Sir Edmund Hillary, arguably the most famous living adventurer — the first to conquer Everest back in ‘53 — died today of complications from pneumonia. 

 After climbing Everest and gaining world renown, the New Zealand native spent the rest of his life working to improve living conditions for the Sherpa people in Nepal.  His loss will be mourned by humanitarians, mountaineers and adventure lovers alike.

You can read tributes to Sir Edmund, written by friends and icons, here.

“We knocked the bastard off,” Sir Edmund told friends, after climbing Mt Everest

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under History, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.