Norman David Hardie (28 December 1924 – 31 October 2017) was a New Zealand climber who was one of the climbers on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition who first reached the summit of the 8,586-metre (28,169 ft) mountain, the third-highest mountain in the world.

Early life

Hardie was born in

Timaru Timaru (; ) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to peo ...

in 1924. He left school early and, encouraged by his father, spent two seasons hunting deer in the Boyle and Hurunui River valleys. Encouraged by a local Timaru engineer, in 1943 Hardie enrolled at Canterbury University College for a degree in civil engineering. He continued hunting to finance his studies, but became increasingly involved in tramping (the New Zealand term for hiking) and mountaineering. He graduated from Canterbury in 1947 and worked at

Lake Pukaki Lake Pukaki () is the largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island. The others are Lakes Tekapo and Ōhau. All three lakes were formed when the ...

on the hydroelectricity scheme. He first met

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

during a rescue mission for an injured climber on La Perouse in 1948 described as "the most arduous rescue in New Zealand's climbing history". After briefly working in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, Hardie left for England in late 1950. He married Enid Hurst in 1951. He spent five years in London working in structural engineering and water works.

Mountaineering

In London, he lived with other climbers from New Zealand. After

's successful

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

, the New Zealand Alpine Club organised an expedition into the

Barun Valley Barun Valley () is a Himalayan valley situated at the base of makalu, Mt. Makalu in the Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal. This valley rests entirely inside the Makalu Barun National Park. History The valley was created by the Barun River which bec ...

in Nepal in 1954. Hardie's role was to survey and map the routes up to

Makalu Makalu (; ) is the fifth-highest mountain on Earth, with a summit at an elevation of AMSL. It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, on the China–Nepal border. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolat ...

, the fifth highest mountain in the world. He became close friends with Charles Evans during the expedition. When Evans received a telegram during the expedition inviting him to lead an attempt to climb

Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...

in the next season, he asked Hardie to join him. Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain, was then the highest unclimbed peak. A team of nine climbers — eight from the United Kingdom and Hardie from New Zealand — set off on the reconnaissance mission. Hardie, based on his engineering background, was put in charge of developing a better oxygen system than had been available to the

1953 British Mount Everest expedition The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953. ...

. Hardie was appointed deputy leader by Evans and put in charge of training two team members, John Angelo Jackson and Joe Brown, in the use of

crampons A crampon is a traction device attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and icefields, as ...

. After two months on the mountain and setting up camps at various heights, helped by 300 porters and 40

Sherpa SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) is an organisation originally set up in 2002 to run and manage the SHERPA Project. History SHERPA began as an endeavour to support the establishment of a number of open ...

, it became clear that they had the chance of turning their reconnaissance mission into an attempt to climb the mountain. George Band and Joe Brown reached the summit from their top camp at on 25 May 1955, with Hardie and Tony Streather repeating the achievement on the following day. Technically much harder than Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga was not climbed again for 22 years. After the successful climb, Hardie travelled with three Sherpa for several months in their home region. Joined by his wife and a friend from New Zealand, Joe Macdonald, he mapped the last uncharted areas of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

south of Mount Everest. Hardie published a book in 1957 based on his diaries, ''In Highest Nepal''. An official translation is available in German, and a plagiarised version exists in Japanese. He was on the

1960–61 Silver Hut expedition The 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition, formally known as the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition, was initiated by Edmund Hillary and Griffith Pugh with John Dienhart of World Books in America (producers of a children’s encyclopedia). ...

to the Himalayas with Hillary.

Later life

For 22 years, Hardie was on the board of Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust. He visited the Himalayas on 14 trips. He has also been to Antarctica on three occasions, including as leader of Scott Base. In the 1992 New Year Honours, Hardie was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The King's Service Order () established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant of Queen regnant, Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to t ...

for community service. He published his autobiography, ''On My Own Two Feet'', in 2006. In the book's foreword, Sir Edmund Hillary describes Hardie as follows: Hardie lived in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

suburb of Cashmere in a house designed by Don Donnithorne. He was one of the speakers at Hillary's state funeral in 2008. It was announced at the 60th anniversary of the Kangchenjunga ascent that the New Zealand Alpine Club has commissioned a film to be made about Hardie's climb. Hardie died in Christchurch on 31 October 2017.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardie, Norman 1924 births 2017 deaths People from Christchurch New Zealand mountain climbers University of Canterbury alumni 20th-century New Zealand non-fiction writers Sportspeople from Timaru Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand civil engineers