Mount Everest Legend Edmund Hillary Dies at 88
January 11, 2008 at 12:00 am · Filed under Vox Populi


Legendary adventurer Edmund Hillary has died at the age of 88. The New Zealander was the first man to climb the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Edmund Hillary made history when he conquered Mount Everest with his Nepalese climbing partner, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in May 1953.

After scaling the 8,850 meter peak, Hillary led a number of expeditions to the South Pole and devoted his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal's Khumbu region.

The death of the iconic New Zealander has prompted an outpouring of sympathy, with messages of condolence flooding in from around the world.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the explorer was an inspiration to generations.

"Sir Edmund's name is synonymous with adventure, with achievement, with dreaming and then making those dreams come true," she said. "I'm sure there will be many Australians today who reflect on his death. It was obviously a long life and well lived."

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Hillary was a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing. Hillary will be honored with a state funeral.

He spent two years as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India, and founded the Himalayan Trust in 1964.

The trust helped build hospitals and schools in the region. He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

At home in New Zealand, the legendary explorer was a simple beekeeper. Speaking in 2003, he said he was just an ordinary man who did not deserve celebrity status.

"I never permitted the climb of Everest to make me regard myself as a heroic figure," he said. "I knew I was no heroic figure."

Hillary was born in Auckland in 1919 and began climbing mountains in his native New Zealand as a teenager.

Following his Everest triumph, tragedy struck in 1975, when his wife and daughter died in a plane crash on their way to meet him at a construction site.

One of the 20th century's greatest adventurers died in an Auckland hospital of a heart attack after a long illness. Mountaineer Edmund Hillary was 88.

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/01/11/...ry-dies-at-88/

Yeah BT,
This is sad news indeed.
Upon hearing the news yesterday at work all the builders and other trades staff there had a minute of silence, we also drank a toast to him at the end of the day over a few beers, now how many modern day "celebrities" would command that sort of respect from ordinary folks?.

I happened to meet Sir Edmund at a mountain safety course about 15 years ago and I was struck by how down to earth he was, this is what a lot of people liked about him
Him and his family did a lot of work in Nepal, I remember reading somewhere that the Chinese army burned down a couple of the schools and a few other buildings there, bastards!.

We have lost a truly great man, oddly enough his image is on our NZ $5 note here, there was a huge argument here about that in itself, when you consider that Ernest Rutherford is on the $100 note, the Queen is on the $20 note and suffragette Kate Sheppard is on the $10 note.
Sir Ed really put NZ on the map and we put him on a $5 note for christ sakes.

May Sir Ed rest in peace.

Yes, this was my impression. I saw some newsreels of him with his Sherpa guide, Hillary seemed quite willing to share the spotlight, and seemed to be a happy chap. R.I.P.

A great man of his times.

Don't worry about the $5 note Mike. There are more of them than of the $100 or $20 or $10.

As for sharing the limelight, let's not get carried away. This 'first man to...' bizzo gets taken too far. Tensing had done the trip most of the way several times before. The limelight was for both men.

Percy,
The fact of the matter is the fact that he returned to help those that helped him in the first place.
I remember watching a doco about Ed in the base part of the Himalaya's from the 70's, they had to truck most of the building materials in by donkeys as vehicles would not have fitted on the narrow goat tracks, he designed and built a harness for three donkeys to carry the load evenly.
That is what makes this man great, at the drop of a hat, find a solution.

Lest I be misinterpreted (very easy to do):

AND he climbed the mountain.

A Great Man of New Zealand and a model for us all. A damn fine fellow.

(and a Rapist of course, being a chap. Can't forget that accolade)

Interesting contrast between the Hillary who has just died and the other Hillary that seems to fill every other news item because she wants to run America.

One with proven accomplishments behind him that will stand for all time; the other with a dodgy history that she seeks to camouflage by blowing bubbles of wobbly promises yet to be fulfilled. One of unfailing and genuine humility and modesty; the other with an ego bloated by the certainty of her own importance and infallibility. One who shunned the limelight; one who uses every trick in the book to keep herself in it at every turn. One who recognised and acknowledged the people who helped to put him on top of the world; one who treads on their faces in her mad scramble to get there herself. One about whom nobody has a bad word; one who would not like to hear what half the world thinks of her.

Which will history judge to have been the better Hillary? If you had to live the life of either, which would you choose?

Paul,
Don't take this as a flame post, but how can you compare a MAN that has climbed the worlds highest mountain, with a female politician?.
I couldn't give a horses back-side about Ms Clinton, she is small-fry as opposed to SIR Ed.
How dare you bring her name up in such a thread.
No dis-respect to you, this guy is a National hero here.
Just my $0.02 worth.

Mike.

MikeT: I am with you entirely. It is just the coincidence of two Hillarys that have appeared side by side in the news in the last couple of days that immediately made me recognise the contrast and I felt the need to comment on it.

Sometimes you find these contrasts that the mainstream press don't recognise - or are too pussy-whipped to comment on. The classic for me was a couple of years ago when a UK paper published a picture on the front page of a young British soldier (male of course) in Iraq, literally on fire after an attack. The picture was dramatic and has become somewhat famous as a symbol of the horrors of war and what we expect our young men to endure when we send them out to fight. Then when I turned the page of the paper, the whole of page 3 was filled with a large picture of a scantily-clad female model, probably just about the same age as the young man, followed by an article in which she whinged and moaned about how tough it was to keep herself in shape and her fears about her bum getting too big to look attractive in photo shoots. That just about summed up for me how perverted our society has become in its respective treatment of men and women. The icing on the cake was the thought that the pneumatic female fluffbag was probably getting paid about 100 times the salary of the male soldier.

I stopped buying papers shortly after that.