Edmund Hillary
FameRank: 6

"Sir Edmund Percival Hillary" was a New Zealand mountaineering/mountaineer, explorer and philanthropy/philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese people/Nepalese Sherpa people/Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of climbing Mount Everest/first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition/ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt, Baron Hunt/John Hunt. Hillary was named by Time (magazine)/Time as one of the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century/100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school, making his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier. He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II. Prior to the 1953 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 the South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest.

If you enjoy these quotes, be sure to check out other famous explorers! More Edmund Hillary on Wikipedia.

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

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There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

16

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

13

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.

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As far as I knew, he had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.

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We knocked the bastard off.

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I am hell-bent for the South Pole-God willing and crevasses permitting.

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Better if he had said something natural like, "Jesus, here we are."

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Well, we knocked the bast*rd off!

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