The first man to ever reach the top of Mt. Everest had died on January 10, 2008. Sir Edmund Hillary died in New Zealand at the age of 88. Another legendary man is gone but his memory and legacy will surely live on.

Let’s look back at the life of a legend known as Sir Edmund Hillary.

He was born on July 20, 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. He worked as a beekeeper but his passion was with mountain climbing. As a young man, he had climbed many mountains in New Zealand. Also, in the Himalayas he had climbed mountains of over 20,000 feet.

Mt. Everest was the target of many mountaineers but 8 previous expeditions had proven to be failures. In 1953, another expedition team was set to climb the mountain. It was led by Sir John Hunt. Sir John Hunt knew about Sir Edmund Hillary from his previous attempts and requested him to join his team. At last! On May 29, 1953 two members of the expedition team had finally reached the top of Mt. Everest. The two men were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal.

The news about his accomplishment had reached Britain at the time when Queen Elizabeth II was set to be crowned. It was a great combination of triumphs and new beginning that restored back the confidence of the British people who had suffered for many years of war and hardships. He and the other members of the expedition team returned to Britain and Queen Elizabeth II knighted them.

After his famous climb, he had climbed ten more peaks in the Himalayas. He reached the South Pole together with the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. In 1979 he escaped death when he had to pull out of a prior commitment to be a commentator of an Antarctic Sightseeing flight. The airplane Air New Zealand Flight 901 had crashed on Mount Erebus and everybody on board had perished including Peter Mulgrew who was a good friend of Hillary. He was the one chosen to replace Hillary as the commentator.

Sir Edmund Hillary had also reached the North Pole together with Neil Armstrong. Because of this, Hillary was known to be the first man to have ever reached the top of Mt. Everest and had stood at both the North and South Pole.

His compassion for the Nepalese people overtook him and he devoted his life to help the people of Nepal. He facilitated many projects; built clinics and hospitals and two airstrips had been built to bring in more income from tourists.

Because of his great accomplishments both as a mountaineer and as a facilitator of goodwill, he had received many acknowledgements including the honorary citizenship in Nepal. He even appeared on New Zealand’s $5 notes and was the only living man to have ever appeared on bank notes.

Sir Edmund Hillary is now gone but his achievements and humanitarian work will forever live on and his name engraved on stones.

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