Deceased (1919–2008)

Auckland, New Zealand

Edmund Percival Hillary was born in Auckland on 20 July 1919, the son of Percival and Gertrude Hillary (née Clark). He attended Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar, to which he commuted by daily train for more than three years.

1.98 m

He was 88. 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.

Climbing Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, was a challenge that eluded scores of great mountaineers until 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay first reached its summit. But all of these climbers had relied on bottled oxygen to achieve their high-altitude feats.

Their goal was to reach the summit of Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen canisters, a feat that remains rare today but was, in 1978, actually considered scientifically impossible. More than 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, but fewer than 200 have done so without oxygen.

Most people who climb Everest begin using supplemental oxygen — just “oxygen”, in climbing terms — at around 23,000 feet (about 7,000 meters). Above 26,000 feet, nearly everyone uses it, including most Sherpa guides. But very few will reach the peak without oxygen masks blocking their view.

Edmund Hillary

On 29 May 1953 New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British team, reached the 8,848-metre summit of Mt Everest, the world’s highest mountain. This was the culmination of 12 serious attempts since 1921, including nine British expeditions.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

The British launched three expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, hoping to be the first to the summit. On the final push of the 1924 expedition, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine went missing. No one knows whether they reached the top, a feat that, if proved, would rewrite climbing history.

Because of their efforts, Hillary and John Hunt, the leader of the expedition, were knighted by Queen Elizabeth II who had just recently been crowned queen. Norgay received a medal for his efforts because the Indian Prime Minister refused to allow him to be knighted.

Sir Edmund Hillary (July 20, 1919 – January 11, 2008) was one of the two men who first climbed Mount Everest all the way to the summit. He was also a member of the first expedition to cross Antarctica and reach the South Pole over land.

Edmund Hillary, in full Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, (born July 20, 1919, Auckland, New Zealand—died January 11, 2008, Auckland), New Zealand mountain climber and Antarctic explorer who, with the Tibetan mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest (29,035 feet [8,850 metres]; see …