Miss Elizabeth Hawley Has Passed Away

Sad news out of Kathmandu today where it was announced that Miss Elizabeth Hawley, the legendary chronicler of climbing in the Himalaya has passed away at the age of 94. While she never climbed a single mountain, her shadow loomed large over the mountaineering scene as she served as the historian who recorded every climbing expedition to Nepal and Tibet for the past 58 years.

Miss Hawley travels to Nepal back in 1960 and essentially fell in love with the place, and never wen back home. A journalist by trade, she began covering mountaineering expeditions and soon became the authority on climbing on Everest and other major peaks.

In recent years, Hawley turned over the maintenance of her Himalayan Database to a team of supporters, but still remained very active in the process. For decades climbers made a pilgrimage to visit her to discuss their climbs, and often she was the faint arbiter of whether or not the expedition was actually successful. Tales of her intense inquiries were well known and often shared around the campfire with climbers who admitted to being intimidated by the diminutive reporter.

It is impossible to overstate her contribution to the mountaineering community. Our hearts go out to her friends and family. Condolences on this loss.

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Himalayan Database Now Available for Free

The  “Bible of Expedition Mountaineering in Nepal," aka The Himalayan Database is now available for anyone to download. Previously, the information contained in the database was only available via a CD-ROM, but the record keepers behind this extensive resource have released the data online at himalayandatabase.com where it is a free download.

Way back in October we shared the news that the database would be released to the general public for free. At that time, it was expected to become available in early November, but when that month came and went without an update, it seemed that the project may have hit a snag in its efforts to get the information into the hands of those who wanted to sift through its data. Now, just a few days into December, version 2 of the database is available to all.

According to the Himalayan Database website, the information includes records on more than 450 different peaks, over 9600 expeditions, and 70,000 individual climbers. It covers all expeditions from 1905 through 2017 on all significant Nepalese peaks, as well as data on the mountains that border Tibet, including Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga.

Each expedition record contains biographical information for all members listed on the permit as well as for hired members (e.g., Sherpas) for which there are significant events such as a summit success, deaths, accidents, or rescue. The database also lists more than 10,000 references in media and literature to major climbs as well.

The Himalayan Database has been the labor of love for Miss Elizabeth Hawley, and American journalist who came to Nepal back in 1960 never left. Over the years, she compiled information on all of the significant climbs in the Himalaya, first by hand, and later using computers. That information grew into The Himalayan Database, and she became the foremost authority on climbing in Nepal. Now, at the age of 94, she has ceded the work over to others, but still plays a vital role in the project.

You can learn more about The Himalayan Database, and download it yourself, here.

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