Lily looks to make Everest a family affair
AUCKLAND: Lily Hillary is determined to conquer Mt Everest, just like her grandfather did, in 2020.
It’s been 65 years since Sir Edmund Hillary became the first person to summit the world’s highest mountain. He died in 2008 at the age of 88 from a heart attack.
His passion for mountain climbing lives on.
His 18yearold granddaughter, who leaves Auckland’s Diocesan School for Girls this year, is setting her sights on the summit, too.
She knew she had to start small, just like her grandfather and father, Peter, who has also made it to the top twice before.
Ms Hillary said she was aware of the risks involved, as well.
‘‘It’s nervewracking watching those Everest films and it doesn’t go so well and knowing that that might be you up there,’’ she said.
‘‘My grandfather had a great sense of humour but he knew, and as does my dad, they know when to be serious and go ‘actually this is a lifethreatening situation’.
‘‘I can be a bit of a joker and I definitely think I haven’t been put on an extreme enough mountain to learn that this is lifethreatening in some situations.’’
She said the advice her grandfather gave her as a child was simple.
‘‘He said to me ‘you do what you love’.
‘‘He did not want to place pressure on me or any of my siblings.’’
But Ms Hillary said climbing was ‘‘definitely’’ in their blood.
‘‘We’ve grown up on mountains.
‘‘We’ve grown up climbing and scrambling up rocks and competing against each other, which has been such fun.
‘‘Honestly, I think it’s something we really enjoy a being outside and being together. It’s not just the mountain but who you’re with and the experience as well.’’
She said she was looking forward to next year’s adventure to Nepal — a country she had always wanted to visit — to do Base Camp and the following year’s goal of making it to the very top.
Ms Hillary will not be doing it alone either — her older brothers, Alex (22), and George (26), her father and her mother, Yvonne, are also planning on coming along. Her mother, for moral support.
‘‘I personally have never been with my whole family at the bottom of such an extreme mountain in such an amazing place, where we’ve got so much heritage.’’
It will be the first time her brothers attempt it, too.
With endofyear exams approaching, Ms Hillary said her training was far from intensive.
‘‘I’m doing my usual running training which is five or six times a week.’’
She also does horse riding, boxing and had recently signed up for a pentathlon.
Ms Hillary said when exams and school were over, she would switch her attention to learning how to use the harness and the ropes.
‘‘I’ll be doing a lot more climbing . . . serious climbing with my dad and my brothers next year just so I get a hang of the ropes so I won’t kind of hold back the team . . . or be the weakest link’’, she said.
Mrs Hillary said the Everest plan arose from her sons’ ticking off climbs on an international Seven Summits list.
They had already climbed Kilimanjaro (Africa, 5896m), Puncak Jaya (Papua, Indonesia, 4884m), Elbrus (Russia, 5642m), and Alex had climbed Mt Blanc (France, 4807m).
With their sister, they plan to climb Denali (Alaska, 6194m) next year. —