RIP Sir Edmund Hillary

[hellkat]

A great man.

The first man to the top of Mt Everest (in 1953, the day of the Queen's coronation) ... and dedicated most of his life towards working to improve standards of education and health in Nepal. He was as loved and revered in Nepal as in New Zealand.

He was also an icon of typical NZ blokey gung-ho-ism: he managed to be the first man to top Everest AND to stand on both the north and south poles - which he achieved at the age of 66, during a trip in a twin engine ski-plane with Neil Armstrong (of first-man-on-the-moon fame) at the Arctic in 1985, and he was also part of an intrepid jetboat up the Ganges expedition in the late 70s - I was working for a pathologist in 1980 who had accompanied him as a photographer, and felt very fortunate to see the footage of the trip from the film they made.

He was scheduled to be a commentator on a scenic aeroplane flight over the Antarctic in 1979, but had to cancel due to work commitments, and - in a horrific event which I recall well - the plane crashed in the Antarctic, losing all lives aboard. A narrow escape for Sir Ed.

It is, of course, fashionable these days to question whether he really was the first one to the top of Everest, and whether Mallory made it nearly 30 years earlier, but as a patriotic Kiwi, obviously I am going to continue claiming that it was Sir Ed.

Bless.
A long and adventurous life, of a man whom Kiwis have always been proud to call him one of ours.


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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Tarmacsurfer]

I can't say I care as to whether he was the first or not, he dedicated his life to something he saw as worthwhile and had the moral fibre and wherewithal to stay the distance.

/salute

[Visitor Q]

Aye, impressive. Especially as he was the first up everest. But as Messner & Habeler were the first up without oxygen, id assume Sir Ed took oxygen.
Being forced to learn about the human response to low barometric pressure induced hypoxia, i find the fact someone can will themselves up to the top with only 33% oxygen content (compared to SL) staggering. It apparently took them an hour to walk the last 100 meters, such was the acute affect. Plus the 'death zone' was always considered to be above 8000m, and most considered the trip suicidal without oxygen.

But, being the first up there is damn impressive i'll give him that.
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[pwntifex]

Legend. RIP.
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the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[map]

A big man and modest with it.

The term hero is wrongly and overused today but this is what the man was. Not for doing what he loved but for leaving a legacy of the schools and hospitals in Nepal, something the news reports this morning didn't mention.

The 'Hillary Step' on Everest is the last 40 feet of vertical cliff before the summit. He climbed it free, today they go up on a fixed rope.

RIP
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[Annabella]

One of my life heroes.
An amazing man, not only for his adventuring feats but for the work he did almost unbeknown to most people.
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