His illegal[4] attempt was very different from the large-scale efforts by British mountaineers around the same time. He had little experience, having only climbed the smaller Virunga mountains in East Africa before this expedition. He did not have much money, equipment, or fuel, and entered Tibet without permission. Two Sherpas (one of whom was Tenzing Norgay,[5] later to make the first ascent of Everest) joined his attempt. Norgay later said that he knew Denman had little chance of succeeding, but that he agreed to join Denman because "the pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on earth."[1] After a trekking across Tibet,[2] Denman and the two Sherpas started their ascent on April 9, 1947.[6] They reached about 22,000 ft (6,700 m) of the roughly 29,000 ft (8,800 m) mountain before a storm compelled them to abort the attempt and turn back.[1][2][7][8][9]
Denman tried to return to Everest in 1948,[3] but couldn't leave India.[4] In 1954 his autobiography Alone to Everest of his Everest attempt was published.[10][11][12] Later he fought Apartheid in South Africa,[2] where he was living in the 1960s[3] before he was thrown out of the country.[2]
In 1982 he was living in New Zealand.[2] On 9 December 1994 Earl Lionel Denman died in New Zealand; he was born on 11 December 1914.[13]
^ abcGellner, John (January 4, 1964). "Madcap assault on Everest by Canadian engineer". Maclean's. Toronto: 18, 32. Archived from the original on May 22, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2021. ...when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, the celebrated Sherpa guide was wearing a woolen balaclava helmet given to him six years earlier by an amateur Canadian mountain climber named Earl Denman. "So at last," Tenzing recounted later, "a little part of Denman reached his goal."
^"The Mountain That Drew Men Onward". The New York Times. Vol. CIV, no. 35379. December 5, 1954. p. The New York Times Book Review 44. ProQuest112960043.