Chinese Found Body 19,000ft Up Everest

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29219, 1 June 1960, Page 17

Chinese Found Body 19,000ft Up Everest

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

TOKYO. May 30. Communist China today reported that its Everest expedition found the body of a climberbelieved to be a Briton—while scaling the north face of the world’s highest peak, Peking Radio said, according to American Associated Press. The radio said that on March 27 at a height above 19.352 ft the Communist Chinese “came across the corpse of a man.” which it described as “one of many victims of the mountain’s relentlessness.” The radio said: “Its shredded and faded green down garments were of British mak>. The corpse had stiffened and shrunk and the features were beyond identification. Owing to the cold the body had not completely decomposed. The indications seemed to show that it was the

body of a dead British mountaineer.” In 1924 the North Col of Everest claimed the lives of the British climbers Mallory and Irvine. Another Briton, Maurice Wilson perished on the col itself 10 years later in his attempt to tackle the peak alone. Peking Radio said that “in spite of their exhaustion toward the end of their day’s climbing and the bitter weather, the Chinese climbers dug a grave in tiie snow and duly buried the corpse.” Sir John Hunt’s View The body found by the Chinese was most likely that of Maurice Wilson, the British mountaineer. Sir John Hunt, said tonight Wilson. religious fanatic, attempted the climb to draw mankind’s attention to his doctrines. He perished about the same height at which the Chinese climbers found the body His body was found by a British reconnaissance party in July. 1936. His diary was removed, and the body buried. Sir John Hunt said a possible explanation was that the body had been uncovered by mountain winds. Sir John Hunt, who Ljd the

successful British expedition to Mount Everest in 1953, thought it impossible that the body was that of either Mallory or Irvine They perished in a different area covered by the Chinese climbers, and even if they had plunged thousands of feet down the mountain, their bodies would not have landed in the area, he said.