Editing Mountaineering (section)

===The last frontier: The Himalayas===

The greatest mountain range to be conquered was the [[Himalayas]] in South Asia. They had initially been surveyed by the [[British Empire]] for military and strategic reasons. In 1892 Sir [[William Martin Conway]] explored the [[Karakoram]] Himalayas, and climbed a peak of {{convert|23000|ft|m|abbr=on}}. In 1895 [[Albert F. Mummery]] died while attempting [[Nanga Parbat]], while in 1899 [[Douglas Freshfield]] took an expedition to the snowy regions of [[Sikkim]].<ref name="IssermanWeaver2010">{{Cite book |last1=Maurice Isserman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JgEKGGYEpZIC&pg=PA49 |title=Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes |last2=Stewart Angas Weaver |last3=Dee Molenaar |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-300-16420-6}}</ref>

In 1899, 1903, 1906, and 1908 American mountaineer [[Fanny Bullock Workman]] (one of the first professional female mountaineers) made ascents in the Himalayas, including one of the [[Nun Kun]] peaks ({{convert|23300|ft|abbr=on}}). A number of [[Gurkha]] sepoys were trained as expert mountaineers by [[Charles Granville Bruce]], and a good deal of exploration was accomplished by them.<ref name="IssermanWeaver2010" />

In 1902 the Eckenstein–Crowley Expedition, led by English mountaineer [[Oscar Eckenstein]] and English occultist [[Aleister Crowley]] was the first to attempt to scale [[K2]]. They reached {{convert|22000|ft|m}} before turning back due to weather and other mishaps. Undaunted, in 1905 Crowley led the [[1905 Kanchenjunga expedition|first expedition to Kangchenjunga]], the third highest mountain in the world, in an attempt which Isserman, Angas Weaver and Molenaar describe as "misguided" and "lamentable" due to Crowley's many failings as an expedition leader.<ref name="IssermanWeaver2010" />

Eckenstein was also a pioneer in developing new equipment and climbing methods. He started using shorter ice axes that could be used single-handedly, designed the modern [[crampons]], and improved on the nail patterns used for the climbing boots.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rowell |first=Galen |url=https://archive.org/details/inthroneroomofmo0000rowe |title=In The Throne Room of the Mountain Gods |publisher=Sierra Club Books |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-87156-184-8 |location=San Francisco |pages=[https://archive.org/details/inthroneroomofmo0000rowe/page/36 36–40] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[File:Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Edmund Hillary]] (left) and [[Tenzing Norgay]] after successfully completing the first ascent of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953|alt=Image of Hillary and Norgay after ascending Mt Everest]]
By the 1950s, all the [[eight-thousander]]s but two had been climbed starting with [[Annapurna]] in 1950 by [[Maurice Herzog]] and [[Louis Lachenal]] on the [[1950 French Annapurna expedition]]. The highest of these peaks [[Mount Everest]] was climbed in 1953 after the British had made several attempts in the 1920s; the [[1922 British Mount Everest Expedition|1922 expedition]] reached {{convert|8320|m|ft|-1}} before being aborted on the third summit attempt after an avalanche killed seven porters. The [[1924 British Mount Everest Expedition|1924 expedition]] saw another height record achieved but still failed to reach the summit with confirmation when [[George Mallory]] and [[Andrew Irvine (mountaineer)|Andrew Irvine]] disappeared on the final attempt. The summit was finally reached on 29 May 1953 by [[Edmund Hillary|Sir Edmund Hillary]] and [[Tenzing Norgay]] from the south side in [[Nepal]].<ref name="IssermanWeaver2010" />

Just a few months later, [[Hermann Buhl]] made the first ascent of [[Nanga Parbat]] (8,125&nbsp;m), on the [[1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition]], completing the last 1,300 meters walking alone, self-medicating with [[pervitin]] (based on the stimulant [[methamphetamine]] used by soldiers during World War II), the [[vasodilator]] [[padutin]], and a stimulant tea made from [[Erythroxylum coca|coca]] leaves. [[K2]] (8,611m), the second-highest peak in the world, was [[1954 Italian Karakoram expedition to K2|first scaled in 1954]] by [[Lino Lacedelli]] and [[Achille Compagnoni]]. In 1964, the final eight-thousander to be climbed was [[Shishapangma]] (8,013m), the lowest of all the 8,000-metre peaks.<ref name="IssermanWeaver2010" />
[[Reinhold Messner]] from the Dolomites mountain range (Italy) was then the first to climb all eight-thousanders up to 1986, in addition to being the first without supplemental oxygen. In 1978 he climbed Mount Everest with Peter Habeler without supplemental oxygen, the first men to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wilkes |first=Rob |date=2015-08-05 |title=Reinhold Messner museum project ends on a high, with breathtaking Zaha Hadid venue... |url=https://www.we-heart.com/2015/08/05/messner-mountain-museum-corones-south-tyrol-italy/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=We Heart |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>Messner, Reinhold (2002). Überlebt – Alle 14 Achttausender mit Chronik (in German).</ref>