Himalayan Exploration

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 13

Himalayan Exploration

or OF EVEREST, by Sir ‘Edmund Hillary nd George Lowe; Hodder and Stoughton, price 21 fre

(Reviewed by

John

Pascoe

IS account of the New Zealand Alpine Club Himalayan Expedition to the Barun Valley in 1954 is exciting reading. The compléxity of the country gave great scope for new passes, many first ascents, much mapping of unexplored ranges and adventures abounding. Hillary writes with laconic and characteristic vigour and Lowe with wry understatement. In 1951 and 1952 Hillary explored the approaches to the Barun by high level routes. He was determined that the Barun Valley would give an ideal stamping ground for a young New Zealand party. Roland Ellis, Phil Cook and other devoted N.Z.A.C. men in Dunedin undertook the hard work of financing and providing for the expedition, and the men chosen were both fully representative of post-war New Zealand climbers and fit for the difficult tasks ahead. Bill Beaven, Geoff Harrow, Norman Hardie, Jim McFarlane, Colin Todd and Brian Wilkins were picked to accompany Hillary and Lowe... Drs. Charles Evans and Michael Ball were added from Britain. At a cost of £8000 and helped by The Times, the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Glub in London, the expedition achieved its main objectives. The strenuous trek through Nepal led to a point where the party could split into small mobile groups, each with exploratory and mapping ambitions as well as those of peak climbing. Their self-reliance and initiative were fully tested. In spite of an unlucky accident in the Barun, when McFarlane was badly frostbitten after a fall into a crevasse, and Hillary was seriously ill at high altitude, the party was steadfast. Hillary gives a vivid account of the courage of McFarlane and Wilkins, his companion. Baruntse was the most spectacular of the many peaks climbed. No less exacting was the crossing of steep and icy passes, when all the resources of .good and modern piton technique were used to shepherd laden porters safely, The seventy pages of text includes an outline of all expedition activities and the five-day Sherpa festival of Dumji. One wishes for a much longer and more detailed account. There is light and shade in the writing, but it is all compressed with such modesty that only the experienced climber can realise the full stature of the men who made a chapter of Himalayan history. Forty-eight pages of magnificent gravure illustrations add an impréssive dimension to the text, and three maps are valuable. The New Zealand Alpine Club will have every reason to be proud of the record of its first expedition overseas. It is to be hoped such enterprise will be repeated in future years,