SHERPA COUNTRY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 934, 5 July 1957, Page 12

SHERPA COUNTRY

IN HIGHEST NEPAL, by Norman Hardie; Allen and Unwin; English price 21/-.

| (Reviewed by

John

Pascoe

HEN in May, = 1955, Norman Hardie, of New Zealand, was with a British party that climbed Kangchenjunga, he had accomplished one brave adventure to begin another. He descended to Base but not to rest. Inspired by his leader, Charles Evans, he set out on a long trans-range trek to Khumjung, a neighbouring village of Namche Bazar at the foot of Mount Everest. This marathon of pass-hopping was in the tradition of Hardie’s experiences in the Southern Alps, where he had wandered from the Waimakariri to the Landsborough. His journey over vast Himalayan terrain enabled him to know Sherpas who were his only companions, and so to live with them at the end of an arduous and fascinating journey. Hardie describes his experiences with vitality and humour; they stand high in travel literature. Later he was joined by his wife Enid and a friend, A. J. Macdonald. The climbing and mapping achieved were satisfactory, but most rewarding of all were the friendships and understanding gained in Sherpa villages. Hardie ate Sherpa food, logged their rituals from births to deaths, and, sensitive to their customs, reached an observation not clouded by anthropologists’ jargon. He does what ‘some acacemic people fail to do-stimulate a lay public by pungent and untechnical description. He is as lively as the Sherpas are cheerful. The Enidsahib also contributes her share of brisk comments. | It is a sign of the maturity of Hima- — climbing that Hardie can com--municate the results of an unexcelled intimacy with the Sherpas. His book will be studied overseas by readers eager for knowledge of Sherpa life. I hope that Hardie’s book will be -recognised in New Zealand for its true worth.

His writing is a fine record of the great contribution made by Sherpa mountaineers to the success of Himalayan expeditions, because it relates their virtues and their vices to their community life in high mountains. There is poignancy and sympathy expressed as well as the joy of living. No one can fail to be moved by Hardie’s interviews with the widow of a Sherpa who had died on Kanchenjunga. The production of the book is distinguished by excellent diagrams and superb illustrations, with a frontispiece in colour that is in its own right memorable.