The Death of Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, died Friday. He was 88.

He only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of Nepal native and mountain guide Tenzing Norgay, who completed the journey with Hillary.

He wrote of the pair's final steps to the top of the world: "Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.

"Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation -- these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed," Hillary noted.

"I removed my oxygen mask to take some pictures. It wasn't enough just to get to the top. We had to get back with the evidence. Fifteen minutes later we began the descent."

Then, upon arriving back at base camp, he took an irreverent view: "We knocked the bastard off."

In many ways, we can consider Edmund Hillary an early inspiration for the antics frequently seen on Jackass. He risked his life, and the lives of others, to accomplish a deadly stunt just for the sake of claiming he had done it. Everybody knew there was nothing to be found at the top of the mountain, yet he still went there regardless of the risk.

Edmund Hillary achieved fame for completing a task so utterly useless and dangerous that nobody else has been able or willing to do it prior. Sounds a lot like what the guys on Jackass do all the time. We watch the show and wonder just what compelled those clowns to do something so stupid, but its not much different than what Hillary did in his day. The only real difference is that there are few reachable frontiers remaining for people like Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville to explore, so their adventures typically become the physical sort.

Edmund Hillary climbed the most dangerous mountain in the world just because it was there. He was a true inspiration to children everywhere, encouraging kids to do really stupid things simply to prove that it was indeed possible.