt would probably not want the two New Zealanders together, so he deliberately built up a good friendly climbing relationship with Tenzing and they made a strong pair. We had always hoped that one of the best Sherpas might have a chance for the summit, in recognition of their enormous contribution to the expedition.
In the event, John Hunt chose Charles Evans, his deputy, and Tom Bourdillon, the expert on the closed-circuit oxygen equipment, as the first pair; Hillary and Tenzing as the second, with the rest of us allocated equally essential tasks in the build-up for the assault. Think of George Lowe spending ten days above 22,000ft without bottled oxygen, endlessly cutting steps and fixing ropes up the icy Lhotse Face. The rest is history. Evans and Bourdillon climbed higher than man had ever been before in reaching the south peak, but it was Hillary and Tenzing who made the successful summit "touch down" on behalf of the team. It was a privilege just to be part of it.
Now Ed has left us, dying of a heart attack on 11th January 2008 in Auckland, at the age of 88. He was accorded a State Funeral on 22nd January by the New Zealand Government who most generously invited us surviving Everest 1953 climbers and our wives as official guests: Alf Gregory, George Lowe, Michael Westmacott and myself, plus Jan Morris, who as James Morris, the Times correspondent, made the scoop of his life in time for the Coronation, thereby immortalising the names of Hillary and Tenzing.
A tsunami of emotion swept over the people of New Zealand. Led by their Prime Minister, Helen Clark, they mourned their greatest Kiwi, lying in state in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, with his Everest ice-axe and Maori ceremonial staff atop the casket, and a selection of his medals and decorations on velvet cushions at his feet. After a most efficiently organised and moving Service, we moved on to a special Reception hosted by the Governor General, Anand Satyanand, who represented Her Majesty, the Queen, not only officially but also personally at the Funeral. This was followed by a more informal 'Mountaineers' Farewell' organised by the New Zealand Alpine Club at which a dozen of his friends recalled facets of Sir Edmund's varied life.
In the United Kingdom, people also paid tribute. Like Lord Hunt, Sir Edmund was a Knight of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry granted by Her Majesty the Queen. On a knight’s death, their personal banner is ceremonially laid down on the High Altar of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. This was done at a very moving ceremony on 2nd April 2008 attended by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family. The next day The Himalayan Trust organised a special tribute at the Royal Geographical Society, showing Michael Dillon’s prize winning film “Beyond Everest”. This focussed on Sir Edmund’s work for the Sherpa’s. Then his son Peter spoke on “Growing up with Ed” and Tenzing Norgay’s son also spoke on behalf of the Sherpa community. It was a wonderful evening as a final tribute to Sir Edmund.
We offer our deep sympathy to Lady June and members of the Hillary and Mulgrew families. As Chairman of The Himalayan Trust UK, I have pledged continued commitment and support as long as required to the work of Sir Edmund's Himalayan Trust, which he created to help improve the lives of the Sherpas and hill people of Nepal. Even more than Everest, he would like this to be a perpetual memorial to his life and achievements.
George Band
1st May 2008
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