Lew Freedman - All About Sir Edmund Hillary

All About Sir Edmund Hillary

Lew Freedman

BLUE RIVER PRESS

Indianapolis, Indiana

All About Sir Edmund Hillary

Copyright 2016 by Lew Freedman

Published by Blue River Press
Indianapolis, Indiana
www.brpressbooks.com

Distributed by Cardinal Publishers Group
Tom Doherty Company, Inc.
www.cardinalpub.com

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a database or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-68157-087-7
eISBN: 978-1-68157-105-8

Author: Lew Freedman
Series Editor: Charleen Davis
Editors: Morgan Sears and Dani McCormick
Interior Illustrator: Amber Calderon
Book Design: Dave Reed
Cover Artist: Jennifer Mujezinovic
Cover Design: David Miles

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Edmund smiled while his teammates took his picture after his successful Everest climb in 1953

All About
Sir Edmund Hillary

Preface

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world at 29,035 feet. Its massive size straddles the countries of Nepal and China and was first studied in 1856 by the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. In 1865, the Royal Geographic Society of England established a height of 29,002 feet. In 1955, a more advanced measuring system set the height at 29,029 feet. Then in 1999 a re-measurement recorded the latest height.

In 1865, the huge mountain was named after Colonel Sir George Everest, the Surveyor General of India. Locals of the region have other names for Mount Everest. One is Chomolungma, which translates to Goddess Mother of the Earth. Another local name is Deodungha which means Holy Mountain.

Over the centuries, whether it was exploring the unmapped oceans, racing to see the North and South Poles, or climbing the tallest mountains on the planet, mans curiosity has led to daring explorations. The English have always wanted to explore and discover new places. They thought that Everest was their mountain and very much wanted to be the first people to climb it.

Mount Everest (middle) is part of the Himalayan mountain range which boasts nine of the ten tallest mountains in the world

In the early 1920s, English mountaineers tried to become the first to climb Everest. The expedition in 1924, which included George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, was the most famous. It was Mallory who uttered what is probably the most famous phrase in mountaineering history. When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest he said, Because its there. However both climbers disappeared on the mountain and what happened on their trip was a mystery.

George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to climb Mt. Everest in 1924, but disappeared before reaching the top

It was not until after World War II that explorers and mountaineers attention fully focused on climbing the Earths peaks that stood 26,000 feet and higher. By then it was understood that such expeditions could be very dangerous, especially attempts in the Karakoram region of India and Pakistan. Additionally, the combination of extreme cold, wind, snow, ice, and altitude could easily become deadly for the mountaineers.

There are fourteen mountains in the world that reach at least 26,300 feet high. These mountains were considered important to climb for historical and scientific reasons and various European nations governments helped organize and pay for expeditions trying to be the first to the top. England, France, and Switzerland were among the most active European nations. The nation that reached the summits first would earn great honor and pride. The biggest prize of all was Everest since it was the tallest peak in the world.

When China took over Tibet in 1950, all access was denied to the north side of the mountain. It would not reopen to foreigners until 1979. Access to Everest from the south was controlled by the Nepalese government. By 1953, the Nepalese were willing to permit just one attempt per year.

The scale of such expeditions was tremendous, with a small group of climbers hiking miles across rugged ground to an area that led to the start of a route uphill. It took months to hike into the area that came to be called base camp at the bottom of Everest. Months worth of supplies were carried by teams of hundreds of porters, with these laborers generally being made up of the local Sherpa people. Sherpa translates to the word people and is what those who live in the mountains of Nepal call themselves.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa, climbed Mt. Everest together as a team and became lifelong friends

It was through this combined effort of British Commonwealth mountaineers and local, native Nepalese workers that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were pushed together by fate. By chance, they were paired together as climbing partners. At the end of May 1953, they became the first human beings to stand together on the highest point on earth.

Chapter 1

Growing Up

Born in Auckland, New Zealand on July 20, 1919, Edmund Percival Hillary was the son of Percival A. Hillary and Gertrude Clark Hillary.

Gertrude Clark Hillary, Edmund's mother, sits in the cow barn in 1920 shortly after Edmund is born

When Edmund was very young, the family moved to a more remote country area about forty miles south of Auckland called Tuakau. In Tuakau his father ran the local, weekly newspaper. The Hillary family decided to live in this area because his father was awarded land in the region for his

Percival A. Hillary, Edmund's father, was a World War I soldier, beekeeper, and newspaper editor during Edmund's childhood

military service. Edmunds father, Percival, had served during World War I, and fought in the great and long Battle of Gallipoli, which lasted from April of 1915 to January 1916.

After World War I Edmundss father married Edmunds mother, Gertrude Clark in 1916. The family was not especially well off financially, but Edmund always found a way to play and work outdoors.

Edmund had many chances to play outside on his family's large plot of land and became an adventurous child

Edmund was the middle child. He had an older sister, June Hillary, and a younger brother, Rex Hillary. As a youngster, Edmund was shy and, initially, he was smaller than the other children. Eventually, he became slender, wiry, and strong. He grew to be 6 foot 2 inches tall. Living on seven acres of land, where his father built the house and milked a dozen cows, the Hillarys resided about a half-mile walk from the elementary school, a stroll that Edmund took barefoot.