Edmund Hillary Quotes
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I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.
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The Sherpas play a very important role in most mountaineering expeditions, and in fact many of them lead along the ridges and up to the summit.
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I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain - well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.
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When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn't done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.
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I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
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I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there's no doubt that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics.
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There is something about building up a comradeship - that I still believe is the greatest of all feats - and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It's the intense effort, the giving of everything you've got. It's really a very pleasant sensation.
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Becoming a 'Sir' is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.
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Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself.
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Once I've decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.
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Good planning is important. I've also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you're in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you're depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.
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Tourism is a very big economic benefit to the Sherpa people, and also, they have very strong ties to their own social attitudes and their own religion, so fortunately, they're not too influenced by many of our Western attitudes.
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People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.
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I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
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When I was climbing, I built up a close relationship with the Sherpa people.
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I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
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I think that a good mountaineer is usually a sensible mountaineer.
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My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.
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Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
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I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.
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I don't know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I'm a great gift to the world. I've been very fortunate.
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Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.
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I am inclined to think that the realm of mythology is where the Yeti rightly belongs.
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I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.