(1 August 1907 - 28 March 1977) was a distinguished British
Himalayan mountaineer
.
Born in Ceylon ( Now known as Sri Lanka
) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. His mother buried her grief by taking Eric and his sister Marge and travelling constantly for the next five years. They moved back then back again and back and forth between Europe, India, and the East.
Only an easy scramble remained and we were there, on the hitherto untrodden summit of Nelion. ~ Eric Shipton|Eric Shipton 
...and I longed to return to the peak to explore some of the many ridges and faces which as yet had never been attempted. I now realise how lucky I was to have had this extraordinary peak virtually to myself;... ~ Eric Shipton|Eric Shipton
File:Pt Thomson Batian Nelion Mt Kenya.JPG|thumb|right|Few mountains have such a superb array of ridges and faces. ~ Eric Shipton|Eric Shipton
Few mountains have such a superb array of ridges and faces. ~ Eric Shipton|Eric Shipton
After that I was infused with a pleasant sense of abandon. Our rope was not long enough for us to abseil down the red step, and the idea of climbing down it without support from above was not to be contemplated; therefore we just had to reach the summit. ~ Eric Shipton|Eric Shipton