Pen-y-Gwryd expeditions took place, at Helyg near Capel Curig. On the right at the hotel entrance there is a Tyrolean-style Stüberl (dining room) with the signatures, written on the ceiling, of the teams that did the first ascent of Everest in 1953 and of the first ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1955 – these include Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, Sir John Hunt, Charles Evans, George Band, Joe Brown, John Angelo Jackson, Wilfred Noyce, Tony Streather, Tom Mackinnon, Norman Hardie, Neil Mather, John Clegg and others, including Noel Odell from Mallory's 1924 expedition and Chris Bonington of later successes. There are many
Pete Schoening he became involved in mountain climbing. He died of cancer at his home in Kenmore, Washington. Schoening is perhaps best remembered for his heroics during "The Belay" while part of the American K2 expedition in 1953, where he single-handedly averted the loss of the entire expedition. In August 1953, the same year that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest, an American team of seven set out to climb K2 led by Charles Houston. On the seventh day, climbing without oxygen in a storm, they became trapped at over 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) on the Abruzzi Ridge of K2.