A HIMALAYAN ADVENTURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21019, 7 May 1930, Page 10

A HIMALAYAN ADVENTURE.

The famous climbers of five nations who are at present engaged in an attempt to make an ascent of Kinohinjunga, the second highest mountain peak in the world, have encountered difficulties other than those primarily associated with mountaineering enterprises. The cable service has reported the desertion of many of the porters, and apparently some of those who remained have been giving trouble, though this is-now at an end owing to the dismissal of those agitators who seem nowadays to form a part of any assemblage of toilers in the more humble spheres. It may be assumed, however, that the members of the expedition were not unprepared for minor disturbances of' this» nature. In undertaking a climb of such magnitude they would, in fact, have to be prepared for almost any eventuality. The history of the two previous attempts to ascend Kinchinjunga has left no doubts as to the Homeric task before the present explorers. A Swiss expedition met with disaster in 1905, one climber and three porters being swept into a crevasse by one of those avalanches which are of coinmon occurrence in the inaccessible mountain reaches, and a Bavarian expedition which made an assault on the eastern face of the mountain last year was forced to turn back, owing to bad weather; after reaching a height of 24,600 feet. Kinchinjunga, or. Kanchenjunga, as it is also called, is 38,150 feet high. The members of the present expedition, consisting of experienced climbers of five nationalities, including British, and led by Professor G. 0. Dyrenfurth, of Germany, have,- according to a recent cablegram, reached an altitude of some 18,000 feet, and already are finding that the elevation has considerable effect on the lungs. It is interesting to note that the surgeon included in the personnel is an authority on the physiological effects of high altitudes. His observations may be expected to be of value in his specialised field of scientific research, and it is to bo anticipated that the other scientists with the party, including two geologists and a botanist, will find rich material for study in the unexplored regions on the “roof of the world.” Of course, the hardest part of their adventure still confronts the alpinists, but they have, as The Times remarked in a recent editorial, one and all proved physically and temperamentally in other climbs that they possess in a high degree the qualities that make for success in such a sally, and there seems to be good reason for hoping that they will have better fortune than the others who have attempted to reach the summit of Kinchin junga.