EVEREST EXPENDITION

Hokitika Guardian, 9 February 1922, Page 4

EVEREST EXPENDITION

EXPLORERS’ WELCOME. s A LAND OF VERDURE AND I BEAUTY. v v LONDbN, Dec 23. ' i Interesting stones have been told of f ] the efforts that have been made to find ] a way to the top of Alt Everest. Mem- < bers of he preliminary expedition are i now back in London, and the’ public iave had an opportunity of hearing i first-hand the story of the great work , that has been undertaken, and of seeing on the screen the wonderful photographs of that little-known part of th® , world. And here it may be said, that those photographs entirely dissipate the idea, which is so frequently held that the / country surrounding the, highest peak I in the world is a desolate and; barren j wilderness. Thick beautiful, forest and 'flowering plants grow well up the i mountain sides and. fill the lower vaL ileys, and animal and insect life ! abounds. , -. , ■ _ ’ ! This week Colonel Howard Bury, the j loader of the expedition, lectured before 1 a joint meeting of the Royal Geograpluj oal Society and Lie Alpine Club, and j Mr MallQry, who was one of the climb- ! ing party, described their, efforts to find j the approach by which the final assault ' will be made next year. Sir F. Youngi husband (President of the Royal Geo- ! graphcinl Society) also gave a lecture i at the Forum Club, when Miss B. PulI lon Bury ,wlio is well known in New ! Zealand, presided. Previously she had jenerained Sir Francis at dinner, and Sir James Allen was among the guests. I j In welcoming hack Colonel Bury, ir | F. Yoiinghusband said that the memjbers of the expedition were not instructed to attempt to reach the sumj mit or to break “record.” That task <vns to be reserved for next year’s exuedition. But they were expected to ! find out the most feasible way to the top, so that the coming party might, without hesitation, go full speed ahead along that route. That object they bad unquestionably accomplished. “Seek ye first the very highest, and all these things shall be added unto you.” They sought, first the highest mountain m the°world, and already a number of delightful things had been added to them. They had Colonel Bury’s graphic telegrams and the magnificent photographs which he and Mr Wollaston sent back. Th o latter’s natural history collections, including seeds-already planted at Kew and Edinburgh and in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens—of new or rare primulas gentians, and rhododendrons and other plants, maps by Major Wheeler, and Dr Horen’s account of the geology of the region was „n its way. Lastly had come t-io bill. It was expected it. would be £5000; actually it was only £4OOO, excluding the expenses incurred by the Government of India on the survey. MAR VELLOUS VEG ET ATI ON.

Colonel Bury described the journey from Darjeeling to Sikkim. “Owing to its heavy rainfall,” he said, “Sikkim is a country with a lavish growth and a marvellous vegetation. The path that

leads across to the Tibetan frontier is a very trying one, as it is a series of steep climbs followed by equally steep descents into steaming tropical valleys. Wonderful butterflies of every shade and huge flitted across the path, scarlet rhododendrons made brilliant patches of colour in the dark green of the luxuriant forest among huge tree ferns. Creepers and ferns hung from every tree; white, orange, mauve, or purple orchids grew among the mosses and ferns on the branches of the trees, and showed up in lovely clumps of colour. We passed big hedges of daturas on the way, 15ft to 20ft in height, and covered with hundreds of great white trumpetshaped blooms, quite Bin. in diameter and fully a foot in length. At night they gave out a strangely sweet scent, and seemed to gleam in the darkness with a curious kind of phospliores-

cence.” . I>( . Entering Tibet, a visit was paid to the, Donka Monastery, in the Chumbi Valley, wliich contained an enormous prayer-wheel, containing over a million prayers. “Each time the wheel is turned, the lecturer- said', “a bell rings and 1,000,000 prayers have ascended to heaven. In other places we met prayerwheels turned- by water, brought down in irrigation channels, and again in other parts the wind was used to do tho same work, a kind of aneometer being fitted up to catch the wind. This latter was, perhaps, the most constant, as the wind blows both summer and winter- in Tibet, whereas for six months in the year the water is frozen, and the waterwheel is silent, and can offer no prayers. In the Donka Monastery was a

famous oracle, a regular Delphic oracle who was consulted' far and wide, and his oracles had a, great reputation for truth. Here we were given the usual Tibetan tea, poured out into agate and silver teacups, and made with salt, tea, and butter, all churned up together.” T)r Kellas was a member of the expedition who had been carrying out experiments with oxygen. He had not spared himself, climbing numbers of mountains of 20,00dft. and less, and when he came to the latter part of the journey towards Mt Everest, he was greatly exhausted. Stomach troubles broke out among the! members of tbe expedition, owing to the change of climate and bad cooking. Dr Kellas gradually grew worse, until on the last march before reaching Kampa Dzong, while being carried in a litter over a 17.000 ft pass, his heart failed him, and he passed away quietly. The following day he was buried! at Kampa Dzong, within sight of the three great mountains he had climbed in Sikkim, and in view of Mt Everest, which he had so longed to approach. After Kampa Dzond the route lay across broad plains and along the flat and swamp valley of the Yaru.” “We forded the Yaru,” continued the lecturer, “and came to the fiine country house of Gyanga Nangpa, which was the home of the Phari Jongpen. He rode out to meet us, and provided us with a very Solid meal of soup and Tibetan dumplings, with a chillie sauce. As we were given fifteen dumplings apiece, we found some difficuly in making room for these . Europeans had never been seen before in any of these parte since leaving Kampa Dzong, so everywhere wo were objects of the createst interest. FLOWERS AT 20,000 ft.

“By September 20th we had all moved lip to the 20,000 ft camp, situated on the sunny terrace of stones between

two. glaciers. Even here a few flowers th existed, and every night any food in of my tent left unprotected was eaten by Ai some mountain rats, though what they Jai can find ordinarily to eat at these ,K heights'l , cannot imagine. The nights t were cold, but t the days delightfully “ warm, and the black bul'b thermometer 1,1 ■ registered sun temperatures of ; 195 and , 197 , (degrees Fahrem- ( ” licit regularly. The sun at thes e . great heights is one of the great foes > V that we have to contend with. It seems , , to exhaust and draw off all one’s vital- ■ ity, and leave us limp and good for no ; '' exertion. The whole climate is trying, j and the extremes are so great that your j ‘. feet can he suffering from frost-bite ‘1 while you are gettjng sun-stroke, at the same time. On September 22nd., six of mis moved up to the Lhakpa. La, a 1001. 22,320 ft high, to which Mallory s had been busy carrying up stores; from here the only possible way up to Alt. Everest could be seen, clearly.,, It necessitates first a. descent of idOOft on to a branch of the Bangbuk Valley, and then a steep climb up to the north col, a col that joined Mt Everest with the north peak, a peak some 24,(i00ft in height. Air Alallory, with Air Bullock and Major Wheeler, went on next day and reached the col a,t a height of about 23,000 ft. but the fates were altogether against them, and though the weather , remained bright and clear a. N.W. gnl 0 ■ had already set in which made life even ■ at the Lhakpa La camp very unpleasant, > and conditions become absolutely impos- . sible For any higher climbing. ‘‘Tracks of hares, foxes, and wolves 1 were seen in the snow at great heights 1 up to 21,000 ft, and the track of what was probably a large loping ,grey wolf, r which had tracks very like that of a . bare-footod man, gave rise to the legend of the snow man, which was well known . to our coolies. Like in many other c countries, they have in Tibet a bogey . man with which to frighten their cliild--3 ren when naughty, and this takes the , .form of a hairy man that lives in the snow, and when they want to escape j from him they must run down hill, as j long hair from his head falls over his e eves when he runs downhill, and he is 8 unable to see, and so they can escape v from him. Many such stories they , have, and these wolf tracks in ti e snow, which looked at first sight like human prints, were at once accepted by them as being the tracks of wild men. ’ SMILING PASTURE LAND. On August 2nd Alallory and Bullock left Kharta to explore the eastern ap- , preach to Mt Everest. I followed the I Alpine climbers a couple of days later, p After going for seven miles up the I Kharta Valley, which is very fertile, with every level space filled with barley 3 fields, and containing numerous villages and monasteries, we turned up a l . side valley ami then crossed over a 'chain of mountains to the S. by the Lungina La, a pass 18,000 ft in height. This led us into the wonderful Kama Valley, a valley unexcelled in beauty anywhere in ihe Mimala; as, with the most stupendous scenery, with gigantic rocky cliffs towering up to heaven, ) with immense cliffs of ice, torn and riven, breaking off and falling with a ' thunderous roar far down into the val- “ Icy below, with smiling pastures right ! up amongst, the ice and snow, with fields carpeted with many varieties of 1 gentian, and with rhododendrons, birch, and fir trees surroundng some of the ? lower glaciers, and with forests of some 'of the most magnificent fir trees in the lower parts of the volley; the whole forming a combination of beauty not • often seen. At the extreme end of the valley towered up Alt Everest, with ! its great buttresses forming a huge ' semi-circle, and, like a great snake the ' Kangshung glacier, with its bands of ■ black moraine, crept up to the foot of 1 the rock walls and cliffs that formed the ' eastern side of Mt Everest. It did not need a long survey of these faces to satisfy the Alpine climbers that there - was no practicable route up this side, ■ hut there was still an untried approach 1 up the Kharta Valley, and to this val- ■ ley they now turned their attention.” The journey back was made up the valley of the Amu and Bhong Ohu, as it is'called in Tibet. Darjeeling was r.m.'hc:: mi October 25th, and the expe--1 dition of 1921 was over. It had aceem- ■ plished what it sot out to do. All the approaches to Alt Everest from the N., N.W., N.E., and 15. had been carefully reconnoitred, and a possible route to the top bad. been found up the ridge, and it was only climatic conditions that prevented a much greater height Icing attained this year. The ' scientific results have not yet been i fully.worked out, but in general outt line some 13,000 square miles of now country have been surveyed and mapped, part of this by the method of photographic survey and on a large scale. A large collection of birds and i mammals of all sizes have been collected, the geology of the whole region has been carefully worked out by Dr I Heron, who is now compiling a gedogi--1 cal map of the district, and a series of photographs have been taken of a country quite unknown and containing some of the grandest scenery in the . world. Such, briefly, have been the results of the first year’s expedition. l t CAN EVEREST BE CLIMBED?

Mr 0. Mallory reported oil the mountain reconnaissance, lie com hided his record of the hardships whien had to he encountered by asking: “Is it humanly possible to reach the snini'mc ui Mt Everest?” and lie himself answered, “We have not a single convincing argument to solve that problem. 1 felt somehow when we reached the Noith Col that the task was not impossible, but that may only have been a delusion based on the appearance of the mountain from that point. J am very far from a sanguine estimate as to the prospects of success. If men could be found to besiege Everest your alter year 1 believe it would surrtiulci at last. But the chances against any particular expedition are indeed very large. A party of two arriving at the top, each so tired that he is beyond helping the other, might provide good ‘copy,’ but this performance would probably provoke the censure of reasonable opinion. We have to consider sickness and exhausted coolies. . Any reckoning, I believe, which fairly weighs the conditions and circumstances governing such ah enterprise can only come to the conclusion that the chances in favour of success for any - particular party are small indeed.” From the photographs of tlic peak the remaining portion to he traversed seems to present few real climbing difficulties. The first 20t)0ft would be up an incline of 30 deg., and the re-j mainder up an incline of 20 deg. Near

lie top there js something in the nature if a knoll with rather precipitous sides, is Sir Francis Youii’gliusband remarked ist evening, the hazard will primarily ie in jibe condition of the snow along he ridge, fi it isj. soft and powdery lie attempt will pro tan lyfail. If hard, nd the climatic conditions are favouribie, the question would resolve itself c nto a matter of physical endurance at 1 ilibse high alti’tudes. Oxygen would be * taken up to the 23,000'ft camping place, « biit this would only be used for restorn- 1 :iv r e i purposes. Coolies and the re- t mainder of the party would all sacrifice i themselves for the benefit of the two or three who were to make the final < assault. The intention was to form a half-why cam);) about 3000 ft from the top, and the filial assault and return to camp would have to be done in a day. | . Replying to questions alter the lecture, Sir Francis divulged for tlie first time that the expedition had discovered a new species of animal —a whistling hare. The question of coolies had always been a difficult one, and it was decided to enlist a special corps of coolies, who were taken on for the period of the expedition and clothed, fed, and paid well. The result had been very successful. The coolies who were to go to the top of the mountain next year would be equipped, clothed, and hooted exactly the same as members of the expedition. General Bruce, who would be in charge, was, however, a very cunning man, and he would see that the coolies did not get their equipment until they reached Tibet! Answering a question as to whether the local people resented the intrusion of members of the expedition as foreign devils, Sir Francis said that the camera had gone a long way towards fostering friendly relations. -Men, women, and children had conic out to have theii photographs taken, and were immensely pleased with the prints which were presented to them. A holy abbot held in veneration had stood for his photograph, and dozens of copies were printed and distributed among the people. This had a wonderful effect, and no unfriendliness had been shown. “What about the mules?” asked someone. “-Mules is a word wo do not mention, now,” replied Sir I'raneis, amid laughter- “In future we are depending wholly upon human carriers.” Everest, he added, from a climbing point of view, was about the easiest in the Himalayas. Its height had hitherto been reckoned as 29,00211. ust ‘ latest computations gave its height as 29 Id 1 ft, and was probably nearer the mark.