HIMALAYA PARTY

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1930, Page 3

HIMALAYA PARTY

SET NEW*.RECORD. [United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 21. Messages from the Jonsohg Peak base states that Hoerlin and Schneider climbed Mount Jonsong (cabled on June 18th) on June 3rd, and that. Dryenfurth, Kuro, Wieland, and Smythe, with' two porters, climbed the peak on June oth. Thus did six mountaineers from four nations ascend tlie highest summit yet scaled throughout the world. This is a. practical expression of international feeling, which every member of the expedition hopes will cement international friendship and goodwill. The first party, eonsising of Hoerlin and Schneider, Wood-Johnson and Smythe, climbed from an encampment on the north-west ridge after a wild night when “the wind was blowing in fifty degrees of frost and endeavoured to hurl us from the ridge.” Schneider and Hoerlin went ahead. Wood-Johnson was overcome by a sodden illness, and he was unable to proceed, and he begged Smythe to go on. The latter; • thinking ; his oomradc was merely suffering--from .mountain sickness, consented, but. he-was .unable to catch up to the leadens, so he sat -in the . snow .twenty-three thousand feet up, and watched tlie. two minute dots slowly crawling up the ' snow slope to the summit. ■ When Smythe returned, WoodJohnson, who had been unconscious for an hour, recovered and was assisted to camp. A terrific storm raged on June Ist, and while most of tlie members of the expedition spent the day in their sleeping bags, awaiting a chance to assault Jonsong, Frau Dyrenfurth accomplished one of the finest feats of courage and endurance by crossing Jonsangla accompanied by the coolies and- Neapalose, and a coolie woman succumbed to tlie effect of the expo- . sure. •: ' • • ' l: ' : :

ACCOUNT, -OF CLIMB. , . f LONDON, Juno. 22. In a message from, Jonsong base camp of 11th. June, Smyth, relating their experiences when climbing Jonsong, said the party spent a night on tne mountain side, encamped below an ice wall offering poor shelter from a gale. When the climb began, sudden.; blasts .brought .a torrent of show, •which' forced-' the climbers to - crouch before its, bitter fun\, ,It..Eecajne._ne, ; -' cessary to cut ice steps,, which.'at 20,-. 000 ft. was most strenuous, requiring ti cessation to regain breath every few minutes. Finally, Smythe and Kurz almost reached the summit. Members off are departing, for Datjeefiing;£~ All are fit but everyone a stone in weight. ' •