Eric Shipton- six mountain books

ERIC SHIPTON THE SIX MOUNTAIN-TRAVEL BOOKS. Intro¬duction by Jim Perrin. Pp. 800, illustrations, maps, 1985. (Diadem Books, London and The Mountaineers, Seattle, £ 16.95).

N. E. Odell, who climbed Nanda Devi with Tilman, once narrated an incident. While returning from the Nanda Devi Sanctury after the first ascent in 1936, they heard the voice of Shipton drowning in the Rishi ganga. He was made to cross and Shipton said that he had ‘just been back’ from Everest and received the news of the ascent. He came here to congratulate them! In 1936 Shipton was on Everest, missing out the ascent of Nanda Devi. They had ex¬treme bad weather on Everest and the large scale of the expedi¬tion frustrated Shipton. But not to be left out in the spirited ascent he joined a survey party to congratulate his friends for climbing ‘his’ mountain!

More than any other venture Shipton’s exploration of the route through the Rishi gorge attracted visions of a formidable terrain, undaunted men and great achievement. So much so that almost 30 years after the event when we planned an expedition to the Sanctuary, there were comments: ‘You all are heading for trou¬ble. What do you all think, you are Shiptons and Tilmans?’ We did manage but none of us became a Shipton; for Shipton had many varied aspects of greatness which very few can hope to match.

There were three major facets of Shipton. First was his team¬ing up with Maj H. W. Tilman, forming a most formidable partner¬ship which led to many explorations. They brought back meticu¬lous knowledge about the area and contributed fascinating books to the mountain literature. Jim Perrin in his introduction mentions:

‘The differences in their characters probably acted as a bond bet¬ween Shipton and Tilman, and account for their sharing of some of the most ambitious undertakings of their lives. For Tilman, his own youth lost, Shipton’s enthusiasm and boundless energy must have been inspiring and invigorating, whilst the fatherless Shipton may well have found that Tilman’s wry, benevolent maturity fulfilled a need in him at a certain stage of his life. In mountaineering terms, the roles were reversed, and the more experienced Shipton was the leader.’

Based on this was Shipton’s urge to travel, explore and climb. He was instrumental in the explorations of the route to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, Shaksgam valley and many areas of the Karako-ram. This was the most fruitful period of his life and Shipton would be best remembered for these explorations. At the apex of these explorations was the finding of the route to Everest from the south, the route by which Everest was ultimately climbed.

The infamous episode about the leadership of the 1953 Everest ex¬pedition was the third major event in his life. The details of how Shipton was first made as leader and then disposed of are too well-known. It Will suffice to quote:

‘What emerges, from close examination of relevant Himalayan Committee minutes and written submissions from its surviving members, is a bizarre tale of fudging and mudging, falsification of official minutes, unauthorized invitations, and opportunistic and desperate last-minute seizures of initiative by a particular faction. It is a perfect illustration of the cock-up rather than the conspiracy theory of history, from which little credit re¬bounds upon the British mountaineering establishment of the time.’

Shipton never returned to Himalaya for any serious trip for the rest of his life. This collection of six books of Shipton covers his life as an explorer and we come to know what was a Shiptonian era. Excellent re-drawn maps, new photographs and a list of literature and travels by Shipton complete the book. Recently it was sug¬gested (Mountain 105) that perhaps Shipton ‘was in habit of telling tall stories about his expeditions whenever he felt the occasion needed a lift . . . .’ But then while talking don’t we all do that to some extent? There is no doubt that his written word and books are a most authoritative source of reference.

Now that the Everest is climbed, lets get on with the real game: this is credited to be a Shiptonian remark (on the first ascent of Everest). The publication of this book makes that ‘spirit’ avail¬able to the younger readers easily. It is hoped that the moun-taineers will ‘get on with if as a true tribute to this great explorer.

HARISH KAPADIA