by Michael Gill
Mingma Tsering and Ed draped in welcome kata scarves. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Hillarys in the grounds of the old Tengboche Monastery, 1966. HILLARY FAMILY COLLECTION
Khunde Hospital in 1966 with the sacred mountain Khumbila behind. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Mingma Tsering and Ed walking the Khumbu trails. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Ted Williams Sports Advisory Committee of Sears Roebuck. Ed Hillary (camping – with tent) and Murray Crowder (guns) are second in importance only to Ted Williams himself. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The penguin colony at Cape Hallett with Mt Herschel across the bay. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Jon Hamilton, world-class jet boat driver. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Jon drives his boat onto the tongue of one of the easier Sun Kosi rapids. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
John McKinnon is rescued in calm water below the Arun rapid where one of the jet boats sank. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed celebrated his 50th birthday with a Grand Traverse of the summit ridge of Aoraki–Mt Cook. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed on a trail in the Himalayan foothills. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Louise also put in long hours and gave public lectures in order to fundraise for building projects in Nepal. HILLARY FAMILY COLLECTION
Louise, Belinda, Julia Gresson and Sarah, early 1975. HILLARY FAMILY COLLECTION
Ed at the crash site, 31 March 1975. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed looks into a bleak future after the plane crash. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Adventure World of Sir Edmund Hillary made a film of the first ascent of the 4000ft Kaipo Wall in the Darran Mountains of the South Island’s Fiordland. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Three jet boats approach Deoprayag in the headwaters of Ganga. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ganga Sagar on the shores of the Indian Ocean where the journey began. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
A welcoming crowd on the banks of the great river. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Puja, a blessing for the second half of the journey, at Varanasi. Ed, Harish Sarin and Jim Wilson are standing behind the yellow-robed pujari. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The white water becomes more treacherous as the jet boats advance up the mountain gorges. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
An unnavigable three-metre high waterfall brings the river journey to an end. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Peter Hillary climbing to reach the sky with Nilkhanta behind. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Temba Sherpa, June Mulgrew and Ed in Nepal, c.1984. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
The Kangshung (east) face of Everest in Tibet, 1981. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed and June on the steps of the High Commissioner’s residence in New Delhi. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
June and Ed in Nepal, c.1995. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Mingma Tsering, Ed’s sardar since 1963, died in October 1993. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Key international donors and Sherpa leaders in Ed’s Himalayan Trust, 1994 (L to R): Ang Rita, Chief Administrative Officer; Dr Kami Temba, Khunde Hospital; George Lowe, UK Himalayan Trust; Dr Mingmar Gyelzen, Phaplu Hospital; Larry Witherbee, Hillary Foundation, Chicago; Ed Hillary; Mingma Norbu, Director World Wildlife Fund Nepal and Bhutan; Zeke O’Connor, Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, Canada; Richard Blum, American Himalayan Foundation, San Francisco; Ingrid Versen, Sir Edmund Hillary Stiftung, Germany. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed receives one of his nine honorary doctorates. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Assembly of Knights of the Garter. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Hillary Coat of Arms, first version. HILLARY MUSEUM COLLECTION
Ed in his late eighties. JANE USSHER/LISTENER MAGAZINE
Sir Edward Halliday’s oil portrait of Ed in 1955. AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Ed on the Khumbu Glacier, 1953. GEORGE LOWE
Ed on the deck at 278a Remuera Road, 2007. JANE USSHER/LISTENER MAGAZINE
New Zealand and Antarctica
Edmund Hillary – A Biography
Michael Gill
First published in New Zealand in 2017 by Potton & Burton. This edition first published in 2019 by Vertebrate Digital, an imprint of Vertebrate Publishing.
VERTEBRATE PUBLISHING
Omega Court, 352 Cemetery Road, Sheffield S11 8FT, United Kingdom.
Copyright © Michael Gill 2019.
Michael Gill has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Front cover: Edmund Hillary on the 1953 British Everest expedition. Photo: Alf Gregory.
Photography © individual photographers.
Lines from ‘Abel Janszoon Tasman and the Discovery of New Zealand’ by Allen Curnow, which forms the narrated component of Douglas Lilburn’s Landfall in Unknown Seas
© Tim Curnow, reproduced with permission.
This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of Michael Gill. In some limited cases the names of people, places, dates and sequences or the detail of events have been changed solely to protect the privacy of others. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of the book are true.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–1–911342–97–7
All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanised, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publisher.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologise for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
Edited by Jane Parkin.
Cover design by Lisa Noble, Paperminx.
Produced by Vertebrate Publishing.
www.v-publishing.co.uk