Everest hero Edmund Hillary dies

He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak, with Tenzing Norgay, on 29 May 1953.

For those of us who were or are climbers, Hillary and Norgay are historic figures who not only were the first people up Everest but both of whom gave a huge amount back to both the Sherpa community in Nepal and to world mountaineering.

Their climb of Everest along with the first ascent of Anapurna, another big mountain in Nepal by a French team, is required for mountaineers the world over. They pioneered using military siege tactics to set up multiple camps and stock them all the way up to the final push from the last camp. These tactics were and still are used for big walls in Yosemite as well and in both cases, were the only way people could work their way up to the top of both Everest and El Capitan.