KINCHININGA PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 44, 21 February 1930, Page 9

KINCHININGA PARTY

OFF TO THE HIMALAYAS

BRITISH MEMBER FAREWELLED

Kritlsh Official Wtrtleii.

RUGBY, 19th February.

The Alpine Ski Club last night entertained*' Mr. F. S. Smythc, who has been selected as the British member of the international mountaineering expedition, which is to visit the Himalayas and attempt in the early summer the ascent of Kinchinjiuga.

TJeplying to the toast of his health, proposed by Mr. L. S. Amery, former Colonial Secretary, who is an enthusiastic mountaineer, Mr. Smythe said that Professor Dyhrenfurth had been planning the expedition for twenty years, and it had been greatly assisted by his services. He believed an organisation and equipment had/been got together that would give Kinchinjinga a shock. They hoped to get permission to attack the mountain from the Nepal side, and approach it from the east. Sir Martin Conway said that they could not expect that beyond 20,000 feet the members would have a very pleasant time. Kinahinjinga had to him the appearance c± giving much greater difficulty than Mount Everest.

According to an earlier cable message, the international expedition willbe the strongest that'has ever visited the Himalayas, including famouß climbera of Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, commanded by Professor Dyhrenfurth, who is accompanied by his wife, an international tennis player. The party will sail from Venice on 24th February. The beginning of the assault on the mountain will be made in May, before the monsoon. A base will bo established at sixteen thousand feet, and six camps will be established higher up. Kinelunjinga is the embodiment of inaccessibility, even more difficult than Everest, and will demand every atom of strength and mountain craft. The peak is '28,146 feet above sea level.