Round Kangchenjunga: A Narrative of Mountain Travel and Exploration

Freshfield (1845-1934), a British barrister, mountaineer, writer, poet and geographer, was one of the greatest mountain explorers of any age. A prominent figure in the RGS, he is considered to be one of the most scholarly and sensitive mountain writers. This is a reprint edition of his classic work. Kangchenjunga, the slumbering giant of the eastern Himalaya, its mighty, gigantic walls practically insurmountable from all sides, sits on the borders of eastern Tibet, Sikkim and Nepal. In 1899, though clearly visible from the British Raj hill station of Darjeeling, it was geographically completely unknown. Surrounding it, giant bastions of glaciers, outer guardian peaks and hidden valleys were shrouded in mists as thick as those that rose from the twisted and impenetrable rhododendron forests on its lower southern flanks. Following in the footsteps of the 1883 mountaineering party of W. W. Graham, which after climbing an 18,000’ peak, was forced to return to Darjeeling after only a week, Freshfield set out with his party in 1899. He was the first mountaineer to examine the great western face of Kangchenjunga, rising from the Kangchenjunga Glacier. This is the story of an exciting, often dangerous, and frequently frustrating journey of exploration to discover the lower and upper ramparts of this great mountain.