Elizabeth Hawley

Tireless chronicler of Mount Everest expeditions

Elizabeth Ann Hawley, a US journalist who chronicled Mount Everest expeditions for over 50 years, died on Friday in Kathmandu. She was 94.

One of the founders of the Himalayandatabase,acompilation of records for all climbing expeditions in the Himalayas in Nepal from 1905 to 2017, Hawley spent nearly her entire adult life in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. She moved there in 1960 to work as a correspondent with Time Inc.

Though she never scaled a mountain herself, Hawley endeared herself to many climbers. To maintain accuracy in her records, she grilled mountaineers before and after summit attempts, travelling to their hotels in her powderblue Volkswagen Beetle to ask what they had seen at the top and to catch the occasional fib- ber. She conducted more than 15,000 interviews.

“You go to your hotel, and as you’re checking in the phone is ringing, and the man behind the desk says, ‘Hawley would like to talk to you’,” US climber Ed Viesturs told Outside Magazine. “You’re barely putting your bags down.”

Hawley was born on 9 November 1923 in Chicago. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked as a researcher with Fortune magazine in New York. Hawley spent her savings wandering solo across Europe and North Africa.

In 1959, Hawley visited Nepal, which had recently opened its borders to foreigners. A trip back to the US later that year cemented her resolve to leave the country for good. “This is a great place, but it’s not the real world,” she said.

In 1960, Hawley struck a deal with Time to work as a part-time correspondent in Nepal.hawley acquired a reputation as a fastidious chronicler of Mount Everest and other peaks in the region.

At night, Hawley placed backup files into a tin beside her bed, so she could quickly flee if an earthquake struck.

Asked about the highlight of her life, Hawley told Mcdonald, “I haven’t been passionate about a single thing!”