EVEREST EXPEDITION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 March 1922, Page 4

EVEREST EXPEDITION.

PLANS FOR THE ASCENT. ' 1 MR. S. TlJiUNitft TOO LATE. ; ] LO2mjl»uN, January 26. : An emissary o A .u«j party that is to-' mane the attempt -to cumb mourns '. Everest has been to Switzerianu to order equipment in the form of ice axes and sets 01 "crampons" tor lce-cnmb-irig irons. The turns of (schencK anu jfeuer Aimer, of Urmdelwald, are supplying these necessities. ±he climbing, ropes, mountaineering tents, and other' '-equipment ana stoics are all beingbought m England. lhe possioiluy i a ; being considered ot a portable wireless! set being taken on tne expedition to' Keep in touch witn its base at Darjeeiing. On the first stages of its journey the expedition will live largely on tinned supplies, but on the hnai and most arduous part of the climb, amid constant Blizzards and whirling particles of ice, where the low barometrical pressure allows little food being taken, they will rely entirely upon the frozen tiesn of Tibetan sheep. The members of the expedition are: : Brig.-General C. tt. Bruce (leader), laeut.-Colonel E. L. Strutt (in charge of climbing party), Dr. T. G. Longstatf (medical otficer), Major E. S. Norton, Captain G. Bruce (Indian Army), Captain Crawford (Indian Army), Captain Noel, Captain George Finch, Dr. Howard Somerville, Dr. Wakefield- (Canada), and Mr. G. Mallory (who took part in last year's expedition). They will sail from England at the end ot February, and hope to be at the foot of Everest in May. if the ascent eana|ot be accomplished by June the monsoon will oblige them to defer the attempt till September, and they will have to come down to a lower altitude in the meanwhile. The low atmospheric pressure is tne great obstacle to success. In the Swiss Alps, taking one sort of climbing with another^ mountaineers can move upwards at the rate of 1000 ft. an hour. In the Himalayas, as the Duke of the Abruzzi recalls, the late is no more than 150 ft. an hour. This means that when the party have reached the nearest point to that which last year's expedition attained—6ooft. below the summit ; —they will still have three days' climbing, whereas the same climb at the altii tuu© of Mont 3ilanc (15,780 ft.) could be done in six hours. The last dash for the summit of Everest (19,450 ft.) will probably be made by only four of the, , party, who will be kept back while ad- ! vance base camps are being formed for them ahead, and will then push on at their best speed for the ciest. Two men can travel faster than four, but the larger number is necessary in ease of one climber breaking down, when another can be sent back with him, leaving two to try for the peak. HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. Unluckily Mr. S. Turner, F.N.G.S., arrived from New Zealand too late for inclusion in the coming expedition. Only a limited number of passports are issued, and the personnel was complete before he got here, but he is very , hopeful of having the opportunity of j trying his luck next year, or the year after, for there is an impression in the i scientific world that it will take from five to ten years to conquer the highest mountain in the world. Mr. Turner prepared his way to London by cabling, through the High Com--1 missioner, the suggestion that the Royal Geographical Society should give , him the opportunity of going out, as he i felt himself fit enough to dtand the ; storms, and was very sure that he'could arrive at the summit. He suggested , that he should be allowed to take the two best men from the 23,000 ft. camp, , using their . own equipment and their own instruments, with the view to accomplishing the ascent by the end of | 1923. If the task should fail, then he would give a sum of money to the | Mount Everest Fund. I The day after Mr. Turner arrived he

; had an interview with Sir F. Young- | husband, who received him very couzi teously and allowed time for a lengthy i chat. Bec-ause of the experience which had befallen the expedition last year in . tke case of men over fifty, sir Francis at the outset naturally rather inclined to the opinion that Mr. Turner's ago might be against him. He recommended Mr. Turner to the Alpine Club, and interviews have since taken place witn the club officials. His reception has altogether been very gratifying. ; When talking to Sir Francis, Mr. Turner expressed the view that the con- , quest of Everest had assumed a '■ national aspect, and that the prestige lof the British Empire was involved. I British honour, pluck, and endurance were at stake, and, on this account,' the best ability in the Empire should be ; ; selected. There were men of other, ' Ciiffltries who would readily pluck the' jp: ize if the British failed to get there,' as had happened before in the case of ■ Antarctic exploration. As strengthenj ing his case from the point of view of fitness for his inclusion in a future ! party. Mr. Turner told Sir Francis that, jhe had broken the world's skipping rei cord on board ship on the way to England. He had registered 10,000 skips in I exactly an hour, beating the previous 1 published world's1 record of 9500. He i mentioned, too, that his conquest of , "Mount Cook alone was as recent as ! 1919, and that he was in the pink of ' condition and the prime of life—very much younger than his years. j |"A GOOD BIT OF STUFF." ! '1 pointed out to Sir Francis." said Mr. Turner to me, "that mountain climbers in New Zealand are fifteen to , twenty years ahead of English climbers jby reason of the unexplored and dim-, cult mountains that we have to tackle. ; Further, I told him that for the physical feat necessary to climbing the last , 4000 feet of Mount Everest, they rc--1 quired an extraordinary man. Such \ physical feats on an unknown mountain ; are rarely found among men who only scale mountains that are well known. Again, I hazarded the opinion that no man will get to the top of Mount Everest who cannot carry 301b on his back.'' i "That is to say," interjected Sir Francis, "nobody will ever get to the top of Mount Everest." To which Mr. Turner replied that in ' New Zealand mountaineers carried 35 ito 401b up the most dangerous preci- ! pices and ice slopes to be found any'wfiere in the world, and that he had: done climbing with as much as 401b and step cutting at the same time; that on, I one or two occasions he had carried 601b, for instance over the Milford track' only last March. The president of the Royal Geographical Society considered Mr. Turner was a man of exactly the right build and ( ■ va good bit of stutf." j I"I am so enthusiastic over this con-j quest, and so thorough in my determination that if it were only a question of money I should be inclined to pawn imy proverbial sfiirt to get there, but j unfortunately the door is locked by the Indian Government against anybody ', but this expedition, and, as I learned I officialy directly after I landed in London, the coming expedition party had already been chosen." | New Zealanders will be interested to know that people in the scientific world have been favourably impressed by Mr. Turner's visit. His coming book, to be

entitled "The Conquest of the NewZealand Alp»y" is in fcho hands of Mr. Fisher Unwin, and its pnblioation isanticipated in a few months' time. Its appearance will no doubt further advance his prospects of inclusion in a future Everest party. Meanwhile he> will continue in ~Xevr Zealand his two months' mountaineering exploration each year.—Wellington Post correspondent.