The Irish and Everest

 Mount Everest (known locally as Sagarmāthā in Nepal and Qomolangma  in Tibet) is Earth's highest

Everest from Rongbuk Glacier (1921)

 mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its summit. Its height was most recently measured in 2020 by Chinese and Nepali authorities as 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft 8+1⁄2 in).  (Wikipedia).

The British geographic survey of 1849 attempted to preserve local names when possible (e.g., Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri). However, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, claimed that he could not find a commonly used local name, Waugh argued that – because there were many local names – it would be difficult to favour one name over all others; he therefore decided that Peak XV should be named after British surveyor Sir George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India. Everest himself opposed the honour.

Everest (Wikipedia)

He had visited Ireland in 1829 and inspected the 'Colby Bar' as used in the Survey of Ireland for baseliine measurement and its possible suitability in the Survey of India. (A neice, Mary, lived in Cork from 1855 to '64 as wife of  George Boole, professoor of mathematics at Queen's College - now UCC).  In 1852, stationed at the survey headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak.

The British expedition of 1921 was the first to explore the possibility of climbing Mt Everest.  Charles Kenneth Howard Bury was leader of the expedition and the surveyor was  a Canadian, Edward Oliver Wheeler.  On the third British Expedition, in 1924, Richard Hingston from Cork, was the medical officer.

The first Irish attempt on Everest was in 1993 and members were from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Irish party in 1993 consisted of eight climbers: Dawson Stelfox, (leader); Frank Nugent (deputy leader); Dermot Somers, Robbie Fenlon, Mike Barry, Richard O'Neill Dean, Mick Murphy and Tony Burke. This was the first Irish attempt on Everest and members were from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The trip was supported by the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI), the Sports Councils in Dublin and Belfast and financed by Irish companies and fund raising events.

Camp at Lakhpa La (1921)

(Some more details Here)

Some Irish Stats on Everest: (up to 2024).

– Everest has been climbed 76 times by 59 Irish climbers (9 women, 50 men) since the first Irish success in 1993.

– The geographic split of successful summits is 31 Northern Ireland, 41 Republic of Ireland and 4 Irish Diaspora.

– Irish success rate on Everest is 52%, while there have been four Irish fatalities (2005, 2011 & two in 2019).

– The first Irish climber to reach the summit of Everest was Dawson Stelfox from Antrim in 1993.

– The 1993 summit by Dawson Stelfox was the first North side ascent by a climber from Britain or Ireland.

– Noel Hanna (Co. Down) has 10 Everest summits – Noel died on Annapurna in 2023.

– Robert Smith (Co. Tyrone) has 7 Everest summits – Robert is an accomplished mountain guide.

– Pat Falvey & Lynne Hanna have 2 Everest summits each – once from each side (Nepal & Tibet).

– Linda Blakely (Armagh) in 2018 & Robert Smith (Tyrone) in 2019 summitted Everest & Lhotse within 24 hours.

– Everest & Lhotse by Linda Blakeley in 2018 was the first ‘same season double’ by a climber from Britain or Ireland.

– The youngest Irish citizen to summit is Anselm Murphy (24). Youngest Irish born to summit is Rob Mortell (26).

– The oldest Irish citizen to reach the summit of Everest was Martin Byrne from Offaly (58) in 2012.

– Four Irish born climbers died on Everest – Sean Egan (2005), John Delaney (2011), Seamus Lawless (2019) & Kevin Hynes (2019).

– Noel & Lynne Hanna hold the world record for the 1st married couple to summit together from both sides (2009 & 2016).

– Edmund Hillary’s grandmother came from Clondra in Longford. His other grandparents were from Yorkshire in England.

See Here for more info.

Richard Hingston

Dr Richard GW Hingston, FZS, FRES, FLS, FRGS (1887-1966) was an Irish physician, explorer and naturalist who worked in India with the Indian Medical Service. He attended Cork Grammar School and Merchants' Taylor School, London. Hingston qualified in the Medical School of Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) in 1910, where he passed his Final with First Class Honours.

On graduation Hingston entered the Indian Medical Service and retired from it in 1927 with the rank of Major. In 1913 he was naturalist to the Indo-Russian Pamir Expedition, a triangulation project in the Himalayas, mapping the region between India and Russia where he carried out experiments on the effects of high altitude on the human body on behalf of the RAF.  From 1914-1918 he served in the British Forces and was twice mentioned in despatches. He was awarded the MC. From the end of the war until 1924 he commanded military hospitals. In 1924 he acted as Medical Officer and Naturalist to the Mt Everest expedition.  This was the second mountaineering expedition with the express aim of making the first ascent of Mount Everest.

Everest '24 Team. Hingston - back row 2nd.

Richard Hingston was an analytical and dedicated diarist and even during the most trying periods of the Everest expedition he kept a record of events. It is from this diary that the following brief extracts have been taken:

4th June 1924: Norton and Somerville have extablished Camp VI at a height of 27,000 feet... Mallory and Irvine left camp today.  They intend to make an oxygen attempt...

5th June 1924: He (Somerville) and Norton had reached an altitude of 28,000 feet.  Norton had to be left at Camp IV.  He suffered badly ffrom snow blindness...Mallory and Irvine are now making an attempt. And this will probably be the last.

6th June 1924:  I set off at 6am...for Camp IV on an ice ridge at 23,000 feet.... The whole ascent was very wonderful, being practically a climb up a wall of ice about 2,000 feet in height...I had a job of work before me, to get a blind man down the Col...I was glad to get down...and finish the job without injury to anyone...

7th June 1924:...there is no news of Mallory and Irvine. Personally, I have not much hope of their success...

8th June 1924: Eyes again glued to the mountain. There is just a chance of Mallory and Irvine getting to the summit.... There is no sign of their having returned yet to Camp IV.

9th June 1924: Not a sign of Mallory and Irvine...they should have been at Camp IV ths morning, but there is no tracce of them as yet...

10 th June 1924: There can be no doubt - the worst has happened.  Not a sign of Mallory and Irvine.  They must have slipped near the summit and fallen down the face of the mountain.

After Everest he undertook a number of other expeditions. From 1925-1927 he was Surgeon Naturalist in the Indian Marine Survey. In 1928 he was second in command of the Oxford University Expedition to Greenland while in 1929 he was organiser and leader of the Oxford University Expedition to British Guyana. In 1930 he conducted a mission to Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Tanganyika and Uganda in order to investigate methods of preserving the indigenous fauna.  In 1939 he was recalled to military duty in India and remained there until 1946.

After World War II Hingston retired to his home in Passage West, County Cork.

For further details of his Mt Everest  experience see Jim Murphy "Passage to Everest and Beyond" and Mountaineering Ireland (IMEHS Journal Vol 5).

  For accounts of some of his other expeditions see Hingston Collection at UCC.