Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary, who has died at the age of 88 on 11th January, 2008 made it to the summit of Everest in 1953, and became the first man on the planet to reach its highest point. He was a true Rainbow Creator whose fragile appearance as a boy belied his ground-breaking potential. At school, the world class mountaineer was in a gym group for those lacking co-ordination and admitted to feeling a "deep sense of inferiority". The 40-mile journey to school in Auckland each day gave young Edmund many hours to pore over adventure stories and travel ever further in his mind. On May 29, 1953, he and the Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, set foot on the summit of Everest, the highest point on earth. They had succeeded where others had failed, and had survived a journey that had taken the lives of great explorers before them. Despite his great success and the unprecedented feat of scaling the world's highest mountain that brought him a fame he could hardly have imagined, he often returned often to the mountains of Nepal, the scene of his greatest triumph. Sir Edmund Hillary dedicated much of his long life to environmental causes and to humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Nepalese people. More than half a century after his most famous feat, his fame remained undimmed.
His name has become a byword for courage and endurance.
We salute this great humanitarian, a true Rainbow Creator who made things happen.