Shipton–Tilman Nanda Devi Expeditions

The Shipton–Tilman Nanda Devi expeditions took place in the 1930s. Nanda Devi is a Himalayan mountain in what was then the Garhwal District in northern India, just west of Nepal, and at one time it was thought to be the highest mountain in the world.

Nanda Devi is surrounded by a ring of mountains enclosing the Sanctuary which, despite decades of attempts, no one had been able to enter. In 1934 Eric Shipton, Bill Tilman and their three accomplished Sherpas succeeded in finding a climbing route into the Sanctuary via the Rishi Ganga gorge. Then in 1936 Tilman and Noel Odell, as part of an American–British team, climbed to the summit making Nanda Devi the highest mountain ever to have been climbed at that time.

It was only in 1950 that a higher summit was reached when Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal climbed Annapurna. Nanda Devi itself was climbed for the second time in 1964.

Summary

Except for the Rishi Ganga gorge to the west, Nanda Devi is encircled by a ring of mountains with no col lower than . This mountain chain surrounds and completely encloses the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. Tom Longstaff had reached an eastern col in 1905 and had been able to see into the Sanctuary but he did not try the formidable descent. The immensely deep and narrow gorge by which the Rishi Ganga river drains the Sanctuary had never been ascended despite many attempts. However, before the 1934 monsoon, Shipton and Tilman along with three Sherpas who they regarded as co-climbers – Ang Tharkay, Pasang and Kusang – became the first people to find a way through the gorge and to set foot in the Sanctuary in what has been described as "the most exciting story in the whole saga of mountain discovery".

During their retreat from the Sanctuary for the duration of the monsoon, the 1934 expedition continued exploring by crossing the Badrinath–Kedarnath watershed for the first time, a feat that was not repeated until 1998. After the monsoon they again ascended the Rishi Ganga gorge and climbed part way up Nanda Devi's southeast ridge thereby discovering the route to the summit that was to be used in 1936. They left the Sanctuary by traversing a col to the south and making a descent that had previously been thought impossible.

In 1936 Nanda Devi became the highest mountain ever to have been climbed when a jointly-led American expedition, which eventually passed the leadership to Bill Tilman, reached its summit by climbing the southeast ridge. Tilman had chosen Charlie Houston and Noel Odell for the summit attempt but mischance led to Tilman rather than Houston partnering Odell to the top.

Nanda Devi and Garhwal

19th-century mapping

At the beginning of the 19th century geographers generally believed the Andes, thought to be reaching up to about , were the highest mountains in the world. Some Himalayan peaks were measured to be higher although measurements of those in Tibet and Nepal were over very great distances from Indian territory and so were known not to be very accurate.

The Great Trigonometric Survey of India reached Himalaya early in the 19th century and because it was in the British Raj the Garhwal District (once the Garhwal Kingdom and after independence a division now in the state of Uttarakhand) was surveyed before the Nepalese and Tibetan regions. By 1820 the highest mountain to have been measured was Peak XIV in Garhwal Himalaya at . It had the local name of Nanda Devi and it remained the highest known until 1847 when Kangchenjunga was measured. Some geographers doubted a height as great as this and thought it had been overestimated – it is now known the overestimate was only . The survey also identified a ring of very high mountains encircling Nanda Devi and it identified this region, and not Lake Manasarovar, as the source of the river Ganges, or Ganga.

Spiritual aspects

Hinduism and Buddhism are both important religions in the state of Uttarakhand and the two faiths have intermixed to a considerable extent. The Garhwal area had been venerated by Buddhists until they were expelled by Adi Shankara in the 9th century CE when their temples were adopted as Hindu while aspects of the two religions were merged. Badrinath Temple near the source of the Alaknanda Ganges has a style of architecture and a stone image of Vishnu that are characteristically Buddhist. The local Bhotia people had originally come from Tibet and their traditional work was to transport goods over the mountain passes between India and Tibet. Garhwal was never conquered by the Mughal Empire of India but Nepalese Gurkhas had successfully invaded. The British annexation in 1815 had little impact on the local culture. So, a very relaxed form of Hinduism developed, one which closely coexisted with Buddhism. Buddhist prayer flags sometimes adorned the Hindu temples.

The four shrines of Chota Char Dham in Garhwal are very important for Hindu pilgrims because they are at four sources of the river Ganga. However, the source of the Rishi Ganga tributary is inaccessible. Nanda Devi, the Goddess of Bliss, lived on the top of the mountain that is named after her and which is where the Seven Rishis were driven by the demons before they finally became seven stars in the sky. Nanda Devi left her mountain to live with her husband Shiva on Mount Kailash in Tibet but once a year, in October, she returns and this is a time of celebration for pilgrims.

Early mountaineering and exploration

No real attempt had been made to cross the ring of mountains enclosing Nanda Devi until 1883. In that year William Graham, who was the first climber to visit Himalaya purely for sporting purposes, attempted to reach the basin inside the protecting ring, the so-called Nanda Devi Sanctuary. The Rishi Ganga river drains the Sanctuary though an extremely deep gorge and he attempted to ascend along this route. He found the lowest part of the gorge impassable. Then, after almost reaching the summit of Dunagiri, and guided by local inhabitants, he took a route slightly north of the river and he was able to reach the gorge part way up. To the west of Nanda Devi the encircling ring becomes double with an inner ring enclosing the inner part of the Sanctuary and an outer part of the Sanctuary lying between the two ridges of the ring. By crossing the outer ring and avoiding the lower part of the gorge Graham had reached the outer part of the Sanctuary but he could not get any further.

In 1905 Tom Longstaff and two Italian guides, the Brocherel brothers, set off to explore Nanda Devi – Longstaff's expeditions only ever involved a small number of people, each one carrying his own gear. They reached a high col just east of Nanda Devi's summit which is on the ridge of peaks surrounding the mountain itself but they were unable to descend to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is an area of about that is encircled by a ridge nowhere less than in height except for the Rishi Ganga gorge which had proved to be an insuperable obstacle. The Sanctuary, completely cut off from human intrusion, had become an area of immense interest to explorers and mountaineers. Two years later the same team returned along with Charles Bruce and succeeded in climbing Trisul, southwest of the Sanctuary, and this remained the highest summit to be climbed for twenty-three years. Their attempt to get into the Sanctuary had been impeded because, according to Tilman, "though the map did credit to the maker's imagination it was apt to mislead".

Shipton's first visit to the region (and his first visit to Himalaya) was in 1931 on an expedition led by Frank Smythe that succeeded in making the first ascent of Kamet. Shipton was in the party that reached the highest summit to have been achieved – a peak had never been climbed before. Subsequently, the expedition explored the mountains around Badrinath in Garhwal which, because of the beautiful flora and dramatic scenery, Shipton described as "by far the most enjoyable part of the expedition".

After Shipton's very creditable performance on the large-scale 1933 British Mount Everest expedition, he and Lawrence Wager trekked back to Darjeeling separately from the rest of the party and this experience convinced him that small expeditions could be more enjoyable than large ones and, he suspected, more successful as well. Inspired by Longstaff and attracted by Garhwal and the unexplored Rishi Ganga gorge, Shipton decided to plan his own approach to the region.

Shipton and Tilman

Bill Tilman was born in 1898. He did well at school but, in 1914 with the outbreak of the Great War, he left to train for the Royal Artillery. At the age of 17 he was fighting on the Western Front where he was twice seriously wounded and was twice awarded the Military Cross. He fought and survived the Battle of Passchendaele and he was still less than 21 years old when the war was over. As part of his demobilisation he was awarded a square mile of land in British East Africa. He was lucky with his allocation and he converted his patch of bush into a successful coffee plantation.

Eric Shipton was nine years younger. Born in Ceylon but educated in Britain, he became interested in mountaineering, particularly during a snowless skiing holiday in the Alps. He turned down an opportunity to go to Cambridge University and instead took a course in estate management which set him up to become an apprentice on a coffee estate near Nairobi and within reach of Mount Kenya where he developed his mountaineering skills. Reading of this in the newspapers, Tilman wrote asking for advice and this drew the two men into a climbing partnership. So, in 1930, despite Tilman's almost complete lack of mountaineering experience, they succeeded in climbing Mount Kenya's west ridge for the first time and went on to make the first traverse of its two peaks, Batian and Neilion.

Back in Britain following his 1932 Kamet expedition, Shipton advanced his plans to again explore the Garhwal region. His initial idea was for a lightweight expedition to explore the mountainous area between the Badrinath, Kedernath and Gangotri shrines but Longstaff urged him to attempt to enter and map the Nanda Devi Sanctuary itself. Noel Humphreys, his first choice for a climbing partner, was unavailable but then a letter arrived from Tilman who had decided to visit Britain by cycling across Africa from Uganda to French Cameroon using a map torn from a magazine, and then taking a steamer to his family home near Liverpool. Tilman's letter had suggested a fortnight's rock climbing in the Lake District to which Shipton replied by inviting him on a seven-month expedition to Himalaya. Tilman accepted by return of post. In 1969 Shipton wrote that, but for the serendipity of being able to be together at the right time, the course of both their lives would have been profoundly different.

Shipton was a very gregarious, sociable person who was attractive to women. According to George Band, "Eric slung his ice axe beside many a memsahib's bed". Tilman was taciturn and monkish and he avoided society, particularly that of women. Both men were tremendously strong and reliable. They were to become the ideal climbing partnership – they could rely on each other completely.

1934 expedition

By 1934, despite mountaineers having got near to the summit of Mount Everest, no one had even reached the foot of Nanda Devi, the highest mountain in the British Empire, even though many attempts had been made.To consider Nanda Devi the highest it is necessary to disregard Kangchenjunga on the Sikkim–Tibet border. At the time Sikkim was nominally outside the Raj.

Preparations and travel

Shipton asked Karma Paul, who had been on Everest expeditions since 1922, to engage three Sherpas and he appointed Ang Tharkay, Pasang Bhotia and Kusang Namgir, all of whom had been on the 1933 expedition. Equipment and supplies were basic and the plan was to eat in the same way as the Sherpas – chapatis, rice and tsampa – luxuries taken were tea, lentils and ghee. On 6 April 1934 Shipton and Tilman sailed from Liverpool on the cargo vessel SS ''Mahsud'' bound for Calcutta. They met the Sherpas who had travelled from Darjeeling and the five men went by train to Kathgodam and continued by lorry to Ranikhet where they arrived on 9 May.A photograph of the five men is available at They arranged to take on a dozen Doti porters, purchased food at the market and were driven by lorry to Baijnath where they were met by the porters. A ten-day trek took them to Joshimath from where the exploration towards the Sanctuary started.

Through the upper Rishi Ganga gorge

Using the route discovered by Graham, they followed the Dhauli river, passing the foot of the Rishi Ganga gorge, and climbed the Lata hills north of the gorge to reach a trig station set up by the Survey of India

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