Elizabeth Hawley, an American journalist, and chronicler of Himalayan expeditions passed away today, on January 26, 2018. She had been chronicling hiking expeditions on the Himalayas for over 50 years and died in Nepal at the ripe old age of 94. Elizabeth Hawley traveled to Nepal in September 1960 and never left. She was a leading authority on the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest, despite having never reached even its base camp. Elizabeth Hawley was seen as a key person to authenticate climbs and meticulous records and was a key figure in verifying claims about successful expeditions. As soon as the news of her death came in the media, tributes from the mountain climbing community have been pouring in. She died in a hospital at Kathmandu today, a week after catching a lung infection. Mountaineers have been expressing their sadness at her demise on Twitter.
Elizabeth Hawley was educated at the University of Michigan. She gave up her job as a researcher for Fortune magazine in New York after she visited Nepal on a round-the-world trip. She worked briefly as a reporter and went back to San Francisco and returned a few years later to Nepal as a journalist for Time. She later started working for Reuters news agency covering mountaineering news and covered the first United States expedition in 1963. Elizabeth Hawley had founded Himalayan Database, an extensive archive of more than 9,600 expedition teams. She used to manage it until five years ago. It is an unofficial database but is regarded as the most authoritative record of successful climbs in the Himalayas. Oymyakon, World’s Coldest Village Records a Temperature of -62°C Before Breaking the Thermometer
Sample a few tweets from the mountaineering community below.
Oracle of Himalayan Climbing
Elizabeth Hawley was feisty, curious and smart
Left behind a legacy
A sad day for the mountaineering world
Elizabeth Hawley lives on in Peak Hawley
An iconic figure
End of an era
Legendary record keeper of the Himalayas
Elizabeth Hawley was a chronicler and record keeper of the Himalayan expeditions and was a formidable sharp-tongued judge who interrogated climbers claiming to have set new records with her sharp wit and extensive knowledge. She covered a string of milestones in her extensive career including the first Mount Everest summit climb by a woman – Japan’s Junko Tabei in 1975. One of the mountains in the Himalayas is named after her and is known as Peak Hawley. It was named in her honour in 2014.