Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of a great mountaineer.  Eric Shipton is known mainly as a Himalayan explorer and infamously as the Everest expedition leader who was passed over in favour of John Hunt in 1953.  Shipton had been offered Edmund Hillary for his 1951 expedition and he had chosen Sherpa Tenzing Norgay back in 1935, so he was partly responsible for the climbers who made the first successful ascent of Mount Everest.

Rewinding back to Kenya, and Shipton climbed Mount Kenya in 1929, making the first ascent of Nelion and the second ascent of Batian.  There is a camp at 4,200 metres on the Sirimon route named after him.  Shipton’s Camp is in a sheltered location surrounded by the high peaks, from which many climb up to Point Lenana.