Inspirational Quotes by Edmund Hillary (New Zealander Explorer, Humanitarian)

Edmund Hillary (1919–2008,) fully Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, was a New Zealander mountaineer, Antarctic explorer, and humanitarian. In 1953, along with the Tibetan mountaineer Sherpa Sirdar Tenzing Norgay, Hillary was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. He dedicated much of his later life to helping the Sherpa community.

Born in Auckland, Hillary studied at Auckland Grammar School and became an apiarist and a beekeeper. A climber by inclination, Hillary began climbing in New Zealand’s Southern Alps while in high school. He joined the 1953 British Everest Expedition, led by John Hunt, and, with Norgay, reached the summit of Mount Everest on 29-May-1953.

In 1958, Hillary guided the first motorized expedition to the South Pole as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He made additional expeditions to the Everest region 1960–61 and 1963–66 and led a geological expedition to Antarctica in 1967, during which he made the first ascent of Mount Herschel. He was New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh 1985–89.

Known for his humility, Hillary’s main interest came to be the welfare of the people of the Himalayan region. Since the 1960s, Hillary’s Himalayan Trust has raised funds to build schools, clinics, hospitals, bridges, and water pipelines for Nepal’s Sherpa communities.

Hillary’s autobiographical books include Nothing Venture, Nothing Win (1975,) High Adventure (1955,) No Latitude for Error (1961,) Schoolhouse in the Clouds (1964,) and From the Ocean to the Sky (1979.) He also co-wrote East of Everest (1956,) Crossing the Antarctica (1958,) and High in the Thin Cold Air (1962.) His son, Peter Edmund Hillary, is also an acclaimed explorer—the father and son wrote Two Generations (1983.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Edmund Hillary