Trevor Braham

Trevor Hyam Braham (born Hyam Trevor Braham, 22 April 1922 – 2 March 2020) was a British Himalayan explorer and mountaineer, mostly active during the mid-20th century.

Trevor Braham in the Alps, 2004

Braham was born in Calcutta, British India. He spent much of his boyhood in India, during the fading years of the British Raj, alternating between Calcutta and Darjeeling, where, in the mid 1930s, he attended St. Joseph’s College as a boarder for four years.

His college days in Darjeeling, with a view of the Sikkim hills and Kangchenjunga and its satellite peaks in the distance, exerted a strong influence upon him, as he recounts in his writings : ‘The view [from Observatory Hill] never failed to arouse a mixture of excitement and desire: from Nepal in the west across Tibet and Bhutan in the east, 200 miles of snow- covered ranges, filled the horizon with Kangchenjunga as the centrepiece.’

By chance, in April 1942 and just turned 20, Braham joined a short trip making up a party of four from Darjeeling to the Singalila range. He later recalled he knew he had discovered something permanent and he would have to return.[1]

He joined the Himalayan Club in 1946, becoming its regional secretary based in Calcutta by March 1949.[1] He had joined the Swiss Alpine Club in 1948, and later the Alpine Club in 1951. He was Vice President of the Himalayan Club (1958–1965), Honorary Editor of the Himalayan Journal (1957–59) and was elected as an Honorary member of the Himalayan Club in 1980.

Trevor Braham's halycon years (1950–1972), corresponded with the "Himalayan Golden Age"[2] when an international frenzy developed to achieve the first ascent of the world's highest peaks. He organized and took part in 15 Himalayan expeditions, including in 1954 a reconnaissance of the South West face of 8,586-metre Kangchenjunga,[3]

The Kangchenjunga reconnaissance, led by John Kempe, included J. W. Tucker, S. R. Jackson, G. C. Lewis, Braham and medical officer, Dr. D. S. Mathews. They explored the upper Yalung glacier with the intention to discover a practicable route to the great ice-shelf that runs across the south-west face of Kangchenjunga.[4]

This reconnaissance led to the route used by the successful 1955 expedition, when George Band and Joe Brown made the first ascent.[5]

Together with Peter Holmes, a young Cambridge University geologist, who went on to become the Chairman of Shell, he made the second ascent of 6,303-metre Chau Chau Kang Nilda, from the barren plateau of Spiti, in 1955. Rinzing, a 20 year old Ladakhi, ‘a natural leader’ was edged to the front for the final steps to the summit. [6] He published an account of this expedition in the Alpine Journal.[7]

In 1958 Braham joined a small group, E. G. C. (Ted) Warr, the leader, Dr. Chris Hoyte, Walter Sharpley, and Dennis Kemp to attempt Minapin peak (now called Diran).[8] In his book Himalayan Odyssey Braham describes the trials and tribulations of bureaucracy, uncomfortable travel, dangerous roads, even more dangerous vehicles and drivers, spectacular flights, recalcitrant porters, the oasis charm of Hunza and "the magnificent peaks on both sides of the valley now traversed by the Karakoram Highway as it climbs to the Khunjerab pass on the Chinese border".[9]

Tragically, later in the expedition, after Braham had left early due to work constraints, two members were killed. However, the route being followed pointed the way to eventual success, by an Austrian party in 1968, which came after three more failed attempts in the intervening years. In 1996 an ice axe was found high on Minapin by Japanese climbers. The story of its identification and eventual re-uniting with the daughter of Warr, one of the climbers lost in 1958, has been recounted by Shigeharu Inouje, an account which also included notes by Braham on the 1958 expedition.[10]

Braham's numerous travels and explorations in little-known and isolated Himalayan regions included 3 visits to mountains in the tribal areas on Pakistan's North-West frontier, which were made in an environment and under conditions very different from those today and about which he has written numerous articles to the Alpine and Himalayan Journals. At the request of the editor of the Swiss Alpine Journal, he wrote an annual Chronicle of Himalayan activities during the years 1977–1985.

In 1971, at the age of 49, he married Elisabeth née Höflin before moving to Switzerland with his wife and sons Anthony and Michael in 1974. Shortly afterwards, Himalayan Odyssey was published. There followed a career in commodity trading based in Lausanne, many trips in the Alps and after retirement in 1994 he published his second book: When the Alps Cast Their Spell: Mountaineers of the Alpine Golden Age (In Pinn, 2004).

Trevor Braham has authored three books: Himalayan Odyssey (Allen & Unwin, 1974), When The Alps Cast Their Spell (Neil Wilson, 2004), Himalayan Playground (Neil Wilson, 2008). His second book won the Boardman-Tasker prize,[11] awarded annually to the leading mountain book of the year.

Braham third’s book, Himalayan Playground: Adventures on the Roof of the World, 1942-72, appeared in 2008. According to reviews: "In this engaging book Trevor Braham reminds all those who flock to the honeypots of the Khumbu that there is a world of fascination beyond, recounting his post-WW2 journeys in Gharwal, Sikkim, Karakoram, and the North-West Frontier spanning their period 1947 to 1972. (...) The narrative switches pleasingly between human, geographical and cultural themes. (...) Braham gives us a glimpse of their culture in a less frenetic and happier time. These recollections are highly enjoyable, and the reader will regret only their brevity."(Himalayan Playground)

This last book also evokes the perspective of a man comparing the mountaineering ethics of 2008 to those of the 1940-1970 period. ‘Having crossed the Rubicon of my eighth decade, I find myself out of harmony with some aspects of the evolution of mountaineering. Boundary lines, re-drawn about three decades ago, are now devoid of limits as to what is feasible and admissible technically, ethically, and physically. Clearly, advancing age has distanced me from practices now considered to be perfectly acceptable. Also, alas, diminishing capacity has begun to deprive me of the pleasures of wandering freely across cherished mountain regions. I have no doubt that a direct relationship exists between the two.’(The Effects of Change on Mountaineering Ethics)

He has lectured to the Alpine and Himalayan Clubs, and to schools and societies in England, India and Switzerland. At celebrations held in India by the Himalayan Club in 2008 to mark the 80th anniversary of its founding there, Braham was invited to be the principal speaker on the club's history. The transcript of the address he delivered in Mumbai on 16 February 2008 is published on the Himalayan Club's website: The Early Years

Braham continued to have an active life until the age of 95, when diminishing physical abilities required him to live in a nursing home in Gimel, above Lake Leman.

Braham died on 2 March 2020, a few weeks shy of his 98th birthday. At his memorial service, constrained by Covid-19 restrictions, tributes were read from the Himalayan Club, representatives of the Alpine Club and of the British Residents' Association of Switzerland.[12] Himalayan Club - In memoriam