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By Peter Rejcek
Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand’s favorite and most
famous son, died Jan. 11 (local time) at the age of 88
in an Auckland hospital.
Hillary, more popularly referred to as Sir Ed, rose to
fame in 1953 as the first man to summit Mount Everest,
along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. But the former beekeeper
also left his mark in the Antarctic, helping to establish
New Zealand’s Scott Base on Ross Island in 1957 and
leading the first overland vehicle traverse to the South
Pole in 1958.
The residents at Scott Base, located near the U.S. Antarctic
Program (USAP)’s McMurdo Station, held a brief memorial
ceremony at 1 p.m. local time and lowered the New Zealand
flag in his memory. The flag remained down until midnight
Jan. 12. The base staff will lower the flag again on the
day of his funeral, which had not been set at the time
of this writing.
Hillary had returned to the continent last year to celebrate
Scott Base’s 50th anniversary. He was also present
in 2004 during the dedication of the Hillary Field Centre
at Scott Base, a building to house and care for equipment
used by scientists and staff in the field.
“I think we are very fortunate to have had this
close relationship with Sir Ed,” said Yvonne Boesterling,
Scott Base coordinator. “With the TAE hut, [Scott
Base’s first building], just meters away from our
flag pole, we have the option to refresh our memories
of his accomplishments and his huge contribution to the
NZ Antarctic Program.
“We are also lucky that there are several staff
here who have had the opportunity to not only meet him,
but to sit next to him in the dining hall at Scott Base
or to accompany him out to the A Frame while he tells
stories of his adventures,” Boesterling added. “Even
those who have not met him know very much about him, as
every New Zealander is closely connected to Antarctica
and Scott Base in some way.”
Billy Wallace, Scott Base field training coordinator,
wrote an ode to Hillary on the day of the famed mountaineer’s
passing.
“Sir Ed will always represent to us what is quintessential
Kiwi. Someone who saw what needed doing, and went out
and did it,” Wallace wrote. “Someone who quietly
yet confidently stepped beyond the comfort zone to get
the job done.”
Later in the piece, he said, “At present I am sitting
in the new Hillary Field Centre at Scott Base. I am thankful
that Sir Ed can finally rest. I am also pleased that Sir
Ed was able to grace the folk of Scott Base last season.
Many staff and scientists got to hear some classic Sir
Ed stories straight from man himself – Scott Base
will forever have the spirit of Sir Ed there to link the
past with the present.”
Indeed, Hillary’s passing came nearly 50 years to
the day of leading the first team to reach the South Pole
by motorized transport – three small farm tractors.
The crossing was not without its controversy, as Hillary
was meant to play a supporting role to the leader of the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic expedition, Sir Vivien Fuchs.
Instead, the intrepid Kiwi and his team slogged to the
Pole, reaching it on Jan. 4, 1958 – despite official
commands to the contrary.
Geoffrey Lee Martin, a journalist traveling with Hillary’s
team and writing for newspapers in England and New Zealand,
has documented the race to the Pole that wasn’t a
race in the recently published book, “Hellbent for
the Pole.” In an e-mail from Australia, Lee Martin
forwarded a memoir to his friend that he wrote intended
for several international papers after Hillary’s
death.
Lee Martin said of the 1958 expedition: “Hillary
told me later he ‘seemed to mislay some scraps of
paper with messages on them.’ Quite typically, he
also wrote testily in his memoirs: ‘If an explorer
in the field always waited for permission from his committee
back home, then nothing would get done, or it would be
done too late.’”
Hillary’s death also came on the eve of the official
dedication of the USAP’s new research station at
the South Pole, a $153 million engineering marvel that
supports a wide range of science activities at 90 degrees
south.
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Antarctic
Sun
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