Paul Little - After Everest: Inside the Private World of Edmund Hillary

AFTER EVEREST

AFTER EVEREST

Inside the private world of

EDMUND HILLARY

PAUL LITTLE

with Carolyne Meng-Yee

Disclaimer. The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author or of other persons andare not those of the publisher: the publisher has no reasonable cause to believe that the opinionsset out in the book are not the genuine opinions of the author or those of other persons.

First published in Australia in 2012

Copyright Paul Little and Carolyne Meng-Yee 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London

A catalogue record for this book is available from
the National Library of New Zealand

ISBN 978 1 877505 20 1

Typeset in Adobe Caslon 12/17 pt by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

You cant do that to me. Im an icon.
Ed Hillary

Well if you have a big life, a lot of stuff happens.
Dad had a big life.
Peter Hillary

One of the great pleasures of working on this book has been the opportunity it gave to meet and talk to some of the many remarkable individuals who touched or were touched by Eds life. Our thanks for sharing their time and insights to:

Kevin Biggar, Pat Booth, Hilary Carlisle, John Claydon, Graeme Dingle, Mike Gill, Roger Goodman, Norman Hardie, Rebecca Hayman, John Hillary, Peter Hillary, Sarah Hillary, Alexa Johnston, Murray Jones, Naomi Lange, Mary Lowe, Ken Richardson, Mark Sainsbury, Tom Scott, Cath Tizard, Judith Tizard.

June Hillary was kind enough to consider our request but regrettably chose not to be involved with the project.

When Ed Hillary descended from the summit of Mt Everest, the highest point on earth, on 29 May 1953, he was on his first day at a job no one had done before. Conqueror of Everest turned out to be a full-time career. Ed had to work out for himself what the job entailed and how to do it. In many ways, though he was a prodigious planner he spent much of the rest of his life making it up as he went along.

Many books have been written about the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, most of them by Ed himself. After each great adventure, he produced his own account; in all he wrote or co-wrote sixteen volumes. These include the autobiographies Nothing Venture,Nothing Win (1975) and View from the Summit (1999), as well as a memoir jointly authored with his son Peter in which they tell their own, sometimes overlapping, stories in half the book each; and Eds accounts of various expeditions and adventures from Everest on. Many of those who went along on one of Eds adventures penned their own account of it, sometimes in conjunction with Ed. These include not only Eds first wife, Louise (three books) and son Peter (ten books) but such friends and colleagues as Peter Mulgrew, Mike Gill and Desmond Doig, each of whose writing fills gaps in Eds own accounts.

So when we told people we were writing this book, most expressed some doubt that the world needed another book about Ed. Then they would invariably add, after a pause, Though all that business with the family is interesting. Similarly, when we approached people close to Ed and asked them to speak to us for this book, we could almost hear them silently saying to themselves at the other end of the phone: Whatanother one?

We spoke to many people from Eds immediate circle, nearly all of them impressive and charismatic individuals in their own right. Many said from the start they didnt want to talk about the fuss at the Himalayan Trust or that business with the watches and proceeded to talk at length about the Trust and that business with the watches.

We also encountered at least three people who were willing to speak to us but made it clear they were planning to write their own books on Ed and would be keeping some information to themselves.

Indeed, we wondered ourselves whether another book about Ed was necessary until, having read through his writing and the other biographies, we realised that, although they all did an excellent job of recording Eds achievementsand that is no small labourtheir emphasis on what he did had not left much room for talking about what he was like. And that is the purpose of this book: to present a picture of Ed in the round.

Inevitably we will revisit his great adventures and expeditionsEverest, the South Pole, Makalu, the great Ganges journey, the time as New Zealand high commissioner to India, and the greatest of all his adventures, his aid work in Nepal through the Himalayan Trustas the lens through which we view the man.

We will also be exploring the many paradoxes of that character: the individualist who always worked with a team; the lonely boy who ended up loved by millions; the man who could be distant from his own children but is regarded as a surrogate father by thousands of Nepali; the left-leaning thinker who accepted the highest order of chivalry from Queen Elizabeth II; the man behind the legend.

Note: We will refer to Sir Edmund Percival Hillary throughout as Ed because that is how most who knew him, including his surviving children, refer to him and because it reflects the character of the man better than Sir Ed or Sir Edmund or Hillary.

CHAPTER 1
FIRST STEPS

My father always used to say, Dont tell me the Hillarys are heroes. They didnt go to war.

Alexa Johnston knew that wasnt right. But the woman addressing her went on to say that her family lived near the Hillarys in Tuakau and that among the locals this was a common view, Everest or no Everest. In fact, the Hillarys, what with father Percys erratic behaviour and that funny religion, were regarded as a little... odd.

As Johnstonauthor of Sir Edmund Hillary:An ExtraordinaryLifeexplained to the woman, Ed had served in the air force in World War II; in fact, he had gone to some lengths to do so. Eds father, Percy, however, was a pacifist and his brother Rex had been interned as a conscientious objector.

World War I had scarred the lives of both of Eds parents. His mother, Gertrude, had had two of her brothers killed in the conflict, and Percy had suffered head injuries at Gallipoli. Percy is thus unique in having played a part in two significant New Zealand stories, one a nation-defining disaster, the other a nation-defining triumph: Gallipoli and Everest. We have my grandfathers diary, says Hilary Carlisle, daughter of Eds sister June. He just loved that whole adventure of going to Gallipoli, the training, being an officer. But when he was away he got shot in the nose and as part of that he became... no one put a label on it, but probably depressed. He had brain damage of some sort.