HILLARY RETURNS TO N.Z.

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27401, 14 July 1954, Page 10

HILLARY RETURNS TO N.Z.

Plans For Assault On Makalu RECONNAISSANCE OF PEAK (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 13. Sir Edmund Hillary, the conqueror of Mount Everest, returned to Auckland today after leading the New Zealand Alpine Club’s Himalayan expedition. He was fit and tanned, but much thinner because of his recent illness. He plans to return to the Himalayas in 1956 to attempt the ascent of Mount Makalu. He admitted that he had previously suffered “small attacks” of malaria, which he probably contracted during his war service. He was enthusiastic about his fellow New Zealand and British climbers. “The team actually climbed 23,000 ft up the north slope of Makalu on a reconnaissance,” he said. This is the slope Sir Edmund Hillary and Mr George Lowe studied from Everest last year. The 1956 expedition would definitely be a combined New Zealand-British attempt, said Sir Edmund Hillary. He had applied for permission to climb in his own name, but that was “just, a technicality,” and the New Zealand Alpine Club would be associated with the attempt. . Mr George Lowe had led the assault on Baruntse this year, he said. “George described it' as a fearsome peak,” he added.

Sir Edmund Hillary is planning a short lecture tour to raise funds for the Alpine Club as soon as coloured photographs arrive from England. It will be some months before the other members of his expedition return to New Zealand. They will sail for England from India this month.