|
Everest hero Edmund Hillary dies
11/01/2008 07:09 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
| Sir Edmund Hillary makes a speech during the 50th Anniversary of Scott Base, Antarctica, on January 20, 2007. (Wayne Drought, AP File) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sydney - From New Zealand to Nepal, friends and colleagues of Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb the world's highest peak, remembered him on Friday as a dogged adventurer with a generous spirit.
Hillary died early on Friday from a heart attack at 88, health officials said. He had been unwell for some time, but friends in New Zealand said his death still came as a shock.
Together with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Hillary reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, winning him renown as one of the greatest adventurers of the last century.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced his death in a statement that paid tribute to his courage, determination and humble personality.
'He was a colossus'
"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities," Clark said. "In reality, he was a colossus. He was a heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity."
Across the Tasman Sea, Australia's acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, standing in for vacationing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said Hillary's name would forever "be synonymous with adventure, with achievement, with dreaming and then making those dreams come true".
"It was obviously a long life well lived," Gillard told Sky News television. "For generations to come people will study what Sir Edmund has achieved by being the first to get to the top of the world."
Nepal mourns his passing
In Nepal, where Hillary was granted honorary citizenship in 2003 on the golden jubilee of his conquest of Mount Everest, members of the alpine community mourned his passing.
"He was a hero and a leader for us. He did a lot for the people of the Everest region and will always remain in our hearts," said Bhoomi Lama of the Nepal Mountaineering Association in Katmandu.
Known by the Nepalese as "burra sahib" - "big man," for his 1.88 metres - Hillary spent decades pouring energy and resources from his own fundraising efforts into Nepal through the Himalayan Trust he founded in 1982. Hillary and his foundation helped build hospitals, health clinics, airfields and schools, and raised funds for higher education for Sherpa families.
South Pole
Two years after his historic Everest climb, Hillary helped lead a team from the Commonwealth across Antarctica to the South Pole, carving a new path to the Earth's magnetic southernmost point.
Flags at New Zealand's Scott Base, which Hillary helped build in 1957, flew at half-mast on Friday, as workers remembered his final visit to the icy continent last year to mark the 50th anniversary of the base.
Hillary, who was 87 at the time, described his visit to Antarctica as "a marvellous return," but said he believed it would be his last.
"It's a sad day for New Zealand," said Lou Sanson, chief executive of Antarctica New Zealand. "We're just sorely going to miss a guy who was just a pillar of New Zealand's national identity in Antarctica."
|
