The Ascent of Nanda Devi

This book describes the 1936 joint British-American expedition to climb Nanda Devi, located in the Garhwal District in what is now the state of Uttarakhand, India. The author, was also part of the (unsuccessful) 1934 expedition to attempt the same mountain with Eric Shipton, and he provides some explanation of that expedition in parts of this narrative. However Nanda Devi was originally the backup plan for this expedition - initially Kanchenjunga was the goal. Even on leaving Britain, Tilman was awaiting permission for both mountains; on arrival in India he learned a permit for Kanchenjunga was denied, but thankfully the Nanda Devi permit was soon granted.

What is immediately evident about this expedition, is that it is a long and complex journey to even get to the mountain, taking almost two thirds of the book. However this is mostly interesting and amusing, seeing how the sahibs manage the various Sherpas and porters, as there were two teams of porters - Nepalese Dotials (from the Doti Region of Nepal (just to the South East across the border)) and Indian porters from the village of Mana. There was plenty of niggle between the Nepalese and Mana men, and it was not particularly friendly banter. The team were severely limited with the Sherpa and porter options as there was not only an Everest expedition in play, but also a French expedition to Karakorum and a British expedition in Sikkim who had taken out all the best available men. Unfortunately they were able to engage only one really good Sherpa, the others were well past their best climbing days, or very green. This ended sadly with one of the Sherpa passing away from health issues late in the expedition.

As is usual with long expeditions they commenced with a high number of porters, many of whom are simply transporting food for the porters! The team did however cull porter numbers fairly ruthlessly when they were able to cut down the number of loads. The British and American climbers carried loads as well, and this was especially necessary after the Dotials all decided they were leaving, not being happy to carry out a river crossing (although this was perhaps just an excuse, as two of the porters had been paid off at this point).

As well as Tilman, the other British climbers were Graham Brown, Peter Lloyd and Noel Odell, who was a geologist (and responsible for the often mentioned glacier drill, which was a carrying burden on the porters, and later the climbers). The American side consisted of Charles Houston, WF Loomis, H Adams Carter & Arthur Emmons. Tilman's narrative concentrates more on the Sherpa and the porters than on the other men, until they reach a point of the actual climb.

The narrative covers lots of managing the process, and the actual hiking to reach the mountain, and was quite a different read to the first of his climbing books I read Snow On The Equator, which was a much more general story about Tilman's life - sure it included climbing of several mountains, but was far less focussed on logistics and the technicalities and was genuinely quite funny. There is a lot less of that side of things here, but despite it not being as funny it still had its moments:

On our way up we met a flock of sheep, and the shepherd was understood to say that one of his sheep had fallen over a cliff and was ours for the carrying. The Mana men soon found it, skinned it, and went on their way rejoicing; it certainly looked fresh enough, but there was suspiciously little sign of it having suffered a fall. In camp that night... the inquest was resumed, and we were calmly informed that the sheep had died through eating a poisonous plant. Somehow or other mutton chops ceased to allure and we generously gave our share to the Sherpas. I should hesitate to accuse them of of using this stratagem to bring about such a desirable result, but they showed no reluctance to accept fortune's gift and suffered not the slightest ill-effect.