Earl Lionel Denman (1914-1994) was a Canadian mountaineer and engineer who attempted to climb Mount Everest in 1947.
[1] Denman was born on 11 December 1914 in Tod Inlet on Vancouver Island[1] but grew up in England.
He had little experience, having only climbed the smaller Virunga mountains in East Africa before this expedition.
[5] In Darjeeling he happened to pass a shop window in which was displayed some photographs of snow-capped mountains and noticed that the name of the shop's proprietor was familiar to him from Everest books he had read, in so doing he had stumbled upon a way of meeting Karma Paul who had provided support for six major expeditions which had travelled to Tibetan side of Everest.
[6] Because of the experience with Maurice Wilson, an earlier solo traveller to Everest, Karma Paul was unwilling to help Denman but he did put him in touch with the two sherpas who were willing to accompany him.