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Francis Sydney Smythe, also known as
Frank Smythe (6 July 1900 - 27 June 1949) was a British
mountaineer, author,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
photographer and botanist in the early years of high altitude
mountaineering.
Smythe trained as an electrical engineer and worked for brief
periods with the Royal Air Force and Kodak before devoting himself
to writing and public lecturing. Smythe enjoyed mountaineering,
photography, collecting plants, and gardening; he toured as a
lecturer; and he wrote a total of twenty seven books.[16]
He was best known as a mountaineer. The highlights of his
climbing, summarized below, included first ascents of the Brenva
Face of Mont Blanc and
of Kamet, and attempts on Kanchenjunga and Mount Everest in the 1930s. It has been
stated that the man had a tendency for irascibility, that some of
his mountaineering contemporaries said "decreased with
altitude"[17]
Smythe's focused approach is well documented, not only through his
own writings, but by his contemporaries and later works.
Among his many public lectures, Smythe gave at least several to
the Royal Geographical Society,
his first being in 1931 titled "Explorations in Garhwal around
Kamet", his second in 1947 titled "An Expedition to the Lloyd
George Mountains, North-East British Columbia".
Smythe was a prodigious writer and produced many popular books.
However his book "The Kangchenjunga Adventure" launched Smythe as a
legitimate and respected author.[18]
During the Second World War he served in the Canadian
Rockies as a mountaineer training officer for the Lovat Scouts. He went
on to write two books about climbing in the Rockies, Rocky
Mountains (1948) and Climbs in the Canadian Rockies
(1951). Mount
Smythe (10,650 ft) was named in his honour.
In 1949, in Delhi, he was
taken ill with food poisoning; then a succession of malaria attacks took their toll
and he died on June 27 1949 two weeks before his 49th birthday.
Climbing
Highlights
- 1927 and 1928 Smythe, together with T. Graham
Brown, made the first ascent of two routes on the Brenva Face
of Mont Blanc, the
Sentinelle Rouge and Route Major. These were the first routes to be
put up on the face.
- 1930 Smythe was a member of the international team (Germany,
Austria, Switzerland and Greate Britain), to attempt Kangchenjunga.
Under the leadership of Professor Dyrenfurth.
- 1931 Smythe was the leader of the first successful expedition
to climb Kamet (7,756 m) in
1931, at the time it was the highest peak yet
climbed. During the Kamet
expedition Smythe and Holdswordth discovered what is now called the
Valley of Flowers[3] in
the Himalaya, now in the state of Uttarakhand, India.
- 1933 Smythe was a member of the Everest expedition lead by Hugh
Ruttledge.[19]
- 1936 Smythe was again a member of Hugh Ruttledge's 2nd Everest
Expedition.
- 1938 Smythe was a member of Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman's[20]
expedition to Everest.
Bibliography
The following is a list of the books written by Frank Smythe;
[16]
- Climbs and Ski Runs (1930) Blackwood, Edinburgh
- The Kangchenjunga Adventure (1930) Gollanz,
London
- Kamet Conquered (1932) Gollanz, London
- An Alpine Journey (1934) Hodder, London
- The Spirit of the Hills (1935) Hodder, London
- Over Tyrolese Hills (1936) Hodder, London
- Camp 6 (1937) Hodder, London
- The Valley of the Flowers (1938) Hodder, London
- The Mountain Scene (1937) A&C Black
- Peaks and Valleys (1938) A&C Black
- A Camera in the Hills (1939) A&C Black
- Mountaineering Holiday (1940) Hodder, London
- Edward Whymper (1940) Hodder, London
- My Alpine Album (1940) A&C Black
- Adventures of a Mountaineer (1940) Dent
- The Mountain Vision (1941) Hodder, London
- Over Welsh Hills (1941) A&C Black
- Alpine Ways (1942) A&C Black
- Secret Mission (1942) Hodder and Stoughton,
London
- British Mountaineers (1942) Collins
- Snow on the hills (1946) A&C Black
- The Mountain Top (1947) St Hugh's Press
- Again Switzerland (1947) Hodder, London
- Rocky Mountains (1948) A&C Black
- Swiss Winter (1948) A&C Black
- Mountains in Colour (1949) Max Parrish
- Climbs in the Canadian Rockies (1950) Hodder,
London
Many were subsequently re-published in the USA, some of the best
have been gathered into collections.
Citations
- ^
Smythe, F. S. (1934). An Alpine
Journey. London, Victor Gollancz.
- ^ F. S. Smythe (1930). The Kangchenjunga
Adventure. Victor Gollancz Ltd.
- ^ a
b
F. S. Smythe (1949). The Valley of
Flowers. W.W. Norton.
- ^
F. S. Smythe. Frank Smythe: The Six
Alpine/Himalayan Climbing Books. ISBN 13
9780898867404.
- ^
Smythe, F. S. (1945). The Spirit of
the Hills. London, Hodder & Stoughton.
- ^
Smythe, Frank S. (1950). Climbs in
the Canadian Rockies. London, Hodder and
Stoughton.
- ^
Smythe, Frank S. (1948). Rocky
Mountains. London, Adam and Charles Black.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1938). Peaks and
Valleys. London, Adam and Charles Black.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1936). Over Tyrolean
Hills. Hodder and Stoughton.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1946). Snow on the
Hills. Hodder and Stoughton.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1937). The Mountain
Scene. London, Adam and Charles Black.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1949). Mountains in
Colour. London, Max Parish.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1929). Climbs and Ski
Runs: Mountaineering and Ski-ing in the Alps, Great Britain and
Corsica. William Blackwood.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1937). Camp Six: An
account of the 1933 Mount Everest expedition. Hodder and
Stoughton.
- ^
F. S. Smythe (1932). Kamet
Conquered. Victor Gollancz.
- ^ a
b
Smythe, Frank S (2000). The Six
Alpine/Himalayan Climbing Books. Appendix V: Baton Wicks.
pp. 933 and 934. ISBN
1-898573-37-9.
- ^
George Band (2003). Everest: The
Official History. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
- ^
Harry Calvert (1985). Smythe's
Mountains: F. S. Smythe and his Climbs. Gollancz.
- ^ Hugh Ruttledge (1933). Everest 1933.
Hodder and Stoughton.
- ^ H. W. Tilman (1938). Mount Everest
1938. Pilgrims Publishing.
References
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