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63-453: The altitude of the spur is between 25,000 and 26,000 feet (7,600 and 7,900 m). The Geneva Spur name comes from the 1952 Swiss Mount Everest Expedition . The spur provides a route to the South Col, and is usually traversed by climbers heading for Lhotse or Everest summits. From the top of Geneva Spur, South Col can be seen, and when looking at it Mount Everest is on the left and Lhotse to

126-739: A Nepalese citizen – received the George Medal . Tenzing also received the Star of Nepal from King Tribhuvan . Hillary climbed ten other peaks in the Himalayas on further visits in 1956, 1960–1961, and 1963–1965. He also reached the South Pole as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , for which he led the New Zealand section, on 4 January 1958. His party

189-561: A New Zealand banknote. In giving his permission, Hillary insisted that Aoraki / Mount Cook rather than Mount Everest be used as the backdrop. Annual Reader's Digest polls from 2005 to 2007 named Hillary as "New Zealand's most trusted individual". Hillary's favoured New Zealand charity was the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre , of which he was patron for 35 years. He was particularly keen on how this organisation introduced young New Zealanders to

252-438: A goat antelope. Hillary said after the expedition: "The yeti is not a strange, superhuman creature as has been imagined. We have found rational explanations for most yeti phenomena". In 1962, he was a guest on the television game show What's My Line? ; he stumped the panel, comprising Dorothy Kilgallen , Arlene Francis , Bennett Cerf , and Merv Griffin . In 1977, he led a jetboat expedition, titled "Ocean to Sky", from

315-421: A restless energy, possessed of a thrusting mind which swept away all unproven obstacles, Ed Hillary's personality had made an imprint on my mind, through his Cho Oyu and Reconnaissance friends and through his letters to me. Hillary had hoped to climb with Lowe, but Hunt named two teams for the ascent: Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans ; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary, therefore, made a concerted effort to forge

378-424: A teacher of Radiant Living, getting a 100% pass mark. His test lecture was on "Inferiority – cause and cure". He said of his five-year association with the movement that "I learned to speak confidently from the platform; to think more freely on important topics; to mix more readily with a wide variety of people". Tenets included healthy eating (the salads that June took to university for lunch) and pacificism. He joined

441-415: A tough couple they had been, but perhaps not very well organized." Hillary thought that Tenzing and Lambert were not sufficiently hydrated, having relied on cheese and snow melted over a candle for sustenance (he insisted on everyone keeping their fluids up by melting snow on a Primus stove for water). This was also the conclusion of Griffith Pugh in 1952 . Their oxygen sets were barely operable and when

504-453: A working friendship with Tenzing. Hillary wrote, "Tenzing had substantially greater personal ambition than any Sherpa I had met." The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362 porters , 20 Sherpa guides, and 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) of baggage. Lowe supervised the preparation of the Lhotse Face , a huge and steep ice face, for climbing. Hillary forged a route through

567-863: Is above the Yellow Band; on the Southeast Ridge climbing route, the Geneva Spur lies above Camp III, but lower than Camp IV (as of 2003) and South Col . The spur provides a route to the South Col, and is usually traversed by climbers heading for Lhotse or Everest summits. The Geneva Spur, [in the 1955 translated edition of a 1952 book] "is now called the Saddle Rib. It is flanked on either side by two steep couloirs , which after fresh falls of snow become dangerously exposed to avalanches, but after dry spells turn to grooves of bare ice". 1952 Swiss Mount Everest Expedition The 1952 Swiss Mount Everest expedition

630-832: The Kingdom of Nepal in 1953 and the Coronation Medal in 1975. On 22 April 1995, Hillary was appointed Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter . On 17 June 2004, Hillary was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland . The Government of India conferred on him its second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan , posthumously, in 2008. To mark

693-680: The Order of the Garter in 1995. Upon his death in 2008, he was given a state funeral in New Zealand. Hillary was born to Percival Augustus "Percy" (1885–1965) and Gertrude (née Clark) (1892–1965) Hillary in Auckland , New Zealand, on 20 July 1919. His father Percy had served at Gallipoli with the 15th (North Auckland) Regiment , and was discharged "medically unfit" from the Army in 1916; he had married Gertrude after his return to New Zealand. His grandfather Edmund Raymond Hillary (b. 1836) from Lancashire , England

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756-749: The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) but quickly withdrew the application, later writing that he was "harassed by [his] religious conscience ". In 1943, with the Japanese threat in the Pacific and the arrival of conscription , he joined the RNZAF as a navigator in No. 6 Squadron RNZAF and later No. 5 Squadron RNZAF on Catalina flying boats . In 1945, he was sent to Fiji and to the Solomon Islands , where he

819-636: The Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust , which he established in 1960 and led until his death in 2008. His efforts are credited with the construction of many schools and hospitals in this remote region of the Himalayas . He was the Honorary President of the American Himalayan Foundation , a United States non-profit body that helps improve the ecology and living conditions in

882-508: The 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest, the Nepalese government conferred honorary citizenship upon Hillary at a special Golden Jubilee celebration in Kathmandu , Nepal. He was the first foreign national to receive that honour. Since 1992, New Zealand's $ 5 note has featured Hillary's portrait, making him the only living person not a current head of state ever to appear on

945-680: The British Empire , and he received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal the same year. On 6 February 1987, he was the fourth appointee to the Order of New Zealand . He was also awarded the Polar Medal in 1958 for his part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the class of commander of the Order of Sports Merit of France in about 1960, the Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu, 1st Class of

1008-546: The British team led by Shipton, that attempted Cho Oyu . After that attempt failed due to the lack of a route from the Nepal side, Hillary and Lowe crossed the Nup La pass into Tibet and reached the old Camp II, on the northern side, where all the previous expeditions had camped. In 1949, the long-standing climbing route to the summit of Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled Tibet . For

1071-512: The East Face. I crawled inside and wriggled and jammed my way to the top   ... Tenzing slowly joined me and we moved on. I chopped steps over bump after bump, wondering a little desperately where the top could be. Then I saw the ridge ahead dropped away to the north and above me on the right was a rounded snow dome. A few more whacks with my ice-axe and Tenzing and I stood on top of Everest. Tenzing wrote in his 1955 autobiography that Hillary took

1134-611: The Himalayas. He was also the Honorary President of Mountain Wilderness , an international NGO dedicated to the worldwide protection of mountains. Hillary supported the Labour Party in the 1975 New Zealand general election , as a member of the " Citizens for Rowling " campaign. His involvement in this campaign was seen as precluding his nomination as governor-general ; the position was offered to Keith Holyoake in 1977. In 1985, Hillary

1197-427: The Order of the British Empire and Hunt a Knight Bachelor . News reached Britain on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation , and the press called it a coronation gift. The 37 members of the party later received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal with mount everest expedition engraved along the rim. In addition to the knighting of Hillary and Hunt, Tenzing – ineligible for knighthood as

1260-603: The Radiant Living Tramping Club, and further developed his love of the outdoors in the Waitākere Ranges . In 1939, he completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier , near Aoraki / Mount Cook in the Southern Alps . Climbing brought new friends; Harry Ayres and George Lowe became "the first real friends I'd ever had". At the outbreak of World War II , Hillary applied to join

1323-533: The South Col. Three Swiss climbers and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay continued towards the summit, pitching a tent at 8,400 meters. Two returned, leaving Tenzing and Lambert, who had become firm friends, to make a summit attempt. High-altitude mountaineering in 1952 was still in its infancy. Even Swiss organization and technology were not up to the job and, apart from Tenzing, the Sherpas had little experience. Despite

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1386-661: The South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century . Beginning in 1960, Hillary devoted himself to assisting the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust , which he established. His efforts are credited with the construction of many schools and hospitals in Nepal. Hillary had numerous honours conferred upon him, including

1449-527: The ascent of Everest; he admitted he was terrified of proposing to her and relied on her mother to propose on his behalf. They had three children: Peter (born 1954), Sarah (born 1956) and Belinda (1959–1975). On 31 March 1975, while en route to join Hillary in the village of Phaphlu , where he was helping to build a hospital, Louise and Belinda were killed in a plane crash near Kathmandu airport shortly after take-off. In 1989 he married June Mulgrew,

1512-571: The autumn. However, due to the decision being made in June, the second team arrived too late, facing the harsh winter winds. This account contradicts another reference stating that "no attempt at an ascent of Everest was ever under consideration in this case". Building on Shipton's experience, the Genevans reached the head of the Western Cwm and climbed the huge face above to the desolate, wind-swept plateau of

1575-503: The best plans, Tenzing and Lambert now had to spend a night at 27,500 feet (8,400 m) with no sleeping bags and no stove; producing a trickle of drinking water by melting snow over a candle. Edmund Hillary recalled in 1953 "an incredibly lonely sight, the battered framework of the tent that Tenzing and Raymond Lambert of the 1952 Swiss expedition pitched over a year before and where they had spent an extremely uncomfortable night without food, without drink, and without sleeping bags. What

1638-548: The better Drägerwerk set was based on apparatus used by pilots, and the oxygen supply could be selected to be between 2 and 4 litres/minute. The Swiss might have reached the summit in the spring if the new Drägerwerk sets had been used. Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay were able to reach a height of about 8,595 metres (28,199 ft) on the south-eastern ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record (assuming that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine did not ascend any higher during their expedition in 1924 ). Tenzing's experience

1701-522: The climb but turned back when Evans's oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the South Summit, coming within 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit. Hunt then directed Hillary and Tenzing to attempt the summit. Snow and wind delayed them at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with the support of Lowe, Alfred Gregory , and Ang Nyima. The two pitched a tent at 27,900 feet (8,500 m) on 28 May, while their support group returned down

1764-655: The expedition, and the University of Geneva provided the scientific contingent. The primary objectives of the mountaineering team included exploring access to the South Col , conquering the intricate Khumbu Icefall, and potentially advancing to the South Col. John Hunt , who met the team in Zurich upon their return, noted that following the Swiss Expedition's near-success in the spring, they resolved to make another summit attempt in

1827-519: The family moved to Remuera , Auckland in 1935, his last of four years at "Grammar". He was initially smaller than his peers and shy, and did not enjoy "Grammar", where commuting barred him from after-school activities. He grew to be 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) and gained confidence after taking up boxing . He became interested in climbing when he was 16 following a 1935 school trip to Mount Ruapehu , after which he showed more interest in tramping than in studying and said he "wanted to see

1890-592: The first ascent of the Lhotse summit, on May 18, 1956. There was a second Swiss expedition in the autumn of 1952, after the monsoon , the first serious attempt to climb Everest at that time of year (having received permission from the Nepalese government to go during the whole year). A party including Lambert, Tenzing and others made it to the South Col, but was forced back by extremely cold weather after reaching an altitude of 8,100 metres (26,575 ft). The autumn expedition

1953-409: The first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. This accomplishment inspired generations of explorers to compete over what later was defined as Three Poles Challenge . In January 2007, Hillary travelled to Antarctica as part of a delegation commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Scott Base . On 6 June 1953, Hillary was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of

Geneva Spur - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-439: The first step onto the summit and he followed. They reached Everest's 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit – the highest point on earth – at 11:30 am. They spent about 15 minutes at the summit. Hillary took a photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe, but there is no photo of Hillary; Tenzing's autobiography says that Hillary simply declined to have his picture taken. They also took photos looking down

2079-506: The first successful expedition. Tibet was closed to foreigners, but Nepal had opened up its borders to foreigners in 1950. In 1951, Eric Shipton 's British-New Zealand reconnaissance climbed the Khumbu Icefall and reached the elusive Western Cwm , proving that Everest could be climbed from Nepal. The Nepalese government gave the 1952 expedition permit to the Swiss. Edouard Wyss-Dunant

2142-450: The following months. It may have meant that he would try to fix it, but did not. Actually it meant he would fix it, a subtle but important difference so far as Ed and his fellow countryman George Lowe, were concerned. The expedition set up base camp in March 1953 and, working slowly, set up its final camp at the South Col at 25,900 feet (7,890 m). On 26 May, Bourdillon and Evans attempted

2205-402: The journal "The N.Z. Honeybee" and his mother Gertrude was famous for breeding and selling queen bees. In 1938, he went to hear Herbert Sutcliffe , the proponent of a life philosophy called "Radiant Living", with his family. The family all became foundation members, and his mother became its secretary in 1939. He went to Gisborne as Sutcliff's assistant, and in 1941 sat examinations to become

2268-420: The mountain. Tenzing left chocolates at the summit as an offering, and Hillary left a cross given to him by John Hunt. Their descent was complicated by drifting snow that had covered their tracks. The first person they met was Lowe; Hillary said, "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off." They returned to Kathmandu a few days later and learned that Hillary had already been appointed a Knight Commander of

2331-413: The mountain. On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them over a stove before he and Tenzing, wearing 30-pound (14 kg) packs, attempted the final ascent. The final obstacle was the 40-foot (12 m) rock face later called " Hillary Step "; Hillary later wrote: I noticed a crack between the rock and the snow sticking to

2394-571: The mouth of the Ganges River to its source. From 1977 to 1979 he commentated aboard Antarctic sightseeing flights operated by Air New Zealand , and was scheduled to act as the guide for the fatal Flight 901 , but had to cancel owing to other commitments. In 1985, he accompanied Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski plane over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole . Hillary thus became

2457-527: The next several years, Nepal allowed only one or two expeditions per year. A Swiss expedition (in which Tenzing took part) attempted to reach the summit in 1952, but was forced back by bad weather and problems with oxygen sets 800 feet (240 m) below the summit. In 1952, Hillary learned that he and Lowe had been invited by the Joint Himalayan Committee for the 1953 British attempt and immediately accepted. Shipton had been named as leader but

2520-467: The opinion of the extremely critical Marcel Kurz, this expedition was almost a victory. They had seen from close-up that the route to the South Summit had no insurmountable barriers, and only the last 90 metres (300 ft) to the summit remained unknown. The spring expedition might have reached the summit using the Draeger oxygen sets used for the autumn expedition. They established for the British that in 1953

2583-508: The outdoors in a very similar way to his first experience of a school trip to Mt Ruapehu at the age of 16. A 2.3-metre (7.5 ft) bronze statue of Hillary was erected outside The Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook Village ; it was unveiled by Hillary himself in 2003. Various streets, institutions and organisations around New Zealand and abroad are named after him – for example, the Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Ōtara , which

Geneva Spur - Misplaced Pages Continue

2646-442: The right. Lhotse climbers typically head southeast from Geneva Spur, and on to a couloir to ascend that summit. On the 1956 Swiss Everest–Lhotse Expedition, the spur was the location of the last high camp before Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss achieved the first known ascent of Lhotse summit, on 18 May 1956. Far bigger than it looks from a distance, Geneva Spur was a welcome mixture of snow and rock scrambling. The Geneva spur

2709-675: The route should be up the Lhoste Face not the couloirs, and have a high camp(s) on the South Col (which meant more stores to be carried higher). See the Appendix for the comparison of the two expeditions. The expedition named the Geneva Spur rock formation, between the Western Cwm and the South Col. During the 1956 Swiss Everest–Lhotse expedition , Geneva Spur was the location of the last high camp before Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss achieved

2772-504: The summit of Mount Ollivier . He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II and was wounded in an accident. Prior to the Everest expedition, Hillary had been part of the British reconnaissance expedition to the mountain in 1951 as well as an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952. As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached

2835-467: The treacherous Khumbu Icefall . Cameraman Tom Stobart was Hillary's room-mate in Kathmandu. He described Hillary as: a skeleton as tall as I was ... a hatchet-thin face, and seemed tied together with steel ... I had just got a rubber torch to pieces and couldn't get it together again. This human machine took charge. 'Let's give it a go' he said, using an expression we came to know so well in

2898-524: The two men continued in the morning, they were effectively climbing without oxygen. They struggled heroically, at times crawling on all fours, hindered by the dead weight of malfunctioning oxygen sets, finally grinding to a halt near 8595 m, about 250 m short of the summit. The sets gave some relief at rest but were unworkable when climbing because of the resistance of the valves to the passage of oxygen with violent breathing at high altitude. The autumn expedition had two new types of open-circuit oxygen equipment;

2961-554: The weekly Tuakau District News as well as an apiarist . Ed had a sister June (born 1917) and a brother Rexford Fleming "Rex" (born 1920). Hillary was educated at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School . He finished primary school aged 11 or two years early, and at " Grammar " achieved average marks. His mother wanted him to go to a "good school" and he commuted by train, cycling to Tuakau station before 7 am and returning after 6 pm for 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 years (a one-hour and 40 minutes journey each way) until

3024-536: The west coast of Auckland since 1925, when Louise's father built a bach at Anawhata. The family donated land at Whites Beach that is now crossed by trampers on the Hillary Trail, named for Edmund. Hillary said of the area: "That is the thing that international travel brings home to me – it's always good to be going home. This is the only place I want to live in; this is the place I want to see out my days." Following his ascent of Everest he devoted himself to assisting

3087-491: The widow of his close friend Peter Mulgrew , who died on Air New Zealand Flight 901 in 1979. June, Lady Hillary, died in Auckland on 1 June 2024. His son Peter Hillary also became a climber, summiting Everest in 1990. In May 2002 Peter climbed Everest as part of a 50th anniversary celebration; Jamling Tenzing Norgay (son of Tenzing who had died in 1986) was also part of the expedition. Hillary's home for most of his life

3150-552: The world". He then attended Auckland University College , and joined the Tramping Club there. But in 1938, "after two notably unsuccessful years studying mathematics and science" he gave up on formal education. He then became an apiarist with his father and brother Rex; with 1600 hives to attend, thousands of 90 lb (41 kg) boxes of honey comb to handle, and 12 to 100 bee-stings daily. He kept bees in summer, and concentrated on climbing in winter. His father also edited

3213-476: The world's fifth-highest mountain, was unsuccessful. Hillary was with the expedition for five months, although it lasted for ten. The expedition also searched for the fabled abominable snowman . No evidence of Yetis was found, instead footprints and tracks were proven to be from other causes. During the expedition, Hillary travelled to remote temples which contained "Yeti scalps"; however after bringing back three relics, two were shown to be from bears and one from

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3276-499: Was a watchmaker , who immigrated to the northern Wairoa region in the mid-19th century. He married Annie "Ida" Fleming from Ireland having four children. His maternal great-grandparents, the Clarks, were both from Yorkshire . His family moved to Tuakau , south of Auckland, in 1920, after Percy was allocated eight acres (3.2 ha) of land there as a returned soldier. Percy had been a journalist prewar, and soon became founding editor of

3339-545: Was a New Zealand mountaineer , explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest . They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest , led by John Hunt . From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal. Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school. He made his first major climb in 1939, reaching

3402-512: Was a property on Remuera Road in Auckland City, where he enjoyed reading adventure and science fiction novels in his retirement. He also built a bach at Whites Beach , one of Auckland's west coast beaches in West Auckland , between Anawhata and North Piha . A friend called it Hillary's place of solace, where he could escape media attention. The Hillary family has had a connection with

3465-430: Was an attempt to summit Mount Everest. Led by, Edouard Wyss-Dunant , the expedition, which included Tenzing Norgay , reached a height of 8,595 metres (28,199 ft) on the southeast ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record and opening up a new route to Mount Everest and paving the way for further successes by other expeditions. Norgay successfully summited the mountain the following year with Sir Edmund Hillary,

3528-621: Was appointed New Zealand High Commissioner to India (concurrently High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to Nepal ) and spent four and a half years based in New Delhi . In 1975, Hillary served as a vice president for the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand , a national pro-choice advocacy group. He was also a patron of REPEAL, an organisation seeking repeal of the restrictive Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 . On 22 April 2007, while on

3591-417: Was appointed to lead the expedition. The other Swiss members were Rene Aubert, Leon Flory, André Roch and Raymond Lambert , who joined despite having suffered amputations of frostbitten toes. All the Swiss expedition members were from Geneva . Most of the Swiss belonged to the exclusive L'Androsace climbing club and knew each other well. The city and canton of Geneva provided moral and financial support for

3654-455: Was badly burnt in an accident. In January 1948, Hillary and others ascended the south ridge of Aoraki / Mount Cook , New Zealand's highest peak. He took part in an arduous rescue on La Perouse in 1948, befriending fellow climber Norman Hardie . In 1951 he was part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest led by Eric Shipton , before joining the successful British attempt of 1953. In 1952, Hillary and George Lowe were part of

3717-751: Was established by Hillary in 2001. Two Antarctic features are named after Hillary. The Hillary Coast is a section of coastline south of Ross Island and north of the Shackleton Coast. The Hillary Canyon, an undersea feature in the Ross Sea, appears on the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans , published by the International Hydrographic Organization . Hillary married Louise Mary Rose (1930–1975) on 3 September 1953, soon after

3780-521: Was only decided in June, so the second party arrived too late, when winter winds were buffeting the mountain. They held out in terrible conditions of discomfort and mental strain, but never succeeded in getting within striking distance of the summit (Hunt had decided that if the 1953 British expedition failed, they would also make another post-monsoon attempt). A comparison of the 1952 Swiss and 1953 British expeditions. Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008)

3843-519: Was replaced by Hunt. Hillary objected but was immediately impressed by Hunt's energy and determination. Hunt asked Charles Evans and Hillary to form with him a small three-man planning group on the expedition. Hunt wrote that: Hillary's testing in the Himalayas had shown that he would be a very strong contender, not only for Everest, but for an eventual summit party. When I met Shipton last autumn I well remember his prophesying this – and how right he was. Quite exceptionally strong and abounding in

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3906-460: Was the first to reach the Pole overland since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912, and the first ever to do so using motor vehicles. In 1960, Hillary organised the 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition , with Griffith Pugh ; and Pugh showed that Mount Everest could be climbed without oxygen, with a long period of acclimatisation by living at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) for six months. An assault on Makalu ,

3969-440: Was useful when he was hired to be part of the British expedition in 1953, during which he reached the summit with Sir Edmund Hillary . The results of this first Swiss expedition to Mount Everest were remarkable, and exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. At the first attempt, it had opened up a new route to the peak of Everest, and it had reached an extraordinary height on the southwestern ridge in difficult conditions. In

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