The quiet achiever: one day he was an unassuming beekeeper from New Zealand, the next he was the most famous man in the world. Sir Edmund Hillary tells Rebecca Stephens about how he and Tenzing came to stand on the summit of Everest, how doing so changed his life and why he doesn't regard it as his most important achievement.(Sir Edmund Hillary)

From: Geographical | Date: May 1, 2003| Author: Stephens, Rebecca | Copyright information

SIR EDMUND HILLARY IS A NAME FAMILIAR NOT ONLY in this country, which considers Mount Everest its own, but universally. If Everest is the one mountain every layman knows, Sir Edmund is the one mountaineer. Although he recoils from the term, he is a living icon, with his face printed on New Zealand's five-dollar note and a recent exhibition in Auckland focused solely on him and his life's work.

On my first encounter with the great man, as an Everest groupie hovering outsi...