bill tilman

I was sad to learn of the death of legendary photographer John Cleare in October this year. He was one of the best known and most respected climbing and mountaineering photographers of the last 50 years. Much to my surprise, he was a reader of this blog for over 10 years.

Himalayan travel writing is peppered with stories of yeti sightings or yeti footprints. But if yetis still exist why hasn’t someone filmed one by now? I may have stumbled upon the answer in a long-forgotten work of Himalayan travel writing.

It’s been a while since I wrote at length about Frank Smythe, the legendary British mountain explorer who was something of a celebrity in the 1930s when he became one of the first people to make a career of climbing,

The Himalayan explorer Bill Tilman spent fourteen years of his life as a coffee planter in Kenya. During that time he and Eric Shipton made a number of exploratory treks and climbs on Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, and in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda.

Last week I enthused about Kilimanjaro’s inner crater, and said that I considered it to be the jewel in Kilimanjaro’s crown. Yet the overwhelming majority of people who climb mountain don’t see it. This week I will talk in more detail about what they’re missing out on.

Two of the best mountaineering books ever written were designed to be read side by side, but I wonder if anyone has. I set myself the challenge of reading alternate chapters of The Ascent of Nanda Devi by H.W. Tilman and The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman.

When Bill Tilman travelled to the Pakistan Karakoram in 1937, he hoped to solve two unexplained geographical riddles: the existence of an icecap in Central Asia, and a glacier without any river outlet. He relished the opportunity to prove the scientists wrong.

The Himalayan Times reported last week that Sherpas who climbed Everest this year will not be receiving summit certificates. Whyever not? Once again I try to shed some light on the bizarre workings of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism.

Sixty-two years ago to the day Colonel Jimmy Roberts made the first ascent of Mera Peak with the Sherpa Sen Tenzing. This little postscript to the first ascent of Everest in 1953 may have been the birth of commercial trekking.

This is part 5 of a series of posts about early tourism in Nepal. For the previous posts see part 1: How Nepal first came to open its doors to tourism, part 2: Bill Tilman: Nepal’s very first trekking tourist,

The life of John Cleare, the great mountain photographer, as told in comments

Why don’t we see yetis anymore? I may have found the answer

His father, Frank Smythe — biography of a Himalayan legend

Tilman and Shipton’s travels in Africa

A brief introduction to Kilimanjaro’s volcanic crater

The Ascent of Rum Doodle vs. The Ascent of Nanda Devi — how similar are they?

The riddle of Snow Lake and the glacier with no outlet

On summit certificates, liaison officers and funny mountaineering rules

Colonel Jimmy Roberts and the first ascent of Mera Peak

Tilman’s Everest south side reconnaissance