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 01News of Hillary and Tenzing's Everest ascent broke in Britain on the morning of which royal occasion?
Elizabeth II's coronation
Elizabeth II's coronation fell four days after the climb; a coded dispatch went by runner, radio and telegram to London, and the Queen was told the night before.
Q 02What was Hillary's trade before he became famous, working with his father and brother?
Beekeeper
Beekeeper: the hives kept him busy with his father and brother Rex all summer and left his winters free, which is how he managed whole seasons in the mountains.
Q 03A 1935 school trip to which volcano, the North Island's highest peak, first hooked the 16-year-old Hillary on mountains?
Mount Ruapehu
Mount Ruapehu left its mark: after the trip he cared more for tramping than for study, and within three years he had given up university altogether.
Q 04Hillary's first major summit, Mount Ollivier in 1939, stands in which New Zealand mountain range?
The Southern Alps
The Southern Alps gave him a gentle start: Mount Ollivier is now a scramble above a tramping hut, and a proposal to rename it Mount Hillary after his death was opposed by the Ollivier family.
Q 05What role did Hillary serve in with the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II?
Navigator
Navigator was the role he qualified for once he finally joined up: he had first applied in 1939, then withdrawn over his conscience. Posted to the Solomon Islands in 1945, he was badly burnt in a boating accident.
Q 06Which outdoor pursuit did Hillary enjoy with the Radiant Living movement's club in the Waitākere Ranges?
Hiking
Hiking, or tramping as New Zealanders call it, with the Radiant Living Tramping Club deepened Hillary's love of the outdoors.
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 country's climbers held the 1952 Everest permit, leaving Hillary and the British to try Cho Oyu instead?
Switzerland
Switzerland's 1952 team, with Tenzing Norgay among its climbers, got within about 250 metres of the summit, and with France booked for 1954 the British feared 1953 was their last chance to be first.
Q 09Who led the 1953 expedition on which Hillary reached the summit?
John Hunt
John Hunt, an army colonel, replaced the expected leader and ran the climb with military-style planning, stocking a chain of ever-higher camps.
Q 10Three days before Hillary's climb, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans became the first to reach which point on Everest?
The South Summit
The South Summit, about 300 feet below the top, was as far as they got: their oxygen sets gave trouble and time ran out, which left the way open for Hillary and Tenzing.
Q 11What unwelcome discovery did Hillary make on the morning of the summit climb?
His boots had frozen solid
His boots had frozen solid overnight at the 27,900-foot high camp, and he had to thaw them over the stove flame before he and Tenzing could set off at 6:30 am.
Q 12What was the 40-foot rock face just below Everest's summit, the 1953 climb's final obstacle, later named?
The Hillary Step
The Hillary Step got its name after he wedged himself into a crack between the rock and the snow clinging to it and wriggled his way to the top of it.
Q 13What did Hillary and Tenzing do first on Everest's summit?
Shook hands
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 was Vivian Fuchs's bid to make the first land crossing of the continent, and Hillary's dash to the Pole was criticised by some as going beyond his orders.
Q 23What vehicles did Hillary's party drive to the South Pole?
Shook hands: Hillary held out a hand in the formal way, but Tenzing threw his arms around him and the two thumped each other on the back.
Q 14Hillary searched Everest's summit in vain for traces of which climber, who vanished near the top in 1924?
George Mallory
George Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine were last seen climbing towards the top; Hillary found no sign of them, so whether they got there 29 years earlier stayed an open question.
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 16With which line did Hillary greet George Lowe after the summit?
'Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.'
Hillary said 'Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.' to George Lowe, the fellow New Zealander who had forced the route up the Lhotse Face and was the first to meet the pair coming down.
Q 17How did Hillary and Tenzing initially answer when asked who got to Everest's summit first?
That they reached it together
That they reached it together was how the pair first told it, as a team effort, though each later wrote that Hillary had stepped up first.
Q 18Which phrase in Jan Morris's coded Everest dispatch meant 'summit reached'?
'Snow conditions bad'
'Snow conditions bad' was code for success: fearing rival papers would steal the scoop, Times reporter Jan Morris cabled what looked like bad news, with the climbers' names hidden in the rest.
Q 19Where was Hillary when he learned that the Queen had knighted him for climbing Everest?
On the trek out
On the trek out: the knighthood was announced within days of the climb, and word reached the astonished Hillary before the expedition was out of the mountains.
Q 20Which British medal did Tenzing Norgay receive for the Everest ascent?
The George Medal
The George Medal went to Tenzing while Hillary was knighted, a gap usually put down to Tenzing's not being a British subject.
Ferguson farm tractors
Ferguson farm tractors, modified for the ice, carried Hillary's party to the Pole in January 1958, about two weeks ahead of the British crossing team.
Q 24What was Hillary's party sent to do for Vivian Fuchs's crossing team?
Lay supply depots
Lay supply depots was the whole brief, but with the last one stocked Hillary radioed that he was 'hell-bent for the Pole' and got there before Fuchs did.
Q 25Which two parties reached the South Pole overland before Hillary's in 1958?
Amundsen and Scott
Amundsen and Scott had sledged there in 1911 and 1912 and no one had arrived overland since; when Hillary drove in, Americans who had flown in were already living at a base on the Pole.
Q 26Which station did Hillary's team set up on the Ross Sea side of Antarctica in 1957?
Scott Base
Scott Base went up on Ross Island in early 1957 as the New Zealanders' headquarters, and Hillary's party wintered there before heading south across the ice.
Q 27Which world-famous astronaut flew with Hillary to the North Pole in 1985?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, flew with him in a small ski-plane that landed at the North Pole, so Hillary, who had driven to the South Pole and climbed Everest, had now stood at all three.
Q 28Hillary's 1977 'Ocean to Sky' expedition travelled by jetboat up which river?
The Ganges
The Ganges carried Hillary's jet boats from the sea up into the Himalayas, but on the climb that ended the trip he collapsed with altitude sickness and had to be evacuated.
Q 29What did Hillary's 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition seek besides physiological data?
The abominable snowman
The abominable snowman was hunted with money from an American encyclopedia publisher, but the months of searching turned up no convincing evidence that any such creature existed.
Q 30What did Hillary persuade New Zealand's government to help Nepal create around Everest?
A national park
A national park came after his airstrips, built to bring in aid, had also opened the Everest region to many more tourists and climbers.