The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1932. THE EPIC OF EVEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 227, 24 September 1932, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1932. THE EPIC OF EVEREST.

For <%e cause <Aat facts assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Next year another attempt is to be made to climb Mount Everest, and this will probably cause many people to ask whether the attempt is worth the risk and expense involved. What does it matter, they will say, to the bulk of mankind whether Mount Everest is climbed or not? From the purely material point of view it can matter little, but for those who lift up their eyes unto the hills there will come from this endeavour an inspiration to high achievement that is divorced from any idea of personal gain, and is concerned only with a determination to conquer difficulties and do what man has never yet done. It is the spirit that counts. Here is an unconquered. mountain that has stood defiant of all attempts to scale it, a challenge to man's courage, endurance and skill. Shall that challenge go unanswered? Everest is the last stronghold of Nature —the last big exploration task left to the world. To conquer it would be a stirring victory. It would be a victory for modern man, and would awaken mankind further to the realisation that within itself it possesses infinite capacity. It would be another step forward in human evolution. The present Pope, himself a mountaineer, wrote this on the anniversary of the birth of St. Bernard: "In the laborious effort to attain mountain tops, where the air is lighter and purer, the climber gains new strength of limb. In the endeavour to overcome the obstacles of the way, the soul trains itself to conquer difficulties; and the spectacle of the vast horizon, which from the highest crest offers itself on all sides to tho eyes, raises his spirit to the Divine Author and Sovereign of Nature." It is a spiritual urge to be above everything in the world and to get a glimpse, so to speak, of God's view of things. It must not be supposed, however, that the conquest of Everest is purely a spiritual adventure. The attempts to scale this mountain have had great scientific value. There were many secrets guarded by these colossal natural ramparts. The Himalayan passes were walled by hostility. This was eventually overcome by the splendid, unadvertised, constructive work of Sir Charles Bell, who succeeded in fostering mutual understanding and friendship between the Government of India and the Dalai Lama. It was due to his personal intercession with the Dalai Lama that permission was obtained for Everest explorers to enter Tibet, with great resultant addition to geographical knowledge. The expedition of 1921 showed that the problem of Everest was principally one of weather and breathing. Scientific people, before the expedition, predicted that human beings would not be able to live for long at such a height as 21,000 ft unless they came down frequently to lower elevations to rest. It was found that after acclimatisation men could sleep at any height, and actually in the expedition of 1924 Norton and Somervell slept at a height of 27,000 ft. This power of acclimatisation was one of the important discoveries of the expedition. It proved that the human body is a far more adaptable piece of mechanism than had been previously thought. Many interesting discoveries were made as regards the thyroid gland and its relation to altitude, and also as regards the effect of oxygen on the system. Another point of great interest to scientists was the finding of fossils at a height of 25,000 ft. They were said to belong to a period over one hundred million years ago, when Everest was below the level of the ocean. Our knowledge of geology has been advanced by these attempts on Everest, also our knowledge of the motion of glaciers and the protective coloration of birds and mammals at high altitudes. Yet the main glamour of Everest has not lain in any scientific gain to be won, but rather in the challenge held out by the strength and the defences of this mighty last stronghold of Nature to human beings to match their strength against it. Men have steeled themselves to this tremendous task. Each fresh check has only heightened their spirits, and they return undaunted to the battle. Mallory, who lost his life in the last expedition, had no doubt whatever about the value of scaling a hitherto unsealed mountain peak. It was to him an impelling spiritual necessity. He believed the value of the thing achieved was as nothing compared with the value of achieving it. There are many people who look upon mountaineering adventures as a preposterous waste of human energy, involving unnecessary risks to life and limb. There are others who feel an urge to the high places, a call to bright adventure, and a determination to win through. They feel the spirit of Everest.