.gif)
World altitude record (mountaineering)
Encyclopedia
In the history of mountaineering
, the world altitude record referred to the highest point on the Earth's surface which had been reached, regardless of whether that point was an actual summit
. The world summit record referred to the highest mountain
to have been successfully climbed. The terms are most commonly used in relation to the history of mountaineering in the Himalaya and Karakoram
ranges, though modern evidence suggests that it was not until the 20th century that mountaineers in the Himalaya exceeded the heights which had been reached in the Andes
. The altitude and summit records rose steadily during the early 20th century until 1953, when the ascent of Mount Everest
made the concept obsolete.
Europe
an exploration of the Himalaya began in earnest during the mid-19th century, and the earliest people known to have climbed in the range were surveyors
of the Great Trigonometric Survey
. During the 1850s and 1860s they climbed dozens of peaks of over 6,100 m
(20,000 ft) and several of over 6,400 m (21,000 ft) in order to make observations, and it was during this period that claims to have ascended the highest point yet reached by man began to be made.
Most of these early claims have now been rendered redundant by the discovery of the bodies of three children at the 6,739 m (22,110 ft) summit of Llullaillaco
in South America
: Inca sacrifices
dated to around AD 1500. There is no direct evidence that the Incas reached higher points, but the discovery of the skeleton of a guanaco on the summit ridge of Aconcagua
(6,962 m, 22,841 ft) suggests that they also climbed on that mountain, and the possibility of Pre-Columbian
ascents of South America's highest peak cannot be ruled out.
In the Himalaya, meanwhile, yak
s have been reported at heights of up to 6,100 m (20,000 ft) and the summer snow line can be as high as 6,500 m (21,300 ft). It is likely that local inhabitants went to such heights in search of game, and possibly higher while exploring trade routes, but they did not live there, and there is no evidence that they attempted to climb the summits of the Himalaya before the arrival of Europeans.
Early claims of world altitude records are also muddied by incomplete surveying and lack of knowledge of local geography, which have led to reassessments of many of the heights which were originally claimed. In 1862 a khalasi (an Indian assistant of the GTS) climbed Shilla, a summit in Himachal Pradesh
which was claimed to be over 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. More recent surveys have, however, fixed its height at 6,111 m (20,049 ft). Three years later William Johnson of the GTS claimed to have climbed a 7,284 m (23,898 ft) peak during an illicit journey into China
, but the mountain he climbed has since been measured at 6,710 m (22,014 ft).
The first pure mountaineer (as opposed to surveyor) to have climbed in the Himalaya was William Graham
, who climbed extensively in the area in 1883. He claimed ascents of Changabang
(6,864 m, 22,520 ft) and Kabru
(7,349 m, 24,111 ft), but both of these ascents are disputed. It is not claimed that he lied about his ascents, rather that the poor quality of maps at the time, coupled with his own inability to tell north from south, may have led him to be unsure of which mountain he was actually on, and to make estimates of his height which owed more to wishful thinking than scientific measurements. His description of Changabang is so at variance with the mountain itself that his claim was doubted almost immediately, and is taken seriously by no modern researcher.
Graham's ascent of Kabru is more controversial. His description of Kabru was also vague, and this, coupled with the speed of his claimed ascent and his failure to report significant effects of altitude sickness
have led many to assume that here he also climbed a lowlier peak in the same area. His claim was, however, supported at the time by climbers such as Douglas Freshfield
and Tom Longstaff, and more recently Walt Unsworth has argued that as a man who was more interested in climbing than in making observations, the vagueness of his description is to be expected, and that now Everest has been climbed in a single day without oxygen, his claims sound less outlandish than they once did. If Graham did climb Kabru it was a remarkable achievement for its time, establishing an altitude record which was not broken for twenty-six years, and a summit record which lasted until 1930, but as with many mysteries of the early days of mountaineering it is unlikely that the truth will ever be known.
Another claim to the world altitude record was made by Martin Conway in the course of his expedition to the Karakoram
in 1892. Together with Matthias Zurbriggen
and Charles Granville Bruce
, Conway made an attempt on Baltoro Kangri
and on 25 August reached a subsidiary summit which he named Pioneer Peak. The barometer
showed a height of 22,600 ft (6,900 m) which Conway optimistically rounded up to 23,000 ft (over 7,000 m). However, Pioneer Peak has since been measured at only 6,501 m (21,322 ft).
On 14 January 1897, Matthias Zurbriggen went on to make the first recorded ascent of Aconcagua in the Andes. Aconcagua is 6,962 m (22,841 ft) high and if the claims of Graham are discounted, its summit was probably the highest point to have been reached at that time.
It was several more years before the world altitude record would be broken, with reasonable certainty, in the Himalaya. In July 1905 Tom George Longstaff made an attempt on Gurla Mandhata
. The height he reached is estimated at between 7,000 m (23,000 ft) and 7,300 m (24,000 ft), greater than the height of Aconcagua. In 1907 he returned to the Himalaya and led an expedition with the aim of climbing Nanda Devi
, but unable to penetrate its "sanctuary" of surrounding peaks turned his attention to Trisul
, which he climbed on 12 June with the alpine guides Alexis and Henri Brocherel. At 7,120 m (23,360 ft) Trisul became the highest summit to have been climbed whose height was accurately known and whose ascent was undisputed.
Longstaff's altitude record, though not his summit record, was broken in 1909 by the Duke of the Abruzzi's
expedition to the Karakoram. After failing to make progress on K2
the Duke made an attempt on Chogolisa
, where he reached a height of approximately 7,500 m (24,600 ft) before turning around just 150 m below the summit due to bad weather and the risk of falling through a cornice
in poor visibility.
, and would then become the exclusive preserve of climbers on the world's highest mountain. On the 1922 expedition the record was broken twice. On 20 May, George Mallory
, Howard Somervell
and Edward Norton
reached 8,170 m (26,800 ft) on the mountain's North Ridge, without using supplemental oxygen. Three days later George Finch
and Geoffrey Bruce, using supplemental oxygen, followed the same route and went even higher—turning around at about 8,320 m (27,300 ft) when Bruce's oxygen apparatus failed.
In 1924 the British made another attempt on Everest
, and the world altitude record was again broken. On 4 June, Edward Norton, without supplemental oxygen, reached a point in the mountain's Great Couloir 8,572 m (28,126 ft) high, his companion Howard Somervell having turned around a short distance before. This was an altitude record which would not be broken, with certainty, until the 1950s, or without supplemental oxygen until 1978. Three days later George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
disappeared while making their own attempt on the summit. There has been much debate over whether they reached a greater height than Norton, or even the summit, but as there is no direct proof they are not generally credited with a record.
The British made several further expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1930s. Twice in 1933 climbing parties reached approximately the same point as Norton; first Lawrence Wager
and Percy Wyn-Harris
, and later Eric Shipton
and Frank Smythe
, but there was no advance on Norton's record.
While there would be no advance on the altitude record until the 1950s, the summit record was broken three times in the inter-war years. The first was a by-product of the international expedition to Kanchenjunga led by Gunther Dyhrenfurth
in 1930. The attempt on Kanchenjunga itself was abandoned after the death of a Sherpa, but members of the team stayed to climb a number of smaller peaks in the area and Jongsong
, at 7,462 m (24,343 ft) was climbed by Bericht Hörlin and Erwin Schneider on 3 June.
In 1931 the summit record was broken again with the ascent of Kamet
. Frank Smythe, Eric Shipton, R.L. Holdsworth and Lewa Sherpa reached the summit on 21 June. At 7,756 m (25,446 ft), Kamet was the first mountain over 7,500 m to be climbed.
The summit record was raised once more before the Second World War
brought an effective halt to mountaineering in the Himalaya. Nanda Devi
, at 7,816 m (25,643 ft) the highest mountain wholly within the British Empire
, had been the object of several expeditions, and it was finally climbed on 29 August 1937 by Bill Tilman
and Noel Odell
.
After the Second World War, the formerly closed and secretive kingdom of Nepal
, wary of the intentions of the People's Republic of China
and seeking friends in the West, began to open its borders. For the first time its peaks, including the south side of Everest, became accessible to Western mountaineers, triggering a new wave of exploration. There was one further improvement on the summit record before Everest was conquered. On 3 June 1950 Annapurna
(8,091 m, 26,545 ft) became the first 8,000 m mountain to be climbed when the French
climbers Maurice Herzog
and Louis Lachenal
reached its summit. The ascent was not without its price. Both Herzog and Lachenal lost their toes to frostbite
; Herzog also lost most of his fingers.
The first attempt to climb Everest from the south was made by a Swiss
team in 1952. The expedition's high point was reached by Raymond Lambert
and the team's Nepali sardar
Tenzing Norgay
on 26 May, when they reached a point approximately 200 m (650 ft) below the South Summit before turning around in the knowledge that they would not reach the summit in daylight. Their estimated height of 8,600 m (28,210 ft) was slightly higher than the previous altitude record set by the British on the north side of the mountain. The Swiss made further attempts later in May, and again in autumn after the monsoon
, but did not regain Lambert and Tenzing's high point.
Mount Everest was climbed the following year. On 26 May, three days before the successful attempt, Tom Bourdillon
and Charles Evans reached the South Summit before turning back due to malfunctioning oxygen apparatus. Their height of 8,760 m (28,750 ft) represented a new, short lived, altitude record, and can be seen as a summit record if this is taken to include minor tops as well as genuine mountains. Edmund Hillary
and Tenzing Norgay finally reached the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) true summit on 29 May 1953, marking the final chapter in the history of the mountaineering altitude record. While the exact height of Everest's summit is subject to minor variation due to the level of snow cover and the gradual upthrust of the Himalaya, significant changes to the world altitude record are now impossible.
Female mountaineers were rare in the early 20th century, and the maximum height attained by a woman lagged behind that claimed by male climbers. The first woman to climb extensively in the Karakoram was Fanny Bullock Workman
, who made a number of ascents, including that of Pinnacle Peak, a 6,930 m (22,736 ft) subsidiary summit of Nun Kun
, in 1906. Her claim on the women's altitude record was challenged by Annie Smith Peck
in 1908 after she made an ascent of the north peak of Huascarán
, which she claimed was higher than Pinnacle Peak. The ensuing controversy was bitter and public, and eventually resolved in Bullock Workman's favour when she hired a team of surveyors to measure the height of Huascarán. The north peak was found to be 6,648 m (21,812 ft) tall - some 600 m lower than Smith Peck's estimate.
In 1934 Hettie Dhyrenfurth became the first woman to exceed 7000 m when she climbed Sia Kangri
(7,442 m, 24,370 ft). Her summit record would stand for 40 years, though her altitude record was broken by the French climber Claude Kogan, who reached approximately 7,600 m (25,000 ft) on Cho Oyu
in 1954. The following year saw the first all-female team to visit the Himalaya, making the first ascent of Gyalgen Peak (6,700 m, 22,000 ft).
The first female ascent of an 8000 m peak came in 1974, when three Japanese women, Masako Uchida, Mieko Mori and Naoko Makaseko climbed Manaslu
, at 8,156 m (26,758 ft). A year later Junko Tabei
of Japan made the first female ascent of Mount Everest on 16 May 1975.
The highest mountain to have had a female first ascent
is Gasherbrum III
(7,952 m, 26,089 ft), which was first climbed by Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Wanda Rutkiewicz
(along with two male climbers) in August 1975.
Mountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
, the world altitude record referred to the highest point on the Earth's surface which had been reached, regardless of whether that point was an actual summit
Summit (topography)
In topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation...
. The world summit record referred to the highest mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
to have been successfully climbed. The terms are most commonly used in relation to the history of mountaineering in the Himalaya and Karakoram
Karakoram
The Karakoram, or Karakorum , is a large mountain range spanning the borders between Pakistan, India and China, located in the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , and Xinjiang region,...
ranges, though modern evidence suggests that it was not until the 20th century that mountaineers in the Himalaya exceeded the heights which had been reached in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
. The altitude and summit records rose steadily during the early 20th century until 1953, when the ascent of Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
made the concept obsolete.
19th century and before
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an exploration of the Himalaya began in earnest during the mid-19th century, and the earliest people known to have climbed in the range were surveyors
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
of the Great Trigonometric Survey
Great Trigonometric Survey
The Great Trigonometric Survey was a project of the Survey of India throughout most of the 19th century. It was piloted in its initial stages by William Lambton, and later by George Everest. Among the many accomplishments of the Survey were the demarcation of the British territories in India and...
. During the 1850s and 1860s they climbed dozens of peaks of over 6,100 m
Metre
The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...
(20,000 ft) and several of over 6,400 m (21,000 ft) in order to make observations, and it was during this period that claims to have ascended the highest point yet reached by man began to be made.
Most of these early claims have now been rendered redundant by the discovery of the bodies of three children at the 6,739 m (22,110 ft) summit of Llullaillaco
Llullaillaco
Llullaillaco is a stratovolcano at the border of Argentina and Chile. It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of very high volcanic peaks on a high plateau within the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world...
in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
: Inca sacrifices
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
dated to around AD 1500. There is no direct evidence that the Incas reached higher points, but the discovery of the skeleton of a guanaco on the summit ridge of Aconcagua
Aconcagua
Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas at . It is located in the Andes mountain range, in the Argentine province of Mendoza and it lies west by north of its capital, the city of Mendoza. The summit is also located about 5 kilometres from San Juan Province and 15 kilometres from the...
(6,962 m, 22,841 ft) suggests that they also climbed on that mountain, and the possibility of Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
ascents of South America's highest peak cannot be ruled out.
In the Himalaya, meanwhile, yak
Yak
The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...
s have been reported at heights of up to 6,100 m (20,000 ft) and the summer snow line can be as high as 6,500 m (21,300 ft). It is likely that local inhabitants went to such heights in search of game, and possibly higher while exploring trade routes, but they did not live there, and there is no evidence that they attempted to climb the summits of the Himalaya before the arrival of Europeans.
Early claims of world altitude records are also muddied by incomplete surveying and lack of knowledge of local geography, which have led to reassessments of many of the heights which were originally claimed. In 1862 a khalasi (an Indian assistant of the GTS) climbed Shilla, a summit in Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
which was claimed to be over 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. More recent surveys have, however, fixed its height at 6,111 m (20,049 ft). Three years later William Johnson of the GTS claimed to have climbed a 7,284 m (23,898 ft) peak during an illicit journey into China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, but the mountain he climbed has since been measured at 6,710 m (22,014 ft).
William Woodman Graham
William Woodman Graham was a British mountaineer who led the first pure mountaineering expedition to the Himalayas and may have set a world altitude record on Kabru....
, who climbed extensively in the area in 1883. He claimed ascents of Changabang
Changabang
Changabang is a mountain in the Garhwal Himalaya of Uttarakhand, India. It is part of a group of peaks that form the northeast wall of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. It is a particularly steep and rocky peak, and all routes on it are serious undertakings. It has been the site of many significant climbs...
(6,864 m, 22,520 ft) and Kabru
Kabru
Kabru is a mountain in the Himalayas on the border of India and eastern Nepal. It is part of a ridge that extends south from Kangchenjunga.The main features of this ridge are as follows :* Kangchenjunga south top, 8476 m, at...
(7,349 m, 24,111 ft), but both of these ascents are disputed. It is not claimed that he lied about his ascents, rather that the poor quality of maps at the time, coupled with his own inability to tell north from south, may have led him to be unsure of which mountain he was actually on, and to make estimates of his height which owed more to wishful thinking than scientific measurements. His description of Changabang is so at variance with the mountain itself that his claim was doubted almost immediately, and is taken seriously by no modern researcher.
Graham's ascent of Kabru is more controversial. His description of Kabru was also vague, and this, coupled with the speed of his claimed ascent and his failure to report significant effects of altitude sickness
Altitude sickness
Altitude sickness—also known as acute mountain sickness , altitude illness, hypobaropathy, or soroche—is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude...
have led many to assume that here he also climbed a lowlier peak in the same area. His claim was, however, supported at the time by climbers such as Douglas Freshfield
Douglas Freshfield
Douglas William Freshfield was a British lawyer, mountaineer and author, who edited the Alpine Journal from 1872 to 1880...
and Tom Longstaff, and more recently Walt Unsworth has argued that as a man who was more interested in climbing than in making observations, the vagueness of his description is to be expected, and that now Everest has been climbed in a single day without oxygen, his claims sound less outlandish than they once did. If Graham did climb Kabru it was a remarkable achievement for its time, establishing an altitude record which was not broken for twenty-six years, and a summit record which lasted until 1930, but as with many mysteries of the early days of mountaineering it is unlikely that the truth will ever be known.
Another claim to the world altitude record was made by Martin Conway in the course of his expedition to the Karakoram
Karakoram
The Karakoram, or Karakorum , is a large mountain range spanning the borders between Pakistan, India and China, located in the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , and Xinjiang region,...
in 1892. Together with Matthias Zurbriggen
Matthias Zurbriggen
Matthias Zurbriggen was one of the great 19th-century alpinists and mountain guides. He climbed throughout the Alps, and also in South America, the Himalayas and New Zealand...
and Charles Granville Bruce
Charles Granville Bruce
Brigadier-General Charles Granville Bruce, CB, MVO was a Himalayan veteran and leader of the second and third British expeditions to Mount Everest in 1922 and 1924.-Background and early life:...
, Conway made an attempt on Baltoro Kangri
Baltoro Kangri
Baltoro Kangri is a mountain of the Karakoram mountain range in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Baltoro Kangri is the 82nd highest mountain in the world with an elevation of . It lies to the south of the Gasherbrums and east of Chogolisa Peak...
and on 25 August reached a subsidiary summit which he named Pioneer Peak. The barometer
Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
showed a height of 22,600 ft (6,900 m) which Conway optimistically rounded up to 23,000 ft (over 7,000 m). However, Pioneer Peak has since been measured at only 6,501 m (21,322 ft).
On 14 January 1897, Matthias Zurbriggen went on to make the first recorded ascent of Aconcagua in the Andes. Aconcagua is 6,962 m (22,841 ft) high and if the claims of Graham are discounted, its summit was probably the highest point to have been reached at that time.
Early 20th century
Gurla Mandhata
Gurla Mandhata, or Naimona'nyi or Memo Nani is the highest peak of the Nalakankar Himal, a small subrange of the Himalaya. It lies in Burang County of the Ngari Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, near the northwest corner of Nepal. It is the 34th highest peak in the world...
. The height he reached is estimated at between 7,000 m (23,000 ft) and 7,300 m (24,000 ft), greater than the height of Aconcagua. In 1907 he returned to the Himalaya and led an expedition with the aim of climbing Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country ; owing to this geography it was the highest known mountain in the world until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808...
, but unable to penetrate its "sanctuary" of surrounding peaks turned his attention to Trisul
Trisul
Trisul is a group of three Himalayan mountain peaks of western Kumaun, with the highest reaching 7120m. The three peaks resemble a trident - in Hindi/Sanskrit, Trishul, trident, is the weapon of Shiva. The Trishul group forms the southeast corner of the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi...
, which he climbed on 12 June with the alpine guides Alexis and Henri Brocherel. At 7,120 m (23,360 ft) Trisul became the highest summit to have been climbed whose height was accurately known and whose ascent was undisputed.
Longstaff's altitude record, though not his summit record, was broken in 1909 by the Duke of the Abruzzi's
Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
Prince Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco di Savoia-Aosta , Duke of the Abruzzi , was an Italian nobleman, mountaineer and explorer of the royal House of Savoy...
expedition to the Karakoram. After failing to make progress on K2
K2
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest...
the Duke made an attempt on Chogolisa
Chogolisa
Chogolisa is a mountain in the Karakoram region of Pakistan. It lies near the Baltoro Glacier in the Concordia region which is home to some of the highest peaks of the world. Chogolisa has several peaks, the highest on the SW face rises to...
, where he reached a height of approximately 7,500 m (24,600 ft) before turning around just 150 m below the summit due to bad weather and the risk of falling through a cornice
Cornice (climbing)
A snow cornice or simply cornice is an overhanging edge of snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain. They form by wind blowing snow over the crest of the mountain, so they often form on the leeward sides of mountains...
in poor visibility.
British Everest expeditions
The world altitude record was not broken again until the British expeditions to Mount EverestMount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
, and would then become the exclusive preserve of climbers on the world's highest mountain. On the 1922 expedition the record was broken twice. On 20 May, George Mallory
George Mallory
George Herbert Leigh Mallory was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s....
, Howard Somervell
Howard Somervell
Theodore Howard Somervell OBE was a British surgeon, mountaineer and missionary who was a member of two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, and then spent nearly 40 years working as a doctor in India.-Early life:...
and Edward Norton
Edward Felix Norton
Edward Felix Norton DSO MC was a British army officer and mountaineer.He was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and then joined artillery units in India and served in World War I. He had been introduced to mountain climbing at the home in the Alps of his...
reached 8,170 m (26,800 ft) on the mountain's North Ridge, without using supplemental oxygen. Three days later George Finch
George Finch (chemist)
George Ingle Finch FRS was a chemist and mountaineer.He was born in Australia but educated in German-speaking Switzerland and studied physical sciences at Geneva University....
and Geoffrey Bruce, using supplemental oxygen, followed the same route and went even higher—turning around at about 8,320 m (27,300 ft) when Bruce's oxygen apparatus failed.
British Mount Everest Expedition 1924
The 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition was—after the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition—the second expedition with the goal of achieving the first ascent of Mount Everest. After two summit attempts in which Edward Norton set a world altitude record, the mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew...
, and the world altitude record was again broken. On 4 June, Edward Norton, without supplemental oxygen, reached a point in the mountain's Great Couloir 8,572 m (28,126 ft) high, his companion Howard Somervell having turned around a short distance before. This was an altitude record which would not be broken, with certainty, until the 1950s, or without supplemental oxygen until 1978. Three days later George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
Andrew Irvine (mountaineer)
Andrew "Sandy" Comyn Irvine was an English mountaineer who took part in 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest....
disappeared while making their own attempt on the summit. There has been much debate over whether they reached a greater height than Norton, or even the summit, but as there is no direct proof they are not generally credited with a record.
The British made several further expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1930s. Twice in 1933 climbing parties reached approximately the same point as Norton; first Lawrence Wager
Lawrence Wager
Lawrence Rickard Wager, commonly known as Bill Wager, was a British geologist, explorer and mountaineer, described as "one of the finest geological thinkers of his generation" and best remembered for his work on the Skaergaard intrusion in Greenland, and for his attempt on Mount Everest in...
and Percy Wyn-Harris
Percy Wyn-Harris
Sir Percy Wyn-Harris, KCMG, MBE, KStJ was an English mountaineer, political administrator, and yachtsman...
, and later Eric Shipton
Eric Shipton
Eric Earle Shipton CBE was a distinguished British Himalayan mountaineer.-Early years:Born in Ceylon in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. His mother buried her grief by taking Eric and his sister Marge and travelling constantly for the next five years...
and Frank Smythe
Frank Smythe
Francis Sydney Smythe better known as Frank Smythe was a British mountaineer, author, photographer and botanist. He is best remembered for his mountaineering in the Alps and the Himalayas. He identified a region that he named the "Valley of Flowers", now a protected park...
, but there was no advance on Norton's record.
Inter-war years
Günther Dyhrenfurth
Günther Oskar Dyhrenfurth was a German-born, German and Swiss mountaineer, geologist and Himalayan explorer. He led the International Himalaya Expedition 1930 to Kangchenjunga, and another one, IHE 1934, to the Baltoro-region in the Karakorams, especially to explore the Gasherbrum-Group...
in 1930. The attempt on Kanchenjunga itself was abandoned after the death of a Sherpa, but members of the team stayed to climb a number of smaller peaks in the area and Jongsong
Jongsong Peak
Jongsong Peak is a mountain in the Janak section of the Himalaya. At it is 57th highest in the world, although it is dominated by 3rd highest Kangchenjunga 20 km to the south....
, at 7,462 m (24,343 ft) was climbed by Bericht Hörlin and Erwin Schneider on 3 June.
In 1931 the summit record was broken again with the ascent of Kamet
Kamet
Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi. It lies in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, close to the border with Tibet. It is the third highest mountain in India Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi....
. Frank Smythe, Eric Shipton, R.L. Holdsworth and Lewa Sherpa reached the summit on 21 June. At 7,756 m (25,446 ft), Kamet was the first mountain over 7,500 m to be climbed.
The summit record was raised once more before the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
brought an effective halt to mountaineering in the Himalaya. Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country ; owing to this geography it was the highest known mountain in the world until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808...
, at 7,816 m (25,643 ft) the highest mountain wholly within the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, had been the object of several expeditions, and it was finally climbed on 29 August 1937 by Bill Tilman
Bill Tilman
Major Harold William "Bill" Tilman, CBE, DSO, MC and Bar was an English mountaineer and explorer, renowned for his Himalayan climbs and sailing voyages.-Early years and Africa:...
and Noel Odell
Noel Odell
Noel Ewart Odell was an English geologist and mountaineer. Educated at Brighton College and the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, in 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit attempt...
.
1950s and ascent of Everest
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, wary of the intentions of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and seeking friends in the West, began to open its borders. For the first time its peaks, including the south side of Everest, became accessible to Western mountaineers, triggering a new wave of exploration. There was one further improvement on the summit record before Everest was conquered. On 3 June 1950 Annapurna
Annapurna
Annapurna is a section of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes Annapurna I, thirteen additional peaks over and 16 more over ....
(8,091 m, 26,545 ft) became the first 8,000 m mountain to be climbed when the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
climbers Maurice Herzog
Maurice Herzog
Maurice Herzog is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition...
and Louis Lachenal
Louis Lachenal
Louis Lachenal , a French climber born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, was one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters. On 3 June 1950, along with Maurice Herzog, he reached the summit of Annapurna I in Nepal at a height of 8,091 m...
reached its summit. The ascent was not without its price. Both Herzog and Lachenal lost their toes to frostbite
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
; Herzog also lost most of his fingers.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
team in 1952. The expedition's high point was reached by Raymond Lambert
Raymond Lambert
Raymond Lambert was a Swiss mountaineer, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached an altitude of 8611 metres of Mount Everest in May 1952. At the time it was the highest point that a climber had ever reached...
and the team's Nepali sardar
Sardar
Sardar is a title of Indo-Aryan origin that was originally used to denote feudal princes, noblemen, and other aristocrats. It was later applied to indicate a Head of State, a Commander-in-chief, and an Army military rank...
Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay
Padma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...
on 26 May, when they reached a point approximately 200 m (650 ft) below the South Summit before turning around in the knowledge that they would not reach the summit in daylight. Their estimated height of 8,600 m (28,210 ft) was slightly higher than the previous altitude record set by the British on the north side of the mountain. The Swiss made further attempts later in May, and again in autumn after the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
, but did not regain Lambert and Tenzing's high point.
Mount Everest was climbed the following year. On 26 May, three days before the successful attempt, Tom Bourdillon
Tom Bourdillon
Thomas Duncan Bourdillon, known as Tom Bourdillon , was an English mountaineer, a member of the team which made the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953....
and Charles Evans reached the South Summit before turning back due to malfunctioning oxygen apparatus. Their height of 8,760 m (28,750 ft) represented a new, short lived, altitude record, and can be seen as a summit record if this is taken to include minor tops as well as genuine mountains. Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
and Tenzing Norgay finally reached the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) true summit on 29 May 1953, marking the final chapter in the history of the mountaineering altitude record. While the exact height of Everest's summit is subject to minor variation due to the level of snow cover and the gradual upthrust of the Himalaya, significant changes to the world altitude record are now impossible.
Women's altitude record
Fanny Bullock Workman
Fanny Bullock Workman was an American geographer, cartographer, explorer, and mountaineer, notably in the Himalayas. She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and usually travelled in conjunction with her husband Dr. William Hunter Workman...
, who made a number of ascents, including that of Pinnacle Peak, a 6,930 m (22,736 ft) subsidiary summit of Nun Kun
Nun Kun
The Nun Kun mountain massif comprises a pair of Himalayan peaks: Nun, 7,135 m and its neighbor peak Kun, 7,077 m . Nun is the highest peak in the part of the Himalayan range lying on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir...
, in 1906. Her claim on the women's altitude record was challenged by Annie Smith Peck
Annie Smith Peck
Annie Smith Peck was an American mountaineer.Peck was born into a wealthy family, which made it possible for her to get a good education. She attended the Rhode Island Normal School, graduating in 1872...
in 1908 after she made an ascent of the north peak of Huascarán
Huascarán
Huascarán or Nevado Huascarán is a mountain in the Peruvian province of Yungay, situated in the Cordillera Blanca range of the Western Andes. The highest southern summit of Huascarán is the highest point in Peru, and all the Earth's Tropics...
, which she claimed was higher than Pinnacle Peak. The ensuing controversy was bitter and public, and eventually resolved in Bullock Workman's favour when she hired a team of surveyors to measure the height of Huascarán. The north peak was found to be 6,648 m (21,812 ft) tall - some 600 m lower than Smith Peck's estimate.
In 1934 Hettie Dhyrenfurth became the first woman to exceed 7000 m when she climbed Sia Kangri
Sia Kangri
Sia Kangri is a mountain in the Baltoro Muztagh in the Karakoram. Its summit is on the Tibet and Pakistan border. It is the 63rd highest mountain in the world, and the 25th highest in Pakistan. The peak is on the watershed between the Indus River basin and the Tarim Basin...
(7,442 m, 24,370 ft). Her summit record would stand for 40 years, though her altitude record was broken by the French climber Claude Kogan, who reached approximately 7,600 m (25,000 ft) on Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal...
in 1954. The following year saw the first all-female team to visit the Himalaya, making the first ascent of Gyalgen Peak (6,700 m, 22,000 ft).
The first female ascent of an 8000 m peak came in 1974, when three Japanese women, Masako Uchida, Mieko Mori and Naoko Makaseko climbed Manaslu
Manaslu
Manaslu , also known as Kutang) is the eighth highest mountain in the world, and is located in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal. Its name, which means "Mountain of the Spirit", comes from the Sanskrit word Manasa, meaning "intellect" or "soul"...
, at 8,156 m (26,758 ft). A year later Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei
is a Japanese mountain-climber, who became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 16, 1975.-Early climbing history:After obtaining a degree in English literature from Showa Women's University where she was a member of the mountain climbing club, Tabei formed the "Ladies...
of Japan made the first female ascent of Mount Everest on 16 May 1975.
The highest mountain to have had a female first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
is Gasherbrum III
Gasherbrum III
Gasherbrum III is a summit in the Gasherbrum massif of the Baltoro Muztagh, a subrange of the Karakoram on the border between Northern Areas of Pakistan and Xinjiang, China, in the region of Baltistan...
(7,952 m, 26,089 ft), which was first climbed by Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz was a Polish mountain climber. She was the first woman to successfully summit K2.-Early life:Rutkiewicz was born in Plungė, Lithuania...
(along with two male climbers) in August 1975.