1936 British-American Himalayan Expedition to Nanda Devi

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Harold William Tilman

Harold William 'Bill' Tilman was born on February 14, 1898, in Wallasey, Cheshire, England. Commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery at age 17 during the First World War, Tilman fought at the Somme, was wounded twice, and received the Military Cross with Bar for exceptional bravery. Following the war, Tilman moved to Kenya as a coffee planter, where in 1930 he met fellow alpinist Eric Shipton, beginning one of the most celebrated partnerships in the history of geographic exploration. Tilman possessed legendary physical stamina and an aversion to unnecessary luxury. In 1933, having sold his Kenyan farm, Tilman bicycled 3,000 miles across the equator from Uganda to the Atlantic coast of Cameroon with minimal provisions. In 1934, he joined Shipton on a shoestring expedition to the Garhwal Himalayas. Traveling with only three Sherpas (including Ang Tharkay) on a total budget of just £287, Tilman and Shipton forced a route through the terrifying, vertical chasm of the Rishi Ganga gorge, becoming the first humans ever to set foot in the sacred, enclosed paradise of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. Two years later, in 1936, Tilman returned to the Sanctuary as part of the joint British-American Himalayan Expedition. Refusing to use supplemental bottled oxygen, Tilman and veteran Everest geologist Noel Odell tackled the steep, knife-edge rock crest of the South Ridge (the Coxcomb). On August 29, 1936, Tilman and Odell stepped onto the 7,816-meter (25,643 ft) summit of Nanda Devi. It was the highest mountain summit ever attained by humankind, an absolute altitude benchmark that remained undefeated for fourteen years until Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal stood on Annapurna I in 1950. As they embraced on the summit, Tilman famously remarked with characteristic British understatement: 'I believe we have knocked the bastard off.' In 1938, Tilman was appointed leader of the seventh British Mount Everest Expedition, pushing to 8,320 meters on the North Ridge without oxygen. During the Second World War, he served with distinction behind enemy lines with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), dropping into Albania and the Italian Dolomites to organize anti-fascist partisan resistance. In his later years, Tilman purchased an antique 14-ton Bristol Channel pilot cutter named *Mischief*, sailing thousands of miles through the treacherous Roaring Forties to explore and climb remote unmapped peaks in Patagonia, South Georgia, Greenland, and Baffin Island. In November 1977, at the age of 79, Tilman sailed from Rio de Janeiro as navigator aboard the tug *En Avant* bound for Smith Island in the South Shetlands of Antarctica. The vessel and all hands disappeared without a trace in the South Atlantic, a fittingly mysterious end to one of the most rugged and unpretentious explorers in world history.

United Kingdom🏔️ 2 Peaks

Noel Ewart Odell

Noel Ewart Odell was born on December 25, 1890, in St Lawrence, Isle of Wight, England. Educated at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, Odell became a world-renowned geologist specializing in high-altitude glaciology and stratigraphy. In 1924, he was chosen as expedition geologist and lead climber for the third British Mount Everest Expedition. On Everest, Odell astonished his teammates with his superhuman physiological adaptation to extreme altitude. While other climbers collapsed from exhaustion or succumbed to coughing fits in the thin air, Odell spent nearly two continuous weeks living above 7,000 meters without using supplemental bottled oxygen. On the fateful morning of June 8, 1924, Odell climbed alone from Camp V (7,770m) to Camp VI (8,140m) in support of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's summit bid. Scrambling up a small rocky crag at approximately 7,900 meters around 12:50 PM, the dense clouds suddenly parted to reveal the upper pyramid of Everest. Looking toward the Northeast Ridge, Odell spotted two tiny silhouettes moving across a prominent snow crest near a prominent rock step (the First or Second Step), 'going strong for the top.' Seconds later, the clouds swept in again, closing the curtain forever. When neither climber returned to Camp VI that evening, Odell courageously climbed back into the Death Zone twice more in search of his friends. Finding Camp VI deserted, Odell laid out two sleeping bags in the shape of a giant 'T' (later transformed into a cross) on the snow, signaling the dreadful news to his teammates watching through telescopes on the North Col four thousand feet below. For the remaining 63 years of his life, Odell steadfastly maintained his conviction that Mallory and Irvine had achieved the summit of Mount Everest before meeting their deaths. Twelve years later, in 1936, Odell joined the British-American Himalayan Expedition to Nanda Devi (7,816m / 25,643 ft) in the Garhwal Himalayas. Climbing alongside Bill Tilman in pure alpine style without supplemental oxygen, 45-year-old Odell surmounted the steep, knife-edge rock towers of the Coxcomb ridge. On August 29, 1936, Odell and Tilman stood upon the summit, setting an absolute human altitude record on an ascended mountain that remained unbeaten until Annapurna in 1950. Odell enjoyed an illustrious academic career, serving as Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the University of Otago in New Zealand. Known for his extraordinary physical longevity, Odell continued climbing technical alpine peaks well into his senior years, famously ascending Mount Sir Donald (3,284m) in the Canadian Rockies at the age of 87. He passed away peacefully on February 21, 1987, at the venerable age of 96.