A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIGH ASIAN CHRONICLES

The text below was written in 2008. In the mean time some of the mentioned colleagues are gone. I hope to find a way to restore this old website (sponsors? Help to save the High Asian chronicles!!) including expanding this history summary from 2008 to now.

The text from 2008:

When Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth came back from his expedition to Jongsang Peak in 1930, he began to compile tables of High Asian mountains. From then on, his expedition colleague Marcel Kurz collected all expedition reports from High Asia and compiled the most accurate Chronique Himalayenne (Part I 1953, Part II 1963). Dyhrenfurth continued with full overviews for every year with ongoing additions and corrections, which were published in the Swiss journal Die Alpen, and later by the Swedish explorer and chronicler Anders Bolinder in the Berge der Welt (Mountain World) year-books, published by the Swiss Foundation of Alpine Research.

Other High Asian chronicle pioneer work was done by:

• Harish Kapadia (Himalayan Journal), from India
• Józef Nyka and Zbigniew Kowalewski, from Poland
• Franci Savenc, from Slovenia
• Tsunemichi Ikeda of the Japanese magazine IWA TO YUKI
• H. Adams Carter of the American Alpine Club
• Mike Westmacott's Alpine Club Himalayan Index
• Louis Baume's wonderful Sivalaya (1978)
• Jill Neate's collection of facts, published in her High Asia book
• The UK magazine High (later Climb); the Mountain Info section contains many contributions from around the globe, and is currently published by Lindsay Griffin
• Liz Hawley and Mike Cheney sent their information directly from Kathmandu, Nepal, to the American Alpine Journal, to Anders Bolinder and to the well-known Basque chronicler Xavier Eguskitza. Liz Hawley is still the very best source for all mountaineering activities in Nepal.

In 1981 Eberhard Jurgalski from Germany began to collect facts of High Asian mountains and mountaineering. From 1982 to 1987 he cooperated with Anders Bolinder, who was, at the time, the best "Addenda and Corrigenda" authority.

After Bolinder’s death Jurgalski continued alone, compiling computerised tables with all facts collected by all the record-keepers mentioned above. Meanwhile Xavier Eguskitza, who began to collect facts back in 1974, was the most accurate statistics creator, and was later the only person who had mostly confirmed stats about all the 8000ers. Liz Hawley was the best source for Nepal, but for full statistics of those giants only Eguskitza had an answer to nearly every question concerning them.

Jurgalski continued the tables on his PC, but found it important to contact Liz Hawley, because he realized it grew more and more complicated to stay accurate and complete. Liz Hawley recommended him to contact Eguskitza. Since 1997 Eguskitza and Jurgalski have been cooperating, and complementing each other's work. Jurgalski found helpful people in many countries to fill some gaps, and now he believes that his archives are the most accurate fact collection about the 8000ers in the world on PC.

For some time, Liz Hawley has been publishing her Himalayan Database. Jurgalski was able to correct some points, so he is allowed to use these data to compile his own statistics and chronicle tables concerning all the 8000ers. He is still cooperating with Xavier Eguskitza.

To keep these lists as complete and accurate as possible, the help of the expedition leaders and climbers would be appreciated. Correct spellings, climbing dates, routes, oxygen use and other important facts should be reported so that this work can be continued.

There are still several tables and statistics from earlier works of Liz Hawley, Xavier Eguskitza and Eberhard Jurgalski elsewhere on the net, even with wrong copyright claims. But the updated and original work can be found only on this site.