The Himalayan Database

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The Himalayan Database
The Himalayan Database.gif
Book cover of The Himalayan Database
Author Elizabeth Hawley, Richard Sailsbury
LanguageEnglish
Subject Mountaineering
GenreDatabase
Publisher
Publication date
1 October 2004
Media typeMultimedia CD
Pages80
ISBN 978-0930410995
Website The Himalayan Database

The Himalayan Database: The Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley is a large digital and published record of mountaineering in the Nepalese Himalayas since 1903 (i.e. it does not include the Pakistan Himalaya peaks such as K2 and Nanga Parbat etc.), maintained by Richard Salisbury who digitised the records.

Contents

Background

The Himalayan Database (HDB), was developed and maintained by Elizabeth Hawley, who remained involved up to her death in 2018. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] It was published as a CD and an 80-page paperback up until 2017. [4] From 2017 onwards, records of expeditions, their members have been searchable online, or available as a complete downloadable database. It fills in for the absence of officially maintained records. [6] It has been published by the American Alpine Club. [7]

As well as being an important repository for climbing statistics on Himalayan mountains, the database also became known for its decisions to disregard or dispute various climbs. [8] [9] Notable cases was the decision not to record a 1990 ascent of Cho Oyu by British climber Alan Hinkes, which put a question-mark over Hinkes' claim to have summited all 14 eight-thousanders; [10] and the 1997 ascent of Lhotse by Italian climbers Fausto De Stefani and Sergio Martini [11] which forced Sergio Martini to reclimb Lhotse in 2000 to verify he had climbed all 14 eight-thousanders (De Stefani decided not to re-climb).

Bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

Lhotse Eight-thousander and 4th-highest mountain on Earth, located in Nepal and China

Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8,516 metres (27,940 ft), after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet and the Khumbu region of Nepal.

Cho Oyu 6th-highest mountain on Earth, located in Nepal and China

Cho Oyu is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at 8,188 metres (26,864 ft) above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the Khumbu sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the China–Nepal border.

Eight-thousander Mountain peaks of over 8,000 m

The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent from neighbouring peaks. However, there is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and, since 2012, the UIAA has been involved in a process to consider whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountains. All eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits are in the death zone.

Dhaulagiri 7th-highest mountain on Earth, located in Nepal

Dhaulagiri is the seventh highest mountain in the world at 8,167 metres (26,795 ft) above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country (Nepal). It was first climbed on 13 May 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition. Annapurna I is 34 km (21 mi) east of Dhaulagiri. The Kali Gandaki River flows between the two in the Kaligandaki Gorge, said to be the world's deepest. The town of Pokhara is south of the Annapurnas, an important regional center and the gateway for climbers and trekkers visiting both ranges as well as a tourist destination in its own right.

Imja Tse Mountain in Khumbu, Nepal

Imja Tse, better known as Island Peak, is a mountain in Sagarmatha National Park of the Himalayas of eastern Nepal. The peak was named Island Peak in 1953 by members of the British Mount Everest expedition because it appears as an island in a sea of ice when viewed from Dingboche. The peak was later renamed in 1983 to Imja Tse but Island Peak remains the popular choice. The peak is actually an extension of the ridge coming down off the south end of Lhotse Shar.

Alan Hinkes British Himalayan mountaineer

Alan Hinkes OBE is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders, which he did on 30 May 2005.

Edurne Pasaban Spanish Basque mountaineer

Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer. On May 17, 2010, she became the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World –and the 21st person to do so. Her first 8,000 peak had been achieved 9 years earlier, on May 23, 2001, when she climbed to the summit of Mount Everest.

Mera Peak Mountain peak in Nepal

Mera Peak is a mountain in the Mahalangur section, Barun sub-section of the Himalaya and administratively in Nepal's Sagarmatha Zone, Sankhuwasabha. At 6,476 metres (21,247 ft) it is classified as a trekking peak. It contains three main summits: Mera North, 6,476 metres (21,247 ft); Mera Central, 6,461 metres (21,198 ft); and Mera South, 6,065 metres (19,898 ft), as well as a smaller "trekking summit", visible as a distinct summit from the south but not marked on most maps of the region.

Elizabeth Hawley Journalist and chronicler of Nepal Himalayan expeditions

Elizabeth Hawley was an American journalist, author, and chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering expeditions. Hawley's The Himalayan Database became the unofficial record for climbs in the Nepalese Himalaya. She was also the honorary consul in Nepal for New Zealand.

Pemba Doma Sherpa was the first Nepalese female mountaineer to climb Mount Everest via its north face, was the second Nepali woman to summit from both the north and south faces, and is one of six women to have summited Everest twice. She was the leader of the 2002 Nepalese Woman Everest Expedition. Pemba Doma Sherpa climbed Cho Oyu from the Tibetan side on 28 Sep 2005.

2006 Philippine Mount Everest expedition

The 2006 Philippine Mount Everest expedition is a Filipino mountaineering expedition that made a successful attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest via the traditional southeast ridge route in May 2006 during the spring climbing season in the Himalayas. It was the first national expedition organized by the Philippines to reach the summit of world's highest mountain.

Andrew James Lock OAM is an Australian high-altitude mountaineer. He became the first, and still remains the only, Australian to climb all 14 "eight-thousanders" on 2 October 2009, and is the 18th person to ever complete this feat. He climbed 13 of the 14 without using bottled oxygen, only using it on Mount Everest, which he has summited three times. He retired from eight-thousander climbing in 2012.

Victor Saunders is a British mountaineer and author. He trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. His first book, Elusive Summits, won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1991. He became as a UIAGM/IFMGA ski and mountain guide in 1996 and joined the SNGM in 2003. Saunders first reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 2004, and went on to climb it several more times. In 2020 he became president of the Alpine Club.

Adrian Ballinger American climber

Adrian Ballinger is a British-American certified IFMGA/AMGA mountain guide, certified through the American Mountain Guides Association and a sponsored climber and skier. Ballinger is the founder and CEO of Alpenglow Expeditions, and has been guiding full-time for 25 years. He has led over 150 international climbing expeditions on six continents, and made 17 successful summits of 8,000m peaks. He is known for pioneering the use of pre-acclimatization for commercial expeditions as early as 2012, which can cut the amount of time typically spent on an expedition in half. Adrian is the only American to have made three successful ski descents of 8,000m peaks, including the first ski descent of Manaslu from its summit. He is also the fourth American to have summited both Mount Everest and K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Garrett Madison American mountaineer and guide (born 1978)

Garrett Madison is an American mountaineer, guide and expedition leader. Madison began guiding professionally in 1999 on Mount Rainier and has reached the top of Everest 11 times. His company, Madison Mountaineering, specializes in climbs on Mount Everest and other high altitude peaks, operates on the highest peaks on all seven continents, and also provides training programs and summit climbs in Washington State.

The 1951 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition ran between 27 August 1951 and 21 November 1951 with Eric Shipton as leader.

References

  1. Firth, Paul G; Zheng, Hui; Windsor, Jeremy S; Sutherland, Andrew I; Imray, Christopher H; Moore, G W K; Semple, John L; Roach, Robert C; Salisbury, Richard A (2008-12-11). "Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study". The BMJ. 337: a2654. doi:10.1136/bmj.a2654. ISSN   0959-8138. PMC   2602730 . PMID   19074222.
  2. "Nepal honours chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering Elizabeth Hawley" . The Independent. 2014-08-20. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  3. Desai, Shail (2016-05-28). "Deaths on Everest: Man-made disaster on the route to personal glory" . Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  4. 1 2 REI. "The Himalayan Database CD-Rom: The Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". REI. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  5. "Everest 2013: Interview with Richard Salisbury, the Man Behind the Everest Summit Numbers". The Blog on alanarnette.com. 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  6. "Does Everest Have a Drug Problem? | VICE Sports". VICE Sports. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  7. Westhoff, John L.; Koepsell, Thomas D.; Littell, Christopher T. (2012-06-13). "Effects of experience and commercialisation on survival in Himalayan mountaineering: retrospective cohort study". BMJ. 344: e3782. doi:10.1136/bmj.e3782. ISSN   1756-1833. PMC   3374484 . PMID   22695902.
  8. If a mountaineer wants worldwide recognition that they have reached the summit of some of the most formidable mountains in the world, they will need to get the approval of Elizabeth Hawley. "Elizabeth Hawley, unrivalled Himalayan record keeper". BBC News. 29 August 2010.
  9. "Elizabeth Hawley, Who Chronicled Everest Treks, Dies at 94". New York Times. 26 January 2018.
  10. Elizabeth Hawley (2014). "Seasonal Stories for the Nepalese Himalaya 1985-2014" (PDF). The Himalayan Database. p. 347. But his claim to have now climbed all 8000ers is open to question. In April 1990 he and others reached the summit plateau of Cho Oyu. It was misty so they could not see well; nine years later Hinkes said he had “wandered around for a while” in the summit area but could see very little and eventually descended to join the others, one of whom said they had not reached the top.
  11. Elizabeth Hawley (2014). "Seasonal Stories for the Nepalese Himalaya 1985-2014" (PDF). The Himalayan Database. p. 274. But a South Korean climber, who followed in their footprints on the crusted snow three days later [in 1997] in clearer weather, did not consider that they actually gained the top. While [Sergio] Martini and [Fausto] De Stefani indicated they were perhaps only a few meters below it, Park Young-Seok claimed that their footprints stopped well before the top, perhaps 30 meters below a small fore-summit and 150 vertical meters below the highest summit. Now in 2000 [Sergio] Martini was back again, and this time he definitely summited Lhotse.