KIKCHINJUNGA VICTORIOUS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1930, Page 9

KIKCHINJUNGA VICTORIOUS

MOUNTAINEERS HOPELESS AVALANCHES AND BLIZZARDS WEST RIDGE IMPOSSIBLE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—-Copyright. London, May 8. “Kinchinjunga has beaten us,” states a message, dated May 22, from the base camp. “Our last hope was the west ridge, but our best efforts proved that the ascent was impossible. No mountaineers have been confronted with a harder or more hopeless task than Kinchinjunga’s northern face. “The rocks and ice have made the hardest and most severe alpine work we have attempted. Blizzard succeeded blizzard, but the worst thing of all was the awful avalanches. Kinchinjunga is the awful mother of avalanches. They fall 6000 feet, taking miles of level glaciers in their stride. “We were convinced that the mountain was impossible by the north ridge •route, and decided to attempt the west ridge. We breasted the crest, then our hearts sank as we gazed at what we had had hoped to. climb. There has never been a mountain face which has so damped the optimism of the human pigmies crawling at its base.”