MOUNTAINEERING

A BRIEF HISTORY

The Nepal Himalayan, extending for eight hundred kilometer from the Kangechejung Massif to the Mahakali river, accounts for a third of the Himalayan mountain system. Between these two boundaries lie more than thirteen hundred peaks with an altitude of more than six thousand meters. Of these 127 are above seven thousand meters and eight rise above eight thousand meters-eight of the fourteen highest peaks in the world.

Mountaineering first brought Nepal to the attention of the world. Long before, it’s great peaks were coveted by mountaineers. Although there had been negotiations for a British a French expedition to Mt. Everest ( sagarmatha ) as early as 1980 and a French expedition to Makalu in 1934, Nepal first opened it’s and mountaineering teams of that year were a British team in the Langtang Ganesh Himal area and a Swiss team in the Kangchenjunga area.

By 1960, eighty-four expeditions, both large and small, had encountered the Nepal Himalaya. At least fourteen natioins sent groups of climbers. The British led the field with twenty seven expeditions, followed by the French and the Swiss. This was the pioneer decade of mountaineering, combining both reconnaissance and climbing. All eight thousand meter peaks of the Nepal Himalaya were climbed. The decade began with the dramatic French triumph on8,091-meter Annapurna in 1950, by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. The most famous ascent of course was Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa’s ascent of 8,848 by meter Everest in May, 29, 1953. Kanchenjunga and Makalu were climbed in 1955, Lhotse and Manaslu in 1956 and Dhaulagri in 1960. During the decade, there were numerous first ascents, many on peaks of equal difficulty to the “eight-thousand.”. As well as these achievements, there were extensive explorations of the Himalaya that paved the way for further expeditions.