Hillary “Thrilled” At News

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27675, 3 June 1955, Page 13

Hillary “Thrilled” At News

MELBOURNE, June 2. Sir Edmund Hillary today hailed the conquest of Kanchenjunga “by my old friend Evans.” Sir Edmund Hillary said: “That’g marvellous news. I am very thrilled. I have been anxiously awaiting news

of the expedition for some tims. Kanchenjunga is a most formidable mountain and their victory is a very notable one.” He said that only one man—Evans who was with him in the Everest ascent—could say whether Kanchenjunga was harder to climb than Everest. Lhotse (27,800 ft was now the highest unclimbed peak. Asked whether he would tackle it. Sir Edmund Hillary said: “I don’t know. My interest is in the Antarctic in the next few years.” He spent the day with Mr Phillip Law, the head of the Antarctic Division of the Australian External Affairs Department, discussing details of the expedition to the Antarctic next year. Sir John Hunt’s Reaction Brigadier Sir John Hunt, leader of the successful Everest expedition in 1953, today hailed the conquest of Kanchenjunga as a “brilliant success.” Sir John Hunt said he was “tremendously thrilled” at the news which he heard while holidaying in the remote Isle of Skye off the Scottish Coast.

Sir John Hunt, who is now Assistant Commandant of the British Army Staff College at Camberley, Surrey, had a hand in planning the Kanchenjunga expedition. He is chairman of the Kanchenjunga committee of the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographical Society. "The ascent of Kanchenjunga has always been reckoned the most difficult feat in mountaineering, at any rate as far as highest peaks in the world are concerned. Technical difficulties are very great and the danger from avalanches is considerable. Evans and his party have achieved a brilliant success in finding the solution to this exceedingly hard problem,” said Sir John Hunt.

“It should not be forgotten that much credit is also due to the reconnaissance party under John Kempe who found a route in 1954, and whose report enabled my committee to decide to organise this year's expedition.

“I would also like to say how glad I am that the Evans team respected the wishes of the local people by refraining from making the last few feet to the summit,” he said. In 1937, Sir John Hunt and his wife spent two months searching for a way to the top of Kanchenjunga.