Sir Edmund Hillary's Story

Sir Edmund Hillary’s Story

Sir Edmund Hillary was the very first person to climb Mount Everest in the world.
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world that is in Asia. Him and his
partner Sherpa Tenzing Norgay climbed to the top of Mount Everest. While they
were climbing up they had to tackle rocks and ice faces for five hours.
Sir Edmund is on the five dollar note of New Zealand. They climbed
Mount Everest on the 29th May 1953. They were at the top of Mt Everest
at 11:30 AM.

During the next fifty years Hillary set up trips on tractors across
crevasse covered glaciers and deep piles of snow. The Himalayan
Trust was established. Donations came from all around the world including
volunteer help. At the opening of the school forty students were enrolled into
the new school.

The Sherpas required an airstrip but there were no roads. The Sherpas cut down
bush, dug out roots and levelled the land. The land was very rocky which
made them have to push around boulders into big holes.

Sir Edmund Hillary had some sadness during his life.
His wife Lady Louise and his young sixteen year old daughter
Belinda died in a plane crash on March 31st 1975. Sir
Ed built twenty seven schools, two hospitals,
airstrips and bridges. During the next thirty years the Himalayan Trust continued
raise money for Nepal.