William Woodman Graham

William Woodman Graham (c. 1859 – fl. 1932) was a British mountaineer who led the first pure mountaineering expedition to the Himalayas and may have set a world altitude record on Kabru.

Motivated by adventure rather than a desire for fame, Graham had little interest in publicising his climbs, and as a result relatively little is known about his life and achievements. He is known to have climbed extensively in the Alps, reaching most of the major summits and making the first ascent of the Dent du Géant in 1882. However, his application to join the Alpine Club was rejected for reasons which are unclear, but the size of the majority against him suggests that he had made influential enemies.

In 1883, shortly after he had qualified as a barrister, Graham made a visit to the Himalayas in the company of Swiss Alpine guide Josef Imboden of St. Niklaus in the canton Valais. While many of the lower mountains of the Himalaya had been climbed by surveyors and explorers, mainly to make observations of more distant peaks, Graham was the first person to visit the range solely for the purpose of mountaineering. He spent the spring trekking in the region of Kanchenjunga, but he was forced to return to Darjeeling by the cold weather and the fact that a porter had accidentally burned his boots.

Once in Darjeeling, Imboden, who had contracted fever, was replaced by the Swiss guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Emile Boss, who had made the first ascent of Mount Cook the previous year. At the end of June the party set off for Garhwal where they explored the region around Nanda Devi. Unable to penetrate the Nanda Devi Sanctuary they turned their attention towards Dunagiri, where Graham claimed to have reached a height of around 22,700 ft (6,920 m) before being forced to retreat by bad weather.

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