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Prose
Chapter
The Summit
4 Edmund Hillary
JohnHunt Edmund Hillary

About The Author
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary
SirEdmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919-11 January 2008) was A
New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist.
He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during
World War II.
V

About The Author
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary
Following his ascent of Everest, Hillary devoted himself to assisting the Sherpa
people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which heestablished
High Adventure,
No Latitude for Error,
Nothing Venture,
Nothing Win,
View from the Summit: The Remarkable Memoir by the First
Person to Conquer Everest
are some of his famous works.

V The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
Adventures,expeditionsand explorations
are always exciting. Especially when they are
real and if it is the first of its kind, it is even
more thrilling. The only question that comes
to one's mind is what makes one to take up
such tasks that involve high risks. It is the
spirit of formidable adventure and certain
qualities which make them achieve such feats.

San The Summit Edmund Hillary V
This prose unit is a slightly adapted excerpt from The Ascent of Everest' by
John Hunt.
Sir Edmund Hillary's own words, tells how the summit of the Everest was reached.
On May 28 there were six men at Camp 8 on the South Col:
1. Edmund Hillary,
2. Tenzing,
3. George Lowe,
4. Alfred Gregory, and
5,6. the two Sherpas, Pemba and Ang Nyima.

V The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
But Pemba was too ill to climb. The others, heavily laden, climbed
that day toa height of 27,900 feet. Here, Hillary and Tenzing put up a
little tent, and watched their three companions go down the ridge, back
towards the SouthCol.
As the sun set, Hillary and Tenzing crawled into the tent, puton all
their warm clothing, and wriggled into their sleeping bags. Next
morning, at 4 a.m. on May 29, they began to get ready for the climb.

V The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
. We started up our cooker and drank large quantities of lemon juice
and sugar, and followed this with our last tin of sardines on biscuits. I
dragged our oxygen sets into the tent, cleaned the ice off them, and then
rechecked and tested them.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
2.I had removed my boots, which had becomewettheday before, and
they were now frozen solid. SoI cooked them over
thefierceflame of
the Primus and managed to soften them up. Over our down clothing
we donned our windproofand on to our hands we pulled three pairs
ofgloves -
silk, woollen, and windproof.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
3. At 6.30 a.m. we crawled out of that tent into the snow, hoisted our
30 lb. of oxygen gear on to our backs, connected up our masks and
turned on the valves to bring life-giving oxygen into our lungs. A few
good deep breaths and we were ready to go. Still a little worried about
my cold feet, I asked Tenzing to move off.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
4. Tenzing kicked steps in a long traverse back towards the ridge, and
we reached its crest where it forms a great snow bump at about 28000
feet. From here the ridge narrowed to a knife-cdge and, as my feet
were now warm, I took over the lead.

V
5. The soft snow made a route on top of the ridge both dificult and
dangerous, which sometimes held my weight but often gave way
suddenly. After several hundred feet, we came to a tiny hollow, and
found there the two oxygen bottles left on the earlier attempt by Evans
and Bourdillon. I scraped the ice off the gauges and was relieved to
find that they still contained several hundred litres of oxygen -
enough
to get us down to the South Col if used sparingly.
The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
ehela

The Summit - Edmund Hillary
6. I continued making the trail on up the ridge, leading up for the last
400 fet to the southern summit. The snowon this face was dangerous,
but we persisted in our etforts to beat a trail up it.

The Summit Edmund Hillary
7. We made frequent changes of lead. As I was stamping a trail in the
deep snoW, a section around me gave way and I slipped back through
three or four of my steps. I discussed with Tenzing the advisability of
going on, and he, although admitting that he felt unhappy about the
snow conditions, and finished with his familiar phrase "Just as you
wish".

The Summit Edmund Hillary V
8. I decided to go on; and we finally reached firmer snow higher up,
and then chipped steps up the last steep slopes and cramponed on to
the South Peak. It was now 9 a.m.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
9. We cut a seat for ourselves just below the South Summit and
removed our oxygen apparatus. As our first partly-full bottle of
Oxygen as now exhausted, we had only one full bottle left. Our
apparatus was now much lighter, weighing just over 20 Ib., and as I
cut steps down off the South Summit I felt a sense of freedom and
well- being.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
10. As my ice-axe bit into the first steep slope of the ridge, my high
hopes were realized. The snow was crystalline and firm. Two or three
blows ofthe ice axe produced a step large enough even for
our over-
sized High Altitude boots, and a firm thrust of the ice-axe would sink
it half-way up the shaft, giving a solid and comfortable belay.

The Summit -
Edmund Hillary
V
11. We moved one at a time. I would cut a forty foot line of steps,
Tenzing belaying me while I worked. Then in turn I would sink my
shaft and put a few loops ofthe rope around it, and Tenzing, protected
against a breaking step, would move up to me. Then once again as he
belayed me I would go on cutting.

The Summit - Edmund Hillary V
12. In a number of places the overhanging ice
cornices were very large
indeed, and in order to escape them I cut a line of
stepsdownto where
the snow met the rocks on the west. It was a great thrill to look straight
down this enormous rock face and to see, 8000 feet below us, the tiny
tents of Camp 4 in the Western Cwm.
Scrambling on therocks and
cutting handholds on the snow, we wereable to shufile past these
difficult portions.

The Summit - Edmund Hillary
13. On its cast side was another great cornice, and running up the full
forty feet of the step was a narrow crack between the cornice and the
rock. Leaving Tenzing to belay me as best he could, I jammed my way
into this crack. Then, kicking backwards, I sank the spikes of my
crampons deep into the frozen snow behind me and levered myself off
the ground.

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