THE THREAT OF THE BLIZZARD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 27

THE THREAT OF THE BLIZZARD

A blizzard is one of winter's most terrifying weapons in her armoury against man, writes the famous climber F. S. Smythe in the "Daily Express." I have been caught in many, and am thankful to be alive to tell the tale. For the inexperienced young city rambler out for a week-end on the moors it must be ten times more frightening. It is the wind that kills, though the presence of snow, whether falling in dense flakes or blown in tiny icy particles, adds to the danger and dis- ' comfort. The eyelashes get stuck together and frozen, causing blindness; the bitter wind, penetrating the clothing, sapping body heat, deadening thought, destroying resolution, and undermining the will to live, leads relentlessly to death. It is perhaps little comfort that being frozen to death is not an unpleasant way of dying. First your hands and feet become numbed, then the awful lassitude spreads over the body until a blessed unconsciousness sets in. High on the slopes of Everest. I have experienced that terrible moment when I felt that I could not go on against the implacable force of the wind, penetrating my clothing, biting my hands and feet, killing slowly the spirit of resolution that alone could keep me alive. Above me towered the great peak; below me was safety, but how could I reach that safety against the blinding fury of the wind devil? The rare-

fled air was torture to ; breathe. One thought beat through my numbing brain—l must get out of the- wind. It it impossible to convey the relief I felt when a ledge of rock gave me shelter from the wild fury that was freezing my very soul. I have been in many blizzards in the Alps and Himalayas. Once, near Andermatt, I had to struggle on, with snowblindness added to my other troubles, for seven hours before finding shelter. A blizzard at a great height, such as on the slopes of Everest, is infinitely worse than one at sea level. The absence of oxygen in the rarefied air leads to even quicker deadening of the protection afforded by the body's heat. At a height of more than 20,000 ft a temperature of ten degrees below zero is more dangerous than 40 below on, say, a Western prairie. . The worst blizzard I ever encountered was during the Everest Expedition of 1933, when I was coming down from the highest camp of all, Camp 6. The wind caught me on the peak side, and although I was wearing mountaineering kit,. I should inevitably have lost my life had I not been able quickly, to get into the lee of a ..ridge, which "broke the force of the wind. Remember, it is the wind that is your enemy. People have been buried by avalanches and come out alive. It is quite possible to breathe under snow, as does the Canadian grou--, which regularly roosts. under the snow in winter.