UKC

Hi, does anyone k ow in which book Shipton writes of saying to Tilman they should call each other by their first names after a month in a tent. No, I don't think so was the reply.. 

Cheers, Lex

I think it was in his book 'Nanda Devi', or failing that (actually more likely), Tilman's book 'The Ascent of Nanda Devi'. I've got them downstairs and will look later.

Perrin mentions it in his book; there might be a citation, knowing Perrin's rigorousness!

It may not be the first time he told the story, but Shipton does recount it in his autobiography 'That Untravelled World' p85:  "As we had done in Africa, we continued to address each other as 'Tilman' and 'Shipton'; and when, after another seven months continuously together, I suggested it was time he called me 'Eric' he became acutely embarrassed, hung his head and muttered, 'It sounds so damned silly'".

It's a good story, but Jim Perrin suggests that it may have been one of Shipton's frequent jokes, just to illustrate how reticent Tilman was - on the basis that Tilman was unfailingly polite and wouldn't have responded in that way.   I guess we may never know.

JRL Anderson in his biography on Tilman recounts the story, and says Shipton assured him it was not apocryphal (taking place "resting on a ledge in the high Himalaya after a particularly arduous traverse").

Not offhand no, but David Attenborough's memoirs:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=po4Es1kztr8C&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143...

mention the following exchange:

Shipton- 'Now that we know each other pretty well, so you think we might stop calling one another by our surnames.' To which Tilman replied, 'Are you suggesting that I should call you Eric? I'm afraid I couldn't do that. I should feel such a bloody fool.'

Wasn't on making the first Ascent of Nandi Devi that Tilman wrote "On reaching the summit, I believe we so forgot ourselves as to shake hands"?

I can't remember which hill it was, but I'm sure it was Noel Odell he was climbing with at that point, rather then Shipton. From the way it was written I assumed it was a joke, Tilman making a knowing joke about his own reputation for stuffiness - or rather reticence maybe.

I've just looked it up - I've got the book "The Ascent of Nanda Devi" 

It was Nanda Devi, and you are right, he was climbing with Odell