Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88.
The prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, hailed the the explorer as a "colossus". "The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived," Clark said. "But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi."
The New Zealander reached the summit of the Himalayan mountain on May 29 1953 alongside the Tibetan-born Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hillary led the New Zealand section of the Trans-Antarctic expedition from 1955 to 1958. In 1958 he also participated in the first mechanised expedition to the South Pole.
He devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal, where he helped build clinics, hospitals and 17 schools.
Last April, after returning from from a trip to Nepal, Hillary suffered a fall and was admitted to a hospital in Auckland.
British adventurer and environmentalist Pen Hadow said Hillary's death "closes one of the great chapters of planetary exploration. He was physically and metaphorically at the pinnacle of high adventure," said Hadow.
Because of Hillary's conquest of Everest "millions of people will know him and will and will be affected in some way by his passing". |