Edmund Hillary Dead

**Papewaio** · 01-11-2008, 00:42

EVEREST conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary has died at the age of 88.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced the news today.

Miss Clark said the death of New Zealand's greatest hero was a profound loss.

"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only ‘knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity," Miss Clark said.

The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist would be deeply mourned, she said.

Sir Ed's health had been in decline since April after he suffered a fall while in Nepal.

Sir Ed was the first man to climb Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

They never repeated the feat and in an interview with Reuters in early 2007, Sir Ed said the pair had discussed the possibility of climbing Everest again, but he felt there was little virtue in climbing it many times.

RIP

**gibsonsg91921** · 01-11-2008, 01:00

A true loss for New Zealand and the whole world.

**Beirut** · 01-11-2008, 01:03

RIP indeed.

Mind you, I still have a problem with the claim that he was the first man to climb Everest. Perhaps the first recorded ascension, but considering the achievements of the ancient world, and the qualities of Everest's "indigenous peoples", I'd be surprised if it hadn't been climbed before.

This in no way takes away from Sir Edmund's accomplishments. I don't mean to disrespect him.

**CountArach** · 01-11-2008, 01:16

RIP - it is always a sad day when a pioneer of human exploration dies.

**Papewaio** · 01-11-2008, 01:17

Well I think we can safely say he was the first to Climb Everest and to stand at the South and North Pole...

**KukriKhan** · 01-11-2008, 01:22

rip

**Mouzafphaerre** · 01-11-2008, 01:29

Originally Posted by Beirut

RIP indeed.

Mind you, I still have a problem with the claim that he was the first man to climb Everest. Perhaps the first recorded ascension, but considering the achievements of the ancient world, and the qualities of Everest's "indigenous peoples", I'd be surprised if it hadn't been climbed before.

This in no way takes away from Sir Edmund's accomplishments. I don't mean to disrespect him.

.
I faintly remember a play about that.

RIP

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**Devastatin Dave** · 01-11-2008, 03:04

Originally Posted by Beirut

RIP indeed.

Mind you, I still have a problem with the claim that he was the first man to climb Everest. Perhaps the first recorded ascension, but considering the achievements of the ancient world, and the qualities of Everest's "indigenous peoples", I'd be surprised if it hadn't been climbed before.

This in no way takes away from Sir Edmund's accomplishments. I don't mean to disrespect him.

Get over your white guilt, hippy...

RIP Sir Edmund...

**Beirut** · 01-11-2008, 03:26

Originally Posted by Devastatin Dave

Get over your white guilt, hippy...

**Vladimir** · 01-11-2008, 04:21

88? What a surprise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cndjLJW5h84

**Hepcat** · 01-11-2008, 10:54

I was just about to post this topic myself because I'd just got back from work, switched on tv and saw that he had died and they were doing a news special dedicated to him. He was one of NZ's greatest citizens and not just because he did a lot of things nobody else had done before, but also because he didn't just climb a mountain then return home victorious. He returned to Nepal and helped build schools and hospitals and did a lot of work to make life better for the Sherpa people.

My Geography teacher when I was 15 went with her husband (who is our family doctor) to work for a year in a hospital that Sir Ed built in Nepal. She came back after a year full of praise for the place.

I don't really care if people dispute whether he reached the summit first or not, he was what most people here like to think of as an example of a typical good Kiwi bloke and I doubt you'll ever find anyone disputing his good nature.

So RIP Sir Ed.

**Whacker** · 01-11-2008, 10:56

My utmost respects to Sir Edmund. Rest in peace.

**Mouzafphaerre** · 01-11-2008, 11:32

.

Originally Posted by Hepcat

I don't really care if people dispute whether he reached the summit first or not

The dispute is irrelevant to Sir Ed. It's general; like, Americas and their inhabitants existed long before Columbo/Vikings/Zheng He reached there. That doesn't affect the aforementioned people(s) being the first Old Worlders to voyage to the continent(s).

Likewise, Hillary & Tenzing's expedition was the first in context, regardless the natives or some other forgotten people had been there before.
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**doc_bean** · 01-11-2008, 18:08

RIP

**Slug For A Butt** · 01-14-2008, 02:48

Originally Posted by Mouzafphaerre

.

The dispute is irrelevant to Sir Ed. It's general; like, Americas and their inhabitants existed long before Columbo/Vikings/Zheng He reached there. That doesn't affect the aforementioned people(s) being the first Old Worlders to voyage to the continent(s).

Likewise, Hillary & Tenzing's expedition was the first in context, regardless the natives or some other forgotten people had been there before.
.

Not that it's important in the context regarding Hillary's achievements. But Tensing WAS the "native, forgotten man". Wonder how many times he'd been up there before without Hillary?
Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes and Sir Edmund Hillary, men from the same mould. God bless them.

**Mouzafphaerre** · 01-14-2008, 03:54

.

Wonder how many times he'd been up there before without Hillary?

I do. Do you know?

The play I mentioned was about that. The Tenzing character proclaims that they were already going up and down arbitrarily ever since. But it was written by an author with classical leftist inclinations (communist one might say) and he had an agenda of degrading the Western capitalist world in the Hillary character.

Now that you mention, I wonder if he based his Tenzing character on the real Tenzing. Otherwise it would be no less a rape than his capitalist Western world's.

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**Oleander Ardens** · 01-14-2008, 12:27

Not the best mountaineer he was one of the few lucky ones who had the chance to actually try to climb the Everest due to the firm british grip on the rights to access it. So the a good deal of better climbers from Europe, especially Switzerland, Austria and Italy and of course from Nepal were denied the chance of trying it.

I guess he was fully aware that he was very lucky to be one of those climbers who had both the luck and skill to take the mountain on. And he and Tenzing saw the chance and used it to become immortal.

RIP