CONQUEST OF EVEREST

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11835, 17 January 1933, Page 3

CONQUEST OF EVEREST

TREMENDOUS' RIINVOLVED -n FLYERS' WILL: NEED PURE' "■ . oxygen: '■■;• > JTT.P.A. Ly-Elfti. iTel.: Gopvrls;lil<. | . ~ London; jan.; i's, : ’ The Everest- expeditions planes approaching the. southern face’of . Mt/. Everest are expected ■ to , reach tlie summit in the final stage-in. less thau 90 ■minutes. Two aeroplanes start from Pitmen/ 250) miles' north 'of Calcutta,. cross: the-jealously .guarded - frontier of; Nepal, anil -• thence 11 v-nt v 13.000- foet : nboyo 'the; sav-ahe wilder--pess and pathless .'jungle'" tilUEvprest, hitherto appearing. 'as .one peak "among manv,; stands-alone.f A s / \ Tim fearless.' - airmen ' will, take increasing draughts of mire -oxygen from/ containers of which' the "contents will he blcctfically-'.heated to prevent freezing.' • < - ■ ’ •

Lady- Houston, who’made ’a r gift of Cl Of). 000 'to the Air 'TVfihi'strv so that Britain •'might’ win outright >' Hbp' Schneider 'Tronliy. -has 'now genofouslv financed an' expedition which' is to make ene of-'‘the 'most •* ' spectacular flights _e' r er undertaken. • A British nirnlane,. piloted hv. the Marquis of Clydesdale? i,s to flv.niofc, than' 30^.miles from Northern Bengal’ across .the .fiVc-milo'-hjgh, high", snpw covered gpnk of Mount .; Everest—the earth's highest uoint—which. so far, has defied all, attempts of man to enngner' if-,.'

The attempt will he made .at a maximum altitude of "aLOOft in order to avoid the terrific winds which sweep across Mount. Everest,. causing a r i rong “d own -d ran gift’!. a t its si d e.s. A- special airplane which lias already olimhed to an .altitude.-.of 45.000 feet has hcen hought by-the.organi-sers of the flight., Tests, in which Lord Clydesdale and other participators- in the •venture will wear electrically-heated suits and have oxygen apparatus strapped to their hacks., wore made some time ago in fhe machine at BropJjlnnds and Martlosham Heath, the Air Force experimental station. . , ,

Trials . wore nlsn . made .of special foods that will . lie carried on .(lie flight. . ,

Superchargors have-been, fitted to the airplane engine so. that it may develop full power at great .altitudes. Not, only will the old lies of the a via - tors he electrically, heated, hut even the cameras themselves will he warmed to prevent the films from, freezing.

WILD MAN OE'EVEREST

ROGEY-MAN OF TIBETAN HOUSEHOLDS. •

Will the intrepid members of ilid new expedition to Mount' Everest he able to pierce the legend of "The Wild 'Man’’? Thus Roger C'nrnforth in the "Melbourne Argus.” Weird are the tales which the Tibetans tell of Methokangmi, "The Wild Man of the Snows.” Belief in his existence has been sustained for centuries. The native legends describe him as being covered with long hair, a wild man whose home is in the snows of the higher and most inaccessible ranges. He is the hogey-man of Tibetan households, and the legendary ogre who will claim as his own naughty and disobedient children. There is hut one way to avoid him if he is once seen, mothers warn their wide-eyed offspring; if they run a.s hard as they can, always downhill, they will elude his fell designs. This bent, wild man is at a disadvantage when descending a hill. The long-tangled hair with which he is covered then, obscures his vision. .. v

Such is the legend); and it is one the mountain, natives believe without question. Of recent years, however, startling suggestions have been heard that this mysterious "Wild Mail—of--the^Smnrs-'-nray-fidt'‘be xftttv gether the mythical individual "he -wag supposed to be. An. Italian explorer. Signor A. Tomhazi, a year or two ago was engaged on a photographic expedition among the lower peaks of the Tivehingunga Range of the Himalayas. The Italian had attained a height cf some 15,000 ft:, when, chancing to sweep the majestic heights before him with a pair of ■ powerful fieldglasses, lie - was surprised to see what appeared to he-an unclothed, semi-human figure, walking almost upright. For some minutes the Italian watched, and saw the figure,, whose hack was turned to him, make an occasional halt to tear up with obviously powerful hands wild hnsTios chat grew’ on the mountain-side. Always it seemed to climb upward, and presently if was lost to view. Giving his impressions afterward, the Italian declared that the figure showed up darkly against the snow, and might well have been draped with long hair. His curiosity aroused, the Italian pressed forward in the direction taken by this strange figure, and after many hour s of stiff climbing he made a discovery u’hich seemed to-, show atleast that he-had not'been the victim of any hallucination. In. the snow before him w’ere unmistakable footprints. They we're about 6m. long, spread outward at the toes, and they w’ere similar to those made by human beings. So certain were the Italian's hearer,s that these prints were made by the "wild man’ 5 that they declined to go any farther. During the 1922 expedition to Everest similar strange tracks in the snow were encountered at the great height of 22,000 ft. . They greatly puzzled tlie English explorers who saw them. The tracks looked exactly like those which would be made by unshod human feet; . yet at that height the existence of normal human life seemed impossible. Here, again, the native carriers were certain -these must he the tracks of Metohkangrai. But - the , explorers, who, were unwilling to subscribe to -this belief, • concluded that they had been'made . by, a large, grey wolf. That may. or may not. be the true explanation.

To the natives this mighty mountain- has always been .a place .of .spirits. Eaoh rock, each mountain path, each stream, lias its.deity., .Roth r the Tibetans _on - the northern slopes, of Everest and the Nepalese on the southern ,share the legendary belief

that ithevhigher : region'.of-the '-"King of Heights*’/is' holy land, 'and' that to seek j to:.- penetratethat ■> region ?i's ' to. 'ihcrfr the' wrathof the' gods. . The Nepalese,, ‘for ‘ instance; * have - from time ! immemorial . held the belief thatthe height' is 'the abode of the god apd goddess . Shiva and Parvati, and that any invasion .of their privacy .would he' a- sacrilege fraught with f disastrous consequences to the Hindu people. ; The belief is : ineradicable that when a man slips and is killed a sacrifice to the' god of tlie mountain lias teen .made ;f and? that anyone -who /happens to be on the/ scene at the •time/ 'and escapes-, will assuredly' at some future date -slip and fall to. Mcatli''-ih'tho/same’' way5 V,' :