STILL UNCONQUERED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 26

STILL UNCONQUERED

i EVEREST'S MIGHTY PEAK , It is sixteen years since the first party of British., climbers visited Mount Everest, and though each expedition achieved something to aid those that * followed, it is, now realised: that the o f highest mountain in the world is go--h ing to prove extremely difficult to ' ie climb. It is not merely a case of ac- ] n> climatising oneself to the lack of oxyO x gen. The climbers must be granted in permission to travel through Tibet (beas tween 1924 and 1933 this permission ,-c was not forthcoming); they must be to technically skilful enough to make the c- long traverse across the outward slople ing slabs of the main ridge and scale s- the final . pyramid—a problem that ly would be difficult at far lower levels; le and! most important of all, they must ; re have about a week of fine weather tots wards the end of May. :d This last essential the 1936 expedite tion lacked. When they were at their ] >c base camp and good weather did not ' a matter very much, it was beautifully ir fine. When they had climbed as high ' :« as. the North Gol and were planning to ' -- make their final assault, monsoon snow ] '-, began to fall, phenomenally early, ' ]1 blanketing the slabs above and making \ )f the slopes below them extremely dan- ' '" gerous. They got down without an ] ;e, avalanche, and a most courageous ' * reconnaissance by Shipton and Wyn ; * Harris proved, almost at the cost of ■? life, that the mountain would not be ' " climbable again that year. Mr. :Rutt- •' a ledge then took his party vp 4 the main ' * Rongbuk glacier to examine the other ' . side of the North Col. Then they re- ' ~ f turned to Darjeeling. '" In "Everest: The Unfinished Adven- ' z. ture," by Hugh Ruttledge, descrip- ' y tions of the actual climbing in ■ 1036 f * do not occupy, a very large part of the book, but it is to Mr. Ruttledge's c credit as a writer, remarks a London £ reviewer ,'that this second book of his ' is as readable as his first; which de- ' scribed a much more active and sue- _ cessful expedition. In fact, "The Unfinished Adventure" is in many ways J the better of the two, for the author ' has found space to discuss the prob- i ' lem as a whole instead of making his t l" book a mere narrative of a climb. So, * 1 in an - interesting first chapter called ' r Perspectives, •he tells the story of r : former -, ■ attempts on the mountain, E '" speaks of the justification for such s s risk," expense, and effort,. and writes c - of- the special qualities that a climber f , needs. - • . ~ •■ , - s , •-■'■ Another chapter concerns the small a. recorinaissance expedition which Ship- f L- ton led in the post-monsoon period of t I. ,1935. On this expedition Michael t Spender, did a lot of useful work with E a photo-theodolite, and twenty-six t peaks of over 20,000 feet were climbed, n " This suggests that Shere is a possi- a !, Mlity that Mount Everest itself would t. = be climbable after the monsoon, though s ". ,the weather is then much colder than a in the spring. ' . . <■ ' The account of the journey across ;,n 2 Tibet is full, of interest. a s The brief story, of the.climb to the; v : North Col gives one ah idea of the b >• great. and; .varied .difficulties which: a £> » leader "must'face'when tempers and : t judgment are frayed by altitude, and it a - pays a tribute, too; to the courage and t< - devotion of the porters. In the last V * half of the book are appendices on oxy- t< > gen, wireless,-scientific collections, and £ t the local name of" Mount Everest. This P ■ last, Mr. Kempsori thinks, should un- P 1 doubtedly be Choro-Langra. Finally, a: there is a portfolio of wonderful pic- ii tures. ■ w