Long Planning Behind U.S. Bid for Makalu

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 739, 11 September 1953, Page 6

Long Planning Behind U.S. Bid for Makalu

HE American expedition te Makalu which has been given priority by the Nepalese Government over Sir Edmund Hillary’s New Zealand party has a .comparatively long history, dating back: to December, 1951. The American team will consist of ten men, all of whom are members of the American Alpine Club and the Sierra Club of California. The expedition originally planned to climb Dhaulagiri (26.825it.) in 1953, but the Nepalese Government refused permission for this ascent. Plans were then put forward one. year aad the goal changed to Makalu, the world’s fifth highest mountain. Permission for this attempt was announced in America in January of this year. When the news reached New Zealand from Katmandu last week that the Americans had been given first chance at Makalu The Listener had already started writing the story of the American expedition. In its latest available Bulletin (of May last) the Sierra Club announced that remarkable progress had been made in selecting.and designing special equipment for the assault. Six or seven tons of food and gear, including 27 tents, were expected to be shipped to India in December. Ansel Adams. one of America’s féremost photographers — and regarded by some authorities as the world’s greatest landscape photographer-plans to accompany the party. ere will also be experts in zoology, physiology and botany. Professor Nello Pace, founder of the White Mountain Leboratory und a physiologist at the University of California, will be responsible for part of 2 receerch proeramme to be carried nut incidentally to the attempt the sumrm’ Dr .Bruce Mever will serve as expedition doctor, Other members of the team, whose leader is given as William

| Siri, will probably be drawn from the following: Oscar A. Cook, William Dunmire, Richard Houston, Fletcher Hoyt. Fritz Lippmann, Larry Swan, Alfred W. Baxter, Jnr., and Allen P. Steck. In December, 1951, the Expedition had its formal beginnings. -The California Himalaya Committee was formed to carry out the preliminary steps for a full-scale expedition to Nepal in 1953. All members of the team coinpleted high-altitude tests on two training expeditions during the summer of 1952- one tto the Cordillera

Blanca in the Peruvian Andes, and the other to Mount McKinley, where a new route to the summit was attempted. Such rigorous training grounds must have provided an ideal preparation for climbing in the Himalayas. The Cordillera Blanca includes Mount WHuascaran, the second highest mountain in the western hemisphere, which rises in a magnificent double peak, ‘to 22,217 feet above sea level. The Cordillera Blanca is the culminating point of the Andes in Peru, and one of ‘the incidental hazards of climbing in this area is the risk of contracting the disease Verruga Peruana, resembling pernicious anaemia, This comes from . infection. by a small fly half the size of» the malaria-carrying Ano_pheles. mosquito, which is abroad at night in the zone between 2500 and 7500 feet. Showings of

the film made during the training ex-. pedition to this region were used to raise funds to help finance the Himalayan venture. The members of the American expedition have been carefully selected. Each has a fine record of mountaineering achievement. Members have been chosen, according to the Sierra Club Bulletin, not only for individual strength and competence, but also for demonstrated ability to work together in a team. "Besides ascending many new and classic routes in the European Alps

,and on. major peaks in the United States," the Bulletin stated, "members of the team have organised and led several successful expeditions to Canada, Alaska, and the Peruvian Andes," In order that the climbers may take advantage of the few storm-free weeks before the onset of the monsoon, they must reach India by late March. This schedule will allow enough time to complete transportation arrangements for the approach to the base of the mountain. From base camp,. reconnaissance of the route and actual climbing operations will be carried out in May and early June. The American expedition is expected to be a costly one. The most important items budgeted. for in the expedition’s plans were air travel from San Francisco to Calcutta; wages of Sherpas and porters, who are expected to range in number from 10 to 160 in the course of the expedition’s itinerary; food, clothing, and equipment for. all; incidental costs of lodging in India; a_ transport officer; and operating costs -in. the United States. All items totalled about 45,000 dollars, although this figure was only- a provisional one. Part of the cost was expected to be met from rights to (continued on next page)

(continued trom previous page) publication, public performance, and motion pictures, and part from donations. "The California Himalayan Expedition," the Bulletin concludes, "is far more than a sporting adventure, It is expected that significant contributions will be made to science by those expedition members who are experts in zoology, physiology and botany." The interpretations by Anse] Adams, the expeditions’s photographer, of the spectacular Himalayan scenery, are also expected to be one of the outstanding results of the American attempt on Makalu. : i Makalu Photographs "THE ‘photographs of Makalu reproduced on the cover and on page 6 of this issue were taken by two R.A.F. photo reconnaissance aircraft operating from Calcutta in June, 1945. Piloted by two New Zealanders; Squadron Leader C. G. Andrews and Flight Lieutenant J. Irvine, the two Mosquitoes were on what was officially logged as a highaltitude fuel consumption check. Their objective, in fact, was not dissimilar to that of Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tensing. Both last year’s Swiss expedition and this year’s British one were able to study Everest pictures taken by the two aircraft. And how did Makalu come to be photographed? Mainly, says Squadron Leader Andrews, because it happened

to get in the way. "While making runs to photograph both sides of Everest, it suddenly loomed up in front. I had to pull up quite a lot to get over, It seemed almost to scrape the belly of the aircraft. The summit was clear of cloud, so we took shots of it from both directions." For most of the time the photographs were being taken the two Mosquitos were either just above or just below the summits of the three great peaks, Evert, Lhotse and Makalu. Circling ‘the summit of Everest, the altimeters registered about 27,500ft. The necessary temperature correction would make the actual height very close to 29,000ft. From what he could recall of the appearance of Makalu, Squadron Leader Andrews told The Listener, it appeared a very tough proposition. He was not a climber, but thought it ‘likely" that Makalu would be technically a more difficult problem than Everest. The "high-altitude fuel consumption check" has remained in the pilot’s mind as one of the most impressive experiences of his flying career. "Normally, on high altitude work," he said, "the ground looks just like a small-scale relief map. It’s very lonely up. there. There was something almost incredible in seeing these great, jagged peaks locming up at you. Of course, they probably looked bigger because we were so close. The summit of Everest was" probably no more than 40 feet from my wing-tip. But I can-understand why men climb mountains."