Sir Edmund Hillary was very brave. He was a mountain climber. He climbed the Himalayas. He was best known as the first person ever to climb Mt. Everest. Mt. Everest is 29,028 feet high.

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919, Auckland, New Zealand. When he was a boy he liked to climb mountains which got him into mountain climbing. He took a school field trip to Mt. Ruapehu as a young boy, and as he was climbing the mountain he realized that he had a great body for mountain climbing.The first journey that Hillary ever went on was the Himalayas. When he went to the Himalayas he climbed eleven peaks Sir Edmund Hillary`s most important journey was when he climbed Mt. Everest. He and Tensing Norgay, his sherpa (a sherpa is a sort of mountain climbing assistant) were invited to join a team of climbers from the joint Himalayas Committee of the Alpine Club of great Britain and the Royal Geographic Society. While they climbed, they had to carry all their food. They also drank really sugary tea. The group finally reached the south peak of the Himalayas in may of 1953. Many of the group members had to turn back because they were so tired. Hillary and Tensing Norgay continued on however. On the morning of May 29th,1953, Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay reached the top.

Sir Edmund Hillary came back to Britain with the climbers and was made a knight by the Queen. Sir Edmund Hillary’s climb to the top of Mt. Everest has inspired other people to want to climb it as well. The trip was so important because it`s the biggest mountain in the world. He was very brave to have done what he did.