Edmund Hillary (born July 20, 1919, Auckland, New Zealand—died January 11, 2008, Auckland), a New Zealand mountain climber and Antarctic explorer who was the first to reach the top of Mount Everest with Tibetan mountaineer Tenzing Norgay. Hillary’s father was a beekeeper, which he did as well. While still in high school, he began climbing in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. After serving in the military during World War II, he returned to climbing and became motivated to conquer Everest.

In 1951, he went to the middle Himalayas with a New Zealand group, and later that year, he took part in a British reconnaissance mission on Everest’s southern slope. He was then asked to join a group of mountaineers preparing to scale the summit.

After a pair of climbers failed to reach the summit on May 27, Hillary and Tenzing set out early on May 29 to reach the summit by late morning. Tenzing welcomed his companion after shaking hands.

During the early 1960s, he returned to the Everest region on subsequent trips, but he never attempted another summit attempt.

Hillary led the New Zealand contingent in the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1955 to 1958.

He was one of the first people to climb Mount Herschel (10,941 feet [3,335 meters]) during his 1967 Antarctic trip. He conducted the first jet boat journey up the Ganges River in 1977 and then continued ascending to the river’s source in the Himalayas. Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, his autobiography, was released in 1975.

Several more honors were conferred on him throughout the years, including the Order of the Garter in 1995. Throughout, he maintained a high level of humility, and his primary concern became the wellbeing of Nepal’s Himalayan peoples, particularly the Sherpas.