N.Z. EXPEDITION TO HIMALAYAS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27502, 9 November 1954, Page 7

N.Z. EXPEDITION TO HIMALAYAS

MT. BARUNTSE ASCENT DESCRIBED SIR EDMUND HILLARY AND MR G. HARROW Sir Edmund Hillary is one of the best-known sportsmen in the world and his conquest of Mount Everest with the Sherpa Tensing is now written into history. Geoffrey Harrow, of Christchurch, a member of the New Zealand expedition to Mount Baruntsee, is less famous and his story less widely known. For that reason great attention was given to his part of the public lecture in St. James’ Theatre last evening in which, with Sir Edmund Hillary, he described the Barun expedition earlier this year. The theatre was well filled and the proceeds from this lecture, and another this evening, will benefit a New Zealand expedition to '25,000ft Mount Masherbrum, another unclimbed peak in the Himalayas. The exhausting struggle pf Geoffrey Harrow and Colin Todd across the apparently vertical snow slope near the top of Mount Baruntse was the high point of the lecture. Both colour slides and 16 mm. colour movie film were used to show the precipitous route the two men followed; gasps from the audience punctuated Mr Harrow’s description of their painful progression to the summit, during which Mr Todd cut huge steps in the snow * face for about 1800 ft. Mount Baruntse is 23,590 ft high, and the step-cutting was done at very little below this altitude, where every movement is laboured and progress is slow. After two hours work they were still within distance of Messrs George Lowe and Bill Beaven, who watched them leave on the final assault. “Their effort was one of the most outstanding technical feats done in the Himalayas,” said Sir .Edmund Hillary, speaking of the ascent of Mount Baruntse by Messrs Harrow and Todd. The ascent was bad enough, but the descent, made in falling snow which obliterated the steps cut with so much effort on the way up, was even worse. Mr Harrow said: “We just had to poke about for the steps and judge where they were by the texture of the snow. I think we went a bit close to the margin of safety.” Sir Edumnd Hillary has made five visits to the Himalayas and speaks easily about the pedple of Nepal, the Sherpas, the valley floors with their brilliant flowers, the mountains, and the efforts of climbing. To illustrate his talk he had about 100 colour stills selected from about. <5OOO taken, and an hour-long film, also in colour. The slides were magnificent (particularly one of Everest taken in the early morning in which the mountain is almost pure red, standing against the black, high-altitude sky). Mountain scenery of all types, from torn and broken rock to glittering ice and snow—was contrasted with the bright colourings of wild rhododendrons, 12in wide magnolia blooms, azaleas, and hundreds of other flowers growing in the Barun valley, 17,000 above sealevel.

As well as these wide and magnificent scenes were shots of the people of Nepalese villages, old men and women, and tiny children, members of the expedition, their equipment and their camps. Abominable Snowman The Abominable Snowman was also introduced: there was a shot of one of the footprints found high up on the mountain. “On occasions two sets of the tracks were found, one smaller than the other,” said Sir Edmund Hillary. “So it seems that there-is a Big Abominable Snowman and a Little Abominable Snowman.”

The lecture described the expedition’s three-we*eks journey to the Barun valley, the carriage of stores and equipment, the long trek up through the valley to the foot of the mountain, and the first ascent by Messrs Harrow and Todd, and the second ascent by Messrs Lowe and Beaven. The accident in which Jim McFarlane and Brian Wilkins fell 60ft down into a crevasse, the efforts of Sir Edmund Hillary to rescue Mr McFarlane in the dark, the journey down the mountain with the badly frost-bitten and injured man, Sir Edmund Hillary’s illness, and his journey down the ' mountain on a stretcher are all vividly told. Mt. Everest, and the successful ascent, were also described by Sir Edmund Hillary. The photograph taken at the top, showing Tensing with his flag-draped ice-axe brought a roar of applause from the audience.