词条 | Hillary, Sir Edmund |
释义 | Hillary, Sir Edmund New Zealander explorer in full Edmund Percival Hillary born July 20, 1919, Auckland, N.Z. died Jan. 11, 2008, Auckland ![]() Hillary's father was a beekeeper, an occupation he also pursued. He began climbing in New Zealand's Southern Alps while in high school. After military service in World War II, he resumed climbing and became determined to scale Everest. In 1951 he joined a New Zealand party to the central Himalayas and later that year participated in a British reconnaissance expedition of the southern flank of Everest. He was subsequently invited to join the team of mountaineers planning to climb the peak. ![]() Between 1955 and 1958 Hillary commanded the New Zealand group participating in the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Vivian Fuchs. He reached the South Pole by tractor on Jan. 4, 1958, and recorded this feat in The Crossing of Antarctica (1958; with Fuchs) and No Latitude for Error (1961). On his Antarctic expedition of 1967, he was among those who scaled Mount Herschel (10,941 feet 【3,335 metres】) for the first time. In 1977 he led the first jet boat expedition up the Ganges River and continued by climbing to its source in the Himalayas. His autobiography, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, was published in 1975. Hillary never anticipated the acclaim that would follow the historic ascent. He was knighted in 1953, shortly after the expedition returned to London. From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand's high commissioner to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Over the years numerous other honours were bestowed on him, including the Order of the Garter in 1995. Throughout it, however, he maintained a high level of humility, and his main interest came to be the welfare of the Himalayan peoples of Nepal, especially the Sherpas. Through the Himalayan Trust, which he founded in 1960, he built schools, hospitals, and airfields for them. This dedication to the Sherpas lasted into his later years and was recognized in 2003, when, as part of the observance of the 50th anniversary of his and Tenzing's climb, he was made an honorary citizen of Nepal. |
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