Alexis Pache was a Swiss mountaineer. In 1905, he joined a British-led and funded outfit that attempted to climb the world’s third-highest peak, a Nepalese mountain called Kanchenjunga. He was recruited by a fellow Swiss climber, a man named Jules Jacot-Guillarmod. The group also recruited another Alpine mountaineer from Italy. So, this was truly an international expedition. The British leader of the group was named Alexander.

At over 28,000 feet above sea level, Kanchenjunga today is recognized as one of the most challenging mountains in the world to climb. Glaciers that cling to the mountainside often cause avalanches of ice that make any attempt life-threatening. The locals traditionally believed that the mountain gods felt that the peak was sacred and protected it by using the avalanches to brush off any pesky humans who attempted to scale its summit.

Yet, the group was undeterred. Remember that this was a period in western history when men were stretching the limits of human endurance. Robert Peary would reach the North Pole (maybe?) in 1909, and Amundsen would beat Scott to the South Pole two years later. Groups raced each other to be the first to do this or accomplish that before all extreme tests on the globe were conquered.

The group started out by setting up base camps at lower levels and letting their bodies adjust to the thinning air at those altitudes. But at the last base camp, Alexander, the British leader of the climbers, began to behave strangely. He started viciously beating the Nepalese workers the expedition had hired as porters and helpers on the climb. Alexis tried to calm the English fellow and reason with him, but all that did was bring the man’s ire down on the young Swiss. Now, Jules had seen this type of behavior before on high altitude climbs; as some people moved into the thinner air, a type of mania or craziness sometimes overtook them.

In fact, Jules had been on another expedition with Alexander when the pair had attempted to scale K-2, the second highest mountain on earth. At that time, Alexander had brandished a pistol and threatened several members of the group. And, again, it seemed that this man had succumbed to the lack of oxygen to his system. However, the Nepalese workers whispered that the mountain god had possessed Alexander in an effort to keep the foreigners off the sacred mountain.

A sharp disagreement broke out one night when Jules some of the others tried to take command of the expedition away from Alexander. He and Alexis and the Italian suggested that they strike out for a lower camp immediately, that the weather was good enough for them to attempt a descent. They said that they would do well to strike out in the dark so that the most challenging part of the climb down could be accomplished during the day, when the dangers of an avalanche could be better seen. But Alexander sharply disagreed. Again, Alexis tried to play peacemaker, but he received a severe tongue lashing from Alexander for his efforts. The man then stormed off to his tent and refused to come out, pouting like a child.

Undeterred, the rest of the party set out in the dark. However, an avalanche occurred soon after the group left. The screams of those in the party could be heard by the group who remained behind in the upper camp. The avalanche swept away Alexis and three of the Nepalese helpers in the group. From the safety and comfort of his tent, Alexander laughed. “I told them they were foolish to go out in the dark,” he later reported.

The next day, Alexander had his workers strike his tent and he descended the mountain in the daytime, working his way carefully down to the next lower base camp. As he worked down the glacier, he passed the group that included Jules and the bodies of Alexis and those of the Nepalese workers.

And he neither stopped or spoke to anyone as he passed.

What kind of sick, twisted man would behave in such a cold, cruel manner? Alexander was his birth name, but he changed it later in life to Aleister.

You know him as Aleister Crowley, called by some as the most evil man who ever lived.