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.Īs part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II and was wounded in an accident. He made his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier. Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school. From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. On, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist.

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