Bill Tilman

Harald William Tilman

Harold William Tilman , also Bill Tilman , (born February 14, 1898 in Wallasey in Cheshire , England , † 1977 lost in the southern Atlantic ) was a British mountaineer, explorer and author who became known for his ascents in the Himalayas and trips on sailing ships. In the military he rose to the rank of major .

Early years and World War I

Tilman was the son of a sugar dealer and went to Berkhamsted Boys school . At the age of 18, he joined British artillery and fought in World War I , including the Battle of the Somme, and was twice awarded the Military Cross . He was wounded twice in this war.

Africa

His mountaineering career began when he met Eric Shipton in Kenya , East Africa , where they both grew coffee. In 1929 they began their first ascent of Mount Kenya , followed by Kilimanjaro and Ruwenzori , called Mountains of the Moon . Shipton and Tilman formed one of the most famous mountain partnerships in mountaineering history. In 1933 he was looking for gold in Kenya. In a unique achievement cycled from Kenya to the west coast of Africa and then embarked for England.

Second World War

For the Second World War he volunteered and fought in North Africa and on the beach at Dunkirk in France . Then he jumped with the parachute behind the enemy lines and fought with Albanian and Italian partisans , for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . He was instrumental in ensuring that the city of Belluno in Italy was not occupied and destroyed.

Mount Everest

Tilman was involved in two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1930s . He invaded the Nanda Devi Sanctuary with Eric Shipton in 1934 , and in 1936 led an Anglo-American expedition to Nanda Devi. With the support of this team, which included Peter Lloyd , Adams Carter and Noel Odell , they made the first ascent of this mountain. With this ascent he remained the world record holder who climbed the most vertical meters in the world until 1950.

In 1939 Tilman was the first to succeed in the first ascent of the Assam Himalaya and to approach the southern entrance to Mount Gori Chen (6,538 m). An ascent of this mountain was prevented by the malaria illness of his team. In 1947 he approached the rakaposhi without climbing it. Then he went to Kashgar to meet Eric Shipton , who wanted to climb Muztagh Ata (7546 m), but he had to turn back. He traveled the Afghan Wakhan Corridor to see the Oxus River . Tilman is probably one of the few and above all the last Europeans who successfully crossed the Wakhjir Pass between the Republic of China and Afghanistan in 1947 . During his intensive voyages of discovery in the areas of Langtang , Ganesh and Manang in Nepal in 1949, Tilman was the first to climb the Paldor (5,896 m). On the other side of the Gangchempo he found a mountain pass that was named after him - Tilman's Pass .

sailing

After his military career in World War II, he began sailing on the high seas. But he also sailed in shallow waters with the cutter Mischief , which he acquired in 1954, and then with the Sea Breeze and Baroque . Tilman traveled the waters of the Arctic and Antarctic in search of unclimbed mountains. On his last voyage in 1977 at the age of 80, Tilman was invited to the ship En Avant by the crew and mountaineers who wanted to climb Smith Island in the Southern Ocean. The expedition was led by the young sailor Simon Richardson . He and his crew rode an old steel tugboat , climbed successfully, and came back to Rio de Janeiro without incident . On November 1, 1977, the ship cast off for the Falkland Islands to pick up two climbers. On the way, the entire ship and crew was lost, including Tilman.

Awards

Tilmann received the following awards:

• Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
• Military Cross (MC and Bar)

The Tilman Ridge mountain ridge in Victoria Land, Antarctica, and the Tilman Shoals , shallows off the island of Heard in the Indian Ocean , are named after him .

Timeline from 1929 to 1950

• 1929: Tilman was instructed in mountaineering in the Lake District , England .
• 1930: He climbed Mawenzi and Kibo near Kilimanjaro with Eric Shipton .
• 1930: With Shipton he climbed the West Ridge of Batian and the Nelion, a sub-peak of Mount Kenya .
• 1932: Tilman climbed the Speke, Baker and Stanley mountains in the Ruwenzori Mountains with Shipton .
• 1932: In April he was present at the Lake District accident in which JS Brogden was killed.
• 1932: Later in the year he climbed various mountains in the Alps.
• 1933: Tilman climbed Kilimanjaro alone.
• 1934: Tilman and Shipton with three other climbers reported for the first time about their access to the Nanda Devi sanctuary and discovered the nearby Badrinath Mountains (northern India).
• 1935: Tilman he took part in the exploration expedition of Mount Everest and climbed various mountains near Mount Everest.
• 1936: Tilman attempted various mountain climbs and passes including the Zemu Gap in Sikkim , near Kangchenjunga . He later successfully carried out the first ascent of Nanda Devi .
• 1937: Shipton and Tilman conducted the main exploration expedition of the Karakoram .
• 1938: Tilman led another Mount Everest expedition and they reached an altitude of 8,320 m and then had to break off the ascent.
• 1938: He crossed the Zemu Gap (Sikkim).
• 1939: He led an expedition to the remote Assam Himalayas , which ended in failure. His team reached the Gori Chen , but only the adjacent hills, as the team fell ill with malaria and a member of the expedition died.
• 1941: Tilman climbed numerous mountains in Kurdistan .
• 1942: He carried out a night ascent of the Zaghouan in Tunisia .
• 1947: Tilman tried to climb the Rakaposhi in one of five different ways. This was unsuccessful. The expedition then explored the Kukuay Glacier in the southwest of Batura Muztagh .
• 1947: He tackled the Muztagh Ata with Shipton and Gyalgen Sherpa .
• 1948: Tilman tried to climb Bogda Feng in the north of Xinjiang with Shipton and two other mountaineers, but did not succeed.
• 1948: Attacked the Chakragil in western Xinjiang .
• 1948: Tilman traveled to the area of ​​the Chitral district in the Hindu Kush .
• 1949: Tilman led a four month exploration and science expedition through Langtang , Ganesh and Jugal Himals in Nepal . It was the first such expedition that this country allowed. He climbed the Paldor and the Ganesh Himal.
• 1950: He led the British Annapurna Expedition, which climbed Annapurna IV and tackled other mountains located there.
• 1950: Tilman and Charles Houston are the first Europeans who could see Mount Everest from the Pumori from the Nepalese side.

Works

• Mount Everest 1938 . Pilgrims Publishing, ISBN 81-7769-175-9 (contains the infamous Appendix B on the Yeti )
• Nepal Himalaya (Pilgrims Publishing) ISBN 81-7303-107-X
• The Seven Mountain Travel Books . Mountaineers' Books, ISBN 0-89886-960-9
  • Snow on the Equator (1937)
  • The Ascent of Nanda Devi (1937)
  • When Men and Mountains Meet (1946)
  • Everest 1938 (1948)
  • Two Mountains and a River (1949)
  • China to Chitral (1951)
  • Nepal Himalaya (1952)
• Eight Sailing / Mountain-Exploration Books . Diadem Books, ISBN 0-89886-143-8
  • Mischief in Patagonia (1957)
  • Mischief among the Penguins (1961)
  • Mischief in Greenland (1964)
  • Mostly Mischief (1966)
  • Mischief Goes South (1968)
  • In Mischief's Wake (1971)
  • Ice With Everything (1974)
  • Triumph and Tribulation (1977)

literature

• John Richard Lane Anderson: High Mountains and Cold Seas: Life of HW Tilman . Gollancz Books, ISBN 0-575-02806-8
• David A. Glen: Warrior, Wanderer. The Life & Times of the Legendary Explorer Bill Tilman. Progeny Books, ISBN 1-887062-02-5
• Tim Madge: The Last Hero - Bill Tilman: A Biography of the Explorer (The Mountaineers' Books) ISBN 0-89886-452-6
• Dorothy Richardson: The Quest of Simon Richardson . Gollancz Books, 1986
• Eric Shipton: The Six Mountain Travel Books . Mountaineers Books, 1997, ISBN 0-89886-539-5 .

Web links

• 'Warrior Wanderer' The Life & Times of the Legendary Explorer by David A. Glen
• Chris Bonington, 'Tilman, Harold William (1898–1977x9), rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004
• Bill Tilman - Voyages, Photographs Andecdotes
• HW Bill Tilman on angelfire.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mock and O'Neil 2004 Shipton Tilman Grant Application
2. ^ The Life and Times of the Legendary Explorer Bill Tilman . Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 5, 2009. 
3. ↑ data are taken from his book The Seven Mountain Travel Books (see works)