ALPINISTS’ TROUBLES

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 7

ALPINISTS’ TROUBLES

THE KINCHINJUNGA EXPEDITION. 300 PORTERS BEING PAID OFF. (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 9.15 p.m.) London, May 26. Colonel Tobin has returned to Darjeeling. He is at present engaged paying off 300 of 400 porters originally taken with the Kinchinjunga expedition. He states that the party were delayed by- the worst weather the expedition had experienced. The untrustworthiness of the coolies over the Kang and Margin Passes ultimately forced them to abandon the journey and return to the base camp.—Times Cable.

Mount Kinchinjunga, a peak of the Himalaya Mountains, seventy-five miles E.S.E. of Mount Everest, is the third highest mountain in the world. It forms a majestic culmination of a great spur which extends south from the main range. Its name means "the five treasure houses of the great snows,” each ,of the five peaks being supposed to be a etore of different treasure. The Dyhrenfurth expedition is the strongest that has ever visited the Himalaya Mountains, and comprises famous climbers of Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Its member are mostly young and fit men. Professor Dyhrenfurth is accompanied by his wife, an international tennis player. It was the original intention of the Kinchinjunga Expedition to attack the mountain from Nepal, and it therefore applied to the King for permission to enter his territory. The reply, which was patiently awaited, was not forthcoming, therefore the expedition greatly disappointed, laid plans to proceed through Sikkim, journeying via Gangtok and Lachen, and thence ascending the Zemu Glacier. Detailed plans were made, porters and animals engaged, loads distributed, and the route and halting places mapped in preparation to start on April 1. Then the news came that the King had given permission, and had instructed his local Governor to provide an escort of an officer and six men. The expedition immediately scrapped its other plans. Alto-' gether there are 300 porters with the party. The advance party prospected the route via the Yalung Glacier, meanwhile seeking traces of an American named Farmer, who disappeared in the vicinity in 1929, but the party hopes to ascend the Kinchinjunga Glacier, this being the great ambition of Professor Dyhrenfurth, commander of the expedition. This party was the first to enter the Nepalese valleys since Freshfield’s Expedition in 1899. Freshfield himself recommended the Kinchinjunga Glacier route.