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Norman David Hardie (28 December 1924 – 31 October 2017) was a New Zealand climber who was one of the climbers on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition who first reached the summit of the 8,586-metre (28,169 ft) mountain, the third-highest mountain in the world.
A team of nine climbers — eight from the United Kingdom and Hardie from New Zealand — set off on the reconnaissance mission. Hardie, based on his engineering background, was put in charge of developing a better oxygen system than had been available to the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition. Hardie was appointed deputy leader by Evans and put in charge of training two team members, John Angelo Jackson and Joe Brown, in the use of crampons. After two months on the mountain and setting up camps at various heights, helped by 300 porters and 40 Sherpa people, it became clear that they had the chance of turning their reconnaissance mission into an attempt to climb the mountain. George Band and Joe Brown reached the summit from their top camp at on 25 May 1955, with Hardie and Tony Streather repeating the achievement on the following day. Technically much harder than Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga was not climbed again for 22 years.
After the successful climb, Hardie travelled with three Sherpa for several months in their home region. Joined by his wife and a friend from New Zealand, Joe Macdonald, he mapped the last uncharted areas of the Himalayas south of Mount Everest. Hardie published a book in 1957 based on his diaries, In Highest Nepal. An official translation is available in German, and a plagiarised version exists in Japanese.
He was on the 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition to the Himalayas with Hillary.
He published his autobiography, On My Own Two Feet, in 2006. In the book's foreword, Sir Edmund Hillary describes Hardie as follows:
Hardie lived in Cashmere, a suburb of Christchurch in a house designed by Don Donnithorne. He was one of the speakers at Hillary's state funeral in 2008. It was announced at the 60th anniversary of the Kangchenjunga ascent that the New Zealand Alpine Club has commissioned a film to be made about Hardie's climb. Hardie died in Christchurch on 31 October 2017.
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