Peter Hillary
A lifetime of adventure.
Peter grew up climbing mountains and participating in many of his father’s expeditions and projects – travelling to the North Pole, up the Ganges River in India, climbing in the Himalayas, around the United States, and helping the mountain people of Nepal.
Peter’s first summit of Everest in 1990 meant the Hillarys became the “first family” of Himalayan mountaineering with two generations of Everest climbers. They are also the first two generations of one family to have each established new routes across Antarctica to the South Pole. Peter reached the South Pole in 1999, and climbed Mt Everest for the second time in 2002 in celebration of his father’s historic first ascent with Tenzing Norgay. The expedition is the subject of the compelling National Geographic documentary Everest: 50 years on the mountain.
In 2008, Peter completed the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.
A lifetime of adventure
Peter Hillary is an accomplished mountaineer, speaker and expedition leader. Peter has a history of world-class achievements in climbing.
Peter has summited Everest and forged a new route to the South Pole. The names Everest and Hillary are forever linked, and will always be associated with high adventure.
Peter is a lifelong philanthropist, acting on several boards for Himalayan foundations around the world. He has spent a lifetime raising funds to support these projects in Nepal.
Together with his sister, Sarah Hillary, they managed the intellectual property of the Ed Hillary estate.
Presentations
Peter is an experienced speaker who enjoys inspiring and motivating people to overcome their challenges in business, the outdoors and their personal life.
He is a dynamic and easy speaker with a dry wit and a flair for storytelling, and is considered one of the world’s foremost Mt Everest speakers, equally at home with groups of 12 as he is with 12,000.
He has spoken at conferences and events for many leading Fortune 500 companies, as well as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and at the prestigious Distinguished Speakers Series of Southern California.
He has a range of presentations he can give, and has been acclaimed for his humour, relevance and storytelling ability. Your audience will feel transported into a world of high adventure. Peter delivers an inspiring message through a selection of extraordinary expeditionary yarns and identifies key attributes that are needed for success. He examines setbacks and failures too and the lessons learned from these. All this, delivered with his trademark dry wit and self-effacing candour.
Adventure Travel
Peter is an adventure travel operator and guide specialising in the Himalayas and Antarctica. His clients have included former Qantas CEO James Strong on Mt Vinson in Antarctica, entrepreneur Dick Smith (Carstenz Pyramid in Irian Jaya, 16,000 feet/4880m), and Chelsea Football Club management on Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Together with his sister, Sarah Hillary, they managed the intellectual property of the Ed Hillary estate.
Peter regularly leads trips in NZ, Nepal, the Arctic and Antarctica. View all the available adventures and experiences today.
Summit of Everest
1990
Books & publications
Peter is an author of five mountaineering books and one children’s book. His book In the Ghost Country, written with author John Elder, has received critical acclaim for its literary meri.
Media
Peter has been involved in numerous documentaries and films for National Geographic, PBS and Outdoor Life Network, as well as interviews for television shows including The Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, Ray Martin Up Close and Personal in Australia and the Charlie Rose Show in New York. He is the author of six books including “In the Ghost Country: A Lifetime spent on the Edge” and numerous newspaper and magazine articles, including the New York Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald. He has appeared in numerous documentaries, including the National Geographic feature, Everest: 50 years on the mountain.,
Expeditions and achievement
Over 40 expeditions including mountaineering expeditions on Everest’s West Ridge, Makalu West Pillar, K2, Mt Vinson in Antarctica, Aconcagua, Lhotse West Face, Amadablam West Face direct and Carstenz Pyramid. He has traversed the Himalayas on foot from East to West, climbed Everest twice, in 1990 and in 2002.
- Surviving a howling storm on K2, the world’s second highest mountain. Peter was just 400 metres from the summit. He survived, but the storm claimed the lives of seven others he’d been climbing with. Surviving K2 is ” probably my greatest mountaineering achievement.”
- Reaching the Three Poles: North Pole, South Pole, and the summit of Mt Everest. Sir Edmund and Peter flew in a small aircraft to the North Pole with astronaut Neil Armstrong.
- The first ski descent of Mt Aspiring: the Matterhorn of the Southern Hemisphere.
- The first high-altitude traverse of the Himalayan Range: a 3000 mile/5000 km, 10 month long route (averaging 13,000 feet / 4000 metres) from Mt Kanchenjunga in Sikkim across Nepal and India to K2 in Pakistan.
- From the ‘Ocean to the Sky’: jetboating up the sacred Ganges river with his father, from the Sundarbunds in the Bay of Bengal across the Gangetic plains to high in the Himalayas near Badrinath, where they made first ascents of two Himalayan peaks.”For Dad and I this was the finest adventure of them all.”
- Shark frenzies in the Coral Sea: feeding and filming sharks with Ron and Valerie Taylor at the Osprey Reef 120 miles/200kms off the north Queensland coast.
- Extensive mountaineering and ice-climbing in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, including the Balfour Face of Mt Tasman, East Face of Mt Cook, South Face of Mt Douglas and Strauchon Face of Unicorn.
- The Seven Summits: climbing all seven of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.
- Tenzing Norgay Award for Mountaineering 2009
- Circumnavigators Club Order of Magellan NYC 2006
- Mountain Institute “Mountain Hero”, Washington DC 2004
- The Explorers’ Club NYC Lowell Thomas Award 2003
- Royal Geographical Society Fellow FRGS, London 2001
- New Zealand Commemoration Medal 1990
Join an Adventure
Embark on the
Journey of a Lifetime
The Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer
Inspired by one of the greatest and most iconic adventures of our time, the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer invites you on an epic journey by rail and luxury coach throughout the majestic South Island of New Zealand.
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The Pinnacle Tour
A luxury tour of New Zealand's South lsland with Pounamu Tourism hosted by Peter Hillary.
This tour provides you a personal insight into one of New Zealand’s greatest story.
The Arctic & Antarctica
From the icefields of the Arctic to the vast penguin colonies of Antarctica, Hillary family members often join expedition voyages as guest speakers and expedition members.
Take a look to see what trips are available now.
Trek in Ed's footsteps
Travel with the charitable organisations continuing Ed's work in the Himalayas.
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Continue the Adventure
We’d love to hear from you. Reach out today, and let’s start planning your next great adventure with the Hillary Family.
