ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18020, 8 November 1920, Page 2

ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD

WHERE NO FOOT HAS EVER TROD. An attempt is to be made to capture one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world. It is a campaign against Mount Everest, in the Himalayas. Man has never gone anywhere near to conquering him. He looks down on the world from his 29.002 feet of height, on puny mortals who have never come within 10,000 ft. of his summit.

The suggestion has been made that as an aeroplane has achieved 30,000ft,why should not the mountain be climbed by plane, th e passenger being dropped on the peak? But the suggestion was met with disdain by the expert mountaineer to whom it was put. The great problem is to arrive at the top of the mountain and breathe when you are there. To this end Dr A. M. Kellas is in India studying the position from the breathing point of view.

The Everest adventure is being arranged by a committee of members of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. As to the chances of success, “It is very doubtful whether the summit of the mountain will ever be reached at all,” declared one who has recently returned from a climbing expedition in the Himalayas. “The difficulty lies not so much in the nature of the actual rock and snow climbing. That is on the whole much easier than in Switzerland. It is the rarefied atmosphere that is the great obstacle. Mummery, one of the most famous of Alpine climbers, established a depot close to the top of Monga Parbat, ant} stayed there for some time accumulating stores and acclimatising his lungs and heart to the thin air. The final ascent seemed easy; but on his dash to the peak he died. “Aeroplanes have gone to greater heights without violent distress to pilot and passengers; but these voyagers have been merely sitting still. It is physical movement that becomes so exhausting. Over 17,000 or 18,000 feet it is necessary to stop and rest every hundred yards, sometimes every fifty yards.” The world’s highest climb is that accomplished by the Duke of the Abruzzi, who ascended another Himalayan peak, 24,500 ft high. Previously the record had been held by Captain T. Longstaff, who climbed to nearly 24,000 ft.