Kanchenjunga - 70 Years
Pic: Doug Scott, Community Action Nepal. Signed by Joe Brown, Doug Scott, George Band & Tony Streather
In 1955 Joe Brown received an invite to join his first expedition to the Himalaya.
It was an expedition that was to change his life, the lives of his British and Sherpa climbing companions, and indeed Himalayan climbing forever.
Long thought to be the highest mountain in the world due to it’s visibility above Darjeeling, it was only on completion of the Great Trigonometrical Survey in 1871 that years of data, scrupulously collected in part by Kishan Singh Rawat and calculated by Radhanath Sikdar, was presented by the British Surveyor Generals to prove Kangchenjunga was third in height after Everest and K2. While other mountains of similar size had been climbed close to their summits since the turn of the 20th century, no-one had even come close on Kangchenjunga.
The climb was considered so difficult, and so little was known about the route that the Kanchenjunga 1955 expedition was, in fact, a planned reconnaissance in preparation for Sir John Hunt to lead a larger team to the summit the following year. Charles Evans, who had narrowly missed out on being the first to summit Everest in 1953, accepted the role of leader on the condition that a) he could take lots of oxygen, b) he could choose his own team.
Charles had played a key role in pushing the route for Hillary and Tenzing to the summit on Everest in 1953, and chose key Sherpa's from his previous expeditions along with experienced climbers who had either been overlooked for '53 or in the case of George Band, had been an member but too ill to climb on Everest. Charles had another ace up his sleeve too - Dr Griff Pugh. This was to be perhaps the first expedition where diet and nutrition were treated with as much importance as the development of kit and clothing.
In the autumn of 1954 a telegram arrived in the hands of Joe Brown. Aged 24 this was Joe’s first trip beyond Europe and as a self employed builder who left school at the age of 14 he was unique among his fellow team of mountaineers. He was a well known young rock climber with a single, but pivotal, alpine season under his belt, the youngest member of the team, a wild card.
Throughout the winter of 1954, equipment outfitters had measured them and prepared special boots, gloves and high altitude clothing. The whole team had met in Wales for rehearsals with oxygen equipment and for Joe; some last minute financial preparations....
“....I asked Charles Evans if he could tell me something about the financing.....He said that all expenses would be paid and that £20 pocket money would be ample. I couldn’t tell him that I hadn’t got £20.”
Joe auctioned a pile of climbing kit at a Rock and Ice club meet to raise the funds.
Literally, a ton of equipment was required to enable the expedition team to be fed, kept warm and protected from the elements. A lot of the equipment was provided (including cigarettes for Joe - the other smokers used pipe tobacco) but in addition to his hard won spending money, Joe also packed his personal kit.
The hand typed packing list from the expedition highlights what he and his fellow team members were expected to provide. Jeager cardigans and rayon string vests were at the very pinnacle of the layering system of the day and finally the woolly balaclava "helmet". Fiendishly itchy but still available to buy in our shops until just a few years ago when the manufacturer finally retired. The boiled wool Dachstein Mitts, however, still remain a firm customer favourite after all these years!
The kit provided for the European members of the party, which was almost identical to that provided for the High Altitude Sherpa's, included made to measure technical clothing and footwear designed by the British boot, Shoe and Allied Trades Research Association in Kettering. The British made leather boots used on the expedition would have looked something like the La Sportiva boots shown, which were made in the same year. Canvas overboots provided additional insulation.
Double Layer silk gloves, the same as issued to RAF pilots at the time were used to protect their fingers while putting on crampons or working with oxygen cylinders in the unimaginably cold temperatures and woolly mitts were worn over the top.
Climbing "helmets" were in fact wooly balaclavas and it wasn't until the 60's that Joe and Mo Anthoine began making the famous climbing helmets that became common place and were renowned for strength and safety.
On 12th February, the expedition team sailed on the Circassia from Liverpool, their ports of call: Gibraltar, Port Said, Aden, Karachi before arriving in Bombay giving them plenty of time to reflect on their preparations.
The voyage from Liverpool to Bombay was a first for Joe and unsurprisingly, travelling first class with meals provided three times a day was thoroughly enjoyed by all of the team. To alleviate the boredom Tony Streather (an Army Captain fluent in Urdu) gave language lessons and physical challenges were a source of friendly competition including “bum skipping”. One of the old favourites for Joe and his friends was “opening a mars bar while wearing a pair of woollen Dachstein mitts”.
Four weeks after setting sail from Liverpool, the team travelled by train from Bombay to Sikkim arriving in Rungneet on 10th March 1955 where they were to get their first view of the worlds third highest mountain:
““On the second day a shout brought me running outside.The sky was streaming with vapors and I could just discern the outline of Kanchenjunga….a gigantic earthly shape, boiling inside a tissue-thin bank of cloud. This was truly an incredible sight. I seemed to be looking up at an angle of 45 degrees at the mountain, yet it was nearly 50 miles away””
A week at Rungneet Tea Plantation in Darjeeling allowed for 6 tons of expedition gear and food to be broken down into almost 300 porter loads. It was a mammoth task.
The plantation was owned by Jack and Jill Henderson, well known for their hospitality towards British climbers of the day. Jill was Honorary Secretary of the Himalayan Club from 1951 - 1955 and helped to organise Sherpa teams for a number of expeditions, taking care to ensure Sherpa interests were protected.
Behind the scenes, Ang Yangzin worked with her husband to gather 300 porters from the bazaars and neighbouring hills for Tony Streather to organise. They had just enough to shift their equipment. Amateur film footage from the expedition shows other Sherpani's were also carrying loads. They had likely walked with their husbands from the Solu Khumbu.
You can read more about Jill Henderson at https://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/.../06/the-hendersons.html
Pic: The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
Pictured here in 1955, the climbers were yet to meet their Sherpa's, who were key to the success of the expedition and became long term friends.
The Team:
Back Row L-R: Tony Streather, Norman Hardie, George Band, John Clegg, Tom MacKinnon
Front Row L-R: Neil Mather, John Jackson, Joe Brown
The Sherpa's: Sirdar - Dawa Tenzing, Deputy Sirdar - Anullu, Urkien, Da Tsering, Lobsang, Pasang Sonar, Changjup, Topke, Ang Temba
All of whom walked from the Solu Khumbu in Nepal to Darjeeling to join the expedition.
Pic: Sherpa’s and Sherpani’s packing supplies at Rungneet. www.bfi.org
The trek into Kanchenjunga must have been equally astonishing for the team as much as the local villagers. Can you imagine 9 climbers, 36 High Altitude Sherpa's and 300 porters passing through?
Joe remembers waking at 5am for tea and walking straight away. They would stop for breakfast later as the porters liked to go as far as possible in the cool of the day. Each climber had a personal Sherpa, Joe and Ang Temba got on famously. At the time, each Sherpa had their own log book which would be filled in by expedition leaders to create a form of CV. Ang Temba's showed he had been over 24,000 feet six times, considerably higher than Joe had ever been.
As they walked up through the higher villages of Khebang they were welcomed by an archway of flowers and a concert of songs sung by the children. At Yamphodin, Charles Evans listened to one of the porters singing a song at his evening fire, understanding some of the words he asked a Sherpa if he could translate more fully, he described the song:
"......about a poor Nepali peasant like himself, Tenzing, who climbed to the top of the world, climbed out of his lowly state to fame and wealth."
Pic: Left, The Untrodden Peak, Charles Evans. Right, www.bfi.org
The expedition team found the carry up the Yalung glacier was harder than they had expected. "Crack Camp" was so called after Joe arrived and zeroed in on the 20 foot high boulder:
““A smooth overhanging face with a narrow crack in it roused my interest. Throwing caution to the wind I fought my way up the crack on hand-jams with feet flailing in the air. My high altitude boots were about as well designed for this type of climbing as a pair of boxing gloves. The effort was so great I thought I must have damaged my lungs in gulping for breath. My throat was raw and at 16,000 feet it seemed ages before I recovered. Ang Temba had watched me using hand-jamming techniques to climb the crack and his interest was aroused. After a couple of practice moves, to my amazement, he could hang freely off a hand jam.””
In todays digital age where we can hop on Google Earth in our living rooms and send or receive e-mails instantaneously across the world, it's easy to forget how little information early Himalayan teams had to work on.
The first few days of April brought the first mail including Easter Eggs sent up by the Hendersons in Rungneet. More importantly for Charles Evans, there was a package from a fellow mountaineer in the Indian Airforce, F/Lt N D Jayal. The package contained aerial photos of the south and west faces confirming the difficulty the team faced:
Pic: The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
““Only on the south did there seem to be a few breaks below the crest, and these seemed unapproachable except over what looked like the smoothest of steep slabs. Late that evening I showed the pictures to Band, Mather and Clegg. They took them with the optimism that makes climbers always suppose that there must be a way somewhere. Then, as they looked at them, there was silence followed by little comment.””
After a difficult, unsuccessful climb following the route of an attempt by Kempe in 1953, a pivotal decision by Charles Evans to move basecamp and shift routes saw Charles and Joe Brown move up from their new Camp 2 to explore a location for Camp 3.
Pic: Kangchenjunga Camp 3, The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
“Getting through the second icefall was hard work: we finished up in dead ends or astride blades of ice dividing crevasses, and had to look elsewhere. In the event, Camp 3 was pitched in the icefall. The platform chosen lay below and overhanging cliff which afforded protection from possible avalanches. On Kangchenjunga avalanches thundered all day. On an off-day at Base Camp George Band chalked a mark on his tent every time he heard an avalanche. The score averaged one every twenty minutes.”
This was also the day where, they sat exhausted, eagerly anticipating the tin of peaches they had carried up.
Joe later recounted this story, aged 86, as if it had occurred just a few days before, keeping his audience spellbound during a rare public talk to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the expedition. It was at the Llanberis Film Festival in 2015, his first and only other public talk about Kangchenjunga being 10 years previously to celebrate the 50th anniversary at the Royal geographical Society. He described sitting in the snow, their shortness of breath and the energy both men expended trying to open the tin with their ice axes at 20,000 feet, before bursting into characteristic laughter at their dismay to find them completely frozen!
The stories of the amount of food Joe was able to consume were legendary and testament to the magnificent menu of the expedition as highlighted in his description of dinner at Camp IV: Orangeade, Tea, Asparagus Soup, Lambs Tongues (tin), Mashed potato, 5 cigarettes. Food was pivotal to the success of the expedition and had been carefully planned back in the UK by Dr Griff Pugh. Known as the mountaineers favourite “boffin”, Dr Pugh was interested in optimum nutrition and physical protection for climbers at great height. He believed climbers usually didn’t eat enough, at altitude they lost the sense of taste, so he devised food which would tempt the appetite. He also determined climbers in high, dry altitudes soon become dehydrated and exhausted so Dr Pugh measured how much water (melted snow) would be necessary. This, along with acclimatisation, was a brand new approach to expedition mountain climbing.
Pic: Joe Brown in the dark blue windsuit, The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
On May 14th 1955, Expedition leader, Charles Evans outlined his plans for the following weeks, naming his two key rock climbers as his lead climbers, Joe Brown and George Band:
“There was no time to lose. We now had, at most, two weeks in which to make practicable for porters the route we had found to the shelf, to stock Camps 4 and 5, to find a place near 26,000 feet for camp 6 to reach the final ridge.”
This meant a BIG carry to stock Advanced Basecamp lead by Tom MacKinnon, John Jackson + 11 of the strongest Sherpa’s. Together they moved 4000lbs of stores from Basecamp to Camp 3, onto Camp 4 to leave a dump on the Gt Shelf then back down to Camp 3. Charles Evans & Neil Mather assisted George & Joe to set up high camp and return Camp 5. Norman Hardie & Tony Streather were to follow for a second summit attempt.
Excitement was spreading. The British press had already been printing regular stories about the expedition to “The Killer Mountain”, with the Birmingham Post newspaper reporting how this was the first time attempts had been made to watch a Himalayan expedition by telescope!
Meanwhile the Expedition Doctor John Clegg remained on the radio in basecamp, listening in for the special Kangchenjunga expedition weather forecast on the BBC World Service and ready to dispatch runners with a coded message to report on success.
The mail runners were pivotal to communication with the outside world. 4 pairs worked in weekly intervals to collect & deliver mail throughout the expedition ensuring climbers had continual contact with home. Joe wrote a stream of letters to Val, this image is one of only a couple that have survived the test of time, likely sent on his arrival in Darjeeling, as he hasn't filled in the elevation stamp.
““At camp IV the weather changes. Instead of the fine mornings, there was snow and roaring winds lasting for three days. The tent sank lower and lower until there was no room inside to move. In a shrieking gale we shovelled snow off the sides two or three times a day. The mere thought of losing sight of the tent in these conditions made working outside a nervous experience.” ”
Camp life up high was pretty miserable with soaking wet kit, extreme cold and cramped conditions. At Camp 6 they cut a ledge for the tent. Unfortunately, the tent was six inches wider. George Band removed his silk gloves to unscrew two valves on the oxygen and in 15 seconds all his fingers were blistered with cold. Finally, after a Herculean push by all of the western and Sherpa climbing team, Joe and George were on their own at Camp 6, somewhere around 26,900 feet. It was cramped and exposed but they drunk and ate as much as possible in preparation for the following day….
“While they ate, the sun was sinking behind Jannu, throwing great golden rays through the rents in the cloud. Joe sat by the open tent sleeve watching and took photograph after photograph as the colours changed.”
It was absolutely still, but lightening flickered over the plains far below. They were the highest people in the world.
Pic: George Band climbing, The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
They slept on oxygen and in the morning balanced a Primus stove between them and in 3 hours melted enough snow for two mugs of tea each and a full flask of lemonade. Although Joe had less step cutting experience than George, he felt better at altitude so took over the lead.
“Presently they reached steeper rock, a forty foot buttress, brown, rough and easy. Above it was snow with a slabby crust, which felt as if it might break away under them; it led to more rock and here for safety Joe put in a peg to which to fasten the rope. He swung round a corner to the right; for a moment he was hanging from his hands, his feet dangling; then he entered a chimney in which there was ice, climbed it and traversed to the right again across a slabby face. Here it was airy, but the holds, Joe says, were good.”
Pic: Joe on the high crack and the view from the summit, The Alpine Club & Royal Geographical Society
Not only had Joe, (a builder from Manchester) and George (a Geology graduate from Cambridge), the two youngest climbers on the team, become the first Britons to climb over 8000m, they had done it in style!
“We stood on a rock and the snow comb was only four or five feet higher. The snow could easily have been corniced. It was just as well that we had given an undertaking to the Nepalese authorities not to tread the very top. The mountain was sacred and God’s dwelt there.”
Eating a bar of Quiggins Kendal Mint Cake, they began their descent 15 minutes later, their oxygen ran out shortly after and as a result of pushing up his goggles to climb the technical rock band Joe became snowblind. Years later, he described how at Camp IV they pulled out his eyelids and stuffed them full of cocaine ointment but to no avail. They continued to feel as though: “my eyelids had been poked back and red hot filings poured into them.”
On May 26th Norman Hardie and Tony Streather, equipped with more oxygen than Joe and George forced their own route to the summit ridge via a snow and ice gully. They too stopped just short of the summit as agreed, which remained untrodden.
The entire expedition team were off the mountain by the May 29th so there was no more risk to life due to the incoming monsoon. Sadly, there had been one fatality; Pemi Dorje who, had more been known about altitude sickness at the time, may well have survived. He was buried at Basecamp under a great flat stone onto which the Sherpa’s spent all day carving his name, date and the Buddhist mantra; om mani padme hum.
Kangchenjunga 1955 was truly an incredible expedition that cemented friendships, promoted respect for the local people and their beliefs, challenged class distinctions of the time, applied technical rock climbing skills above 8000m and saw four members successfully attain the summit ridge.
Not bad for what was supposed to be a reconnaissance expedition!
With thanks to The Alpine Club, Royal Geographical Society and the Mount Everest Foundation for allowing us to share original slide images from the expedition.
For more information about the legacy of the 1955 expedition in Nepal click: Kangchenjunga 70
Join us in celebrating the 70th anniversary by climbing 8586m across the summer of 2025. Click the image below to get involved and for how to enter our competition…….
Launches May 25th
