ATTACK ON EVEREST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19450, 27 March 1933, Page 2

ATTACK ON EVEREST

HAZARDS TO BE OVERCOME Professor J. Norman Collie, ex-presi-ent of the Alpine Club, writes in the “Daily Telegraph”:— Before 1921, when the first Mount Everest Expeition started, the whole country in which the mountain lies was practically unknown. Situated on the borderland between Nepal and Tibet, it was not possible for Europeans to enter any of the territory near it, though the Grand Lama at Lhasa gave permission in 1921 for an expedition to enter Tibet. This first expedition was sent out by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. At that time so little was known of the country that it was even possible there might be a higher mountain than Everest hidden away on the north. The first expedition was purely a reconnoitring one, the result being a map of the whole region, the discovery of new high peaks, the taking of photographs, and the investigation of the flora and fauna. A practicable route up Mount Everest was worked by Mallory. The next two expeditions in 1922 and 1924 were devoted chiefly to attempts to climb Mount Everest. The present one is mainly for the same purpose.

There is only one route to the summit. Every step is known—where to place the various camps, where the chief difficulties lie, and how they may be surmounted. Fortunately, the climbing difficulties are not too great, for there are no steep precipices of rock or narrow snow ridges with ice towers on them, like those that the German expedition found on Kinchenjunga.

Moreover, the base of Mount Everest in Tibet is about 17,000 ft. above sea level, leaving only 12,000 ft. to be climbed, a height about the same that Mount Blanc is above Chamounix.

The climbing on Mount Everest is in many respects like that on Mount Blanc, nearly all on snow; there are no excessively steep slopes, and the rock work is by no means difficult. It is the physical difficulties that are the chief obstacles. To undertake hard work at altitudes above 26,000 ft. is very near the limit of human endurance, and at the summit of Mount Everest, 29,002 ft. the amount of oxygen in the air is only one-third of that at sea-level. Unless, therefore, the body can be trained to accomodate Itself to such an environment death would ensue. In a balloon ascent In 1875 to 28,000 from sea-level two of the occupants died and only one survived. Near the Summit. Fortunately, the former expeditions to Mount Everest show that by ascending slowly to these high altitudes acclimatisation results. Col. Norton, without any artificial aid of oxygen, climbed to 28,126 ft.—• less than 900 ft. below the summit of Mount Everest—and the Sherpa porters carried 201 b. weight on their backs to nearly 27,000 ft. Thus there is every reason to suppose that, given fine weather and no extra burden, the summit of the mountain can be reached. When Col. Norton won to 28,126 ft. he said: “I emerged on the northern face of the final pyramid, and I believe safety and an easy route to the summit.” Nevertheless, that last 876 ft could have been climbed only terribly slowly, for it took Col. Norton about an hour to climb his last 100 ft. Again, a most perilous obstacle to the climbers will be the weather, for to be caught with a lowered vitality by storms at 29,000 ft. would be disastrous. Mount Everest can muster formidable allies, with its icy winds, snow blizzards, and a temperature below zero. Put men properly acclimatised to low atmospheric pressure, and in a fit condition, and they should be quite capable of setting their feet on the summit of the highest mountain in the world. Other Great Peaks. It is only in recent years that the exploration of the Himalaya has been attempted seriously. Still, there remains an immense field of unknown country. This is not to be wondered at when one considers the difficulty of access.

The Himalaya mountains stretch from the borders of China almost to Afghanistan, about 1,400 miles. Behind them to the north, at the western end, lies another great range of mountains, the Karakoram, where can be found the largest glaciers outside the Arctic regions, and peaks that are second only to Everest.

It was in 1892 that Lord Conway of Aliington, together with Gen. C. G. Bruce, made the first important climbing and exploring expedition to the Karakoram range. Since then there have been more and more expeditions, some for exploration and some for climbing. If, however, there is anyone who stands alone in climbing and knowledge of all the great ranges on the north of India, it is Gen. C. G. Bruce, He has climbed on them from Chitral to the West to Darjeeling on the east He it is who has trained the Gurkha soldiers who have played such an important role in all the expeditions. He commanded the Everest Expedition in 1922. He was also instrumental in starting the Himalaya Club, the object of which is to foster exploration and climbing in the great mountain ranges that stretch across the north of India, and which has now between 300 and 400 members. The interest in the Himalaya is only just beginning. And what a gigantic world it is! Nowhere else in the world is there a peak 23,000 ft. high. In the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges there are more than a hundred. There are also hundreds of glaciers on whose ice hardly a human foot has trod. There are unknown valleys, great icefields, hidden away in the mountain fastnesses. Much, therefore, remains to be done, both in exploration and mountaineering. But those who wish to climb peaks above 26,000 ft. will find the difficulties almost insuperable. For although there are probably at least ten such peaks, none of them is so obliging as Mount Everest. Precipices and steep ice slopes guard any approach to their summits, and avalanches on a scale unknown elsewhere perpetually sweep down their sides.

Many lesser peaks above 20,000 ft. that may be counted by the hundred will afford plenty of sport for the mountaineer. The sport of mountaineering is becoming more and more popular. Englishmen, German, and Americans now contend with one another for prizes. It is in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges that all the prizes lie. No longer do sensible people take any notice of Ruskin’s taunt that mountaineers regard mountains as greased poles. Enjoyment, after all, is one of the chief aims and objects of living, and there is no doubt that mountaineering is a very healthy pursuit.

To wander free among the lonely hills, to watch the clouds form and dissolve from the peaks that shine with snow-white radiance in the sunshine, to see the sunset glow slowly fade from off the tangled mass of ice and rock far above—these teach

one many things that are difficult to win in crowded cities. To feel that one is not held down by one’s environment, and can fight successfully with all the obstacles that nature, with lavish hand, has surrounded one—all these things are given to the mountaineer. Those who have learned to understand the call of the great mountains can say of the Himalaya with Kim and the Lamas: "Surely the Gods live here.” _