Through reading in Fallen Giants, it is very clear that much of the early history of mountaineering in the Himalaya was carried out in large part due to imperialism and national competition. From the very get go it seems, with the Great Trigonometrical Survey, the British were attempting to stake claims to this land. And what better way than through mapping, expedition, and summiting the highest peaks in the world? It is interesting though, that for a lot of the time period looked at, that much of the expeditions into the Himalaya were carried out by British groups, or at least British led groups. When I talk about this, I mean this in the sense of the strictly climbing and mountaineering purpose, not like Younghusband going to the Himalaya to define borders, but more like the expeditions that followed William Woodman Graham in 1883. Granted, the Workmans, Fanny and William, were mountaineering in the Himalaya, and brought in some national competition as Americans (p. 57), it was not until well into the 1900s (mid-to-late1920s) when other nations really began to get involved in climbing Himalayan peaks.

What is really interesting, though, is the fixation different countries had with certain mountains in the Himalayan range. Undoubtedly, there was something about the entire range, and men from different countries were attempting to climb other peaks as well, but generally there were certain peaks that countries were attempting to summit during this age of empire. For the British, this obviously was Everest. The tallest mountain in the world became a very big priority after the end of the First World War, and a point of pride that “Britons [would] be the first to climb the highest mountain in the world,” (p. 85). And from 1921 on, British eyes were certainly fixed on Mount Everest, even to the point of glorifying the deaths of Mallory and Irvine in 1924, because of their sacrifice for the sake of British mountaineering.

Another mountain that was specifically fixated upon was Nanga Parbat, but this mountain was not captivating the British, but rather the Germans. After failure on Kangchenjunga, Germans shifted their attention to Nanga Parbat as climbable 8,000 meter peak. Reichssportsfuhrer Tschammer und Osten had even said to one of the mountaineers, Merkl, that “The conquest of the peak [Nanga Parbat] is expected for the glory of the Germas before a 1934 expedition. Unfortunately, this expedition too, resulted in the loss of life and the disappointment that comes with an unclimbed peak.

It’s very interesting to look into the reasonings behind why nations would becomes so affixed with certain peaks in the Himalaya. Perhaps, because they were seeking glory for the nation, that men would not give up on conquering certain peaks. For the pride of the nation, and to maybe even give nations, such as Germany and Britain to name only two, an imperial claim to these unexplored and dangerous lands. At least, that is how I would be inclined to understand this kind of persistence. With a great accomplishment of an 8,000-meter peak claimed by those of your nation, there is a very convincing argument for why you have a claim to specific regions.