View From The Summit

Edmund Hillary

Oct 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

The first man to set foot on the summit of Everest, the man who led a team of tractors to the South Pole, the man who jetboated up the Ganges from the ocean to the sky has, for the first time, gathered all the remarkable adventures of a long life into one volume. But there is more to Edmund Hillary than this. He is also the man who repaid his debt of fame to the Himalayas by inaugurating a programme of building schools, clinics, airstrips and bridges in Nepal. With his still active support, these have gone from strength to strength in the 50 years since he himself mastered the Hillary Step and led his companion Tenzing Norgay up Everest's final summit ridge.

View from the Summit is a thoughtful and honest reappraisal of a life spent pushing human ability to its limits and relishing the challenges thrown down by the elements. It is also the story of a man whom the world has taken to its heart.

About the author

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand and served in the New Zealand Air Force during the Second World War. Knighted for his ascent of Everest in 1953, he achieved many more adventuring 'firsts' before establishing the Himalayan Trust, an organization devoted to improving the lives of people living in the Himalayas. He has two surviving children by his first wife, Louise, who died tragically in a plane crash with their third child, Belinda. He then married June, widow of his Antarctic partner Pete Mulgrew. Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary lived in Auckland until his death in 2008.