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Name: SOMMERFELT, Gustav
Nationality: Norwegian
First Date: 1926
Book Reference: Mountains
General Information:
Mountains - Eric Shipton - "In 1928, when he was 21, he went to Kenya to learn the business of coffee-planting. He worked on a farm north of Nairobi, and only about 20 miles from the base of Mount Kenya. Naturally, his thoughts turned towards the mountain, and he was fortunate in knowing two fellow-climbers in Kenya, his old Norwegian friend, Gustav Sommerfelt, and Percy Wyn Harris …….. Batian [peak of Mt. Kenya] was climbed by Sir Halford Mackinder in 1899, but in the next 30 years no one made a second ascent, and Nelion had never been climbed. In 1929 Shipton, Wyn Harris and Gustav Sommerfelt decided to attempt them both. They succeeded, climbing Nelion first and then Batian.