Sir Edmund Hillary, Mountain Climber

Sir Edmund Hillary, Mountain Climber
Born: 20 July 1919 ( Leo..)
Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand
Best Known As: The first man to climb Mt. Everest
Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tensing Norgay were the first humans to reach Earth's highest point: the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas. They reached the top at 11:30 am on May 29, 1953. Hillary was knighted for his feat and in later years led expeditions to the South Pole and to the source of the Yangtze River. He also committed himself to humanitarian work among the Sherpas through his Himalayan Trust.
Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. It was in New Zealand that he became interested in mountain climbing. Although he made his living as a beekeeper, he climbed mountains in New Zealand, then in the Alps, and finally in the Himalayas, where he climbed 11 different peaks of over 20,000 feet. By this time, Hillary was ready to confront the world's highest mountain .Mt. Everest lies between Tibet and Nepal. Between 1920 and 1952, Seven major expeditions had failed to reach the summit.
In 1924, the famous mountaineer George Leigh-Mallory had perished in the attempt In 1952, a team of Swiss climbers had been forced to turn back after reaching the South peak, only 1000 feet from the summit. Edmund Hillary joined in Everest reconnaissance expeditions in 1951 and again in 1952. These exploits brought Hillary to the attention of Sir John Hunt, leader of an expedition sponsored by the Joint Himalayan Committee of the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographic Society to make the assault on Everest in 1953.
The expedition reached the South Peak on May, but all but two of the climbers who had come this far were forced to turn back by exhaustion at the high altitude. At last, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a native Nepalese climber who had participated in five previous Everest trips, were the only members of the party able to make the final assault on the summit. At 11:30 on the morning of May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, 29,028 feet above sea level, the highest spot remarkable as the feat on earth.
As of reaching the summit, was the treacherous climb back down the peak. By coincidence, the conquest of Everest was announced to the British public on the eve of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The triumph of a British-led expedition combined with the inauguration of the young Queen did much to restore the confidence of a nation weary from long years of wartime hardship and postwar shortages. Edmund Hillary returned to Britain with the other climbers and was knighted by the Queen.
But one thing about Sir Hillary that very few people know is as follows:

However, many people don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success. You see, in 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed.
A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members. Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure.
He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform. He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"

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