Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990

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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990

Acknowledgments There are many people to whom I owe much in the preparation of this book. First, there are Australia’s Himalayan climbers themselves, who have spent much time telling me their stories. Those with whom I talked—either in person or over the telephone—with whom I corresponded or who commented on early drafts of the manuscript include Brian Agnew, Peter Allen, Don Baldwin, Ken Baldwin, Paul Bayne, Geof Bartram, Austin Brookes, Dorothy Brown, Dot Butler, John Cashman, Jonathan Chester, Greg Child, Peter Cocker, Steve Colman, Pat Cullinan, Warwick Deacock, Michael Dillon, John Finnigan, Jo Flood, Peter Gration, Michael Groom, Lincoln Hall, Andy Henderson, Graeme Hill, Theo Hooy, Richard Howes, Peter Lambert, Mark Lemaire, Geoff Little, Tim Macartney-Snape, Roddy Mackenzie, Terry McCullagh, Rob Mitchell, Colin Monteath, Rick Moor, Peter Morris, Greg Mortimer, Brigitte Muir, Jon Muir, Bill Packard, Phil Pitham, Colin Putt, John Retchford, Michael Rheinberger, Andrew Rothfield, Ben Sandilands, Fritz Schaumburg, James Strohfeldt, Jim Truscott, Jim van Gelder, Ray Vran, John Wanless, Geoff Wayatt and Zac Zaharias. The following climbers provided the photographs reproduced in this book: Peter Allen, Ken Baldwin, Dorothy Brown, Graham Budd, Warwick Deacock, Michael Groom, Tim Macartney-Snape, Brigitte Muir, Jon Stephenson, Geoff Wayatt and Zac Zaharias. Special thanks go to Zac Zaharias, who has carefully compiled the tables of Australian Himalayan climbing that appear in the appendix at the end of this book. These tables represent the most complete, up-to-date record of Australian mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia. Furthermore, I am grateful to Wild magazine for their permission to use in these tables information that first appeared in Wild. In addition, thanks go to six climbers who helped me with the description and analysis of the Australian Bicentennial Everest Expedition (ABEE). This was a particularly difficult expedition to write about and I am grateful to Pat Cullinan, Peter Lambert, Terry McCullagh, Michael Rheinberger, Jim Truscott and Zac Zaharias for taking the time to give me detailed comments on an early draft. xiii HIMALAYAN DREAMING Two other climbers—Lincoln Hall and Greg Child—deserve special acknowledgment for their writing as well as their climbing abilities. Both are superb writers—the equal of any climbing authors anywhere in the world—and I can highly recommend their books as excellent accounts of Himalayan mountaineering. I am grateful to them, and others, for allowing me to quote extensively from their works at several points in this book. This has given the book an immediacy and liveliness it otherwise would have lacked. Also, I am grateful to Chris Baxter, editor of Wild magazine, for allowing me to use several extensive quotes from articles that have appeared in Wild over the years. Wild is an excellent source of information on Australian Himalayan climbing; its breadth of coverage and accuracy of reporting have made my research task easier. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my wife, Carrie, and my daughter, Sonja. Carrie played a large part in the development of the initial idea for this book— something she has no doubt regretted on many occasions! She has had to endure many evenings with a house full of climbers spinning yarns and emptying bottles of wine and many hours with an uncommunicative husband hunched over a keyboard. In addition, she has put in many hard hours herself turning my assaults on the word-processing system into something legible. xiv This text is taken from Himalayan Dreaming: Australian mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia, 1922–1990, by Will Steffen, published 2017 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia..

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Climbers Wanted
18 Climbers wanted By the mid to late 1980s, the nature of the Melbourne mountaineering community had changed quite considerably from that of 1980, when Tim Hughes had applied for the permit for Everest in 1988 on behalf of the southern Australian section of the New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC). In 1980, the idea was simple: the small, closely knit core of Melbourne climbers would continue to build their base of Himalayan experience until they were ready to mount a lightweight attempt on the South Col route on Everest. As described previously, those aspirations became inextricably bound up with the plans of the Army Alpine Association (AAA) for their attempt on Everest in 1988. Even had that not been the case, however, the original idea of the Melbourne- based Everest expedition would have had to change significantly simply because of attrition to the group through the 1980s. The driving force for the early expeditions to Dharamsura, Changabang and Nanda Devi was undoubtedly the trio of Peter Allen, Mike Rheinberger and Andrew Rothfield. (Rothfield had left the climbing scene in 1981, before Nanda Devi.) Rheinberger, of course, was one of the most prolific of Australian Himalayan climbers throughout the decade. Allen, too, had considerable Himalayan experience, as he had taken part in the 1983 AAA Nilgiri North climb and the 1985 New Zealand Everest expedition in addition to the earlier Dharamsura and Changabang trips. He had also climbed Denali in 1981. Allen, however, although one of the strongest potential Everest participants on the civilian side, opted out of an active climbing role in the Australian Bicentennial Everest Expedition (ABEE) as he had just married, thereby acquiring a young family, and judged that the multiple trips through the Khumbu Icefall would be too risky.
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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990
Epilogue The period 1975–90 was indeed a formative and unique period in Australian Himalayan climbing. Chapter 29 looked forward from 1990 and foreshadowed some significant shifts in the nature of mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia that would mark 1990 as a turning point. Now, 20 years later, many of those projections of change have developed into well-established trends. Perhaps the most dominant of all the trends has been the move to commercial expeditions. In the 1970s and 1980s, most Himalayan expeditions were largely do- it-yourself affairs—from initial planning, obtaining a permit and organising the equipment to planning the logistics and arranging the transport from Australia. And all of this time-consuming work was expended before the team even reached Asia and began the walk into the hills to eventually tackle the mountain. From the last decade of the twentieth century there has been a pronounced shift to commercial expeditions. For example, in a survey of Australian Himalayan mountaineering for the period 2001–03, nearly half of the expeditions covered (16 of 33) were commercial.1 The trend is probably due to the rising wealth in general of Australians coupled with the increasing time constraints as contemporary society becomes faster paced, allowing less time for planning and organisation. In addition, the Himalayan region has become more accessible and the number of commercial operators in the big mountains has grown sharply. Two contrasting styles of commercial expedition are important to distinguish. At one extreme lies the fully guided expedition, in which the client is completely taken care of—from armchair to summit.
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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990
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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990
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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990
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Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922–1990
Appendix: Record of Australian mountaineering in the Himalaya Zac Zaharias Table 1 Australian Himalayan climbs, 1922–2009 (based on surveys in Wild magazine) Year Peak, route Party members Outcome Comments 1922 Mt Everest George Finch, member Unsuccessful . Finch First serious attempt (8850 m) of 11-man British and Geoffrey Bruce on Mt Everest . N Ridge/Face, expedition reached 8350 m using Australian Finch Tibet supplementary oxygen . climbed higher than any other human had previously climbed . Finch proved that supplementary oxygen could definitely benefit climbers . 1957 Exploratory Geoffrey Bratt and Explored in Siachen Exploratory trip expedition, Grahame Budd, Glacier area . Climbed mounted by Karakoram, members of eight-man Towitz Peak (6400 m) Imperial College Pakistan British expedition led and Island Peak Mountaineering by Eric Shipton (6860 m). Club . 1960 K12 (7470 m) Jon Stephenson, Unsuccessful . Stephenson first NW Ridge, member of four-man Stephenson climbed Australian to climb Karakoram, British expedition with porter to 6640 m to 7000 m without Pakistan and solo to 7000 m . supplementary oxygen . 1963 Langtang II Peter Taylor Successful . Climbed Sometimes cited (6583 m) E Face, with four Sherpas . as first Australian Central Nepal Probably shortest-ever expedition to Himalayan expedition . Himalaya; however, Four days from road to Taylor was an base camp; five days itinerant British to climb mountain . geologist stationed in Australia for a few years . 1975 Jannu (7710 m) Geoff Wayatt, Unsuccessful . High Wayatt first N Face, Eastern member of 12-man point reached: 7360 m . Australian on Nepal New Zealand ‘modern’ expedition . expedition led by He and Jim Strang Peter Farrell overcame major obstacle of route with bold, alpine- style assault .
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