GASHERBRUM I, HIDDEN PEAK, 8080M, 26,510’, 11th HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD.
EXPEDITION PHOTOGRAPH SIGNED BY ALL 8 TEAM MEMBERS
This is the official expedition photograph for the entire American team who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum I, also called Hidden Peak, The photo is SIGNED by all 8 team members on the matte on which the photo is affixed.
The photo is 7.5’’x10’’. The frame is 13’’x16’’.The photo is framed with glass protecting the photo. There are 10 signatures, because Richard Irvin who took the photo signed his name under the photo, as well as among the team members.
There is also another signature on the left side, and we have not yet discovered who this is. It may have been one of the Pakistani liaison officers. The American team was camped on the Baltoro Glacier next to the Italian climbers making the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV, with Cassin and Bionatti, and a Japanese Team attempting the first ascent of Chogolisa. Nick Clinch told me that the Italians brought a real chef to do the cooking, so he tried to sponge meals off them all summer long.
All eight team members Signed their names, from left to right, and top to bottom, as follows:
Andy Kauffman, Pete Schoening, Tom McCormack, Dick Irvin, Gil Roberts, Tom Nevison, Nick Clinch, Bob Swift. On this climb Pete Schoening and Andy Kauffman became the only Americans to make a first ascent of an 8000 meter peak, and only the 39th and 40th climbers to actually reach the summit of an 8000m peak!.
Written in pen on the rear of the photo is written, ‘’Photo By Lawrence Coveney, 1958 Am. Karakoram Expedition.’’ This was Coveney’s photo, but he did not take the photo.
SIGNIFICANCE: As most of our customers know, we make a huge effort to meet with authors and climbers to have them sign books they had either written, or that mention them. We always had good relations with both Andy Kauffman and Peter Schoening, but as the team book about the Gasherbrum climb came out 24 years after the climb, there did not seem to be a great demand for obtaining signed copies. A bigger fuss was being made about Pete’s miraculous ice axe belay where he saved five lives while retreating from K2 in 1953, so we had him sign more K2 material.
The importance of this climb is often overlooked. In 1958 all but three 8000m peaks had been climbed in just seven years. Everest already had a second ascent. By 1958 only 38 people had stood atop an 8000m peak, and all but two had done it on the first ascent. So although Americans had been obsessed with K2 since the 1930s, K2 had been climbed in 1954 by the Italians. The unclimbed 8000ers in 1958 were Gasherbrum, Dhaulagiri and Shishapangma. Gasherbrum made the most sense as the Americans had just been up there fiddling around with K2, so the way in was a cake walk.
Other than this mounted photograph, we have never seen any book or photo signed by the entire Gasherbrum team. It just never happened. So the rarity of the signatures, and the significance of a first ascent of an 8000m peak, make this a truly rare item. If any of the similar photos that were signed that day ever appear, I am afraid that they will be treated as this one was. The names are not as famous as Hillary and Tenzing, so although the climb is given proper space on Wikipedia, and the climbers who are worthy of an entry themselves do have their place. But if another photo appears, how will it ever find its way to the world of climbing?
We obtained this photo, framed as shown above, in an antique shop in Brattleboro Vermont in 1982. It took me another twenty years to sleuth out the whole story, of the Coveney connection, Vermont, etc. I have always had the photo hanging in its frame both in my bookshop or in my home. At some point in the 1990s Nick Clinch was visiting me here in Colorado and saw the photo on the wall. He asked where and how I got it. (I think he thought it was ‘’ill gotten’’) Then he told me the story.
Nick had led the Gasherbrum I Expedition in 1958. As there was a long delay in getting his book, A Walk In The Sky, published, the team decided to print copies of a photo of the team in the Gasherbrum Basecamp, and have the whole team sign the photos. These Signed copies were then given to all the team members and others who had helped make the expedition happen. One copy was given to Lawrence Coveney. In 1958 Lawrence Coveney was the President of the American Alpine Club, and had helped behind the scenes in making the expedition a success. Mr. Coveney had lived in New Jersey, and eventually retired to a home near Brattleboro Vermont.
He passed away in 1981, and some of his effects ended up in the antique shop I chanced to visit. (I generally do not visit antique shops. 30 years ago I visited them as that was a place I could find old ice axes. Then in the 1980s my wife and I bought a home in Colorado, and as we had moved from a NYC apartment we had no furniture except for a bed and a kitchen table. In the 1980s old furniture was cheap in Colorado. I remember buying ten old wooden chairs an antique shop in Leadville, for under $25 each.)
Coveney made several notable climbs. Perhaps his best was the first ascent of Devils Tower in Wyoming using modern mountaineering techniques and gear. His three man team was led by Fritz Wiessner, and also along was William House. This was accomplished on 27 June 1937. A year earlier, on July 20, 1936, Wiessner and House made the first ascent of Mount Waddington, the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Waddington was swirling with climbers for several summers in the 1930s, including the second ascent by the teenage Beckey brothers, Fred and Helmy, in 1942. Their real names were Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey and Helmut Beckey.
