The Mount Minapin Ice Axe

At 99 years of age, Frank Bacon of Swellendam is arguably the oldest man in town! These 99 years have encompassed a life of high adventure including, when he was in his 70s, circumventing the Annapurna massif in the Himalayas, a journey of over 300 km, usually taking 3 weeks or more. In an entirely different context, Frank Bacon was intimately involved in another mountain-related adventure, the amazing story of the Mount Minapin Ice Axe. Only brief details can be recounted here but, let’s start at the beginning. On 7 July 1958, two British climbers Ted Warr the leader and Chris Hoyte, team doctor, ascended the final summit slope of the broad, west ridge of Minapin, at the altitude of over 7000 m. The next day was fine and calm. But Dennis Kemp and Water Sharpley, the remaining party members, climbing from Camp 3 to Camp 4, could find no sign of the summiting members or evidence that they had safely returned to their camp. For another two days they searched without success and then gave up due to physical fatigue and soft snow. They began their sad descent to Minapin Village and the long journey home to inform the family and friends of their loss. The 5th member of the party, Trevor J Braham, an experienced Himalayan climber and then editor of the Himalayan Journal, had already returned to India two weeks previously as his leave had expired. In the UK, no formal memorial service was held for the lost two members. The families wished to grieve privately as the Hoyte family had already lost two other sons. Members of the expedition kept in touch for a while, but, gradually, contact disappeared. By 1996, eleven climbers had lost their lives on this mountain. On 24 July 1996, 38 years after the British party’s accident, two young Japanese climbers, Hiroshi Iwasaki and Masanori Suzuki, climbing in alpine style, successfully summited Mount Minapin. Iwasaki and Suzuki descended separately on the steep summit slope. At an altitude of between 6800 m to 7000 m, Suzuki spotted a white wooden stick lying on the slope. On checking, he was surprised to discover it was an old ice-axe in perfect condition.


The rescued ice axe was taken back to Japan and, after rubbing its wooden shaft with linseed oil, Suzuki kept it at his house.
Researcher Appointed
One and half years passed with no further action. Then, on 25 January 1998, while celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Himalayan Association of Japan, a Tokyo university lecturer, Shigeharu Inouye, was told about the discovery of the ice axe. He expressed such keen interest that he was promptly appointed ‘Researcher’! In time, he found that 37 parties had attempted to ascend Mount Minapin. Only 13 attempts had been successful. By a laborious process of investigation and elimination, he narrowed the search down to five likely expeditions: the British in 1958, German in 1959, Austrian in 1964, Japanese in 1965 and the successful Austrian Party of 1968. Eventually, with the aid of the Internet, Shigeharu Inouye traced Sheila Harrison of the Alpine Club, who passed on the address of Trevor Braham, the only surviving member of the 1958 expedition. Next, to his surprise, Inouye received a letter from Ann Anderson, the surviving daughter of the late Ted Warr. Coincidentally, Ted Warr had helped to establish the London Mountaineering Club in cooperation with his close friend, Frank Bacon, who now became deeply involved in the exchanges with his Japanese counterpart and others in England. It was finally established that the ice axe was a ‘Stubai’, one of the seven new ice axes that were donated to the British expedition by Stubai Fuhnes of Austria. Finally, in a moving ceremony at the Alpine Club in London on 24 July 1996, Frank Bacon together with survivors and various participants in the ill-fated expedition, gathered to hear presentations by John Jackson, Ted Warr’s business partner, Trevor Braham of the original expedition, Esther Sharpley, widow of Walter, sisters and brothers of Hal Hoyte and Mike Warr, son of Ted.

A slideshow of pictures taken by the late Dennis Kemp was shown and finally, the last guest speaker, the persistent and dedicated researcher, Shigeharu Inouye, was able to hand over the long-lost Stubai ice axe.