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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:4.5pt'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:black'>Goodbye, Sir Ed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:4.5pt'><b><font
size=5 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:black;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:4.5pt'><b><font
size=5 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:black;font-weight:bold'>Edmund Hillary, first to climb Mt. Everest,
dies<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=1 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;font-weight:bold'>His
exploit brought him worldwide fame and a lifelong fealty to <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nepal</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>By Dennis McLellan<br>
<br>
January 11, 2008<br>
<br>
Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountain-climbing <st1:country-region w:st="on">New
Zealand</st1:country-region> beekeeper who became a mid-20th century hero as
the first person to reach the summit of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Everest</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>,
has died. He was 88.<br>
<br>
Hillary, who made his historic climb to the top of the world's highest peak
with Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, died today at a hospital in
Auckland City, New Zealand, according to Prime Minister Helen Clark. A
statement from the Auckland District Health Board said he died of a heart
attack.<br>
<br>
"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest
abilities. In reality, he was a colossus," <st1:place w:st="on">Clark</st1:place>
said.<br>
<br>
Ed Viesturs, who has climbed Everest six times and was the first American to
climb all of the world's mountains over 8,000 meters -- or 26,200 feet --
without supplemental oxygen, said Hillary was "definitely a hero of
mine."<br>
<br>
"He's iconic," Viesturs told The Times. "I mean, he went to a
place where no other man had gone before."<br>
<br>
Eight previous British expeditions had failed to reach the top of the
29,035-foot mountain, and a number of expedition members had died in the
process, most famously climbing partners George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, who
went missing on Everest in 1924.<br>
<br>
But at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing made it to the top of
the world.<br>
<br>
Hillary's first words, to fellow climber George Lowe, when he and Tenzing
returned from the summit were, "Well, George, we knocked the bastard
off!"<br>
<br>
Word of the Everest expedition's success reached <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> the night before the
coronation of Elizabeth II, resulting in a memorable newspaper headline the
next morning: "All this and Everest too!"<br>
<br>
Hillary and John Hunt, the British army colonel who led the Everest expedition,
were knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Tenzing received the George Medal, the
second-highest award for gallantry that can be given to a civilian.<br>
<br>
Hailed as one of the 20th century's great adventurers, the 33-year-old Hillary
became one of the most famous men alive, his long, rugged face appearing on
magazine covers and postage stamps.<br>
<br>
The tall and lean Hillary never expected to become a celebrity.<br>
<br>
"I was a bit naive, really," he told the Detroit Free Press in 2000.
"I was just a country boy. I thought the mountaineering world would be
interested, but I never dreamed that it would have that effect on people who
didn't climb."<br>
<br>
And, he maintained, he never regarded himself as a hero.<br>
<br>
"I was a mountaineer who worked to reach the summits of mountains,"
he told USA Today in 1998. "Even in my 79th year, I don't believe a word
of the rubbish printed over the years."<br>
<br>
Conquering Everest wasn't the last of Hillary's epic adventures.<br>
<br>
He later climbed other peaks in the <st1:place w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place>,
and in 1958 led a team of New Zealanders past a British team in a race to the
South Pole in large snow tractors across 1,200 miles of glaciers and heavily
crevassed snow fields.<br>
<br>
In 1960, he was back in the <st1:place w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place>,
attempting to track down the legendary Yeti -- the Abominable Snowman -- with
animal expert Marlin Perkins, and to conduct high-altitude physiology
experiments.<br>
<br>
In 1977, he led a jet-boat expedition up the <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Ganges</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType> from the Bay of Bengal to as
close to the river's source in the <st1:place w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place>
as they could go -- a 1,500-mile journey.<br>
<br>
That was followed by 100 miles on foot to more than 18,000 feet, where Hillary
was stricken with a cerebral edema and had to be rescued by helicopter after
being carried to 15,500 feet.<br>
<br>
In 1985, he became <st1:country-region w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region>
high commissioner -- or ambassador -- to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>
and was based in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Delhi</st1:place></st1:City>
for several years.<br>
<br>
But along with the triumphs came tragedy.<br>
<br>
In 1975, Hillary's wife, Louise, and their 16-year-old daughter, Belinda, were
killed when the single-engine plane they were flying in crashed on takeoff at
the airport in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Katmandu</st1:City>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Nepal</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<br>
<br>
In 1989, he married June Mulgrew, a longtime family friend and widow of fellow
mountaineer Peter Mulgrew, who had taken Hillary's place as a commentator on a
1979 Antarctic sightseeing flight and died when the plane crashed.<br>
<br>
Over the years, Hillary served as a camping equipment advisor for Sears,
lectured widely and wrote a number of books, including "High
Adventure," "The Crossing of Antarctica," "No Latitude for
Error," "From the Ocean to the Sky," "Nothing Venture,
Nothing Win" and "View From the Summit."<br>
<br>
Hillary spent much of his time raising funds for his Himalayan Trust. He
founded the nonprofit organization in 1961 as a way to give back to the
Sherpas, one of the many ethnic groups native to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Nepal</st1:country-region>,
who served as guides for Western expeditions in the <st1:place w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place>.<br>
<br>
By 2006, the trust had built 27 schools, two hospitals and 13 village health
clinics, in addition to rebuilding bridges, constructing drinking-water systems
and providing scholarships, among other projects.<br>
<br>
"Nothing in life can be more satisfying than being the first,"
Hillary said in 2000, "but what I'm proudest of is my work in the <st1:place
w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place>."<br>
<br>
The middle of three children, Hillary was born July 20, 1919, in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Auckland</st1:place></st1:City>.<br>
<br>
His father ran a small weekly newspaper in the country town of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Tuakau</st1:place></st1:City>, where the family lived on seven acres
that included half a dozen cows, a large vegetable garden and orchards. His
father's hobby was beekeeping, and he eventually abandoned journalism to run
what had become a profitable commercial beekeeping enterprise.<br>
<br>
Introverted and bookish, Hillary did so well in grammar school that he skipped
two grades. But the gawky boy was shorter and weaker than his classmates.<br>
<br>
Intending to become an engineer, he entered the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Auckland</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.
But he found it difficult to adapt and lacked interest, so he dropped out after
two years and went to work in his father's beekeeping business.<br>
<br>
Hillary, who first saw snow at 16 when he went on a school skiing trip to <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Ruapehu</st1:PlaceName>
on <st1:country-region w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region>'s <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">North</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Island</st1:PlaceType>,
began climbing four years later when he, a friend and a guide climbed a small
peak near a resort on <st1:place w:st="on">South Island</st1:place>.<br>
<br>
In 1944, he was called up for service in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and
flew on search-and-rescue operations in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Fiji</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<br>
<br>
After the war, he returned to climbing and scaled <st1:country-region w:st="on">New
Zealand</st1:country-region>'s snow-covered 12,349-foot <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Cook</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>,
which he later described as "the ambition of all local climbers."<br>
<br>
"I knew right away that this is what I wanted to do -- spend my life among
the mountains and the snow and the ice," he told the Detroit Free Press in
2000. "I had never been happier in my life, and I couldn't wait to do it
again."<br>
<br>
After a trip to the Alps in Europe, Hillary made his first climbing venture to
the <st1:place w:st="on">Himalayas</st1:place> in 1951. A year later, he joined
a "training run" in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nepal</st1:place></st1:country-region>
for the team the Everest Committee intended to send to Everest in 1953.<br>
<br>
In his 1975 autobiography "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win," Hillary
said Everest "represented the ultimate in achievement; the supreme
challenge for flesh and blood and spirit."<br>
<br>
Launched with what Hillary described as "an atmosphere of excitement and
optimism," the large team of Britons, New Zealanders, Sherpas and
supply-carrying porters established base camp on April 12.<br>
<br>
On May 26, Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon, who had been chosen to make the
first assault to the top of Everest, made it over the <st1:place w:st="on">South
Summit</st1:place>. But they had problems with their oxygen equipment, and
because of that and their exhaustion, they decided to turn back at 28,700 feet.
The next day, the two climbers were taken down to safer levels.<br>
<br>
That left the second assault team, Hillary and Tenzing.<br>
<br>
On their final ascent May 29, Hillary and Tenzing awoke at 4 a.m. in their
small tent perched on a sloping ledge they had dug out with ice axes the day
before. The temperature at 27,900 feet was minus 27 degrees. But, Hillary wrote
in "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win," "the weather looked perfect
and the view superb."<br>
<br>
At 6:30 a.m., after eating, loading up on fluid and thawing out their frozen
boots, the two men started climbing.<br>
<br>
At 9 a.m., Hillary wrote, "we cramponed up onto the fine peak of the <st1:place
w:st="on">South Summit</st1:place>." After about an hour, they encountered
a vertical rock step in the ridge.<br>
<br>
"This appeared to be quite a problem," Hillary wrote. "However,
the step was bounded on its right by a vertical snow cliff, and I was able to
work my way up this 40-foot crack and finally get over the top."<br>
<br>
After bringing Tenzing up, he wrote, "I really felt now that we were going
to get to the top and that nothing would stop us."<br>
<br>
At 11:30 a.m., the two men were standing on the summit of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Everest</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.<br>
<br>
"I stretched out my arm for a handshake, but this was not enough for
Tenzing, who threw his arms around my shoulders in a mighty hug and I hugged
him back in return," Hillary wrote in "View From the Summit."<br>
<br>
Concerned about their oxygen supply, they began the climb down after 15
minutes.<br>
<br>
From the beginning, Hillary was asked whether he or Tenzing was actually the
first to set foot on the summit of Everest.<br>
<br>
"This has always been a controversial thing, but not between Tenzing and
myself," Hillary said in 1984. "I actually did lead the last few
hundred feet up to the summit. But it was of complete unimportance as far as
the mountaineer is concerned."<br>
<br>
In 2000, Hillary said, "It was a very silly thing, really. We were a team,
and what difference did it make that one of us reached the top a few seconds
ahead of the other? But I finally got tired of all the questions, [so] when
Tenzing wrote [that Hillary was about 6 feet ahead] in his book, I admitted it
too."<br>
<br>
Before Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit, no one really knew whether it
was humanly possible to do so, Hillary told People magazine.<br>
<br>
"The physiologists had warned us that they weren't sure we would survive.
They felt that the human body might not be able to withstand the lack of
oxygen. So once we climbed it, we removed the psychological barrier for
everyone else."<br>
<br>
In the years since Hillary and Tenzing made history, many others have followed
in their footsteps.<br>
<br>
By 2006, aided by advances in tents, sleeping bags and climbing gear, about
3,000 people reportedly had reached the top of Everest; 207 had died trying.<br>
<br>
Hillary was bothered by the commercialization of Everest, in which guides would
take anyone to the top who could afford it, with fees ranging upward of
$65,000.<br>
<br>
But he and Tenzing "were really the lucky ones," Hillary told the
Boston Globe in 1998.<br>
<br>
"We had to do everything ourselves: establish the route, battle our way up
the ice cliffs and across the crevices, make our way up the mountain. It was up
to us to do it all."<br>
<br>
Hillary spent his later years living in a roomy but unpretentious home he built
in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Auckland</st1:place></st1:City> in
1960.<br>
<br>
Even as he entered his 80s, he continued to travel several months a year in
Europe and the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>,
raising funds to maintain the schools, hospitals and clinics in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nepal</st1:place></st1:country-region> built by
the Himalayan Trust he had founded.<br>
<br>
"I've discovered you can't just build something and walk away from
it," he said. "You have to keep involved to ensure it will be a
success."<br>
<br>
Tenzing died of a lung infection in 1986 at 72.<br>
<br>
In addition to his wife, Hillary's survivors include his children Peter and
Sarah.</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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