Mountain Monday: Mount Everest And Mountaineer Edmund Hillary

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I complain there are not a lot of mountains here on PEI. Keith suggests to be creative and I thought I’ll have to put my thinking cap on and come up with a great mountain.

From high school days, Mount Everest is the first mountain I remember. There was a lot of talk about it after the summit was reached by Edmund Hillary.

Mount Everest is located on the border between Tibet and Nepal in the Himalayas in Asia. It is said to be the highest mountain on Earth. Reaching 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) at its summit. This has been debatable with the changing earth but it is the highest point above global sea level.

My classroom history lesson of Mount Everest was always mentioned in connection with Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand Mountaineer and explorer.

At the age of 33, Hillary had conquered Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth. He was later knighted by the queen for this accomplishment.

Edmund Hillary with a Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norway, were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Mount Everest

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In March of 1953, Edmund Hillary joined an 11-man team to climb Mount Everest led by Colonel John Hunt and sponsored by the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographic Society.

The team consisted of four climbers; Tom Bourdillon, Charles Evans, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

The expedition started with a total of 400 people, including 20 Sherpa guides. The guides were to lead the team partially up the mountain.

Tenzing Norgay had taken on the lead Sherpa role.

The climbers had to deal with snow, ice and wind. There can be high speed winds beyond 320 km/h (200 mph) on the mountain. Blizzards and avalanches can also occur.

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The four climbers were broken up into teams. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are in one team.

The trip up the mountain was extremely difficult and when they neared the summit, only the four men were able to continue.

The other team, Bourdillion and Evans, got within 300 feet of the summit and had to turn back because Evans' oxygen system didn't work.

Hillary, paired with Tenzing Norgay made it to the summit. Tenzing said Hillary was the first to step onto the summit.

On May 29, 1953 at about 11:30 a.m. Hillary and Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest.

They stayed at the summit for 15 minutes. While there Hillary took a photograph of Tenzing Norgay. There is no picture of Hillary atop Mount Everest. It was said his friend Tenzing did not know how to use a camera but Tenzing later said Hillary declined to have his picture taken.

Hillary left a cross on top and Norgay left an offering of chocolates.

For those 15 minutes, Hillary and Norgay were at 29,028 feet above sea level, higher than anywhere else on Earth. They had to descend because of their low oxygen supply.

"Well, George, we knocked the bastard off,”

Hillary said when he met up with a lifelong friend, George Lowe, a fellow New Zealander, who was waiting for them with hot soup as they descended.

Hillary had originally hoped to team with Lowe but this was changed by the leader of the expedition, John Hunt.


How the mountain got it’s name:

Although Mount Everest was know by many local names, In 1856, it was named after Sir George Everest who was a British surveyor. He had been Surveyor General Of India.

At first Sir Everest was displeased with the name. He feared local folks might not be able to pronounce Everest and it could not be written in Hindi.


Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) was perhaps the most famous New Zealander. His rugged face adorned the New Zealand $5 note.
This humble man stood 6.5 ft. and not only was he famous for his expeditions, especially conquering Mount Everest but for his humanitarian contribution to the Sherpa people of the Himalayas.

Sir Edmund’s life was not without devastating tragedy. He was married to Louise and had three children. In 1975 while en route to join Hillary in the village of Phaphlu, where he was helping to build a hospital, Louise and their young daughter, Belinda, were killed in a plane crash near Kathmandu airport shortly after take-off.

For decades from the 1960s Hillary and supporters raised funds and built schools, hospitals and other facilities in the mountains and Nepal.


Mountains are beautiful to view but can be dangerous to climb. Many people lost their lives climbing mountains and Mount Everest was no exception. By 2012 , 223 deaths were reported of people climbing Mount Everest.

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