Yesterday (January 11, 2008), Sir Edmund Hillary passed away. He was an explorer from New Zealand and most famously, with Tenzing Norgay (a Nepalese Sherpa) he was one of the first two men to summit Everest. He is special to Antarctica because he founded New Zealand's Scott Base and was the first to reach the South Pole (1958) via a traverse in over 40 years since Amundsen (1911) and Scott (1912) had done it. Later, he also reached the North Pole. He had such an effect on Antarctic exploration that there will be a memorial service for him this Sunday.
More information can be found at http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080110/2/3jzs.html
More information can be found at http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080110/2/3jzs.html
Sir Edmund Hillary in Antarctica just one year before his death. He slept on the ice shelf once during his visit.
Did you get to meet him? Your choice of locale sounds interesting. Just found your blog...what do you do there?
ReplyDeleteI did not get to meet him. He was here the past two summers, but not this one unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people were so taken with him that they held and attended a memorial service here for him.
I am here working on computers to support the base. The base supports the scientists so I'm twice removed from the real work :-)
From www.dailynewshaikus.com on Jan. 11:
ReplyDeleteFrom Earth's highest heights
Sir Hillary now descends
to six feet under.
Irreverent, I know; nevertheless, it made me smile.