Epic of African Mountaineers.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1922, Page 4

Epic of African Mountaineers.

ITO\Y TWO MEN PANTED FP KILIMANJARO.

FS BREATHS A MINUTE

DAR-ES-SA LAAM, Tanganyika Territory, Jan. - The story of how two Englishmen, Mr C. Gillman and Air Paul Nason, climbed Kilimanjaro, li),7lßi't high, Africa’s topmost mountain, is an epic of determination triumphant against terrific odds. The two men went up .Mount Kibo. Fins has a nearly perfect crater and is capped with ice, and is about 2,Lloft higher than its twin peak, .uawenzi. The party at the start included Air ('. G. Ditndas and Mr F. J. .Miller. Mountain sickness severely troubled the pail.v as they climbed up bare Arctic deserts. The night of October IS was spent in a cave at the foot of Kibo’s peak, and at 2.J0 .a.in. on the IfUb the final start was made, with two

native porters. An iee-eold wind blew down from the glaciers, freezing the party to the marrow, Init helping to fill the, lungs with air, for in Mint rarefied atmosphere breathing was most difficult. 'Pbe fight was carried on bravely, but sheer physical exhaustion forced Dundas and Miller and the two natives to give up the attempt at alliltides varying between I(5,000ft and 18,50011. SIPPING BACK AT EVERY STEP. Gilln inn and Nason continued the grim light. The slopes are covered with a loose shingle, on which they seemed to slip back about Sin in each foot, it needed a strung physical effort to take a forward step; to feel then that that slop, taken with so much tribulation, resulted only in a slipping back of more than half the distance was di.-dtoarton-

ing in the extreme. The loss of “moral” which if threatened forced them to the expedient of cutting into tho ice zone sooner than would otherwise have been necessary, and though the chopping of steps with ail axe in the hard ice imposed additional strain on the fast-working heart and lungs, progress was more satisfactory, inasmuch as, when a step forward was made, there was no slipping back. At this time tho mountain sickness threatened to overcome Nason completely, but lie persevered with almost superhuman effort.

GALLANT NOVICE. At last, at 9.10 p.m., after seven hours of herculean labour and suffering, they stood on the rim of the mighty ice-filled crater, Nason utterly exhausted.

The Union Jack, with the two men’s names, was hoisted on a needle-shaped rock protruding front the surrounding aunour of ice, at a point where German climbers had deposited their cards. Some of these cards were still in a good state of preservation. Gillman, who has done a considerable amount of climbing in Switzerland, has nothing but praise for his three companions, as well as for the two native porters, who eheorlully carried on to nearly 18,000 ft. As for Nason, who was a novice in mountaineering lie I ore the climb, Gillman looks upon him as the hero of the day, for it was largely duo to his determination in the face of tetrihe suffering that success was possible. In this, of course, Gillman modest as to his own determination and suffering.

Gillman took two cameras with him. The dryness of the atmosphere seems to have affected the binding agent, for the bellows of the larger camera came away from the. body and it eiiuld not he used. Many valuable photographs, however, of the vast crater and its icy walls were taken with the smaller camera. SHINGLE SUITE. After taking boiling-point observations of the altitude, and a rest of about an hour and a half on the eminence, about lti.oooft above an endless sea of cloud, Gillman and Nason returned to the cave, getting down in something less than two hours. The shingle, which had proved so severe a trial of their strength and endurance in the ascent, now proved of great assistance as an enormous running slide.

To give an idea of the strain on the heart and lungs at high altitudes, (fillin:) ii took observations of pulse and respiration at about 19,500 ft. The pulse was 120-190, and breathing 95 : to the minute. Every breath felt as if. were likely to he one’s last, the climbers | told me. ;