George Band and Joe Brown reached the top on 25 May 1955, and they were followed the next day by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather.

In mountaineering circles at the time and more recently, the climb is sometimes regarded as a greater achievement than the ascent of Mount Everest two years earlier.

[3] However, from 1950 Nepal had been permitting a few mountaineering expeditions, particularly enabling reconnaissance of routes to Everest, and were willing to allow an attempt on Kangchenjunga from the west.

[note 2] Kempe's report led to the Alpine Club agreeing to sponsor a reconnaissance effort which might also attempt to reach the summit.

[9] The members of the team were led by Charles Evans (36 years of age at the time of the climb), who had been deputy leader on the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition.

The rest of the team included: Considerable advances had been made in equipment in preparation for the 1953 Everest expedition and so additional changes for 1955 were less substantial.

[13] Another problem was that the climbers lost weight during the climb so that their face masks no longer fitted well and this also caused a waste of gas.

[16] Shortly before they sailed from Liverpool on 12 February 1955 they were told that for spiritual reasons the Sikkim government objected to any attempt at all to climb the mountain, even from Nepal, so before they departed Darjeeling Evans went to Gangtok to visit the Dewan (prime minister) with whom he reached a compromise that the expedition could go ahead provided that once they were sure of being able to reach the summit they would go no higher and they would not desecrate the vicinity of the summit.

[note 7] This was the last large village on the road before their 10-day trek started on a track up to the crest of the Singalila Ridge from where, at 10,000 feet (3,000 m), there were three Indian government rest houses along the route north, the first being at Tonglu.

[30] As it happens the location of the second base camp was where, on Crowley's 1905 expedition, Alexis Pache and three porters were laid to rest after they had been killed in an avalanche.

[36][37] Kempe's team had investigated the area the previous year but considered it would tend to lead towards the subsidiary peak Kangchenjunga West leaving a difficult traverse to the main summit.

On the third day the storm conditions abated so Evans, Mather, Brown, Band and three Sherpas set off for Camp 5 only to find an avalanche had swept away many of the supplies that had been dumped there.

Band and Brown remained at Camp 6 for the night of 24 May, wearing all their clothes, including boots, inside their sleeping bags and using a low flow of supplemental oxygen.

[62][63] At 05:00 a fine day beckoned and by 08:15 Brown and Band were ready to set off up the Gangway where they found very good snow conditions.

Brown led a final rock climb up a 20-foot (6 m) tall crack with a slight overhang at the top (grade about "very difficult" ignoring the altitude [68]).

[71] There was a layer of cloud at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) so they could only see the highest peaks – Makalu,[note 17] Lhotse and Everest, 80 miles (130 km) away to the west.

Band and Brown thought it was too dangerous to continue straight down to Camp 5 so that night four men had to survive in the small two-man tent that jutted out over the edge of the narrow ledge cut into the steep slope.

[73][74] Next morning Hardie and Streather decided a second summit attempt was worthwhile so they set off along the same route but avoiding the previous pair's detour.

[82] On the initial march-in, to avoid high passes that might be snowbound, they had left the Singalila Ridge quite far south at Phulat to head down into the jungle of Nepal.

On the return march in heavy rain they went up onto the ridge further north, after Ramser, and followed along the crest to avoid leeches infesting the valleys at the time of the monsoon.

Evans' and Band's publications did not encourage any of the usual nationalist feelings: their reports made no mention of flags placed on the summit.

[75][86] In a 1956 American Alpine Journal editorial Francis Farquhar said[87] The ascent of Kangchenjunga last year by the party led by Charles Evans deserves a good deal more acclaim than seems to have been accorded it.

But in sheer magnitude, in the vastness of its quadruple system of glaciers, in its enormous cliffs, and in its interminable ridges, it is unequalled on the earth's surface.

On Kangchenjunga there was 9000 ft of untested ground to negotiate and this was found to be more technically difficult than on Everest, with most of the difficulties near the summit.In 2005 Ed Douglas wrote for the British Mountaineering Council: "In 1955 British climbers made the first ascent of Kangchenjunga, a mountain with an even more formidable reputation than Everest.

Except those of the strongest character, it is unlikely that they can be proof against the great growth of Himalayan travel, and the penetration into the remotest places of caravans whose assumption is that it is money that matters.

We are lucky to have enjoyed their friendship in days when they have not yet been much exposed to the chance of harm.The next expedition to Kangchenjunga was not until 1973, a full eighteen years after the first ascent.