Frank Smythe

Not to be confused with Frank Smyth or Frank Smith.

Francis Sydney Smythe
Born6 July 1900
Maidstone, Kent
Died27 June 1949(1949-06-27) (aged 48)
London
Occupation(s)botanist, explorer, mountaineer photographer, writer

Francis Sydney Smythe, better known as Frank Smythe or F. S. Smythe (6 July 1900 – 27 June 1949), was an English mountaineer, author, photographer and botanist. He is best remembered for his mountaineering in the Alps as well as in the Himalayas, where he identified a region that he named the "Valley of Flowers", now a protected park. His ascents include two new routes on the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc, Kamet, and attempts on Kangchenjunga and Mount Everest in the 1930s.[1] It was said that he had a tendency for irascibility, something some of his mountaineering contemporaries said "decreased with altitude".[2]

  1. ^ Odell, NE (1949). "Mr F S Smythe". Nature. 164 (4163): 266. Bibcode:1949Natur.164..266O. doi:10.1038/164266a0.
  2. ^ George Band (2003). Everest: The Official History. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.