Edmund Hillary’s beef dripping that he took up Everest sold for £500

The tin reached the summit but came back again unopened in 1953








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The can of Colonial Beef Dripping contains fat-soluble vitamins which help maintain healthy skin and eyes Credit: Jam Press/Bearnes Hampton and Littlewood
Felix PopePublished 22 March 2026 3:45pm GMT




A tin of beef dripping that was taken on Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Everest has been sold at auction.
The mountaineers carried the rendered fat up and back down the mountain without opening it during the first successful ascent of the world’s highest peak in May 1953.
The 70-year-old can of Colonial Beef Dripping was bought for £500 by Graham Keene, from Exeter, who became the oldest Briton to climb Everest in 2022.
The rusted tin, which features a drawing of a cow, came with a letter stating that it was from the home of Mike Westmacott, a member of the expedition.
Mr Keene said he had only planned to spend £100 but got “carried away”.




Sir Edmund Hillary pictured with his cat Big Red in 2003, at home in Auckland, New ZealandIn 1951, a pound of dripping would have cost at most one shilling and four and a half pence, or 7p, according to Hansard.
Mr Keene told the BBC: “It’s a lot of money for a tin of beef dripping.
“It will become a prop for me as I speak to schools and adult groups around the county. It’s an investment in the story rather than the tin of beef.”
Had it been opened, the foodstuff would have helped those on the expedition endure the climb thanks to its “fatty acids”, he said.
Rendering beef fat separates it from connective tissue and meat, turning it into a clear liquid that is free of impurities and protein.
It contains fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin E, which helps to maintain healthy skin and eyes, and vitamin K, which supports blood clotting.
The mountaineers also lived on sardines, biscuits, apricots, dates, jam, lemonade, soup and coffee during their trek.
Mr Keene said: “If 1,000 people hear me speak over the next year, that’s 50p per person.”
Brian Goodison-Blanks, of Bearnes Hampton Auctioneers, which handled the sale, said collectors around the world were interested in items from mountaineering history.
He said: “They had to carry several pallets of these cans up and down to various base camps at different stages to keep them supplied.
“I think if you’re at the top of Mount Everest, one thing you’re not going to celebrate is beef dripping, you’d rather champagne, but it was the sort of thing that was practical and useful for them.”




Sir Edmund, who conquered Everest in 1953, had a more sophisticated menu than previous expeditions Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesWhile earlier generations of mountaineers had survived on pemmican, a concentrated mixture of fat and dried meat, and hard tack, a dry cracker, Hillary’s expedition took a more modern approach to nutrition.
The team’s doctor was asked to design a new menu, which featured starchy food such as potatoes and rice to be eaten at the lower camps.
They took Kendal Mint Cake with them because the expedition’s manager had read about the sugary snack in a climbing magazine.
“It was easily the most popular item on our high altitude ration. Our only criticism was that we did not have enough of it,” one of the mountaineers wrote at the time.
A food package put up for auction from the trip in 2022 included cocoa, orangeade powder and a banana bar.