1899 Sir Halford Mackinder, César Ollier and Josef Brocherel Mount Kenya Batian Maiden Ascent Expedition

Official Expedition Narrative & Archival Record

Mount Kenya (Kirinyaga, 5,199 m) had defied European explorers for half a century following its 1849 sighting by Johann Ludwig Krapf. Unlike the walk-up slopes of Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya's twin volcanic plugs of Batian and Nelion presented vertical, crumbling rock bastions guarded by steep equatorial glaciers and treacherous weather. In the summer of 1899, British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder organized an ambitious assault sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society. To tackle the technical climbing, Mackinder recruited two of the most celebrated master guides from Courmayeur, Italy: César Ollier and Josef Brocherel. The expedition departed the newly established railway railhead at Nairobi, fighting through dense equatorial bamboo jungles and suffering logistical breakdowns and smallpox amongst porters. Reaching the mountain's upper sanctuary, Mackinder established a base camp in the glacial valley now known as Mackinder Valley. Initial summit assaults up the southern arêtes were repulsed by vertical walls and treacherous verglas. Changing tactics, Ollier reconnoitered a route across the precipitous Darwin and Diamond Glaciers. On September 13, 1899, climbing in bone-chilling mist, Ollier led the team across a precarious hanging ice traverse on the Diamond Glacier, hacking footsteps across 50-degree ice before ascending a severe chimney on the southeast face. At noon, Mackinder, Ollier, and Brocherel stood on the virgin summit of Batian at 5,199 metres. They erected a small cairn and spent twenty minutes on top before descending through a blinding snowstorm, achieving one of the greatest technical rock and ice conquests of the 19th century.