The press and the public have created an image of Ed Hillary, hero and explorer which simply doesn’t exist. They’ve painted a picture of me as a heroic type, full of enormous courage, tremendous strength, undying enthusiasm and all the rest of it. But it’s all really just a story, that’s been written up in the newspapers. I’m a person, as I’ve said, of modest abilities, with a good deal of determination, and I do quite a lot of planning ahead. With careful planning and good motivation, I think you can often achieve things that other much more talented people would probably do much more easily.
Managed profile
Not claimed by Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
Edmund Hillary
Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
New Zealand · 1919–2008
Politics and public life
About
New Zealand mountaineer who with Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest in May 1953, and who later reached the South Pole overland. He founded the Himalayan Trust, which built schools and hospitals in the Everest region.
20 answers
I still regard adventure pretty much as a hobby to tell you the honest truth, and I think this approach to it keeps one refreshed almost. I think if you just regard adventure as a business, working becomes very boring as many other businesses can become. But even though adventure changed my life considerably, both in what I was doing and even economically, I’ve always regarded myself in a sense as a competent amateur.
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Edmund Hillary did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.