CLIMBING OF EVEREST.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 243, 18 October 1921, Page 7

CLIMBING OF EVEREST.

A DISCOURAGING VIEW. Last week’s cables stated that the final attempt to scale Mount Everest will not bo mad© by the present party. Now that apparently a feasible route to the summit has been found, tho whole party will return to England. In November of next year a definitely organised tind equip ped party will be sent to follow up from the point where the present reconnaissance has ceased. Sir Martin Conway, M.P., the famous mountaineer and leader of the first expedition to the Himalayas, expressed the opinion in a lecture delivered on 25th August at tho Hotel des Alpes, Murren, Switzerland, that the present attempt to ascend Mount Everest was not likely to succeed. Ho feared that none of th* Himalayas was likely to be ascended. Tremendous avalanches of great frequency bombarded the lower slopes. He had counted eighteen in twenty minutes. Further, a great precipice cut off most of the mountain base. Ho described’ tho enormous difficulties of tho adventure, based on his own knowledge of the region. “In the first place,” he said, “wo arc in complete ignorance as to the- nature of the mountain. It is only known bv distant views of tho upper part. Nobody before the present expedition has been within forty miles of tho mountain, and only ono person has been as near as that. The Himalayas are much younger than tho Alps and tho Welsh hills, and differ from tho former in being much more precipitous and much less rounded off by the action of the forces of denudation, inasmuch as they are in an earlier stag® of disintegration. Tho result is that it is tho exception to find a peak that is at all climbable. Many of the big mountains of tho range are cut off all round bv peaks below, and even if this ts not so in tho case of Everest, and if it bo proved that tho mountain may bo scaled from base to summit, the mere length of f the ascent presents problems too complicated in character for any expedition to anticipate. “So far as it is possible to judge from photographs of the upper part of the mountain, its summit is reached from tho north‘by a long and not very steep though probably narrow ridge, which at an Alpine level might not bo difficult. But climbing at an altitude of 28,000 to 29,000 feet is a totally different proposition. The highest ascent thus far is that of Tho Bride, in the Himalayas, which tho Duke of tho Abruzzi climbed to a height of 24,500 feet. It was not difficult, but on the last day the rate was only 150 feet an hour, and it was safe therefore to assume that beyond 26,000 feet exports could noa proceed faster than 100 feet an hour, with a maximum of 1000 feet in a-day.. To ensure this progress a series of camps would have to be established at exceedingly high altitudes, beginning at the lowest with ono at 18.000 feet. Others would have to be placed at altitudes of 21,000, 23,000, 24.500, 26,000, 27,000 and 28,000 feet respectively, each higher camp being somewhat smaller than that immediately below. These camps would necessitate carrying considerable weights up to great heights; they would have to be strong enough to withstand the heavy storms which are more frequent than good weather at high altitudes; they would have to be victualled for several days, and would have to provide shelter for several sleepers, and for at least two in the highest of all. “Tent platforms are not likely to be provided by Nature, and would most probably have to be hewn out of solid ice. This would bo very slow work, because the primary effect of high altitudes on man is to induce sleep and fatigue rapidly when any work is done. The camps would also have to be fairly permanent structures to last at least two seasons.” It seemed to Sir Martin, therefore, most difficult to imagine that an expedition, however competent and well organised, unless it includes a large body of able porters, each more or less a skilled mountaineer, could be expected to conquer Everest in a single season. Sir Martin’s own experience at the Himalayas prompted him to t he belief that it would bo useless to base hopes on the fact that all tho Alpine peaks had been conquered. The assumption that all the peaks of the world are vulnerable was far too sanguine. What. I however, he did expect from the party ! now attempting to ascend Everest was I a good general survey of tho mountain and of the district surrounding it. to- | gether with the geological observation ' of the structure of tho peak itself, the nature of its glaciers, its watersheds, and general topography. He sincerely hoped that the explorers would bo able to got on to the base of the mountain itself, and make some expeditions up its slopes. lint if thev failed to roach any altitude above 23.000 feet ho and others would not be disappointed. [The present expedition is reported to have reached an altitude of 23,000 feet. ]