2015 Kangchenjunga, 8586m (28,169ft) – ‘The Five Treasures of Great Snow’, the first 60 years

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Kangchenjunga, 8586m (28,169ft) – ‘The Five Treasures of Great Snow’, the first 60 years

Ever since Darjeeling was colonized by the British and Europeans Kangchenjunga has been recognized as a sacred mountain, an abode of snow. The Raja of Sikkim granted the hill of Darjeeling to the British in 1835 although the British had been active in the region since 1816. In 1845 Michael Hennessy of the Trigonometrical Survey of India first started identifying the Himalayan peaks by Roman numerals. The numbering started from the east end of the Himalayan range. Unknown Kangchenjunga was numbered as Peak XIII and Everest as Peak XV. Sometime later the Surveyor General Montgomery sent Pundit explorer Hari Ram to find and recommend a local name that could be applied to this peak. Accordingly “Kangchenjunga” emerged as the final choice. Up until 1852, Kangchenjunga, rising above the relatively low surrounding landscape, was thought to be the highest mountain in the world but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Trigonometrical Survey in 1849 came to the conclusion that Peak XV was the highest. Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that Kangchenjunga was the third highest mountain in the world.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway 1945

 Kangchenjunga’s place in history is unique as it is one of the very few big mountains to have attracted so much attention outside of the realms of actual mountaineering. Kangchenjunga could well have been the first of the big mountains over 8500m to attract visitors, as it is by far the most visible and in the early 1800s the most accessible. By the mid nineteenth century it was possible to make a one-week journey from Calcutta travelling by train to Siliguri and then onward by gharry, after 1879, the last part of the journey was made possible travelling on the narrow-gauge ‘toy railway’ right into Darjeeling. From the central square, The Mall, and on a clear day the views of Kangchenjunga, only seventy-two kilometres away, are breath-taking. Situated at the eastern end of the Nepalese Himalayan range Kangchenjunga, like other mountains in that remote district receive the full force of the monsoons drifting up from the Bay of Bengal, when mountain and monsoon meet the developing clouds often obscure the great bulk of mountains. Under certain circumstances the prevailing conditions seem to separate the summits from mother earth giving Kangchenjunga the appearance of an ethereal realm. This romantic concept has placed Kangchenjunga at the very heart of work produced by many of the early travel writers, poets and explorers who so often remarked on its qualities and as being the ‘residence of the Deity’. It became the inspiration for painters, artists, writers and photographers from all genre and from the early twentieth century some representation or reference to Kangchenjunga is contained in the archives. 

From 1774 several botanists had shown an interest in the species of South Asian; George Bogle (1774) in Bhutan, Thomas Hardwick (1796) in Srinagarand in Nepal it was Francis Buchanan, a surgeon at the British Residency in Kathmandu, who with the help of the local people collected specimens. However, Sikkim had remained a blank on the botanical map until Sir Joseph Hooker (1848 - 49)[1] went to Sikkim on the recommendations of Hugh Falconer and Lord Auckland. Hooker also made geological observations and produced maps of the region. Although he was based in Darjeeling, he made repeated excursions into the river valleys and foothills of Kangchenjunga up to an altitude of 15,620 ft (4,760 m)[2]. In those days expeditions were long and arduous, but, many new species were catalogued during Hooker’s time away from Darjeeling. However, in 1885, Rinzin Namgyal a native surveyor surveyed the unexplored north and west sides of Kangchenjunga. He was the first native surveyor to map the circuit of Kangchenjunga and provided sketches of each side of the peak and the adjoining valleys. He also defined the frontiers of Nepal, Tibet and Sikkim in this area.[3] In the spring of that year, the German explorer Hermann Schlagintweit travelled to Darjeeling but was prevented from going any further north due to the Nepalese-Tibetan War. In May, he explored the Singalila Ridge up to the Tonglo peak as part of his meteorological survey. Along with his brothers the Schlagintweits were climbers and having climbed in the Alps it is believed that they were amongst the first climbers with knowledge of snow and ice techniques to arrive in the Himalaya.[4]

In 1899 Douglas Freshfield travelled to Green Lakes accompanied by the Italian photographer Vittorio Sella. Freshfield conducted expeditions around Kangchenjunga and set out with his party to trek in a circuit around Massif from the North. When he arrived safely at Dzongri, he lit a big bonfire, which could be seen from Darjeeling and the Governor of Bengal ordered a Gun Salute to be fired in his honour. Freshfield was the first mountaineer to examine the western face of Kangchenjunga, which rises from the Kangchenjunga Glacier describing it as “the most superb triumph of mountain architecture and the most beautiful snow mountain in the world". It was Freshfield’s official adoption of the spelling Kangchenjunga that is accepted today. Sella took some of the most inspiring black and white photographs ever taken of the Himalaya[5]. Freshfield later wrote the book ‘Round Kangchenjunga’ in which he wrote ‘the whole face of the mountain might be imagined to have been constructed by the Demon of Kangchenjunga for the express purpose of defence against human assault, so skilfully is each comparatively weak spot raked by the ice and snow batteries.[6]

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Over the next 70 years up to the first ascent of Kangchenjunga many expeditions visited the area and for many different reasons, mainly for exploration and for finding various routes into Tibet or for attempting lesser peaks in the area. Photographic and artistic interest continued to develop around the subject of Kangchenjunga with such notable people as Edward Lear, Alfred Williams and T. Howard Somervell all producing what are now regarded as priceless works of art based on Kangchenjunga[7]
 

By 1905 ‘mountaineers’ as opposed to ‘explorers’ were beginning to take an interest in Kangchenjunga. An expedition organized by the Swiss Dr J. Jacot-Guillarmod and led by Aleister Crowley, a highly controversial British character made the first serious attempt to summit Kangchenjunga. The expedition ended in shame and tragedy.[8]      

In May 1929, the American E. F. Farmer left Darjeeling with local porters, they crossed the Kang La and illegally entered Nepal from where they climbed up towards the Talung Saddle. When the porters refused to go any further, Farmer climbed on alone. He was seen steadily climbing through the drifting clouds, the last sighting was of him was as he staggered upwards with outstretched arms suggesting he might have been suffering from snow blindness, he did not return[9]. 

The first major expedition to arrive with a well planned, equipped and experienced team came from Germany and was led by Dr Paul Bauer in 1929.[10] The planned route was via the Zemu Glacier and the steep North East Spur. After many days of long and technically serious sections along the ridge the team reached 24,272ft when the weather changed and a retreat was embarked on. The descent was difficult and dangerous but they all reached Base Camp.[11] In 1931 Bauer returned for another attempt via the same route but a few days later two team members fell to their deaths and the expedition was called off from just a little higher than the altitude reached by the 1929 expedition.

Dr Dyhrenfurth

Gunter Dyhrenfurth led an International Expedition to Kangchenjunga in 1930, the party comprised of experienced mountaineers but the atmosphere within the team was not harmonious and tensions arose.[12] Dr Dyhrenfurth was asked to try to discover Farmer’s fate whilst on the 1929 expedition. Frank Symthe was on that expedition but after initial research amongst the local people nothing more could be confirmed about the cause of Farmer’s demise.[13]

   Col Frank Smythe

The expedition then received official permission from the Maharajah of Nepal to climb Kangchenjunga from the west side. The expedition crossed through the Yarlung Valley and so reached Ghunsa. The threat of enormous ice avalanches on this side of the mountain was ever present, if you stay in the danger zone long enough the odds are shortened. On the 9^th May a large avalanche hit the party killing Sherpa Chettan. The expedition reviewed the situation and decided to try the North-West Ridge rising from the Kangchenjunga Glacier. However, the menacing threats of avalanches together with difficult terrain brought the expedition to an end. They had reached 20,800ft and once back in Base Camp turned their attention to lesser peaks in the area.[14]

Two small expeditions led by Gilmour Lewis in 1951 and by John Kempe in 1954 set out in an attempt to explore the upper Yalung Glacier with the aim of finding a route that ‘might go’ for the expedition due to leave England in 1955. They did indeed find a likely line and this was successfully climbed in 1955[15], it was the line that both Sir Douglas Freshfield and Aleister Crowley had identified many years previously, a broad white mantle of snow that lays across the front face of Kangchenjunga at around 7500m.

George Band

On the basis of the favourable reports submitted by both Lewis and Kempe to Sir John Hunt both the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society decided sponsored the 1955 British Kangchenjunga Expedition.  However, permission was first required from the Sikkimese so in 1955, the expedition leader, Charles Evans, made a special journey Sikkim to discuss the situation with the Dewan (Sikkims’s equivalent to the Prime Minister) Representing the Sikkim Durbar an Agreement was established that permitted the British expedition to attempt the mountain providing that any summit bide would stop short of the actual summit. Should a boot set foot on the actual summit of Kangchenjunga it would be viewed as an act of deliberate desecration. The observance of this Agreement was respected by all subsequent mountaineers until relatively recently[16]. The nine manned expedition left Darjeeling on the 14^th March 1955 and made their way into the Yalung Glacier. After many weeks of toil, some bad weather and difficult terrain George Band and Joe Brown reached the summit on the 25^th May, closely followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather on the 26^th May for the second ascent[17]

Since the first ascent there have been many other routes climbed by many other expeditions, however in comparison to Everest, Kangchenjunga has had relatively few ascents.

The second and independent ascent was completed by an Indian expedition in 1977 led by Colonel Narendra Kumar via the North East Spur, the ridge that defeated the Germans in 1929 and 1931. A multiple summit success was recorded in 1978 when a Polish team reached the near top of Kangchenjunga Central and Kangchenjunga South 

Doug Scott

In 1979 the third and a historic British ascent was completed by Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker. This was a notable achievement as it was made without supplementary oxygen and was the first expedition of its kind in the modern light weight style applied to big Himalayan faces, the expedition reached the summit after a horrendous storm establishing a new route on the North Ridge[18]

The first solo ascent was made in 1983 by Pierre Beghin without bottled oxygen and the first winter ascent in 1986 by Polish climbers Krzysztof Wielicki and Jerzy Kukuczka. The American expedition of 1988 put Buhler, Habeler (Austrian) and Zabaleta (Bask) on the summit. The four 8000m peaks of Kangchenjunga were traversed by a Soviet expedition in 1989 when two teams set out going in opposite directions. The North Wall was climbed in 1989 by an American expedition and the South Ridge of the South Summit was climbed in 1991 Alpine style by the Slovenians Stremfelj and Prezelj. A solo, supplementary oxygen free ascent was recorded in 1992 by Carlos Carsolio.[19] 

In 1992 Wanda Rutkiewicz died in a storm and in 1995 Benoit Chamoux and Pierre Royer and their sherpa disappeared near the summit of Kangchenjunga. Ginette Harrison (UK) summated via the north face in 1998 and another Briton, Alan Hinks reached the summit in 2005. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the second woman after Ginette to reach the summit of the world’s third highest mountain. Gangdal (Norway), Karisson (Sweden) Edurne Pasaban (Spain) and Kinga Baranowska, all summated in 2009. In 2011 the first Turkish climber, Tunc Findik with his partner Guntis Brandts (Swiss) reached the top via the British 1955 route and Basabta Singha Roy and Debasish Biswas also reached the top.

In May 2013, five climbers including Zsolt Eross and Peter Kiss (Hungarian) reached the summit, but disappeared during the descent. And in 2014 a Bulgarian Boyan Petrov, a diabetic reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. 

George Band, who made the first ascent in 1955 died in 2011

Doug Scott made the third ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1979. Photographs of George Band and Doug Scott were taken in Nepal 2010 -both images©Ian Wall

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[1] Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker: Traveller and Plant Collector, Antique Collectors’ Club with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Woodbridge, 1999

[2] Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker: Himalayan Journals; or Notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalaya, the Khasia Mountains, John Murray London 1854

[3] M Ward Early Exploration of Kangchenjunga and South Tibet by the pundits, Rinzin Namgyal, Sarat Das and Lama Ugyen Gyatso Alpine Journal 2001

[4] Alpine Journal Vol XXXIII (1920 – 21)

[5] Fondazione Sella Archives

[6] Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker; Round Kangchenjunga a narrative of mountain travel and exploration, Edward Arnold, London 1903

[7] David Seddon AlpineJournal references of seven different oil paintings of Kangchenjunga

[8] Aleister Crowley, John Simons Kenneth Grant; The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, an Autobiography Arkana Press, London 1989

[9] W.S. Ladd The Fatality on Kangchenjunga; American Alpine Journal Vol VII 1929

[10] John Tucker; Kangchenjunga Elek Books London 1955

[11] Paul Bauer Himalayan Campaign, The German Attack on Kangchenjunga Blackwell, Oxford 1937

[12] F.S. Smythe The Kangchenjunga Adventure

[13] F.S. Smythe The Kangchenjunga Adventure Gollancz, London 1930

[14] F.S. Smythe used many of his own photographic illustrations in his book The Kangchenjunga Adventure. The originals are now Alpine Club’s collection, London. Smythe is considered a pioneer of Himalayan color photography.

[15] T.H. Braham Kangchenjunga Reconnaissance 1954 The Himalayan Journal Vol 19

[16] Norman Hardie The Untrodden Summit of Kangchenjunga Royal Geographical Society 1955

[17] Joe Brown The Hard Years Gollancz, London 1967

    Charles Evans Kangchenjunga The Untrodden Peak Hodder and Stoughton London 1956

    Simon Pierse Kangchenjunga Imaging a Himalayan Mountain Simon Pierse 2005

[18] Doug Scott Kangchenjunga from theNorth  American Alpine Journal 1980

[19] Explorersweb AdventureStats accessed March 2015