60 years on: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's Everest conquest

As the 60th anniversary of the first Everest climb approaches, Conall Ó Fátharta looks back on the achievement of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

"Well George, we knocked the bastard off."

WITH those immortal words to his friend George Lowe, the self-described “average bloke” Edmund Hillary issued perhaps the greatest understatement in the history of mountaineering.