Henry William Holder

Henry William Holder (26 February 1851, Sheet, Hampshire, England – 1938), was an English mountaineer. He is notable for making the first ascents of Katyn-Tau and Saluinan Bashi in 1888, Adai Khokh, Burdjula, and Zikhvarga in 1890, and Adyrsu-Bashi, Sarumbashi, and Gumatchi in 1896. He climbed alongside Albert F. Mummery, Hermann Woolley, and John Garforth Cockin.

Life Holder was the son of Henry Holder and Ellen Childs. He was born in Sheet, Hampshire in 1851 before moving to Yorkshire to attend his uncle's school. There, he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge in 1875, where he graduated BA then MA in Moral Sciences in 1882. From Cambridge, he moved to Manchester, to Owens College, where he obtained a BA degree in theology. For the following three years he worked as a Congregational minister in Stalybridge before returning to Owens College to work as Registrar of the University. the eldest daughter of George Henry Fisher Smith. They had one daughter, Mary Eileen Holder.

Mountaineer Holder made three important expeditions to the Caucasus mountains in 1888, 1890, and 1896. During all three expeditions he achieved the first ascents of several Caucasian peaks.

The first expedition in 1888 was organised by Holder after discovering a young Armenian student at Owens College, Manchester, who claimed to speak Russian, Turkish, and several Georgian dialects and offered to serve as interpreter. Holder's team was led by John Garford Cockin, and included Hermann Woolley, along with two Swiss guides, Ulrich Almer and Christian Roth. This was one of many ascents of the Caucasus in 1888, a year regarded by Holder as the 'annus mirabilis' for Caucasian alpinism. Afterwards, they made the first ascents of Adai Khokh, Burdjula. Following these climbs, Holder's group attempted to summit Janga but this proved impossible due to the lateness of their initial ascent. On deciding whether to stay the night on the peak, at 17,000 ft, Holder noted to himself: "Remember...mountaineering is only recreation; it is not the main business of life.' The team then completed the first ascent of Gumatchi (3810m) by its west ridge on the 28th of August, and a separate ascent of a peak they named 'Sarumbashi' after Sarumbash, a local shepherd. Following this expedition Holder published "Climbs among the Peaks of the Adyrsu, Central Caucasus," in the Alpine Journal in 1897.