In January 1948, Hillary and others ascended the south ridge of
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak. He took part in an arduous rescue on
La Perouse in 1948, befriending fellow climber
Norman Hardie. In 1951 he was part of a
British reconnaissance expedition to Everest led by
Eric Shipton, before joining the successful British attempt of 1953. In 1952, Hillary and
George Lowe were part of the British team led by Shipton, that attempted
Cho Oyu. After that attempt failed due to the lack of a route from the Nepal side, Hillary and Lowe crossed the Nup La pass into Tibet and reached the old Camp II, on the northern side, where all the previous expeditions had camped.
1953 Everest expedition In 1949, the long-standing climbing route to the summit of Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled
Tibet. For the next several years,
Nepal allowed only one or two expeditions per year. A Swiss expedition (in which Tenzing took part) attempted to reach the summit in 1952, but was forced back by bad weather and problems with oxygen sets below the summit. In 1952, Hillary learned that he and Lowe had been invited by the
Joint Himalayan Committee for the 1953 British attempt and immediately accepted. Shipton had been named as leader but was replaced by Hunt. Hillary objected but was immediately impressed by Hunt's energy and determination. Hunt asked
Charles Evans and Hillary to form with him a small three-man planning group on the expedition. Hunt wrote that: Hillary had hoped to climb with Lowe, but Hunt named two teams for the ascent:
Tom Bourdillon and
Charles Evans; and Hillary and Tenzing. Hillary, therefore, made a concerted effort to forge a working friendship with Tenzing. Hillary wrote, "Tenzing had substantially greater personal ambition than any Sherpa I had met." The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362
porters, 20
Sherpa guides, and of baggage. On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them over a stove before he and Tenzing, wearing packs, attempted the final ascent. The final obstacle was the rock face later called "
Hillary Step"; Hillary later wrote: Tenzing wrote in his 1955 autobiography that Hillary took the first step onto the summit and he followed. They reached Everest's summitthe highest point on earthat 11:30 am. They spent about 15 minutes at the summit. Hillary took a photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe, but there is no photo of Hillary; Tenzing's autobiography says that Hillary simply declined to have his picture taken. They also took photos looking down the mountain. (right) with Governor-General
Sir Willoughby Norrie at
Government House, Wellington, 20 August 1953 Tenzing left chocolates at the summit as an offering, and Hillary left a cross given to him by John Hunt. Their descent was complicated by drifting snow that had covered their tracks. The first person they met was Lowe; Hillary said, "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off." News reached Britain on the day of
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and the press called it a coronation gift. The 37 members of the party later received the
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal with engraved along the rim. In addition to the
knighting of Hillary and Hunt, Tenzingineligible for knighthood as a Nepalese citizenreceived the
George Medal. Tenzing also received the
Star of Nepal from
King Tribhuvan.
After Everest 's
DHC-2, 1956 Hillary climbed ten other peaks in the
Himalayas on further visits in 1956, 1960–1961, and 1963–1965. He also reached the
South Pole as part of the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, for which he led the New Zealand section, on 4 January 1958. His party was the first to reach the Pole overland since
Amundsen in 1911 and
Scott in 1912, and the first ever to do so using motor vehicles. In 1960, Hillary organised the
1960–61 Silver Hut expedition, with
Griffith Pugh; and Pugh showed that Mount Everest could be climbed without oxygen, with a long period of acclimatisation by living at for six months. An assault on
Makalu, the world's fifth-highest mountain, was unsuccessful. Hillary was with the expedition for five months, although it lasted for ten. The expedition also searched for the fabled
abominable snowman. Hillary said after the expedition: "The yeti is not a strange, superhuman creature as has been imagined. We have found rational explanations for most yeti phenomena". ground air strip, Antarctica In 1962, he was a guest on the television game show ''
What's My Line?''; he stumped the panel, comprising
Dorothy Kilgallen,
Arlene Francis,
Bennett Cerf, and
Merv Griffin. In 1977, he led a
jetboat expedition, titled "Ocean to Sky", from the mouth of the
Ganges River to its source. From 1977 to 1979 he commentated aboard Antarctic sightseeing flights operated by
Air New Zealand, and was scheduled to act as the guide for the fatal
Flight 901, but had to cancel owing to other commitments. In 1985, he accompanied
Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski plane over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the
North Pole. Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. This accomplishment inspired generations of explorers to compete over what later was defined as
Three Poles Challenge. In January 2007, Hillary travelled to Antarctica as part of a delegation commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of
Scott Base. ==Public recognition==