Other Interesting Facts
Sir Edmund Hillary and his wife Louise had three children--Peter, Sarah and Belinda.
His wife, Louise and their youngest daughter, Belinda were killed when their airplane crashed on takeoff in Katmandu. The family was going to spend a year in Nepal building a school for the children.
Sir Edmund Hillary's best friend, Peter Mulgrew, was killed in a plane crash in Antarctica. Sir Edmund was supposed to go but he had other work so Peter took his place.
Just before Tenzing Norgay died he wrote a biography in which he said that Hillary was the first one to reach the top of Mt. Everest.
In 1990, Hillary's son (Peter) climbed Mt. Everest.
At age 72 Sir Edmund Hillary almost died on a trip to Nepal because he suffered altitude sickness.
He wrote books or papers called High in the Thin Cold Air; Schoolhouse in the Clouds; Nothing Venture, Nothing Win; From the Ocean to the Sky; and Two Generations.
In 1996 when he was told about the death of eight climbers on Mt. Everest he said, "I have a feeling that people have been getting just a little too casual about Mount Everest. This incident will bring them to regard it rather more seriously."
