KAMET CONQUERED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

KAMET CONQUERED

A HIMALAYAN ADVENTURE The conquest of Kamet, the great 25,447 feet peak in the Central Himalaya, and explorations at the source of the Ganges, are told by Mr. F. S. Smythe, leader of the 1931 expedition, in his engrossing book " Kamet Conquered." This is a stirring account of adventure that will grip the mountaineer and non-mountaineer alike: of hardship on tho lofty snov? when lungs were gasping for oxygen; of burning sun and treachorous ico; and of mighty avalanches that threatened obliteration without warning. In vivid contrast are the beautifully drawn word pictures of valleys filled with flowers; of untrodden hillsides where Nature decked herself in sweetest mood and where there seemed nothing more desirable on earth than to bask in the sunshine and let everything else go by. " We were too far above the world," says Mr. Smythe when satisfying th® reader's curiosity as to what one sees, thinks and feels at the staggering height they achieved. " One's eye passed almost contemptuously over mighty range upon mighty range to seek repose in the violet hazes of illimitable horizons. Even the turreted thunder clouds, , sun-crested above, purple-shadowed below, would not attain to our level. The breeze'fanning us was deathly cold, the silence and sense of isolation almost terrible. There were no green valleys; all about us were peaks of black rock and glaring ice and snow, frozen outposts of the infinite." Almost step by step the author describes the endeavour leading up to this wonderful vista. Remarkable photographs bring th© scenes more readily to the reader's eye. The writer tells of the first oncoming of the effects of high altitude, the laborious breathing, the utter fatigue that accompanied every effort, the dogged plugging through the snow when the brain seemed numbed and the mind worked like some muffled mechanism. There were times when rhythmic movement—the value of which the author emphasises again and again—helped them to plod wearily on. Then there would be encountered difficult going that upset all pretence of rhythm, thwarted the mental processes and cast upon them an added burden in the form of mental and physical conflict. But courage and perfect team work carried them through. The lure of the mountains was in their blood. They accepted the challenge and won, but winning, they took their victory humbly. " Kamet Conquered," by F. S. Smythe. (Gollancz.)