Bill Tilman and Dan Bryant acclimatized well at the altitude,  and in 1926 Tilman even spent his entire retirement living in the summit of the 25,645-foot (7,817 m).
His climbing career, however, began with his acquaintance with Eric Shipton in Kenya, East Africa, where they were both coffee growers. Beginning with their joint traverse of Mount Kenya in 1929 and their ascents of Kilimanjaro and the fabled "Mountains of the Moon" Ruwenzori, Shipton and Tilman formed one of the most famed partnerships in mountaineering history. 
