FOURTH ATTEMPT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 134, 9 June 1933, Page 7

FOURTH ATTEMPT

THE PREVIOUS -EFFORTS

DID MALLORY TRIUMPH?

The present expedition is the fourth to attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. Until the present the great Himalayas have foiled tho most famous climbers, three attempts on Everest and three to conquer Kanchenjunga having failed. One peak, Ktimet, ■which, towers 25,447 feet, was climbed by the British Himalayan' Expedition, under Mr. I\ S. Smytho, a member of the present party, in 1931. The first party to visit Everest after the war was the reconnaissance expedition sent out under the command of Lieut.-Colonel C. K. Howard-Bury in 1921. In the following year a more serious attack was made on the mountain by a party under the command of Brigadier-General the Hon. C. G. Bruce. It was at this time that experiments were made with oxygen apparatus to offset the effects of low atmospheric pressure.at the high altitudes. Two members of the party, Captain G. I. Finch and Captain J. G. Bruce, reached a height of 27,000 feet. But it was tho 1924 attempt, also led 'by Brigadier-General- Bruce, which is best remembered because of the tragedy which attended it.. Lieut.Colonel E./ P. Norton was second in command, and prominent in the party were George Mallory and Dr. T. H. Somorvell, who had been there ' two years before. Of what avail are the best of plans when, wind and cold loose their fury, when men in scores are too nearly frozen to move, even to save themselves, and when brave souls who should be spared for the Anal effort must toil to exhaustion to keep their helpers alive? In high hppe3 the glacier camps had been established. Aftev two horrible weeks of Jstorm the whole work had to be done again. The expedition had taken a deadly .beating at the very start. Still the leaders went on, late in the season though it was. On May 20, Norton, commanding, with Mallory, the climbing genius, and Odell, who was to play so heroic a part in the denouement, marked a new way up to the North Col, Mallory almost perishing in a crevasse. Next day Somcrvell, Hazard, and Irvine, the young Oxford athlete, with twelve porters, made camp on the col, and Soinervoll and Irvine returned. That night and all day on. tho 22nd another storm raged, and the 'mercury fell to minus 22 degrees. LOST TIME. , On the 23rd Hazard and eight ofr.tho porters came down from the col, driven out by the feav.'ul cold. But four of tH<5 porters had ;>t dared to follow. At the most dange jus .part of the way they wcro stranded, alone with death on the ice wall. Norton, Mallory, and Somervell, the throo best climbors, alf of them near tho end of their endurance, went up without question to rescue their helpers, although it might mean, as it did mean, tho failure of tho expedition. T ( hey brought them down after a brilliant piece of mountaineoriug in which Somervell had tho leading role. But at such a cost in cuorgy had tho rescue been made that the climbers were obliged to retire to tho lower camp 3to gather .their strength. It was June before they could return to the mountain —all of the precious month of May gono for nothing. And now began the tragic final act. On June 8, Mallory and Captain G. G. Bruec went up from the North Col* with nine porters planning to set up Camps Tive and Six high on the Northoast Ridge in two successive days, ami go for tho summit on the third day. The icy blast did for the porters of the first day, at 25,000 feet, and Bruce strained his heart carrying loads dropped by the worn-out- porters. The vitally necessary Camp Six, below the summit, could not bo established. Mallory ami Bruce turned back. That day Norton and Somervell with four porters went up to Camp Five. Next day they went higher with three porters whose loyalty was stronger than their deathly distress, and made Camp Six at 20,800 feet—the highest camp ever made, two miles higher than the highest point in the Alps. In that wind-smitten tent, on the ridgepole of the world the two climbers spent the night and lived. In the morning they started for the top, a mile away and 2200 feet above them. By noon they were taking ten breaths for every step. At 28,000 feet Somervell's throat closed. Norton struggled on up 100 feet higher, then his eyes failed. THE LAST SCENE. Half a mile further and loss than 1000 feet higher, and Lieut.-Colonel E. F. Norton and Somervell, the medical missionary, would havo stood on tho highest point on the globe. But the glory was not' for1 them. One man choking, the other going blind and not to see again for many weeks, they camo down. And then the concluding scene. The slender and fiery-spirited Mallory and the tireless and sanguino young Irvine going up for the last desperate thrust on June .0, with Odell, the geologist, in reserve on the North Col. , On the night of the 7th the two slept in the highest camp, while Odoll, who had moved up, occupied tho camp below thorn. On' June 8 Odell snw, through a break in the clouds, two figures far above him, making for a

rock step at, the baso of the ultimate pyramid. The cloud curtain dropped, and he saw no more. > Alone on the mountain, Odoll toiled up to tho highest camp, carrying food for the two men above. Through a terrific sleetstorm he waited for them. At the end of tho day, the storm abating, he went higher, looking for the climbers in vain. The little tent furthest up had room for only two, so Odell left it for them and made Ms way down 5000 perilous feet to tho North Col, where Hazard was waiting. Late into the night thoy watched the mountain top for a sign. Next day Odell climbed again to the highest camp. Tho tent was closed, as he had left it. The watchers below saw his signal and knew that hope was gone. Thus Mallory and Irvine passed out of the sight and the knowledge of men. If they triumphed over tho "Goddoss Mother of the World," she locked the secret of her humbling' in her eternal Ice.