Home

About Insignia

Authenticity

Quality

Shipping

Faq's

Feedback

Testimonials

Links

Contact Us

PH +64 9 359 9201

Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary 'Personally Signed' Limited Edition Ice Axe (Framed)

Insignia International is proud to be able to offer you the unique opportunity to invest in this outstanding 'personally signed' replica of the ice axe used by the late Sir Edmund Hillary on the 29th May 1953.A percentage of all sales will go to Sir Edmund's Trust to continue his humanitarian work in Nepal.

More details...

Your Price: US$2,236.80
This price is exclusive of any taxes, duties or freight.

Shipping Details: This item is shipped from New Zealand

Product Details:

Size: Case 880mm x 370mm

Limited Edition: 2003

Sir Edmund Hillary - Limited Edition Limited Edition Ice Axe Personally Signed By Sir Edmund Hillary

Replicated off Sir Edmund's original Ice Axe the axe head and tip were measured by the curator of the Auckland Museum and reproduced precisely. Similar timber to that of the original has also been used for the handle. Complete with a secure timber presentation case including a series of photographs and plaque each ice axe comes with a Certificate of Authenticity personally signed by Dame Catherine Tizzard, Chairman of the Himalayan Trust, and information on Sir Edmund Hillary, Mt Everest and the Ice Axe.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY

Mountaineer, Explorer, Humanitarian

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. It was in New Zealand that he became interested in mountaineering. Although he made his living as a beekeeper, he climbed mountains in New Zealand,then in the Alps, and finally in the Himalayas,where he scaled 11 different peaks of over 20,000 feet. By this time, Hillary was ready to confront the world's highest mountain.

Mt. Everest, discovered to be the highest mountain in the world in 1852, lies between Tibetand Nepal.Known as Sagarmatha in Tibetand Chomolungma in Nepal,Peak XV was named Mt Everest to honor Sir George Everest, Surveyor General of India, in 1865.Between 1920 and 1952, seven major expeditions had failed to reach the summit.In 1924, the famous mountaineer George Leigh-Mallory had perished in the attempt. In 1952, a team of Swiss climbers had been forced to turn back after reaching the South Peak, only 1000 feet from the summit.

Edmund Hillary joined Everest reconnaissance expeditions in 1951 and again in 1952. These exploits brought Hillary to the attention of Sir John Hunt, leader of an expedition sponsored by the Joint Himalayan Committee of the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographic Society to make the assault on Everest in 1953.

The expedition reached the South Peak in May. All but two of the climbers who had come this far were forced to turn back by exhaustion at the high altitude. At last, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a native Nepalese climber who had participated in five previous Everest trips, were the only members of the party able to make the final assault on the summit.

At 11:30 on the morning of May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, 29,028feet (8848 metres) above sea level, the highest spot on earth. As remarkable as the feat of reaching the summit was the treacherous climb back down the peak.

By coincidence, the conquest of Everest was announced to the British public on the eve of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The triumph of a British-led expedition combined with the inauguration of the young Queen did much to restore the confidence of a nation weary from long years of wartime hardship and post-war shortages. Edmund Hillary returned to Britain with the other climbers and was knighted by the Queen.

Now world famous, Sir Edmund Hillary turned to Antarctic exploration and led the New Zealand section of the Trans-Antarctic expedition from 1955 to 1958. In 1958 he participated in the first mechanized expedition to the South Pole.

Hillary went on to organise further mountain-climbing expeditions but, as the years passed, he became more and more concerned with the welfare of the Nepalese people. In the 1960s, he returned to Nepal to aid in the development of the society, building clinics, hospitals and 27 schools.

The Ice Axe used by Sir Edmund Hillary during his assault on Mt Everest was manufactured by Claudius Simond of Mt Blanc, France using European Ash for the handle with a forged steel head and spike.

Sir Edmund was renowned for his skills with the ice axe, his high level of fitness and his abilities in both snow and ice.

Official correspondent for The Times of London, covering the 1953 British Everest expedition, James Morris was not a mountaineer. But towards the end of April,on his first journey above Base Camp, he reached Camp III at the top of the Khumbu Ice fall. In Coronation Everest Morris describes his feeling of satisfaction at having climbed higher on Everest than any other journalist and collapsing into a sleeping bag, only to have the tent flap thrust aside and Edmund Hillary’s beaming face appear.

“There’s a nasty bit just down here on that last crevasse,” he said in a loud voice. “I’m going down to cut a few more steps in it. What about coming and belaying me? D’you feel like it?”

…I was too vain to explain that I was prostrate with exhaustion. So, heaving a long inaudible sigh, struggling out of my sleeping-bag, twisting and rolling to get my boots out, catching my feet in the flap, searching for my snow-goggles, I crept miserably out into the snow and followed him. I am glad, now, that he dragged me out that night; for I remember the incident as characteristic of Hillary, and illustrative of his supreme quality as a mountaineer. It was a horrid night, the snow driving and stinging,no moon, only the faint glow of reflected snow and the great shadow of Everest looming above us.

I stood at the lip of the crevasse, the rope belayed around my ice-axe, while Hillary scrambled expertly down its face. There he worked in the half-light,huge and cheerful, his movement not so much graceful as unshakably assured, his energy almost demonic. He had a tremendous, bursting, elemental, infectious,glorious vitality about him, like some bright, burly diesel express pounding across America; but beneath the good fellowship and the energy there was a subtle underlying seriousness; he reminded me often of a musician in the hours before a concert, when the nagging signs of nervous tension are beginning to enter his conversation, and you feel that his pleasantries are only a kindly facade. Hillary was as much a virtuoso as any Menuhin and as deeply and constantly embroiled in his art; I first detected this strain of greatness in him that evening below Camp III. As the ice chips flew through the darkness, his striped hat bobbed in the chasm, and I stood shivering and grumbling, all messed up with ropes, crampons and ice-axes at the top.
From Coronation Everest by James Morris

published by Faber and Faber, London 1958.

Back to the top

Shipping Information

*NOTE: The below times are estimated shipping times from 'commencement of shipping' to 'destination' only. Not all items are carried in stock and may require completion prior to shipping which may take up to 28 days. If your desired product is urgent, please advise us and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Shipping To	Delivery Time	Rate
New Zealand	2 days	US$38.37
Australia	4 - 6 Days	US$113.41
South East Asia	4 - 6 Days	US$165.76
Pacific Islands	4 - 6 Days	US$183.62
Central Asia	4 - 6 Days	US$191.81
North America	4 - 6 Days	US$216.38
UK & Ireland	7 - 10 Days	US$216.38
Central Europe	7 - 10 Days	US$229.82
Western Europe	7 - 10 Days	US$229.82
Eastern Europe	7 - 10 Days	US$299.65
Middle East / Central and South America	7 - 10 Days	US$299.65
Rest of the World	7 - 10 Days	US$302.14

Customer Support

Should you have any problems processing your order please contact an Insignia Sales representative near you. Please also inquire about alternative options for payment should you not want to pay online.

NEW ZEALAND
Freephone (NZ Only) 0800 48 1234
Ph: +64 9 359 9201 sales@insignia.co.nz

GREAT BRITAIN
Ph: +44 (0) 20 33 93 66 06
sales@insigniasports.co.uk

FRANCE
Ph +33 1 39 16 80 90
sales@insignia.fr

Insignia International Representing

Privacy Policy: We are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. We respect your privacy, and therefore do not sell, rent, or loan any of your personal information to any third party. We are committed to protecting your privacy. The information that we collect about you is used to process your orders and to provide a personalized shopping environment and offer the information relevant to your interests. Click here for the full text from our privacy policy.