CLIMBING IN THE HIGH ANDES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27576, 5 February 1955, Page 3

CLIMBING IN THE HIGH ANDES

[Reviewed by W.P.P.] The Ascent of Alpamayo. By Georges Kogan and Nicole Leininger. Translated by Peter E. Thompson. Harrap 135 pp. The Ascent of Yerupaja. By John Sack. Herbert Jenkins. 191 pp. So much attention has been focused on the Himalaya that the cordillera of South America have been largely neglected by mountaineers in recent years. Yet they too still contain virgin terrain and peaks which in difficulty and attractiveness, if not quite in altitude, can rival their morphological counterparts in Asia. * Equatorial snow and ice conditions offer unique problems, most notably those of extraordinarily sustained steepness, and ridges almost permanently corniced. The climber finds no cadre of local porters, such as the Sherpas, to assist him. As a result the Andes are not the scene of expeditions in the grand Himalayan manner: they are ideal for a large self-contained group of companions. New Zealand climbers would seem to be well fitted for such areas of snow and ige, but the nonmountaineering difficulties associated with South American travel seem to be greater even than those with the Asian continent. Each book describes in its own way a recent and successful venture in the Peruvian Andes. The account of the Franco-Belgian party to the Cordillera Blanca is briefly told by two members of the group of nine friends. Georges Kogan details in a frank and pleasantly unassuming way the expedition’s principal activities, which culminated in their success on what they felt the most beautiful mountain in the world, Alpamayo. The four who gained the 20,080 feet summit reached it only as night fell, and had to spend a miserable but successful .night out at 20,000 feet, in a chance-found ice cave. What may well be regarded as even more noteworthy is the record put up by the two women members of the team. Kogan’s wife, and Mrs Leininger, wife of another of the team, are both outstanding climbers, and in making a virgin route up Quitaraju, 20,012 feet, incidentally made the altitude record for a purely feminine rope. Mrs Leininger writes attractively, and there is again honesty of feeling which gives further point to her remarks on the meaning of mountain climbing. “The Ascent of Alpamayo” contains some excellent photographs, and the story is helped by good maps of the areas. The Harvard Andean Expedition which succeeded in climbing Yerupaja bears more than a superficial resemblance to the Continental team. A group of six university climbing fnenas mostly from Harvard, struck south to Peru to add to the number of attempts on the highest unclimbed P® a £ J n the Americas, Yerupaja, 21,769 feet. Following a most exacting ac^i_ c^imb ’ t wo got to the top, and as ,the J esu jt of a night out and a fall suffered severe frostbite before getting down the mountain. However, m addition to the encumbrances usual to all high climbing expeditions, they had equipped themselves with a nonmountameer reporter, so as to send oack to the American press the story of the expedition. He commuted between Lima and the roadhead village nearest to Base Camp, once visiting the latter.

the reporter, has now written the expedition book. The result one might expect to be unusual: nf wh^° rtUna ?% as welL His account of what must have been a major climbing venture is marred by an excess of the worst collegiate newspaper journalese. Only the haziest climbin' 1 / O 1 - he actual nature of the reader g is and intelligent ¥ le,t unsatisfied. The Pantographs are quite inadequate and a number inappropriate, while heln th?’ aP EL J Pljlled does little? to help the reader. As Mr Sark ■T C wmt y tn e S larks -2. the beginning, for reasons the iur reasons that have never been adequately understood.” With this colcur '° n this can heartily