SIR EDMUND P. HILLARY - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/26/1971 - HFSID 270014

THE CONQUEROR OF EVEREST IS MAKING PLANS TO RETURN TO NEPAL TO AID THE SHERPAS
 
SIR EDMUND HILLARY. Typed Letter Signed: "E.P. Hillary", 1p, 8x10¼. Auckland, New Zealand, 1971 July 26. On imprinted letterhead to Mr. Barry Solomon, Yonkers, New York. In full: "Thank you for your letter and I am pleased to hear of your interest in mountain climbing. I am leaving for Nepal again very shortly to continue our aid work for the Sherpas. We have built schools, bridges and a hospital and are endeavoring to help the Sherpas educate themselves. They are a fine people and have always been a great help to mountaineers in their area so now we are trying to do something for the people who have done so much for us. Wishing you all the best for your climbing activities." Hillary, as mentioned in this letter, has built hospitals and schools and raised funds for the Sherpa people. On May 29th, 1953, Edmund P. Hillary (1919-2008) stood poised atop the highest mountain peak on earth (29,028 feet). Together, Hillary and the Sherpa mountaineer, Tenzing Norgay, as members of a British expedition, were the first men ever to surmount the forbidding Mount Everest of the Himalayas. As a result of his achievement, Hillary, the beekeeper from Auckland, New Zealand, was knighted Sir Edmund. In 1955, he published High Adventure which detailed his climb. Hillary then guided a New Zealand group, in support of the British Commonwealth Trans-Arctic Expedition, to establish a base and lay out depots towards the South Pole, a grueling three-year ordeal ending successfully in March of 1958. In 1977, he led the first jet-boat expedition up the Ganges, eventually climbing to its source in the Himalayas. Hillary, since his Everest climb, has built hospitals, schools and raised funds for the Sherpa people. He was President of the Volunteer Service Abroad, a patron of the Race Relations Council, and was active in conservation campaigns. His autobiography, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, was published in 1975. Lightly creased with folds, vertical fold at the "H" of Hillary, horizontal fold at the upper loops of the "E", "P", "H" and "ll". Fine condition.