Henry Todd may not have been the greatest climber of his time, but he was undoubtedly an original.
“As an expedition leader, mountaineer and later an oxygen provider to climbers, Henry was a pillar of the Himalayan climbing community,” writes German mountaineer, journalist, and chronicler Billi Bierling in her obituary in the Himalayan Times. “He supported countless people across Nepal and Pakistan, making it possible for many to fulfil the dream of standing on the world’s highest peaks.”
Todd died last Monday in his adopted home of Kathmandu at the age of 80 – from a stroke after undergoing heart surgery a few days earlier.
From prison to the high mountains
Todd was born in Scotland in March 1945. Because his parents worked for the Royal Air Force, he and his two brothers spent much of their youth in Singapore. After returning to the UK, Todd worked for an insurance company, among other things.
The first headlines he made were of an inglorious nature. In the 1970s, Todd belonged to a gang that produced and distributed illegal LSD tablets on a large scale. The police broke up the drug ring in 1977. Todd was sentenced to 13 years in prison, of which he served seven.
When he was released, he threw himself into climbing and mountaineering. His first expedition took him to the Indian Himalayas – the start of a long career on the world’s highest mountains. With his Edinburgh-based company Himalayan Guides, Henry became a fixture in commercial mountaineering. The mountaineering chronicle Himalaya Database lists 61 expeditions for him, 19 of them to Mount Everest alone.
Never on the summit of Everest
Todd himself never reached the highest of all peaks, focusing mostly on leading expeditions. He never got higher than 8,300 meters on Everest. And back then, in spring 2000, he only climbed that far to bring a client from Serbia who was suffering from high altitude sickness and hallucinating down to safety.
Todd scaled the eight-thousander Cho Oyu twice, once without bottled oxygen (in 1996) and once with (in 2002). In 2009, he stood – using a breathing mask – on the summit of Manaslu, or rather the point that almost everyone mistakenly believed to be the highest at the time.
Nickname “Toddfather”
Henry was also a colorful character in the mountains, and numerous anecdotes surround him. The 6-foot-3 Scotsman was considered impulsive and ambitious, and he hated to lose.
“He’s an awesome guy, and he’s a horrible guy, depending on who he wants to be,” a client once said about Todd in the US magazine Outside. Others emphasized that Henry was exceptionally good at motivating his team members, enabling them to surpass themselves on the mountain.
Todd didn’t care about conventions and offered Everest expeditions even for people with smaller budgets. The price for this: large groups, little luxury. “You’ve got a whole bunch of people, and the ride’s a little bumpy, but if you hold on you’ll get there,” said another of Todd’s clients.
Henry was an inventor and organizer. He repurposed old breathing masks from Soviet army stocks for mountaineering and developed a system for refilling empty oxygen bottles. He procured the narrow aluminum ladders needed to cross the crevasses in the Khumbu Icefall and organized the rope-fixing.
Todd was omnipresent at base camp, earning him the nickname “Toddfather,” an allusion to the classic mafia film “The Godfather.”
Mentor to local mountaineers
Todd’s path crossed with that of many Himalayan legends such as Anatoli Boukreev from Russia and Jerzy Kukuczka from Poland, as well as British climbers Doug Scott, Chris Bonington, and Stephen Venables. Celebrities from other fields, such as musicians from the band Pink Floyd, Hollywood actors, and Nobel Prize winners, were also among his circle of acquaintances. But Henry was not one for snobbery. Without making a fuss about it, he supported numerous Nepalese mountaineers and their families.
Take Kaminuru Sherpa, for example. The local from the mountaineering village of Pangboche in the Everest region went on a total of 23 expeditions with Todd. Both ended their careers in 2019 – after around four decades of joint ventures.
“Our friendship and partnership endured through every challenge, and I remain deeply grateful for Henry’s trust, mentorship, and unwavering friendship,” Kaminuru writes on Facebook. “Beyond being an expedition leader, Henry Todd was a source of livelihood for many families in Pangboche, and for that, I will always be thankful.”
“Changed countless lives”
Todd’s family summed it up in their statement about Henry’s death: “Throughout his life, he changed countless lives and helped make the dreams of others come true. His spirit and dedication to the mountains and the people around him will never be forgotten.”
This Saturday, a memorial service for Todd will be held in Kathmandu, followed by the cremation of his body in the Pashupatinath temple district.
