"He had this great, self-deprecating sense of humor," Athans said, calling Hillary an "everyman hero."
"There was one tourist," Athans recalled, "who was showing Edmund Hillary how to hold an ice axe properly. And he just took it all in stride and didn't try to correct the tourist—certainly didn't reveal his identity to that person."
That was "classic Ed," Athans said—Hillary preferred "Ed" to the formal "Sir Edmund."
"Very naturally, he had this great sense of self-possession, this great self-confidence that was matched with this remarkable humility," Athans said. "He was really cut from a kind of cloth that not many people are of today.
"His life is really an example and an inspiration to anyone who has ever felt that perhaps the problems of the world are so great, and the problems of people are so great, that a single individual can't make a difference," Athans added.
"The truth of the matter is that someone like Sir Edmund Hillary can have an effect."
(Watch video: Edmund Hillary in His Own Words.)
National Geographic News podcast host Patty Kim contributed to this report.
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