Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE (20
July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New
Zealand mountaineer, explorer and
philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and
Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay
became the first climbers confirmed as
having reached the summit of Mount Everest.
They were part of the ninth British
expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
Hillary was named by Time as one of the 100
most influential people of the 20th century.
Hillary became interested in mountaineering
while in secondary school, making his first
major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of
Mount Ollivier. He served in the Royal New
Zealand Air Force as a navigator during
World War II. Prior to the 1953 Everest
expedition, Hillary had been part of the
British reconnaissance expedition to the
mountain in
1951, as well as an unsuccessful
attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952. As
part of the Commonwealth
Trans-Antarctic Expedition he
reached the South Pole overland in
1958. He subsequently reached the
North Pole, making him the first
person to reach both poles and
summit Everest.
Following his ascent of Everest,
Hillary devoted most of his life to
helping the Sherpa people of Nepal
through the Himalayan Trust, which
he founded. Through his efforts,
many schools and hospitals were
built in Nepal.
In 2013 a NZ film about Sir Edmund
Hillary was released, Beyond the
Edge.