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Young World
Legend from Aoraki
ANTARA DAS
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Sir Edmund Hillary will always be remembered for his conquest of the world’s tallest peak – Mount Everest.
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Sir Edmund set up The Himalayan Trust, to provide basic infrastructure to the isolated and marginalised communities of Sherpas.
In life, Sir Edmund Hillary (July 20, 1919 — January 11, 2008) stood tall. A lanky man of six feet five inches, he etched his name in the annals of history when on May 29, 1953, he, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain peak in the world.
Lifelong friendship
That conquest would become the first in an eventful life, as Sir Edmund, once a shy and average student at high school who would spend time reading and day-dreaming about a life of adventure, would reach the South Pole as part of a Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic expedition on January 4, 1958 and land on the North Pole in 1985, after flying with Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined plane. He would thus be the first man to stand at both the poles of the Earth as well as the summit of Mount Everest. Sir Edmund was, however, not one who would rest on his laurels. With the Sherpas, the indispensable mountaineering guides in the Himalayas, he forged a lifelong relationship. In 1960, he set up The Himalayan Trust, to provide basic infrastructure to the isolated and marginalised communities of the Sherpas and other hill people of Nepal. Over the years, the trust garnered around £ 500,000 in fund raising, while it built around 30 schools, two hospitals and 13 health centres and airstrips, among several others. He visited Nepal almost every year.
The world responded by showering him with honours. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth on June 6, 1953, a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1987 and a Knight of the Order of the Garter on April 22, 1995.
He also became the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote while still alive, with interestingly, his native Mount Cook or Aoraki, as it is known in the Maori language, in the background.
Quintessential Kiwi
It pained Sir Edmund to see his beloved mountains being littered by callous mountaineers, and he spoke out strongly against the latter’s lack of concern for fellow climbers. He described himself as a beekeeper, his father’s occupation, years after he had climbed the Everest and did not claim credit for being the first man on the summit as long as Tenzing was alive. Television New Zealand (TVNZ) described him in their obituary as “the quintessential Kiwi — humble, hard-working and honest”. He was that and more, the best example of what real life heroes ought to be.
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