Edmund Hillary Trivia
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57 free Edmund Hillary trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand beekeeper who, on 29 May 1953, became one of the first two people to stand on top of Everest, and then spent the next half-century doing things nobody expected of him: driving farm tractors to the South Pole, flying to the North Pole with Neil Armstrong, jetboating up the Ganges, hunting the Yeti and building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people who had carried his expeditions. This quiz covers the whole story: his early climbs and wartime service, the 1951 reconnaissance and the 1952 Cho Oyu attempt, every detail of the 1953 expedition from frozen boots to the coded message that reached London on coronation morning, the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the Silver Hut, family tragedy, the Himalayan Trust, the $5 note and the mountain range on Pluto. It suits climbers, New Zealanders and anyone who has read about the first ascent. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Hillary, the 1953 expedition, Tenzing Norgay, the Trans-Antarctic Expedition and the Himalayan Trust, and each question shows its supporting sentence after you answer.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit of Everest?
29 May 1953
They reached the summit on 29 May 1953; the news reached London on 2 June, the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and the press hailed it as a coronation gift.
Q 02What was Hillary's trade before he became famous, working with his father and brother?
Beekeeper
Beekeeper: Hillary worked the family's commercial hives with his father Percival and brother Rex, keeping bees through the summer and climbing in winter, and took dozens of stings a day.
Q 03A 1935 school trip to which NZ volcano sparked Hillary's interest in climbing at 16?
Mount Ruapehu
Mount Ruapehu, the North Island's highest peak, was where the 16-year-old first met snow and mountains on a 1935 school trip; he found his endurance outstripped his schoolmates' and was hooked.
Q 04Hillary's first major climb, in 1939, took him to the summit of which peak in the Southern Alps?
Mount Ollivier
Mount Ollivier, a modest 1,933 m peak on the Sealy Range above Mueller Hut, was his first major summit, reached in 1939, four years after the school trip that turned him to the mountains.
Q 05What role did Hillary serve in with the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II?
Navigator
Navigator: he joined the RNZAF in 1944 and flew as a navigator in Catalina flying boats in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, where a boat accident in 1945 left him badly burnt.
Q 06Which self-improvement movement did Hillary spend five years with in the late 1930s?
Radiant Living
Radiant Living, a health-and-self-help movement founded by Herbert Sutcliffe, occupied Hillary for five years from the late 1930s; he later said it taught him to speak confidently in public.
Q 07Who led the 1951 British reconnaissance expedition to Everest that Hillary joined?
Eric Shipton
Eric Shipton led the 1951 reconnaissance; with him Hillary climbed a spur of Pumori to get the first clear view up the Western Cwm, proving the southern route to Everest was feasible.
Q 08Which 8,000-metre peak did Hillary attempt unsuccessfully in 1952, the year before Everest?
Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu, the world's sixth-highest peak, defeated the 1952 British party; afterwards Hillary and George Lowe slipped over the Nup La into Tibet to view Everest's north side and the pre-war base camps.
Q 09Who led the 1953 expedition on which Hillary reached the summit?
John Hunt
John Hunt, a British Army colonel, replaced the expected leader at the last minute; Hillary was put out at first, then won over by Hunt's energy and planning.
Q 10Which pair made the first summit attempt on 26 May 1953, turning back just below the top?
Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans
Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans reached the South Summit that day using closed-circuit oxygen, but Evans's set was faulty and the hour was late, so they turned back about 300 feet below the top.
Q 11What did Hillary discover on the morning of the summit climb, costing him two hours?
His boots had frozen solid
His boots had frozen solid overnight at the 27,900-foot high camp, and he spent two hours thawing them over the stove before the pair set off with 30-pound packs.
Q 12What is the 40-foot rock face just below Everest's summit, the climb's final obstacle, called?
The Hillary Step
The Hillary Step is the 40-foot rock face he wriggled up via a crack between the rock and a snow cornice, then chopped steps over 'bump after bump' to the top.
Q 13When did the pair reach the summit?
11:30 am
Q 21What was cameraman Tom Stobart's Oscar-nominated film about the climb called?
The Conquest of Everest
The Conquest of Everest, shot by Tom Stobart with a commentary written by the poet Louis MacNeice, was released in 1953 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Q 22Hillary reached the South Pole overland in January 1958 as part of which venture?
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58 put Hillary in charge of its New Zealand support party, which reached the Pole on 4 January 1958, the first to arrive by motor vehicle.
Q 23What vehicles did Hillary's party drive to the South Pole?
They left the high camp at 6:30 am, reached the South Summit at 9:00 and stood on the top at 11:30 am after five hours of climbing.
Q 14Roughly how long did Hillary and Tenzing spend on the summit?
About 15 minutes
About 15 minutes: Hillary photographed Tenzing holding his ice-axe aloft, but there is no summit photo of Hillary, since Tenzing had never used a camera and the summit was no place to learn.
Q 15What did Hillary leave on the summit of Everest?
A small cross
A small cross, a crucifix the expedition leader had asked him to place there, was Hillary's offering; Tenzing buried sweets in the snow for the mountain's gods.
Q 16Descending from the summit, Hillary greeted the first teammate he met with which famous line?
'Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.'
'Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.' were his first words to George Lowe, his old friend who had prepared the Lhotse Face route and climbed up to meet the pair with hot soup.
Q 17What finally settled the argument over which of the two men set foot on the summit ahead of the other?
Tenzing's 1955 autobiography: Hillary led
Tenzing's 1955 autobiography: Hillary led — in Tiger of the Snows Tenzing wrote that Hillary stepped on top first, ending speculation fuelled by a Kathmandu banner showing him hauling a 'semi-conscious' Hillary up.
Q 18Which phrase in Jan Morris's coded Everest dispatch meant 'summit reached'?
'Snow conditions bad'
'Snow conditions bad' meant the summit had been reached; the rest of Morris's cable, 'advanced base abandoned yesterday, awaiting improvement', identified Hillary and Tenzing as the climbers.
Q 19What honour did Hillary learn he had received when he got back to Kathmandu?
A KBE knighthood
A KBE knighthood, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was announced on 6 June 1953 and Hillary learned of it on reaching Kathmandu; the expedition leader was made a Knight Bachelor.
Q 20Why could Tenzing Norgay not be knighted for the ascent?
He was not a British subject
He was not a British subject, so a substantive knighthood was not open to him; instead he received the George Medal, and King Tribhuvan of Nepal gave him the Star of Nepal.
Ferguson farm tractors
Ferguson farm tractors, standard TE20 models modified with cabs and tracks, carried the party; sent only to lay depots, Hillary pressed on and reached the Pole ahead of the British crossing team.
Q 24Who led the British half of the trans-Antarctic crossing that Hillary supported, then beat to the Pole?
Vivian Fuchs
Vivian Fuchs led the crossing party from the Weddell Sea; he reached the Pole on 19 January 1958 and completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 99 days, earning a knighthood.
Q 25Which two parties reached the South Pole overland before Hillary's in 1958?
Amundsen and Scott
Amundsen and Scott led the only earlier overland parties, arriving in December 1911 and January 1912; Hillary's came 46 years later.
Q 26Which station did Hillary's team set up on the Ross Sea side of Antarctica in 1957?
Scott Base
Scott Base, on Ross Island's Pram Point, was built by Hillary's team in January 1957 as New Zealand's Antarctic base; its flags flew at half-mast on his death in 2008.
Q 27Which world-famous astronaut flew with Hillary to the North Pole in 1985?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, joined Hillary in a small ski-plane to the North Pole in 1985, a landing that made Hillary the first person to stand at both poles and atop Everest.
Q 28Hillary's 1977 'Ocean to Sky' expedition travelled by jetboat up which river?
The Ganges
The team ran from the river's mouth to its source in the Himalayas.
Q 29What did Hillary's 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition seek besides physiological data?
The abominable snowman
The abominable snowman, or yeti, was a stated goal of the 1960-61 expedition, which was bankrolled by World Book Encyclopedia; the team wintered in the Silver Hut at 5,800 m studying acclimatisation.
Q 30Which US television game show did Hillary stump as a mystery guest in 1962?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? was the CBS panel show on which Hillary appeared as a mystery guest in 1962; Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf and guest panellist Merv Griffin failed to identify him.