ASCENT OF EVEREST

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27089, 11 July 1953, Page 7

ASCENT OF EVEREST

“Rivalry Now

Ended” [From COLONEL SIR JOHN HUNT, leader of the British Everest expedition. By arrangement with "The Times" —Copyright] With the ascent of Everest on May 29, the question is already being asked: “What next?” That this should be so is in itself encouraging, both to us in the 1953 Everest expedition and doubtless to many other mountaineers. It implies not so much a doubt whether, with the closing of this longstanding and epic struggle with the highest of mountains, there remains any adventure worth the doing as a hope that there still remain other outlets in this sphere. There is, indeed, no ground for despondency about the aftermath of Everest. In a certain sense it may be regretted that this great peak no longer remains inviolate to hold out its challenge to the spirit of man. Yet, in other ways, it was good and it was timely that those last steps should have been taken along that final stretch of ridge last month. As has been illustrated in lower mountain ranges, continued efforts to solve a climbing problem tend if unduly prolonged to introduce a spirit of competitive rivalry which. while proper to some forms of sport, is foreign and indeed harmful to mountaineering. Undue competition is undesirable, because it tends not so much to promote skill in the art and technique of our craft as to induce an inclination towards rashness and ill-judgment. Personal and national ambitions may take an unhealthy share in this process to the detriment of the higher inspiration which mountains can evoke in those who climb them.

I believe that, with the climbing of Everest, the interest in this great sport will be increased and become more widely spread. Many young people will be encouraged to go to the hills as an outlet to the spirit of adventure which is latent in most of us. Should this prove to be the case. then, other considerations apart, the Everest saga will have been amply vindicated. To those who climb mountains the sport is and should continue to be a source of happiness. We climb because we like it, and to most of us this is sufficient reason for going to the high hills.

But I believe there is behind this urge a deeper and more far-reaching message implicit in the hardships and the dangers to which mountaineering exposes its followers and the close comradeship which it helps to create. It is this last quality, transcending all barriers of race, creed, and language, which is the true and lasting message of our venture.—Copyright.

TENSING’S DAUGHTER IN HOSPITAL

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, July 10. The “Daily Express” said today that. Pern Pern Tensing, the daughter of Sherpa Tensing who climbed Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary, had beer taken to hospital in London.

The 16-year-old girl came to London with her father, with the rest of the mountaineering party. The newspaper said an official-at the hospital for tropical diseases to which the girl was admitted said she was there for investigation.