THE GHOST OF EVEREST

Evening Star, Issue 21891, 30 November 1934, Page 10

THE GHOST OF EVEREST

MOUNTAINEER'S EXPERIENCES Was there a “ ghost ” —an invisible <diost—climbing not far from the summit of Mount Everest. Were there two strange objects—one with something like a beak—hovering over the mountain while the 1933 Everest expedition were up there almost within reach of the world’s highest mountain ton? Mr F. S. Smythe, the famous mountaineer, one of the outstanding figures in the 1933 expedition, lelb that, when he was climbing alone on the secodd attempt to reach the summit, an invisible companion went with him. He says that he saw the two strange things in the air—and that they were not optical illusions. ‘ During my solitary climb, says Mr Smythe, “ two curious phenomena were experienced. It is with great diffidence that 1 mention them. J prefer to draw no inferences irom them, and merely describe them. “ The first phenomenon was one that is by no means unique, and has been experienced in the past by solitaiy wanderers not only on mountains, but on desert wastes and in Polar regions. All the time that I was climbing alone I had a strong feeling that 1 was£9“ companied by a second person. Inis feeling was so strong that it completely eliminated all loneliness I might otherwise have ielt. It even, seemed that 1 was tied to my ‘ companion ’. by a rope, and that if I slipped 4 he would hold me. , , , , “I remember constantly glancing bach over my shoulder, and once, when after reaching my highest point I stopped to try to eat some mint cake, I carefully divided it and turned round with one half in my hand. It was almost a shock to find no ono to whom to give it. It seemed to me that this 1 presence J was a strong, helpful, friendlv one, and it was not until Camp “VI. was sighted (going down) that the link connecting me, as it seemed at the time , to the beyond was snapped, and although the camp was but a few yards away, I suddenly felt alone.” . , , That is all Mr Smythe says about the invisible ghost from the beyond. “ the second phenomenon,” he says, jj l or may not have been an optical illusion.—personally I am convinced that it was not. “ I was still some 200 ft above Camp VI. and a considerable distance horizontally from it, when, chancing to glance in the direction of the north ridge, I saw two curious-looking objects floating in the sky. They strongly resembled kite-balloons in shape, but one possessed what appeared to be squat, undeveloped Wings and the other a protuberance suggestive of a heak. . . “ They, hovered motionless, but seemed slowly to pulsate, a pulsation incidentally much slower than my own heart beats, which is of interest supposing that it was an optical illusion. The two objects were very dark in colour, and were silhouetted sharply against the sky, or possibly. a background of cloud. “ So interested was I that I stopped to observe them. My brain appeared to be working normally, and I deliberately put myself through a series of tests. ■ First of all I glanced away. The. objects did not follow my vision, but they were still there when I looked back again. Then I looked away again, and this time identified by name a number of peaks, valleys, and glaciers by way of a mental test. But when I looked back again the objects still confronted me. “At this I gave them up as a bad job, but just as I was starting to move again a mist suddenly drifted across. Gradually they disappeared behind it, and when, a minute or two later, it had drifted clear, exposing the whole of the north ridge once more, they had vanished as mysteriously as they came.”