Sir Edmund Hillary, who has died aged 88, stepped onto the summit of Mount Everest at 11.30am on May 29, 1953, and immediately entered the legend books. Together with the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the lanky beekeeper from Auckland was the first to set foot on the peak of the world's highest mountain – 29,028 feet above sea level.

It was a feat which had eluded seven major expeditions from 1920-1952 and confounded the predictions of those who believed man could never survive at such altitudes. The moment was captured forever in Hillary's iconic photograph of Tenzing clutching his ice-axe on the summit.