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FOUR HILLARYS AND A MOUNTAIN
George and Alexander Hillary are determined to follow the footsteps of their grandfather and father to the summit of Mt Everest. The grandsons of Sir Edmund Hillary, and sons of Peter Hillary, have spent a lifetime with the mountain looming over them, and several years training to climb it. Mike White speaks to them about fear, the pressure of family legacies, and what the mountains mean to them – and talks with Peter Hillary about his sons’ decision to climb the world’s highest peak.
By Mike White So much will be different. If brothers George and Alexander Hillary reach the summit of Mt Everest, it will be the same spot where their grandfather stood in 1953, but a world apart.
When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to climb the world’s highest mountain, each swing of their ice axes was a blow of pure exploration, each step took them further into the unknown.