Everest mountaineer George Lowe dies at 89 after illness
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George Lowe (right) and fellow New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary are welcomed home to New Zealand following their arrival by air at Auckland. George Lowe, the last surviving climber from the team that made the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, died on March 20, 2013. He was 89. -- FILE PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AP) - Mr George Lowe, the last surviving climber from the team that made the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, has died at age 89.
His wife Mary said on Thursday that he died a day earlier at a nursing home in Ripley, central England, after an illness.
Mr Lowe and his friend Edmund Hillary were the only New Zealanders on the 1953 British-led attempt to climb the world's highest peak.
Mr Lowe was part of a small group that established the final camp 300m below the mountain's summit on May 28, 1953. The next day, Mr Hillary and Mr Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reached the 8,850-m peak.
