CLIMBING EVEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15276, 28 June 1923, Page 9

CLIMBING EVEREST.

NEXT YEAR'S ATTEMPT. George Leigh Mallory, member of the party that climbed last summer within 1700 feet of the top of Mt. Everest, the highest point yet trodden by man, disclosed to the correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor" some of the plans by which the next attempt on the mountain, already arranged for next year by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, is expected to attain the summit of the highest mountain in the world. Mr Mallory, who is a graduate of Cambridge, and a school teacher by profession, calculates the party's chances, which he will share, with modesty.

The next attempt on the mountain like last year's, he says, will be more in the strategic period that intervenes between the melting of the winter shows and the coming of the summer monsoon, most likely some time in Ihe month of May, 1924. But next ysar two new factors of the greatest assistance will be added tO\ the chan-jes of the party's success. The first of these, according to Mr Mallory, is a matter of oxygen. On the last expedition the four cylinders carried by each of the pariy, each of one liter content, were charged to carry 120 liter of oxygen apiece, or under a pressure of 120 to one. The amount was not enough and it \va K a first-class problem, for no more weight could be carried, and, as Mr Mallory naively says, "You have to figure to get back again even after the glory of getting to the top vt the world.'

A new discovery has now jome to the aid of the" climbers, and Mr Mallory is now able to announce' that English natural scientists have evolved a method to subject oxygen to slill greater pressure without increasing the weight 0 i the container. "We believe," he says, "an increase of at least 25 per cent can be secured; and this, according to our experience in the actual climb, ought to be sufficient to carry us through, other things being equal.' ' The other material change fn the programme will be to plan for a new top camp.. Last year five camps, carried out on exact schedule at five levels, and requiring the most cateful preparation for each, were made; but the distance between the top camp of 27,000 feet and the summit of 29,000 feet was found to be too great. Next year, with the apex higher, according to Mr Mallory, the chances will be very much better for the success of the final dash.

Mr Mallory admits the, lure of Everest as a goal of adventurous endurance, but, he says, "the scientific value of scaling this mountain by a trained exploring party may be of great importance, especially in the\ field-of geology. Everest is either the top or bottom of a great geologic field, science has never discovered which,and a real examination of the summit may tell us much."

Mr Mallory plans to leave for England next month, and the 1924 expedition, he says, is due to leave Darjeeling in Upper India just a year later, to try once more to scale Mt. Everest.