Peter Hillary is a New Zealand mountaineer, and the son of Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to reach the summit of Everest in 1953. Before Messner's solo climb of Everest, Peter Hillary and a companion get stranded on the Himalayan mountain Ama Dablam, and Messner rescues both men. This event is alluded to in the book but is not described in detail. Hillary does not appear in the book.