CUMBERS IN PERIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1003, 20 June 1930, Page 11

CUMBERS IN PERIL

ROCKS CRASH ON CAMP; IN HIMALAYAS ATTEMPT ON 24,340 FT PEAK Times Cable. LONDON, Wednesday. Advices from the Himalayan expe- ’ dition’s camp at the base of Jonsong Peak, dated May 31, state: “Kunchinjunga has beaten us, but we are prepared to attack Jonsong Peak, 24,340 feet, the northerly outpost of Kunchinjunga, in an effort to gain the highest Himalayan summit yet reached. Its precipices rival those of Kunchinjunga in height and grandeur. “These precipices are defended by ice walls of enormous thickness, from which avalanches continually break off and thunder down thousands of feet. “Herr E. Schneider (Austria) and Herr U. Wieland (Germany) discovered a practicable route up Jonsong, and Herr Schneider alone climbed to an altitude of 23,470 feet up an unnamed peak. “The Himalayas, however, take defeat: hardly. That night they threw down boulders toward the camp, and nearly annihilated Mr. F. S. YSmythe (Britain). He was sleeping peacefully, and awoke to hear a series of crashes. He realised that boulders ; were descending on his tent, and that : there was nothing to do but huddle up in his sleeping-bag. “Eater Mr. Smythe found a huge ■ rock embedded in a snowdrift three yards behind the tent. Two days later another fall nearly killed Frau Dyhrenfurtli, wife of the leader of the expedition.”