EVEREST THE UNCONQUERED

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 November 1934, Page 10

EVEREST THE UNCONQUERED

MR RUTTLEDGE’S STORY. .1. xM. Scott writes in the London “Daily Telegraph”:— To a professional man, the pastime by which he earns his living is work, congenial or otherwise. To the surveyor a mountain is a feature on his map: it may be a. noble one, but unless he needs the round of sights which he could take from its summit he does not think of climbing it. Everest, 29,002; K2, 28,250; Kangchejunga, 28,146—thus the surveyors listed the world’s three highest peaks, and then went on to do something else.

The climber’s point of view is different ; he is fundamentally an amateur —he is too independent to be anything else. He is a reactionary product of the industrial revolution, of specialisation and a too easy mode of life. Among mountains he finds freedom and the opportunity to test himself to the uttermost, but his complete satisfaction depends upon his ability to get to the top. The climber is of the type which 790 years ago wont round in search of worthy adversaries, and • 300 years later was called a buccaneer, a man impatient, of discipline, but doingsomething for the prestige and inspiration of his country by the sheer courage of personal achievement. Before the end of last centfiry the home mountains and the Swiss Alps had been exhausted cxceput as a training ground for something else—lor what? The pioneers examined the Caucasus and the Himalaya. Then they realised that the highest mountain in the world had, as it were, been waiting for them since 1852. The Reconnaissance Expedition of 1921 formed the opinion that Mount Everest -would be possible, though difficult, to climb if men could live in the rarefied atmosphere near the summit. If that had not been so, if Mount Everest had seemed as impregnable as K2, then it must have remained a pure ideal and a thing of dreams. But now the ideal seemed possible of achievement.

It was an irresistible challenge to mountaineers, while even the man with a sea-level mind took an interest, jingoistical or scientific, in the result.

FIRST ATTEMPTS. There followed two expeditions in three years. By the first a height of 27,300 ft was reached with oxygen. Unhappily, seven porters were killed in an avalanche. In the second Norton, without oxygen, climbed to over 28,100 ft, and then Mallory and Irvine, in a last bid to reach the summit before the monsoon broke, disappeared into a cloud above Camp VI., never to return. Not till the summer of 1932 was permission obtained for another expedition, and in those intervening years men had time to realise the seriousness of the quest. As they had told the Tibetans, there could be no thought of abandoning what had once been undertaken, but Everest must not claim another splendid life. It would never bo climbed by the tip-and-run individualism of the Alps. The story of the assault on the ■ mountain in the following year was 1 told by cables and articles in the “Daily Telegraph” by those Who took ' part. Ils leader, Mr Ruttledge, with wide- £

ly appreciative mind, saw the importance of sound morale as well as sound technique. For the benefit of the porters he arranged ceremonies for the blessing of the expedition. Of the Europeans he says:— “I had developed a theory that men who were about to face great and prolonged, strain might be helped by a spiritual as well as physical introduction to the East. I took some of the party via Agra, and showed them the glories of the Taj Mahal, the Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri, places where I had often during my service found inspiration and a great encouragement.” It must be fascinating to journey through Tibet soon after the winter snow has left the ground; to see those curious self-sufficient people, to see the yak transport and the high fortress towns with rich-sounding names. These were “happy days when everyone was strong and unstrained, and hope ran high.”

At Base Camp in mid-April the mountain was just before them, compelling their attention. Sickness had broken out. but the will to succeed was at its strongest. A porter called Ondi had double pneumonia. His life was despaired of, but he was sent, down to the Kharta Valley. “Just four weeks later and against all orders, he turned up at the Base Camp, a heavy load on his back, and demanded work on the mountain.” Wyn Harris, too, was quite seriously ill, but later went as high as anybody. Faith alone can move mountains, but determination can climb them.

PLAN OF ASSAULT. In Mr Hugh Ruttledge’s book (“Everest: 1933”), there are fwo maps and fifty-nine photographs, very beautifully reproduced. Many of these latter are of the mounatin itself, so that such terms as the North Col, the Great Couloir and the Final Pyramid will soon attain a visual significance for the reader of the book. The plan was to move slowly up the glacier, balancing acclimatisation and deterioration. Above the North Col the advance would be more rapid, ending in a series of assaults overlapping each other from Camp VI. (One drops unconsciously into military jargon). Bad weather hindered the making of Camp IV., while an early monsoon was active over the Bay of Bengal. Bad weather drove down the first party from Camp V., and the northwest wind had begun its losing battle against the advancing snow clouds. On May 30 Wyn Harris and Wager made their attempt, and were turned back by passage of time at Norton’s highest point beyond the Great Couloir. Smythe and Shipton were storm-bound: then they tried and failed. In the lower cainps thp men were anxious, so the news of failure was sugared by relief. They did not know that the monsoon had begun to draw 1 its white curtain over the climbing season. The spirit of impudent light- . heartedness and reserved idealism — a combination which is very hard to 1 beat —passed the days of waiting for I a break in the weather, till the* com- 1 mittce in England orrdered the party i home. 1 They retreated in good order over 1 Lhe plateau of Tibet, planning the next ' expedition. Their book, a worthy 1 trophy, does not end. From the ■eader’s point of view if would have J 1 wen a. pity if it had been cut sjhort by i access, its spirit entirely altered, n

Someone might even have claimed hat Mount Everest had been “conluered.’’ The last hundred or so of pages are ull of facts and figures which will be useful to. those who write the next ,'hapter. The specialists analyse the echnjque and the achievements. They lays quite got'oyer the idea that the ise of oxygenis unsportsmanlike (one bight just as well say that it is uriair to wear boots), but they doubt its jfficacy compared with accliniatisaion. They are out to get to the top sompicw, and they think they Just , few feet above their limit there Lust be an easy route to the summit.

Perhaps some day a man will climb 1those few feet and discover another * I obstacle of rock or weather. He will • i descend saying that the next climb ■ must succeed.' '