When he was 11 years old, Edmund attended a new school. In his first week there, the gym teacher took one look at skinny Edmund, and sent him to a class for uncoordinated boys. Little did he know that this boy would one day climb to the top of the world! Even as a youngster, however, one of Edmund's great passions was losing himself in adventure stories. His hero was a very famous mountaineer and author named Eric Shipton.

It was when he was sixteen, during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, that his interest in mountaineering began. He was fascinated by the snow which, as a born and bred Aucklander, he had never seen before. He was also discovering that, while he was not a natural athlete, his gangly, taut frame was physically strong and had higher levels of endurance than many of the friends he went tramping with.

By World War II, Hillary, who had followed in his father’s footsteps as a beekeeper, was seriously involved in climbing. He served in the New Zealand Air Force for two years as a navigator, but was discharged after an accident. By this stage a dream had also been born. As Grayland relates:

"Some day I’m going to climb Everest’, he had told a friend just before the war. He meant it though no one believed it then. After his discharge from the Air Force he joined the Auckland section of the New Zealand Alpine Club, taking part in the first ascent of the southern ridge of Mount Cook and several other high climbs in the Southern Alps."

Aoraki / Mount Cook

After the war, Hillary spent as much time as he could preparing for Everest. He climbed the Southern Alps in summer and winter, to practice both rock climbing and ice pick work, and also took up wrestling. In 1951 Hillary made his first trip to the Himalayas and the following year joined a British Everest Committee training team.