N.Z. CLIMBERS’ SUCCESS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27090, 13 July 1953, Page 10

N.Z. CLIMBERS’ SUCCESS

NEW PEAK CLIMBED IN HIMALAYAS

KATMANDU, July 10. A New Zealand expedition led by Ath6l Roberts has conquered an unnamed 23.544 ft Himalayan peak in the Sringi-Himal Range, according to a report from the expedition which reached Katmandu today.

The report said the four members of the team were expected back in the Nepalese capital at the end of the month.

The other members of the party are Graham McCallum, a physicist, Philip Gardner, and Maurice Bishop. They have been exploring the little-known Eori Gandak region. This is the third major victory by climbers in less than two months. Everest was conquered by the British expedition at -the end of May, and earlier this month a member of an Austrian-German party climbed to the top of Parbat, 26,620 ft Himalayan “killer” peak. But one battle climbers lost was against unconquered 26,658 ft Mount Manaslu in the Himalayas. A Japanese expedition was driven back by bad weather only 1200 ft from the summit last month. The New Zealand climbers, visiting the Himalayas for the first time, had pl aimed to assault ranges on either side of Bori Gandak, west of Everest. They set out from Katmandu about four months ago with nearly a ton of equipment. All the party have had previous mountaineering experience in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. They had planned to be in the Himalayas from April to July, with the aim, according to Roberts, of “going as high as we can.” McCallum is a 24-year-old physicist from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington; Gardner is a 25-year-old Levin commercial gardener: Roberts, aged 41. is a manufacturers’ agent in Wellington; and Bishop is a 27-year-old Ohau farmer. They left for Bombay by air in February, and arrived in Katmandu on April 5.