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The Nepal Himalaya,
extending for eight hundred kilometer
from the Kangchenjunga 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, its great peaks were
coveted by mountaineers. Although there
had been negotiations for a British
expedition to Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha)
as early as 1908, and a French
expedition to Makalu in 1934, Nepal
first opened its doors to outside
visitors in 1949. The pioneering
exploration 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 nations 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 on 8,091-meter Annapurna I 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-meter
Everest in 1953. kangchenjunga and
Makalu were climbed in 1955, Lhotse and
Manaslu in 1956, and Dhaulagiri in 1960.
During the decade, there were numerous
first ascents, many on peaks of equal
difficulty to the “eight-thousanders.”
As well as these achievements, there
were extensive explorations of the
Himalaya that paved the way for further
expeditions.
The first half of the
1960s saw an increasing number of
expeditions. In late 1965,
mountaineering was banned in Nepal, and
for four years only a small number of
trekking groups and scientific
expeditions were allowed to operate. In
1969, the Nepal Himalaya was reopened
for mountaineering with a new set of
regulations. Mountaineers were eager to
return and between 1969 and 1970
thirty-seven expeditions entered Nepal.
There were many successful first ascents
during that decade, however, including
Ama Dablam, Pumori, Nuptse and Annapurna
III.
The third decade showed
an unprecedented increase
inmountaineering- 404 expeditions
climbed in Nepal, as opposed to only 105
in the previous decade. During this time
the government refined their system of
mountaineering management with the
recognition of multiple routes to
individual peaks and the extension of
climbing seasons. Between 1970 and 1980
nearly two dozen countries sent
expeditions to Nepal and all the eight-thousanders,
with the exception of Cho-Oyu, were
climbed numerous times.
The trend continued into
the 1980s-between 1979 and 1985, 556
expeditions climbed in the Nepal
Himalaya, with another 620 expeditions
between 1985 and 1990. The great peaks
having been conquered, mountaineers
sought first ascents on difficult
mountain faces, long thought unscalable.
In 1970, British climbers Dougal Haston
and Don Whillans conquered Everest’s
‘impossible’ South Face.
Since the 1950s,
mountaineering techniques and equipment
had advanced significantly and climbers
were challenged by ever more difficult
faces, climbing seasons and techniques.
In 1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter
Habeler made a dramatic ascent of
Everest without the use of artificial
oxygen. The same year Messner made the
first solo ascent of an 8,000 meter
peak, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Two
years later he returned to Nepal to make
the first solo ascent of Everest,
climbing four days from the base camp to
the summit and back, without oxygen,
fixed camps or climbing assistants.
Japanese climbers added
to the list of firsts; in 1970 Yuiichi
Miura descended a major part of Everest
on skis; in 1975 Mrs. Junko Tabei became
the first woman to climb Everest; and
Yasuo Kato became the first person to
reach the summit in three different
seasons.
Throughout the history of
Nepal mountaineering, Nepal’s own
climbers have played a major role.
Sungdare Sherpa, one of Nepal’s greatest
climbers, became the first man to summit
Everest five times, and Ang Phu Sherpa
was the first to scale the mountain by
two different routes. The Tripartite Mt.
Everest Expedition of China, Japan and
Nepal in 1988 added a new milestone in
the history of mountaineering by
simultaneously scaling the world’s
highest peak from both the north and
south sides and by putting a record
number of twelve climbers on the summit
at once. This climb was highlighted by
live television coverage from the summit
and witnessed by millions of people all
over the world. |
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