Julia Gillard

Australia’s acting Prime Minister

Hillary’s name would forever “be synonymous with adventure, with achievement, with dreaming and then making those dreams come true. It was obviously a long life well lived.”

Bhoomi Lama

Nepal Mountaineering Association

“He was a hero and our leader. He did a lot for the people of the region around Everest and will always remain in our hearts.”

Gordon Brown

British Prime Minister

He “was a truly a great hero who captured the imagination of the world, a towering figure who will always be remembered as a pioneer explorer and leader.”

Graeme Dingle

New Zealand climber

“I’m incredibly upset, I thought I was ready but I wasn’t. I feel particularly honoured to have been close to him. He recently said to someone that he was quite flexible when it came to changing his plans. I think he was most inflexible - to the point of extreme doggedness... That was the great thing about him. Once he built up some momentum, it was hard to stop him.”

The difficult steps

• Khumbu Glacier: Most technically demanding section on the route.

It’s a two-and-a-half mile long river of cracking ice.

• Western Cwm: Cwm is a Welsh term for valley of ice with crevasses more than eighty feet wide and several hundreds feet deep.

... contd.