January 11, 2008 saw the death of what New Zealand explorer, who along with Tenzing Norgay became the first known people to reach the top of Mt. Everest?
Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay GM OSN (; "tendzin norgyé"; 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two individuals known to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. "Time" named him one of the people of the 20th century. There are conflicting accounts of his early life. The account he gave in his autobiography, accepted for several years, is that he was a Sherpa born and raised in Tengboche, Khumbu, in
Tenzing Norgay summit of Kedarnath at in the western Garhwal Himalaya with Norgay being one of the summit party. In 1952, he took part in the two Swiss expeditions led by Edouard Wyss-Dunant (spring) and Gabriel Chevalley (autumn), the first serious attempts to climb Everest from the southern (Nepalese) side, after two previous US and British reconnaissance expeditions in 1950 and 1951. Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay were able to reach a height of about on the southeast ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record. The expedition opened up a new route on Everest that was successfully climbed the next year. Norgay