The Hillarys are the “first family” of Himalayan mountaineering with two generations of Everest climbers. When Peter Hillary, son of adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary, who, with mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, completed the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, climbed Everest in 1990, he and his father became the first father-son duo to achieve the feat. Peter has achieved two summits of Everest, an 84-day trek across Antarctica to the South Pole, and completed the Seven Summits, reaching the top of the highest mountains on all seven continents.
In 1960, Hillary organised the 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition,[60] with Griffith Pugh; and Pugh showed that Mount Everest could be climbed without oxygen, with a long period of acclimatisation by living at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) 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. No evidence of Yetis was found, instead footprints and tracks were proven to be from other causes. During the expedition, Hillary travelled to remote temples which contained “Yeti scalps”; however after bringing back three relics, two were shown to be from bears and one from a goat antelope. 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”.
Picture Credit : Google
