Author(s): John Hunt

NZ Biography & Memoir

When Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay stepped onto the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953 they caught the imagination of the world in a way that was to be unmatched until man stood on the surface of the Moon.

'This is the story of how, on 29 May, 1953, two men, both endowed with outstanding stamina and skill, reached the top of Everest and came back unscathed to rejoin their comrades. 'Yet this will not be the whole story, for the ascent of Everest was not the work of one day, nor even of those few anxious, unforgettable weeks in which we prepared and climbed this summer. It is, in fact, a tale of sustained and tenacious endeavour by many, over a long period of time...We of the 1953 Everest Expedition are proud to share the glory with our predecessors.' Sir John Hunt