A true hero has died, at age 88. Not only did he climb Mt. Everest, but he always gave credit to the people with him. And he never forgot the people of Nepal. What a life.
Nice story in the NY Times, which recalls the climb to Everest.
Adventurer, philanthropist, and an all-around class act.
Requiescat in pacem.
When his grandson climbed the mountain a couple years ago, he phoned Edmund from the top of the mountain. He used a satellite phone. That was remarkable.
When Hillary did it ,it was much more dangerous than it is now. The clothes ans oxygen equipment etc were fairly primitive by todays standards. It was aaaa hell of an accomplishment.
Well, talk about fighting ignorance… I though he was dead long ago.
Anyway, he was a true explorer. Far from the kind of people climbing Everest today, whom I have no respect for. Even if they manage to get back alive, there is nothing is to be learned from their heavily sponsored ego trips.
Most of the obits I’ve read emphasize the mountaineering. To be expected, I suppose. But I find it most impressive that he continued to support the Sherpa people through his philanthropy and friendship to the very end of his life.
stupidly geeky footnote: one of the DVD extras on the “Return of the King” extended version shows Hillary visiting the set, chatting with Peter Jackson, and meeting some of the cast, including Andy Serkis, who is a rock climber himself.
Wow it is sad that there have been so few replies to this thread.
Sir Edmund was possibly the last of the “old school” adventurers/explorers. He was on a par with Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhardt, etc.
I definitely agree with the others who said, “what a life”, “class act” and so on.
A quote from about 10 years ago “If you look back on your life and you are completely satisfied, you are fooling yourself. There’s always something more you could have done.”
Maybe, but I think Sir Edmund came pretty darned close.
r.i.p. Sir Edmund
Possibly because there is/was a MPSIMS thread that had quite a few posts.
Most obits I’ve read mention his charity work.
Brian
Our next president was named for Sir Edmund!
So she once claimed- but since she was born in 1947, well before Sir Edmund’s climb, it seems odd that her parents should name her for an unknown New Zealand beekeeper.
Wow. I knew who he was, I knew what he did, but that’s an amazing story.
There was a nice interview with David Breashears last night on The Newshour. It was interesting to hear him say that the Ed Hillary he knew wasn’t a mountain climber, but a humanitarian who lived to do the right thing.
In the news story, it says his wife, Lady Louise, and his daughter, Belinda, were killed in a plane crash on take off from Kathmandu.
When I was in the Mt. Everest area years ago, some locals told me they were killed in a plane crash on take off from Lukla, the nearest airport to the Everest area.
Any one know for sure which it was? The take off from Lukla has got to be one of the most dangerous in the world. The air strip is paved today, but back when I was there, it was just dirt (or mud). With the brakes on, the pilot guns the engines to their maximum and then releases the brakes. Its only about a quarter mile to the cliff where the plane either takes off or crashes down into the valley. There is also a huge mountain directly in front of the runway so the pilot has to make a sharp left turn immediately after take off. What a rush!
I have never heard or seen an interview in which Sir Edmund did not refer to his Everest climb as “When Tenzing Norgay and I made it to the summit.” That always summed him up for me. It was a team effort and he wanted people to know it. Classy, indeed.
RIP
Sir Rhosis
I wasn’t going to reply to this thread but I did … because it was there.
A great guy, a loyal Kiwi and a farsighted adventurer who left the world a better place than he found it. God bless, Sir Edmund.
He would never say, until Tenzing Norgay’s death, who actually made the summit first. Only then did he confirm that it was he, Sir Edmund.
Actually Tenzing revealed that Sir Edmund was first in his autobiography, and that it was a mutual decision by both not to say who it was because they both knew that it was a joint effort. Don’t know if that was published posthumously or not though.
Sir Edmund was old school - a true down-to-earth, honest to god explorer who knew that it was actions which were important, not the men (and women) who did them. He was also humble and a genuine philantropist to boot.
There is one thing that, for me, that sums Sir Edmund up best - the fact that no photo exists of him at the summit of Everest after their monumental achievement - the man pictured standing at the summit proudly holding a Nepalese flag is Tenzing Norgay.
Why?
“As far as I knew, he had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.”
With society these days dominated by celebrity, brashness and spin, his kind are few and far between.
The world is a just a little bit worse now for his absence.
When I was living in New Zealand I got a couple of kittens for me and my girlfriend (who is now my wife.) She was at work when I got them and came home that night to find a box with a couple of small grey stripey furballs snuggled up inside.
We took a liking to one each and she named hers Lucas for reasons I can’t remember. I couldn’t think of a name for mine and for some time he went nameless. Then one day I was looking for him and eventually found him perched up on the very top of a half open door like a bucket of water waiting to fall on an unsuspecting victim.
Naturally he’s been called Edmund from that moment on. He had a habit of climbing up on to the top edge of the shower cubical and watching you clean yourself. If ever we were looking for him, we only needed to look up.