Dawa Thondup (also Da Thondup) was a Sherpa mountaineer. He had been a porter on the

1933 British Mount Everest expedition The 1933 British Mount Everest expedition was, after the reconnaissance expedition of 1921, and the 1922 and 1924 expeditions, the fourth British expedition to Mount Everest and the third with the intention of making the first ascent. Like th ...

, he survived the

1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster The 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster resulted in the loss of 10 lives on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-highest mountain and one of the 14 eight-thousanders. The disaster, which happened during the 1934 climbing season, included nine climber ...

, and he was a team member on a 1935 expedition led by James Waller and John Hunt to

Saltoro Kangri Saltoro Kangri, formerly known as Peak 36, is the highest peak of the Saltoro Mountains subrange of Karakoram range, also known as the Saltoro Range, which is a part of the Karakoram. Saltoro Kangri is a name generally used for the twin peaks, Sa ...

. In 1937, he was with Hunt again, during an expedition in the

Kanchenjunga Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', wh ...

area. The next year, he was part of a group led by James Waller that attempted to climb

Masherbrum Masherbrum ( ur, ; formerly known as K1) is a mountain located in the Ghanche District, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. At , it is the 22nd highest mountain in the world and the 9th highest in Pakistan. It was the first mapped peak in the Kar ...

. Thondup was a "first-class porter" on that expedition; with Waller, he reached Camp 6, at 23,500 feet, and had been picked for the second summit team, but the first team returned because of bad weather and all climbers descended. Thondup participated in the disastrous

1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 The 1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 was the unsuccessful second attempt by American mountaineers to climb the then-unclimbed second-highest mountain in the world, K2, following the 1938 reconnaissance expedition. Fritz Wiessner, the l ...

. He may have been part of the English-Swiss expedition in 1950 that was the first to summit Abi Gamin. Joydeep Sircar,''Himalayan handbook'', Calcutta 1979 He also participated in

1953 British Mount Everest expedition The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953. ...

led by Col. John Hunt.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thondup, Dawa Indian mountain climbers Indian summiters of Mount Everest