Sir Edmund Hilary, the first person to summit Mount Everest, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, has died aged 88. After the successful expedition Sir Edmund devoted his life to helping the Sherpa?s through a charity foundation called The Himalayan Trust, which he set up in 1960. The Trust has been responsible for improving the basic infrastructure, such as clinics, schools and bridges of the Sherpa communities. You can find out more here: http://www.himalayantrust.co.uk/index.phtml Sir Edmund began climbing as a teenager in Aukland, New Zealand, where he was born in 1919. By 1953 he a reputation as top class ice climber and joined Sir John Hunt?s expedition to Everest. After weeks of gruelling effort on the mountain only Hilary and Tenzing remained fit enough to attempt the summit.Sir Edmund described reaching the summit on the 29th May as follows, ?I continued hacking steps along the ridge and then up a few more to the right… to my great delight I realised we were on top of Mount Everest and that the whole world spread out below us.“
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