Son dedicates seven-summit climb to Sir Edmund Hillary

Wellington, June 19 : Adventurer Peter Hillary has dedicated his successful ascent of the highest mountain in North America to his father, Sir Edmund Hillary.

Hillary completed his climb to the summit of Mt McKinley in Alaska at 4a.m. on Tuesday.

Peter's Alaskan climb was the last in his series of the highest summits on seven continents.

"After the last six months of incredible memorials and farewells to my father it provided me with an opportunity to go back to where it all started: in the mountains that inspired us both," he said.

"Completing the seven summits has been my salute to my father," Stuff.co.nz quoted Peter, as saying.

His comments, by satellite phone while on the mountain, were relayed by his wife, Yvonne Oomen, in a statement.

Mt McKinley (also known as Denali) is near the Arctic circle , and experiences extremes of temperature.

The seven summits are the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, and to complete them all is a goal of many top mountaineers.

Hillary's list was regarded as the hardest seven, as it included Carstenz Pyramid in Irian Jaya, the portion of Papua occupied by Indonesia, rather than a tramp up 2228m Mt Kosciuszko in Australia.

He started his seven summits with Mt Everest, which he climbed twice, in 1990 and 2002.

He climbed: Everest: 8848m Nepal/Tibet (1990, 2002), Aconcagua: 6961m Argentina, South America (1991), Vinson Massif: 4897m Ellsworth Range, Antarctica (1992), Carstenz Pyramid: 4883m Indonesia, Oceania (1995), Kilimanjaro: 5895m Tanzania, Africa (2005), Elbrus: 5633m Russia, Europe (2006) and McKinley: 6194m Alaska, North America (2008).

ANI