Shipton was born inCeylon (nowSri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was eight, his mother brought him to London for his education. When he failed the entrance exam toHarrow School, his mother sent him to Pyt House School inWiltshire. His first encounter with mountains was at 15 when he visited thePyrenees with his family.[1] The next summer he spent travelling inNorway with a school friend[2] and within a year he had begun climbing seriously.
In 1928 he went toKenya as a coffee grower and first climbed Nelion, a peak ofMount Kenya, in 1929. It was also in Kenya's community of Europeans where he met his future climbing partnersBill Tilman andPercy Wyn-Harris. Together with Wyn-Harris, he climbed the twin peaks ofMount Kenya. WithFrank Smythe, Shipton was amongst the first climbers to stand on the summit ofKamet, 7756 metres, in 1931, thehighest peak climbed at that time. Shipton was involved with most of theMount Everest expeditions during the 1930s and later, includingHugh Ruttledge's1933 Mount Everest expedition and thefollow-up in 1936, the1935 Mount Everest expedition which was Shipton's first as leader and the first forTenzing Norgay, and the pioneering1951 Mount Everest expedition which chalked out the now famous route over theKhumbu Glacier. Shipton and Tilman also discovered the access route to theNanda Devi sanctuary through theRishi Ganga gorge in 1934. Their shoe-string budget expedition operated in the Kumaon-Garhwal mountains continuously from pre-monsoon to post-monsoon, and set a record for single-expedition achievement that has never been equalled.
During theSecond World War, Shipton was appointed as HM Consul atKashgar in western China, where he remained from 1940 to 1942, then after a brief spell in England was assigned to work inPersia as a "Cereal Liaison Officer" for 20 months during 1943–44. Next he was posted as an attaché to the British Military Mission in Hungary as an "agricultural adviser", which position saw him through until the end of the war.[3]
In 1946 Shipton returned to Kashgar as Consul General, and during a visit from Bill Tilman they tried to climbMuztagh Ata, 7546 metres, reaching the broad summit dome. In 1947 Shipton explored and namedShipton's Arch. He took the opportunity of his Kashgar posting to explore other Central Asian mountains.[4] The first western exploration of theRolwaling Himal was made by Shipton in 1951 during thereconnaissance of Mount Everest. While exploring the Barun gorge he namedIsland Peak. In the 1951 Everest expedition, Shipton and DrMichael Ward also took photographs of the footprints of what may have been theYeti (Abominable Snowman), anice axe being included in the photographs to show scale. Because of his belief in the efficacy of small expeditions as compared to military-style 'sieges', Shipton was stepped down from the leadership of the 1953Everest expedition, along withAndrew Croft, in favour of MajorJohn Hunt: "I leave London absolutely shattered", he wrote. Between the years 1953 and 1957 he worked at a variety of jobs. Shipton worked as Warden of theOutward Bound Mountain school atEskdale until the failure of his marriage with his wife, Diana. He worked on farms, was awarded hisCBE, and in 1957 led a group of students from theImperial College of Science to theKarakoram.
For the last decade of his life, Shipton continued to travel, supporting himself by lecturing and acting as a celebrity guide. He completed the second volume of his autobiography,That Untravelled World, in 1969. He visited theGalapagos Islands,Alaska,Australia,New Zealand,Rhodesia, Kenya,Chile,Bhutan and Nepal. Whilst staying in Bhutan in 1976, he fell ill; on his return to England, he was diagnosed withcancer to which he succumbed in March 1977. He was cremated inSalisbury and his ashes were scattered onFonthill Lake inWiltshire.[5]
1934: With Tilman were thefirst to gain access to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, the party then explored theBadrinath range, then returned to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary where they made the first ascent of Maiktoli before leaving via the Sunderdhunga Col.
1935: Led the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition which includedBill Tilman who was unable to acclimatise although the party made the first ascent of twenty 20,000 ft. peaks in the Everest region. Shipton gave a 19-year-oldTenzing his first opportunity as a 'porter' when he was taken on in Darjeeling.
1936: Joined a second Ruttledge-led attempt on Everest thenreturned to survey the Nanda Devi Sanctuary then climbed in the region of the Rhamini Glacier crossing the Bagini Pass
1937: Joined Tilman on theShaksgam Expedition, exploring and mapping the northern approaches toK2
Shipton, Eric.Nanda Devi. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1936.
Shipton, Eric.Blank on the map. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1938.
Shipton, Eric.Upon That Mountain. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1943.
Shipton, Eric.The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 1951. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1952.
Shipton, Eric.Mountains of Tartary. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1953.
Shipton, Eric.Land of Tempest. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1963.
Shipton, Eric.That Untravelled World. Charles Scribner and Sons, 1969.ISBN0-340-04330-X (Hodder & Stoughton (1969))
Shipton, Eric.Tierra del Fuego: the Fatal Lodestone. Charles Knight & Co., London, 1973ISBN0-85314-194-0
Shipton, Eric.The Six Mountain-Travel Books. Mountaineers' Books, 1997.ISBN0-89886-539-5 (A collection of the first six books listed –That Untravelled World duplicated much of the previous content.)
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