LAST 1,000 FEET OF EVEREST

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1936, Page 14

LAST 1,000 FEET OF EVEREST

“ALMOST DYING MEN.” LONDON, March 24. The terrors of the last I,oooft up Mount Everest, which will be faced by the Ruttledge expedition now making its way to the base camp, are described by Sir Francis Younghusband in his “Everest: The Challenge," published to-day. Sir Francis, as president of the Royal Geographical Society, was one of the first men to believe ascent of the mountain possible. He still thinks so. Pointing out that Everest climbers have never been able even to begin the ascent of that last 1,000 feet, he says: “We must see how we can get our climbers up to the crucial point in fit form to tackle that really very dangerous and difficult 400 feet up the couloir and the further 600 feet to the summit.

“That leads us to that counsel of perfection at which every Everest expedition religiously sets out —the need of keeping a pair in clover for the final effort.

“That has always been the theory. In practice it has been found that Everest makes such tremendous demands upon the entire membership of the expedition that it has not been possible to save up any particular climber. ■ “Still, the effort to keep a pair fit must be continued —and continued with increasing determination. Tjie donkey-work on the North Col and in establishing the higher camps above the North Col must be done by members other than those upon whom the supreme call will be made.” / ; TERROR OF BEING ALONE. He suggests that one of the porters might accompany the climber or climbers to the summit. “This would give a feeling of support to the’ final climbers,” says Sir Francis. “Nothing could be more frightful than to find oneself alone on the face of Everest between 28,000 and 29,000 ft." At the actual moment of turning back from further effort to reach the summit, Everest climbers have no sense of disappointment, he says, only a feeling of relief. They have so exhausted themselves that they are almost dying men. For the time being they are indifferent to success or failure. Sir Francis pays a great tribute to the porters who have been, engaged on former expeditions, and states: “Their reward should be that one Of them should stand with an Englishman on the summit of that supreme peak.”