- ·º tº a
º * * * * * * * * * *
. . . . . .''.' * * * * -F-3
. . ."." "...' . . . . . . . - º
, sº a e = * * *
#
#
# #
:º
:
º
º
º
º
&
º
#
&
ſº
|
º
.
:
- gº
- * @
. . º. 3 º's, i.
º
º
;
§
:
:
s
º
-3
f
;
§
;
:
º
º
*
º
E.
§
in º º tº
º
º
º: § §. - - . - * : * * * *.º. . . . **t," -- º * * . . . . . . * . - . . . . . ', * * * ". . . . .". Sº, , , , . .
w - º * * : *. * . - - - - * . ess. a .3
* *
* * * * * * *
ºr.º.º. * * *, *.Y.





#
E.
E.
É
H
#
|
F. W. Smithies, M. D.
Instructor of Internal
;
i
#
#
#
i.
s
…tº
**
#
$º
TM
º





THE EARLIER VOLUMES (STILL
OBTAINABLE)
MOUNT EVEREST:
The Reconnaissance, 1921.
By Lieut.-Col. C. K. HOWARD-BURY,
D.S.O., and other Members of the Expe-
dition. With Maps and Illustrations. 25s.
net.
Large Paper Edition with Extra Plates
(200 Copies only), £5 5s. net.
THE ASSAULT ON MOUNT
EVEREST, 1922.
By Brig.-Gen. the Hon. C. G. BRUCE, and
other Members of the Expedition. Medium
8vo. With 32 Plates and Maps. 25s. net.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD & CO.
THE FIGHT FOR

EVEREST : 1924
By
Lieutenant-Colonel E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE
EXPEDITION
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD & CO.
1925
All rights reserve d
Made and Printed in Great Britain by
Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Since their return from Mount Everest the members of
the Expedition have had many calls upon their leisure, but
they have willingly responded to the request of the Mount
Everest Committee that they should describe the part that
they severally took in the great adventure; and the Committee
desires cordially to thank them for the sacrifices they have
made in order that a full account may be offered to the public.
June, 1925.
INTRODUCTION. By SIR FRANCIs YouNGHUSBAND, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E.
CHAP.
II
III
IV
VI
VII
VIII.
IX
CONTENTS
PART I
NARRATIVE
THE START. By Brig.-General Hon. C. G. BRUCE, C.B., M.V.O.
THE MARCH ACRoss TIBET. By Lieut.-Colonel E. F. NoRTON,
D.S.O.
THE RONGBUK GLACIER. By Captain J. G. BRUCE, M.C.
THE NoFTH Col. By Lieut.-Colonel E. F. NoRTON, D.S.O. .
NoRTON AND SOMERVELL’s ATTEMPT. By Lieut.-Colonel E. F.
NORTON, D.S.O.
MALLORY AND IRVINE’s ATTEMPT. By N. E. ODELL .
THE RETURN To BASE CAMP. By Lieut.-Colonel E. F. NoFTON,
D.S.O.
THE RETURN Journey. By BENTLEY BEETHAM
FUTURE PossIBILITIES. By Lieut.-Colonel E. F. NoFTON,
D.S.O.
PART II
MALLORY'S LETTERS
PAGE
I
13
31
54
73
99
120
144
155
193
207
viii - CONTENTS
PART III
OBSERVATIONS
SECTION PAGE
I PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES. By Major R. W. G. HINGSTON,
I.M.S. . te º Q wº e * tº e . 243
II NATURAL HISTORY. By Major R. W. G. HINGSTON, I.M.S. . 261
III GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY. By N. E. ODELL . e . 289
IV PHOTOGRAPHY. By BENTLEY BEETHAM e . . . 324
V ON THE USE OF OxygłN. By N. E. ODELL * º . 329
VI THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION :
A.—Preliminary Organization, Journey and March. By
Lieut.-Colonel E. F. NORTON, D.S.O. e e . 338
B.—Local Personnel. By Captain J. G. BRUCE . º . 342
C.—Notes on Office and Money in Tibet. By Captain J. G.
BRUCE . o º º • © º e . 349
D.—Medical Notes. By Major R. W. G. HINGSTON, I.M.S. 350
E.—High Camps. By T. H. SOMERVELL . © e . 353
F.—Oxygen Apparatus, Etc. By N. E. ODELL . e . 361
G.—Transport. By E. O. SHEBBEARE . e o . 364
H.—The Mess. By BENTLEY BEETHAM . º e . 366
INDEX o © ſº e * > e º © e . 370
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
MoUNT EVEREST FROM BASE CAMP, 1922 (coloured) Frontispiece
RINCHENJHAU FROM KAMPA DZONG (coloured) . & e º 6
MoUNT EVEREST FROM CHOGORONG . e º e © . 14
CHOMULHARI FROM THE WEST (coloured) . . e º . 26
PORTERS AT BASE CAMP . º * º . e º . 46
CAMP NO. II . º gº e tº tº º gº e . 52
EAST RONGBUK GLACIER . º º e & e o . 58
THE TROUGH-EAST RONGBUK GLACIER o © e e . 66
NORTH COL © º & & º de e g © . T6
THE CHIMNEY—NORTH COL º © e tº e º . 84
ROUTE UP THE CHIMNEY . e e Q e e e . 90
FROM LINGGA, LookING WEST-EVENING DURING Monsoon (coloured) 94
THE ROUTE TO THE CHANG LA . © © º º e . 102
MR. T. G. SOMERVELL © e º e © © º . 110
LOOKING NORTHWARD FROM 28,100 FEET tº e º e . 114
LIEUT.-Col. E. F. No RTON, D.S.O. e e º © e . 118
MALLORY AND IRVINE ABOUT TO LEAVE CHANG LA CAMP FOR THE
FINAL ATTEMPT TO REACH THE SUMMIT . º e e . 124
SUNSET ON THE SNOWS OF CHO RAPSANG (coloured) . e . 134
ANDREW IRVINE © © e e ſº © & ſº . 146
MEMORIAL CAIRN ſº e e • te º e e . 154
TIBETAN TYPES AT TINGRI . º • e e e e . 174
ix
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
MEMBERS OF THE ExPEDITION, 1924 . e º e º . 182
PORTERS WHO WENT HIGHEST . º o © e e . 190
THE FINAL PYRAMID e e º e o e e . 194
GEORGE H. LEIGH-MALLORY o e © º e e . 207
KAMPA DZONG FORTRESS (coloured) . © © º o . 214
THE LAST TO LEAVE . e g © º © º . 238
A TYPICAL CAMP IN THE PLAINS OF TIBET (coloured) . e . 250
CHOMULHARI e © º º e © º © º . 268
GYACHUNG KANG FROM GyACHUNG CHU (coloured) . 290
PUMORI FROM WEST RONGBUK GLACIER º e º º . 310
THE HIGHEST PoinT IN THE WORLD AT which PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE
BEEN TAKEN.—28,000 FEET tº © © e º o 324
MAPS
PANORAMA OF THE ROUTE TO MOUNT EVEREST
MAP
xi
. Facing page 204
at end
$
INTRODUCTION
By SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E.
This book is the record of a repulse. Mallory and Irvine
may possibly have reached the summit ; but they have not
lived to tell us. And besides these two English lives, one
Scottish and nine Indian lives have also been lost in assault-
ing Mount Everest. The repulse has been cruel. Yet the
pain has not diminished the determination of man to conquer
the mountain : it has increased it. And the men who are
most determined are not we who stay at home and watch
the struggle from afar ; they are the assailants themselves:
they are the men who have reached nearest the summit and
have stood the hardest buffetings and faced the gravest
dangers. Long before they knew what was in the minds
of people at home Colonel Norton had recorded in a dispatch
in The Times the unanimous wish of the whole Expedition
that the attempt should be renewed. And among the public
generally there is a distinctly firmer determination to prosecute
the project than there was when the idea was first mooted.
At that time the public took very little interest in it. Douglas
Freshfield, Bruce, Collie, Longstaff, and a few others who
had actually climbed in the Himalaya, had for long dreamed
of climbing Everest whenever political conditions made it
possible to get at the mountain. But beyond the Alpine Club,
and in a lesser degree the Royal Geographical Society, little
interest was taken in the project, and a combined appeal
from the Presidents of the two bodies to the general public
produced only £10.
Very different is the feeling now. There are of course
still many—very many—who do not care a rap whether Everest
is climbed or not. There are others who think the expenditure
1 B
2 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of thousands of pounds on these expeditions is a great waste
of money. And there are a few who think it positively wicked
to throw away human life on so useless an enterprise Still,
the number of those who do see some value in these
efforts has greatly increased. And in the hope that it may
still further increase we may once more review what we
expect to get from these efforts.
And first we must sum up what we have already gained.
When these expeditions to Mount Everest were first started
it was still very problematical whether man could sustain
himself at extreme altitudes, and, if he could just sustain
himself, whether he could survive the exertion of climbing.
With great difficulty man had attained a height of 24,600
feet in another part of the Himalaya, a few years previously;
but between that and the summit of Everest there was a
difference of 4,400 feet. Could man overcome that great
difference in height 2 To do this he would have to sleep
at a height of approximately 27,000 feet, for it would not
do to leave more than 2,000 feet to climb on the final day.
Would he be able to sleep at 27,000 feet 2 And could even
the lightest camp be carried for him to that height 2 Many
thought that both these questions would be answered in the
negative—that it would be impossible to get a camp carried
to so great a height, and that even if it were man could not
sleep there and would therefore be dead beat before he started
for the final effort.
The present Expedition has proved, however, that a camp
can be carried to 27,000 feet, that man can sleep even at
that tremendous altitude, and that without any artificial
aid he can reach 28,000 feet. Colonel Norton and Dr. Somer-
vell accomplished this last feat in an exceptionally bad year
and when they were in a thoroughly exhausted state. For
a whole month previously they had been severely strained
in establishing the high camps on the glacier, and on the
North Col, battling with blizzards and experiencing extreme
cold. Yet in spite of these drawbacks Colonel Norton
reached a point only 900 feet below the summit. And it
INTRODUCTION 3
cannot be doubted that, if climbers could be put on the
mountain in a less exhausted condition than Norton and
Somervell were in, the summit could be reached. Norton
was able to see enough of the last portion to be sure that
there were no physical obstacles to prevent this ; and if he
in his condition could have reached so near we may be certain
that at his best he could have attained the Summit. The
problem is now merely a matter of putting men on the moun-
tain in a fit condition. What was before a mere probability
is now anyhow a possibility, and some consider a certainty.
Where originally all was doubt and speculation there is
now conviction. We feel convinced that sooner or later
man will stand on the summit of the highest mountain.
And these climbs to higher heights have added to man’s
knowledge of himself. Once again he has found that by
exercising his capacity he increases it. By forcing himself
to live at higher and higher altitudes, he finds that his body
adjusts itself to the new conditions. The amount of oxygen
in the air near the summit of Mount Everest is only a third
of the amount in the air at sea-level, and unless the body made
Some adjustment to these altered conditions man could not
survive them. And this last Expedition has shown that the
human body does make this adjustment if it has the requisite
time for the purpose. Major Hingston, in Part III,
gives full details. Ascending suddenly in a balloon to a
height of 28,000 feet in 1875, one man fainted and two men
died. But on Mount Everest last year the same altitude
was attained by Norton and Somervell and because the
ascent had been gradual their bodies had been able to adjust
themselves; they showed no signs of fainting and were able
to make the effort of climbing.
The experience gained on last year’s Expedition further
showed that men who have once experienced high altitudes
will acclimatize very much more rapidly than those ascend-
ing to them for the first time. Climbers who had been on
two expeditions suffered less on the second than they did
on the first ; and the new members of last year’s Expedition
4 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Were distinctly more affected than the members who had
been on a previous Expedition.
Thus it has been found that not only does man’s body
adapt itself to high altitude conditions, but adapts itself
more rapidly on successive occasions. And the members
of this expedition are of opinion that climbers can be so
acclimatized to altitudes of between 24,000 and 26,000 feet
that they would be able to climb to 29,000 feet without the use
of oxygen. The summit of Mount Everest will not be attained
without the climbers, somewhere or other on the seven
stages between the base camp and the summit, suffering from
hardships of extreme cold, furious winds, uncomfortable
accommodation, and the poor food and indifferent cooking
incidental to life in such regions. And these sufferings and
discomforts must sap into the vitality. But this much we
now do know which we did not know before, that the body
does find better means than the normal of taking in what
little oxygen there remains in the air, and that therefore the
climbing of the highest mountain on the earth is a feasible
proposition.
So much for the body; and with the spirit also it has
once more been found that as it exerts itself so does it grow
in capacity. And it not merely adapts itself to new condi-
tions: it masters them. When man first started out to
assault the mountain he was full of doubt and hesitation and
not a little fear. Everest was formidable enough in herself,
but she had with her terrible allies in the wind and the cold
and the snow ; and man might well have quailed before her.
But he faced her squarely, and now he knows the worst about
her, and knows that he himself has further resources within
him which he can bring up against the mountain and he is
confident of victory. He knows the limit of what Everest
can do. She may have frost and Snow and wind on her
side, but she cannot loose off poison-gas or belch forth volcanic
fire or shake man off in an earthquake. Whereas man can
use his intelligence and profit by the experience he has gained ;
can equip himself better against the weather ; and having
INTRODUCTION 5
once nearly reached the summit the way is known to him
and he can march forward with confidence.
His increasing confidence is indeed very remarkable.
The members of the 1924 Expedition, marching across Tibet,
took it as a certainty that they would reach the summit ;
and that they got so near as they did after their terrible
experiences during the months on the glacier before they
could even make the attempt, must have been due to this
confidence that was in them ; they would never have reached
so high if they had not had confidence born of their experi-
ences in 1922. And Colonel Norton speaks of the stimulating
effect there was in passing the highest point they had reached
in 1922. Anything then seemed possible. And the want
of success on this occasion did not diminish the feeling of
confidence. They were as confident on the way back as they
were on the way out, that the summit would be reached.
Everest cannot add to her height ; but the spirit of man
heightens even under repulse.
And what is the value of this heightened spirit is well
exemplified in the contrast between Mallory and the Sherpas.
These men are born and bred in the mountains below Everest,
and as Captain Geoffrey Bruce tells us, they are sure-footed
and owing to the rigorous climate of their homes can with-
stand more than average exposure and fatigue. In ordinary
life they are quite accustomed to carrying loads across a
19,000-foot pass. And on this expedition they actually carried
small loads to a height of 27,000 feet. So there, right on
the spot, must be dozens of men who could, as far as bodily
fitness goes, reach the summit of Everest any year they
liked. Yet the fact remains that they don’t. They have not
even the desire to. They have not the spirit.
Compare these people with Mallory. He undoubtedly
was fine in body. But in fitness to endure the cold and
Wind of Everest and in adaptation to high altitudes, he natur-
ally could not compare with the men whose homes were at
Over 12,000 feet and who, all their lives, were used to carrying
loads to still greater altitudes. They must obviously have
6 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
excelled him in bodily fitness to climb Mount Everest. But
where he excelled was in spirit. As Norton describes in
his book, his spirit drove his body to the utmost limit. He
Was not asked to make that last climb. And there was no
call for him to make it, for he had already done more than
his share in the whole great adventure. He had taken part
in all three Expeditions; on the first, it was he who at the
last moment discovered the only possible way up the moun-
tain ; on the second, he climbed to a height of nearly 27,000
feet ; and on the third he had had most of the hardest work
in making a way up the dangerous North Col and had already
taken part in one attempt to reach the summit. He might
well have now left others to take up the burden. But his
spirit would not allow him ; he must make one last desperate
effort.
Many of the Sherpas with the expedition also showed
magnificent spirit. But the point is that these people,
living under the very shadow of Mount Everest and having,
as is now known, all the bodily capacity to enable them
to climb it, had never had the spirit to make the attempt,
while Mallory, though he was an inhabitant of a distant
island with not a snow mountain on it, had the spirit to
travel thousands of miles and to risk his life in climbing
this mountain, and this spirit did enable him almost to reach
the summit.
Mallory’s spirit did indeed force his body to his death.
But the manner of his and Irvine’s death was such as to
kindle the spirit in thousands of others. Their lives were
not thrown uselessly away, for it is a fact, just as real as
any “scientific’ fact, that the story of their death has roused
the spirit of men and women in every country. Few can
be Everest climbers, but all can be inspirited by a deed
like Mallory's and Irvine's last climb. And many there are
who, on hearing of it, have felt themselves helped in battling
with their own stern difficulties. And Mallory and Irvine
will for ever live among the great who have helped to raise
this spirit of man.
º
º
º
-
C
º
º
º
-
º
-
º
Cº-

INTRODUCTION 7
Another fact which must also be put to the credit of
these Everest Expeditions is that the story of their attack
on the mountain has aroused interest throughout the world.
And the value of this interest can, in this case, be measured
in box-office receipts; thus giving us tangible evidence.
For the telegrams relating that story, newspapers were ready
to give substantial sums of money. And to hear the lectures
and to see the wonderful cinematographic record which
Captain Noel brought back, hundreds of thousands of men
and women and children all over the world have been ready
to pay. In this practical manner they have shown that
they do attach value to what these expeditions have done.
Those scientific results which have, as it were, incidentally
accrued, are also of no mean value. Odell, a geologist by
profession, was able, while he was on Mount Everest, to
gather information which has enabled us to determine the
character of this highest portion of the earth’s surface. And
Major Hingston, the medical officer and naturalist of the
Expedition, has made valuable observations on both human
and animal life at the highest altitudes. Besides which he
has collected some 10,000 specimens. Additions to the map
have also been made.
These are the more immediate results of the Expedition.
But further results in the future, we may also anticipate.
Norton and Somervell reached an altitude practically equal
to the height of Kanchenjunga. So when visitors to Darjeeling
look up at that wonderful mountain they will take pride
in reflecting that man has, without any adventitious aids,
ascended even as high as that. They may further reflect
that as far as the effects of altitude have anything to do with
it, man could climb any of that magnificent array of peaks
there stretched out before them. Visitors to Kashmir may
feel the same when they look at Nanga Parbat, which, unattain-
ably high as it appears, is fifteen hundred feet below the height
which Norton reached on Everest. And reflections such as
these cannot but inspire men to climb, if not these, yet other
Himalayan peaks. The spirit will drive the body on, and
8 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the body, we now know, will respond to the calls of the spirit.
So far it has been in the Himalaya as it was in the Alps
till a century ago. Man dreaded and shrank from the great
mountain. But as man began to climb the Swiss peaks and
became more familiar with the mountains, he gradually over-
came his fears and prepared to assert himself, till now he
has conquered every peak, and not only climbed the moun-
tains but built habitations high up on them and driven roads
and railways through them.
So also may we anticipate that man will master the moun-
tains in the Himalaya. Having climbed about them and
come to feel more at home among them, he will want to
build more roads and then more railways, till he has established
his Supremacy, and this not for the barren purpose of saying
he is master, but, as in the Alps, for the sake of enjoying their
beauty.
For here in the Himalaya is a source of human enjoyment
more valuable far than any gold-mine or any oil-spring, for
it cannot be exhausted. What is its exact value, we cannot
say ; but we can form some estimate, for we have Switzerland
to go by. There hundreds of millions of pounds have been
spent for no other purpose than to enable people to enjoy
the beauty of the mountains. That is to say, people are
ready to pay these millions of pounds in order that they
may be able to see the mountains. To places like Chamonix,
for instance, roads and railways have been constructed at
a cost which must necessarily be very high on account of
the mountainous character of the country traversed. And
numbers of hotels—some of them of the most fashionable
description—have been built. And from here funicular
railways have been made to points from which the best view
of Mont Blanc can be obtained. Moreover, the very Snow has
been made use of to get enjoyment from the mountains, and
besides those who come there in the Summer, numbers flock
there in the winter for the winter sports. And if in Switzer-
land men think it worth while to spend So much money
simply to get enjoyment from the Alps, it may be assumed
INTRODUCTION 9
that, in course of time, they will be no less anxious to get
similar enjoyment from the Himalaya.
It is not necessary to compare the beauty of the Alps
with the beauty of the Himalaya, and to say that the one is
greater than the other. It is sufficient to say that the one
is different from the other. Each has its own peculiar
beauty. And there can be found in the Himalaya beauty
of a type which does not exist in the Alps, and for that very
reason—in order to find variety—men may be drawn to the
Himalaya. Neither the combination of tropical vegetation
with snowy peaks thousands of feet higher than Mont Blanc,
nor glacier regions like the Baltoro, can be found in the Alps.
And these must always have an attraction even to lovers
of the Alps.
It is indeed to men who have acquired their love of moun-
tain beauty in the Alps that the discovery of the Himalaya
as a source of beauty is mainly due. It is to the expeditions
of Conway, Freshfield, the Duke of the Abruzzi, Longstaff,
the Bullock Workmans and de Fillippi, that the enjoyment
to be found in the Himalaya has become known. And the
Everest Expeditions are only the climax of these more modest
assaults. We may anticipate then that more will follow—
that as the glories of the Himalaya become more widely known
many others will make their way from the Alps to the Hima-
laya.
And now the way is shown it is not necessary that men
should always proceed by the Alps. The Himalaya mountains
are on the edge of a country with three hundred million
inhabitants. They too have always been attracted to the
Himalaya, and have formed holy places there to which thou-
Sands of pilgrims yearly resort. Increasing numbers go there
also for health and to enjoy the beauty, and more still will
follow as the mountains are made more accessible.
This is the prospect before us, and many will shudder at
it. To have Kashmir, Sikkim and Kulu covered with hotels
and funicular railways will fill many with horror. But the
Himalaya is a larger playground than Switzerland, and there
10 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
will be room for all for many centuries to come. And accessi-
bility to the beauty of the Himalaya will bring enjoyment
to thousands and thousands from all over the world as well
as from India. The Himalayan peoples too will have their
manhood stirred, and, like the Sherpa porters on Mount
Everest, be shown of what they are capable.
These are some of the far-off results which we may antici-
pate may come of these efforts to scale the Himalayan peaks
of which the Everest Expeditions are only the climax. In
their final result they will open up a whole new realm of beauty.
And the men who have pioneered the way deserve in full
measure the gratitude of their kind for the sacrifices they
have made.
PART I
NARRATIVE
CHAPTER, I
THE START
By BRIG.-GENERAL HON. C. G. BRUCE, C.B., M.V.O.
March 1, and once again, and for the third time, the
members of the Mount Everest Expedition are collecting in
Darjeeling.
This in itself is a sufficiently stimulating idea. The
first Expedition, which left to reconnoitre an, until that
time, almost unknown part of the Himalaya, may seem to
have removed some of the mystery and, so to speak, to have
skimmed the cream from the exploratory milk. But this is
really but a superficial impression.
To begin with, part of their way led over country which
had been reached before by European travellers, and about
which a great deal was known.
It was only when they turned South from Shekar that
they came into the real thrills. And although the subse-
quent expeditions, following on their lines, could never quite
reproduce the extraordinarily Satisfactory feeling which was
granted to the first Expedition—the first Europeans to get
to the Rongbuk Valley, and to view that vast Himäl—that
desperate, desolate country, from the North—still, both the
First and the Second Expeditions, quite apart from their efforts
On the mountain, added to our geographical knowledge, and
probably still more to our appreciation of the people of that
country.
It is rather strange to find, in the light of subsequent
efforts, that the account of our work in the second Expedition
is called “The Assault on Mount Everest.”
That no doubt it was. But one of the most experienced
13
14 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and wise of mountaineering authorities said a long time ago,
“It may take a dozen assaults, but final success is certain.”
And that adequately summarizes the position.
Anyhow, here we are, collecting again
I must, however, spare a few words as to how some of
us managed to get here.
Norton and myself came out by the mail steamer arriving
in Bombay February 16, reaching Delhi on the 18th. There
we were able to discuss certain details with H.E. Lord Rawlin-
son, the Commander-in-Chief, and also with the political
authorities.
H.E. the late Lord Rawlinson, from the outset, had been
a very keen supporter of our enterprise, and his sympathy
and assistance were always to be counted on.
At Delhi Norton and I parted, to meet again by arrange-
ment in Calcutta on February 27. My road first of all taking
me to the Frontier and Abbottabad, where I was to join
Captain Geoffrey Bruce, and to see the four Gurkha non-
commissioned officers, who, by the kindness of H.E. Lord
Rawlinson, were again to accompany the Expedition, and
also to pick up certain stores best supplied from Abbottabad
and its district—notably putties—a small item, but an
important one. I do not wish to make a dissertation on
putties, and will merely state that anyone who has worn a
properly woven pair of putties, from their own original
home—that is the mountains surrounding Kashmir, will
never wish to wear any other type, and for high climbing
it is a fact that improper pressure round the calf and ankles
gives extra work to the heart, and may be actually an assistant
cause of frostbite of the feet.
Erom the North-west Frontier, we journeyed down to
Calcutta : Geoffrey Bruce, myself, and five Gurkha soldiers,
one being my own orderly.
Again, in Calcutta, we met Norton. All the arrangements
for meeting our stores, which had been dispatched from London
by sea to Calcutta, were settled with the Army and Navy
Stores, and the manager took over the whole onus of for-
**) NoºroºoH O IN O HA Ls?I?I?IA ȘI „LN no IN

THE START 15
warding them, together with our oxygen apparatus, up to the
station of Kalimpong Road, the terminus of the Darjeeling
Hill Railway in Sikkim.
Alas, we missed our old ally who had been of such great
assistance to us on previous occasions. I refer to Mr. Brown,
of the Army and Navy Stores, and regret to say that he had
died about six months before we arrived in India. We Owe
an immense debt of gratitude to the Army and Navy Stores
for the way they have always forwarded our interests.
Thence, from Calcutta, with as little delay as possible,
to Darjeeling. I confess that the journey from Siliguri to
Darjeeling, often as I have made it, never palls. Partly,
no doubt, because of the complete change from the plains
of India to the mountains; the great forests one passes
through, and the wholly different type of peoples one meets.
And then the wonderful vistas of ever-deepening blue as
the railway climbs higher and higher, and the brilliant coral
blossoms of the cotton tress, which in the early months of
the year strike such a bold note of colour against the blue
depths of the valleys. And again, as soon as the Ghoom
ridge is passed, the exciting views of the Himalayas. All
these attractions only add to my own pleasure and to the
delightful memories which these journeys leave in my mind,
and to which each successive journey contributes. The
funny fussy little Hill Railway, and its clever engineering ;
even the scrubby little bazaars one passes through, and the
many little races and short cuts I have taken with the train—
all these pictures are a vivid remembrance.
On this last occasion we found Narbu Yishé, called by us
in 22 the “purana miles,” or old soldier—a real stalwart—
who again was to hugely distinguish himself. And then, in
typical March weather, came the last and always exhilarating
stage, the short run from Ghoom into the Darjeeling Railway
Station. -
Here we were promptly met by one of our new members,
Shebbeare. Shebbeare belongs to the Indian Forest Depart-
ment, and it was a great bit of luck being able to acquire his
16 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
services. Naturally, from his profession, he was brought
much in contact with local conditions, and with the type of
men that we employ as our porters, and who form the per-
sonnel of our Expeditions. Of course anybody may be brought
into close contact with people, but it by no means follows
that they will understand them or have the sympathetic
temperament required to get the best out of them. We
knew, however, that Shebbeare possessed all these qualities,
hence our jubilation at getting him as one of Our party.
He was our Official Transport Officer, failing Captain C. J.
Morris, who had been unable to get the necessary leave to
join us again. Shebbeare had no previous training in the
technique of high mountaineering, but that was not his
business. He was, is, and ever will be, a glutton fo, Tork,
and with him discomforts count not.
Our excellent Agent, Mr. Weatherall, also met us, and
gave us a most encouraging account of the number of Sherpas,
Bhotias, and hill-men generally, who had come in hoping
to be chosen as porters for the Expedition. This news was
most cheering, as it shewed that our reputation was still
good, and that the sacrifice of the seven porters in 1922
had had no deterring effect on the supply of volunteers.
Our Interpreter, Karma Paul, was to the fore once more,
and also his assistant, Gyaljen, both as keen as ever. And
even the melancholy Moti, the cobbler, once more rolled
up, bringing an ill-fated brother with him. Also the depre-
catory and mild Rhombu, the Lepcha naturalist, crept in
from the back, so to speak, and intimated with his hat in
his hand, in complete silence, that he was ready again. We
ear-marked him as Hingston’s assistant, as soon as the latter
should arrive.
Then we were joined by Somervell, hailing from Travan-
core, followed by Odell from the Persian oil-fields, while
Hingston arrived from his R.A.F. hospital in Bagdad. All
were set to work at once, according to their several qualifica-
tions. But Norton and Shebbeare promptly rushed off to
Kalimpong to receive and forward our heavy baggage as it
THE START 17
arrived. Odell was our Oxygen Expert, and the oxygen
apparatus was placed in his charge from now on.
We had been warned in the most solemn fashion by the
India Office of the terrible penalties which would be incurred
by the Tibetans if any more interest was displayed in the
geological formations of the mountains, or if any stones were
removed from their sides. But murder will Out, and it was
discovered that Odell was a geologist by profession. This
dreadful news had immediately to be counteracted. Odell
was taking a complete holiday from his profession. He was
now following his infinitely greater calling, that of a moun-
taineer, and though he was obliged by Orders of the Expedi-
tionary Head-quarters Staff to take upon himself other
scientific duties, still his own profession was in abeyance.
Telegrams of reassurance flew from every direction over
the Himäl, and confidence was re-established. No epidemics
and no disturbing of the local demons should occur if it was
possible to avoid this terrible risk.
Hingston had arrived as fit as possible after a Mesopo-
tamian winter, which is not to be despised. In addition
to being the Official Doctor and Surgeon of the Expedition,
he was also its Naturalist. In his first capacity he came
bursting with energy and enthusiasm to test every member
of the Expedition with every terror known to the R.A.F.
authorities. In his second capacity, as Naturalist, we knew
that he would have his work cut out, and we hoped that
but little of his time would be required for looking after the
humans. In the actual event, as will be seen, he had his
hands full, both with his Natural History collections, and in
dealing with the many troubles of the Expedition : one of
the most annoying of these troubles being the one I myself
Occasioned. To his great attainments, both as Doctor and
Naturalist, are added a complete placidity of temperament,
and an unfailing humorous outlook. I shall be intensely
obliged if anyone can point out a better make-up for the trying
duties which he was asked to carry out. All our thanks
are due to him. Hingston was not a mountaineer. Oh, no
O
18 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
But read to the end of this book, and then make a comment
on this statement 1
Somervell had arrived from Southern India, looking fit
and well as usual. A Medical Missionary now, and full of
his opportunities, medical, sportive, and other, which he had
enjoyed while ministering to his enormous panel. I think,
though, that the soft and enervating climate of Travancore
had begun to tell on even his wonderful constitution to a
certain extent, and Somervell has a very tough physique.
The cassowary, however, had spared him, and he joined us
just the same T. H. S. as of old. My last meeting with him
had been at Zermatt in 1923, during that astounding campaign
he made in the Alps, having Bentley Beetham with him
most of the time, when they bagged something like thirty-five
peaks in six weeks’ climbing.
We had, as usual, a very amusingtime picking our personnel.
There were several old followers—notably old Pu—coming
with us for the third time, and among them turned up my
former porter and henchman, Llakpa Chédé, who in 1922
had done his best to come, but was at that time very ill with
malaria. This year he was in first-rate condition, and, as
will be seen in later accounts, a very great success. A native-
born of Darjeeling, he had never been to the hub of the
Sherpa universe, the large Sola-Khombu settlements at the
head of the Dudh Kosi in Nepal, although his father hailed
from that place. We took with us a larger outfit of porters
than in 1922, but, on the whole, an equally satisfactory lot.
All was ready for the march : stores packed and for-
warded from Darjeeling by the time our last contingent
arrived, Mallory and Irvine, Bentley Beetham and Hazard.
This our last, and almost most important, contingent, Hazard,
who had previously served in India as a Sapper, and who had
a great mountaineering record. Bentley Beetham, a born
mountaineer, and—how shall I describe him 7–a mountain-
eering Ghazi, and Somervell’s climbing companion, and also
a skilled photographer, to whom was deputed by Noel much
of the still-picture work. Then Mallory, the Bayard of the
THE START 19
Mountains—“sans peur et sans reproche’—the only member
of the Expedition who was making his third journey. And
finally, our splendid “experiment,” Irvine, bringing with
him magnificent recommendations from Longstaff and Odell
after Spitzbergen experiences, and, further, bringing his own
great personality. He rapidly ceased to be an experiment,
for we soon found that with a young body he possessed a
mature judgment, combined with a very remarkable handiness
and adaptability as a practical working engineer. All these
valuable qualities, combined with infinite stamina and infinite
unselfishness, made Irvine a very great asset to Our party.
I really don’t think that I ought to say anything about
Geoffrey Bruce He was confidential Staff Officer, dealing
with all branches—G.S.O. and Q. in all its ramifications.
During the whole of my service in the Army I have been
singularly dependent upon a Fidus Achates, on whom I could
always put the nasty work I didn’t like myself, and whom I
could always blame for anything I did myself if it was wrong.
I think that is a good enough recommendation for anybody.
Possibly, just as an aside, I might add that he is a really
very remarkable performer on the hillside. One of those
untrained mountaineers who is always “all there.” At
any rate, if I never did anything else to help Colonel Norton,
I at least passed Geoffrey Bruce on to him.
On March 25 we left Darjeeling, everybody, with the
exception of myself, riding or walking: the members of the
Expedition, the Interpreter, the Sirdars, porters, personal
Servants, cooks, and Gurkha non-commissioned officers. I
went like a lord, in a motor-car put at my disposal by Mr.
Wrangham-Hardy of Darjeeling, and driven by his chauffeur,
a man whom, curiously enough, I had myself enlisted into
the Kashmir Army twenty-five years ago. He drove me
round via Siliguri, and thence up the Teesta Valley to Kalim-
pong Road, from which place we mounted 3,800 feet to
Ralimpong. This last about the steepest drive, and with
the narrowest turns, that I have ever been over in a motor-
car, the excitement of the drive being hugely enhanced
20 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
by the fact that we were overtaken by a furious thunderstorm
just as it was getting dark. However, that night the whole
Expedition was collected, and had a cheerful evening together.
Captain Noel, who was the Official Photographer in the
1922 Expedition, was again with us, although his arrange-
ments were different from those of 1922. He was very keen
to take again a complete cinema record of all that the Expedi-
tion hoped to do. But so difficult had it been in 1922 to
develop the films in Tibet, owing to the continual winds,
the amount of dust raised by them, and its character, and
also the low temperatures at night, that it was considered
to be far more efficacious to establish a regular laboratory
in Darjeeling, and to send back his films from Tibet to be
developed there under these much better conditions. We
were luckily able to make postal arrangements which, under
the circumstances, worked very well.
In 1922 I had the privilege of being the bearer of a message
from Sir Robert Baden-Powell to the Scouts of Dr. Graham’s
magnificent “Homes * in Kalimpong. And I was happy
in 1924 to be entrusted with another message. Again
we had a most interesting ceremony, and, to my special
interest, I found that the large and very flourishing troop of
Nepali Scouts, looked after by Dr. Graham, were in charge
of a young Welshman who hailed from very near my own
home in Glamorgan.
Again, they all saw us on Our way, after a most interesting
function.
And so to Pedong. After all this is the real start for
Tibet. We travelled in two parties as usual: the second in
charge of Norton; the first with me.
I have an affection for Pedong. It is charmingly situated,
and looks well over the Sikkim Valleys. But this year the
air seemed full of smoke : possibly unusually thick haze,
possibly actual smoke diven up from the forest fires in the
plains.
Pedong is on the frontier between British Sikkim and
the Sikkim State, and while I was sitting in comfort in the
THE START 2I
bungalow I was visited by a young Sikkim military policeman
who wished to see our passes, and also brought books to be
signed. Having complied with these requests, I had relapsed
into comfort when I was startled by a yell of “Attention 1 °
from the young Gurkha policeman, followed by “Right-
hand salute—Left turn—Quick march 1” at the top of his
voice. Thus having given himself orders he departed Satisfied
on his way.
The road through Sikkim is always a joy, warm though
the deep valleys are. But their warmth, and the heat
engendered by running down the very steep short cuts,
through the gorgeous Sikkim forests, were partly compensated
for by the luscious pineapples of Rhenok.
And so to Rongli-Chu, 2,700 feet above sea-level. Here
a typical Sherpa incident occurred. Take it all round our
Sherpas had been very good. Of course when leaving
Darjeeling it was up to them, for luck’s sake, to take as many
drinks of their chang as they could before setting out for
Tibet. But this mild sacrifice to the god of Luck only
added to their intense friendliness for everybody and every-
thing.
But at Rongli-Chu two of them really did burst out much
more than was necessary, and I am afraid, on this Occasion,
they did not confine themselves to the mild chang, but added
to it much of the rough spirit of the country. A furious
fight between two of them was the result. They were finally
brought into camp, and Somervell was woken up to treat
them. They were dreadfully smashed about, and much
Sewing up of wounds and bandaging of heads and hands
had to be done.
The following morning, when they were coming up for
a second dressing I thought I would add a little dressing
down on my own account. They were very sorrowful, but
also much hurt, and carefully explained to me that they
hadn’t quarrelled, and that they were bosom friends. That
it was not they, but the drink that had quarrelled ! This
naïve way of putting things was typical of the Sherpa character.
22 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Unfortunately, neither of these two Sherpas turned out among
the best. That, however, is another story.
From Rongli began the great ascent, via Sedongchen,
Gnatong, and over the Jelap Lä, always an interesting
Journey.
Again, as in 1922, we stopped for our wayside refreshment
at Ling Tham. There was the same little lady and her
children, the latter much grown, and again she refreshed
us with excellent tea and her “shéli' bread. However, on
this occasion we were lucky, as we had had some rain on
the way up, and the atmosphere had cleared.
Crossing the open ground over the Minor Kapup Pass
we had the most inspiring view of the whole Kanchenjunga
massif. One of those strange mysterious atmospheric effects,
when the great mountains appear to be floating in mid-air,
their lower slopes swallowed up in the blue depths of the
valleys, and their outlines obliterated, while all above the
snow-line seemed detached from an earthly base and floating
in space. It was a truly wonderful picture.
On this occasion we marched direct from Gnatong, and
without halting at Kapup, crossed the pass to the Tibetan
rest-house, which is 6 miles from the top. Naturally this
rest-house has not the conveniences of a Dăk bungalow, but
for all that it is no mean shelter, and is well built with heavy
timbers.
More than ever was it borne in on me during this journey,
the differences between the Eastern and Western Himalaya.
Here we were on April 1, high up, having crossed a pass
of 14,400 feet, and yet had never been really inconvenienced
by the snow, nor had the night temperatures been particularly
low.
The descent from the summit was certainly over Snow
for a time, and the path below unpleasantly iced, and dread-
fully slippery for animals. How those heavily laden Chumbi
mules managed to get over it was a wonder.
Compare these conditions to those which prevail on
April 1 on the other great trade route, that from Kashmir to
THE START 23
Ladakh or Little Tibet. On that route only one pass, the
Zoji La, an insignificant 11,700 feet, and yet I am not exagger-
ating when I say that there would have been 10 feet of snow
on it at that date, and, almost certainly, it would have been
impassable for a train of laden animals.
And further, our pass, the Jelap La, remains open, nearly
always, for the whole winter, for it is down over this track
that the great mule trains, with their bales of wool, pass
annually.
We waited on the top of the Jelap La for some little time,
but it was a wild rough morning and not very attractive.
Still, we managed to take one or two photographs, includ-
ing one of the Sherpa, Angtarké, who was one of the two
men rescued in the disaster of 1922. I don’t think poor
Angtarkéhasever really recovered from that terrific experience,
for he was dug out unconscious, firmly fixed in the snow,
standing on his head, having fallen some 60 feet. We felt
bound to take him on again, but he soon broke down, and
returned with me.
The next day brought us to Chumbi, or more correctly
speaking, Shashima.
David Macdonald, the Trade Agent, was up in Tibet, but
his son, John Macdonald, looked after us in place of his
father.
We had a little business to transact here, which did not
take very long, and the following day we were joined by
the second party, all fit and well. We were all bidden that
afternoon to a Tibetan dance and a performance by pro-
fessional Tibetan players and acrobats.
The entertainment took place on the lawn of the Mac-
donalds' garden, and was really most fascinating, not only
from its own spectacular merits, but from the picturesqueness
of the crowd, and also from the intense personal enjoyment
of not only the entertained, but also of the entertainers
themselves.
The whole of the inhabitants of the Chumbi Valley—
men, women, and children—were present ; many Nepalese
24 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
traders, Settlers, and the like, and also the men of the
detachment of the Panjabi Regiment stationed in Chumbi.
One of the actors, dressed up as a Mahomedan, with a
long beard, was excruciatingly like an old Mahomedan friend
of mine up in the Kaghan Valley, which tickled me immensely.
We did not, however, stay long in Chumbi, but left,
again in two parties, on April 5. Always an interesting
journey, I think, that route through the Gautsa Defile.
In the wooded parts of the Himalaya one often meets
with beautiful scenery, magnificent scenery, indeed, com-
bined with real wildness, but the upper parts of the Gautsa
Defile, in contrast to the lower parts, impress one with a
sense of Savage wildness.
We reached Phari on April 6. But it was not the Phari
we anticipated, neither was it the Phari of 1922.
I don’t think Phari could have possibly behaved better
than it did in 1924. It was, in fact, almost a mild climate,
and Phari is over 14,000 feet.
We found, as we had expected, all our stores collected
here, and our very efficient “Tindel,” who was in charge,
had pitched the whole of our tents for inspection.
No time was lost in getting into touch with the Dzong
Pen. Knowing, however, the character of the Phari civil
authorities of old, we were prepared for a battle over prices.
In fact, we had previously taken certain steps, communicating
our doubts of the attitude likely to be expected from the
Phari headmen, and so forth, to General Tza-Za Laden La,
who was on a mission to Lhasa.
It was lucky for us that we had done this, for we found
that the prices in Phari Dzong had risen altogether out of
proportion to the cost of living, so to speak.
Our battle with the Dzong Pen went on for two days.
As before we had travelled to Phari in two parties, and
so were again assembled there on April 7. Again it was
my birthday, and once more we opened a bottle of the old
family rum specially sent by my brother from England for
the occasion. Many compliments have been paid to this
THE START 25
old rum, but never more hearty ones, and never has it done
its duty better than on these two occasions, for really old
mellow rum is a generous fluid.
We had one day of complete rest for all, and that day
was largely occupied in submitting ourselves individually
to Major Hingston’s innumerable physiological tests.
I was hugely elated by finding that I passed a better
examination in Phari Dzong than I had in London. I think
the little devil who deals in disappointments must have Sat
on the mantelpiece and chuckled.
Between times, and while the tests were going On, we
continued our battles with the Dzong Pen.
The Dzong Pen himself, a grasping, avaricious, but feeble,
albeit well-mannered individual, was really in the hands of
his subordinates, the Gyembus, a truculent, but determined,
crowd of cheerful rascals, who had quite clearly not taken
on their duties for health’s sake alone.
However, we discovered that a telegram had arrived
from Lhasa, instructing the Dzong Pen to give us every
assistance, and to see that we were not overcharged. With-
out letting it be known that we were in possession of this
information, an ultimatum was issued, and before all, in
open Durbar, a telegram was written out to the Tibetan
Prime Minister, complaining of our treatment at the hands
of the Phari authorities.
This bluff had its desired effect, and very shortly an
agreement was drawn out and signed, and, after much bowing
and ceremonial kow-towing, by general request the telegram
was torn up in full sight of the Durbar.
A dramatic and very amusing finale to the situation.
There remained but to get off And the departure from
Phari, as is always the case, and probably always will be
the case in the East for a first day, was a prolonged scramble.
But on the following day, after the agreement had been
signed, and during the day, we did actually get off and again
in two parties. Hingston, myself, and John Macdonald had
elected to travel by the more lengthy Tuna-Do-chen-Tat-sang
26 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
route, up to then new to me; the Do-chen lake and its
innumerable wild fowl being the attraction for Hingston.
The remainder of the party made a short march and camped
On the slopes of the Tang La, and as we progressed on our
route we saw their camp being pitched in a fairly sheltered
spot up a little valley.
Our route led us along the main route to Lhasa for
Some 20 miles or so, and Hingston and I amused ourselves
by trying to round up some kiang,” and as a matter of fact
we did get very close to them.
The road, although pleasant enough to ride, must be
deadly boring for a pedestrian, notwithstanding the fact
that the great north ridge of Chomulhari, running for at
least 10 miles in a northerly direction, is really a most magnifi-
cent sight, and its terribly steep ice faces, almost terrifying
in their steepness when regarded from a mountaineering
point of view.
The main caravan had to take the ordinary Kampa
Dzong route, which is necessary when much transport is
employed, crossing the great ridges of the Donka La, and
although starting in mild weather, were prepared for a severe
time, and were not disappointed.
Even we encountered a very cold wind before reaching
Tuna, as bleak and desolate a spot as one could wish to See.
The next morning I was down with a severe go of malaria,
which obliged me to hand over the conduct of the Expedition
to Norton.
In fact, even after I had begun to recover, Hingston
was adamant. Hingston, although adamant, was interested,
however, as my case showed the physiological effects on the
human body produced by a sharp attack of malaria when it
develops at an altitude of over 15,000 feet.
The fever, under his skilful treatment, yielded in four
days, but I had to be carried out of Tibet completely inca-
pacitated.
At any rate I did a bit of good to one member of the
* Wild donkeys.
（LS） AY & H.J. WOH +In v HTIO WOHO

THE START 27
Expedition, for the exercise of carrying me for 20 miles back
into Phari appears to have provided excellent training for
my old henchman Llakpa, who afterwards so distinguished
himself on the great mountain.
Naturally this coup de jarmac dealt me by the Fates was
a terrible disappointment to me, but there are compensations
for everything, and my compensation was Norton. Let
me say at once that even if I had continued with the Expedi-
tion there was no step taken by Norton, no Order issued by
him, and no decision made by him of which I should not
have been proud to have been the author. No doubt an
extra hand who knew the ropes, at the Base Camp, would
have been of advantage, but beyond that, in such a great
matter as the continuity of the command, there is nothing
to be said.
My own subsequent movements were simple enough, but
one point is certainly interesting, and that is the extraordinary
rapidity with which strength was regained, even at such an
altitude as Yatung, roughly 10,000 feet. So much so that after
a few days’ rest I was able to continue, riding and walking,
my journey down to Gangtok, crossing the Natu Lå in deep
SI]OW.
However, Hingston was just as adamantine when we
reached Gangtok, and would not listen to what I was pleased
to call reason.
He left me at the latter place—Gangtok—and travelled
via Lachen direct to Kampa Dzong, writing to me on the
way up, and giving descriptions of his enjoyment of the road
through the forests, and that he had captured no less than
300 different kinds of bugs without even dismounting.
I must here thank Major and Mrs. Bailey for the great
care they took of me in Gangtok while I was convalescing.
From April 27 to August 8 there is a great gap : I waiting
in comfort—that is physical comfort—while the rest were
occupied with the great fight. A most humiliating and
trying position.
I shall never forget receiving a most kind and sympathetic
28 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
letter from Lord Lytton, the Governor of Bengal, enclosing
the fateful telegram telling of our loss.
The whole history of that wonderful battle and the
final Sacrifice is told in the chapters which follow, and so
I leave that to other pens.
>k >k :k Sk :k
In a later chapter Colonel Norton fully discusses the
problem of Everest, and especially that part which has not
yet been entirely solved. But so many points in this year’s
attempt have been cleared up, and such great progress has
been made, that we are in an infinitely better position to
review and complete our task.
As will be seen, the Expedition in 1924 suffered from very
unusual climatic conditions, and these not to do with the
arrival of the monsoon, but due to depressions forming in
the West, and travelling the whole length of Afghanistan,
the Northern Panjab, and the Himalayas, causing until
quite late into May rough and cold weather, and making
a record low temperature for that month throughout the
sub-montaine districts.
These disturbances brought to Everest hurricane after
hurricane, and terrible cold at a time when clear, if not
comparatively warm, weather is expected.
One of our great problems in the attack on Everest is to
bring one’s party burly and fit to the foot of the mountain,
and to keep them SO.
I am not exaggerating at all if I estimate that that great
three weeks’ struggle to establish the camp at the North
Col reduced the efficiency of the party, whether European
or Tibetan, by at least one-third. That is to say, that each
member of the Expedition, with ordinary luck, would have been
one-third a better man when engaged on the final assault.
To my mind the problem is solved, with the gods on our
side, and given again a party of equal efficiency.
The minor matters that we have learnt, whether in
organization or deductions from physiological experience,
count comparatively for little.
THE START 29
The greater problem is solved, whether oxygen is employed
Or not.
We have only got to get together a party to match that
of 1924. To go there, and do it; utilizing at the same time
all the influence we have with the heavenly Authorities to
supply us with propitious weather.
There is one subject, however, which I must not forget.
We certainly, in 1924, did learn a great deal about the extent
to which acclimatization is progressive. It was also quite
clearly established, I think, that those who had lived for
considerable periods at a height of over 16,000 feet, even
after the lapse of two years, got their acclimatization more
rapidly than beginners. Even in 1922 we noticed that
Mallory was far fitter at high altitudes than anyone else at
the start.
We put this down to innate capacity, very largely, but
it was quite probably, in the light of our further experi-
ence, due to his training and experience of the previous
year.
This is a fact worth remembering, and it might even be
an assistance, if there is a long gap before the new Expedition
takes place, for climbers to make a point of spending a con-
siderable time on the way up to Tibet at the Gautsa rest-
house, which is at about 12,000 feet, training themselves
from there, and utilizing the ample supplies obtainable in
Chumbi, so as to get a great measure of acclimatization before
Crossing the Tibetan plateau. I may say this is a favourite
Scheme of Colonel Norton’s.
I seem to have dismissed the oxygen question with scant
reference, but I think the conclusion is clear. Every effort
should be made to attain a full acclimatization, and that
acclimatization should be utilized, so to speak, to its utmost
safe limit, and that oxygen should only be used to ensure
Success for the final dash.
I have every reason for thinking that it has been found
possible to construct an adequate and infinitely lighter OXygen
apparatus.
30 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
I will conclude my chapter by drawing attention to the
psychological attitude which should be adopted.
The whole history of mountaineering bears out our
experience. The steady progression of the most difficult
climbs in Switzerland, from a reputation for “impossibility'
to “an easy day for a lady,” exactly expresses the idea. The
standard has been steadily rising, for but a few years ago a
height of 23,000 feet to 24,000 feet was considered the limit
of human capacity.
During our storming of Everest we always adopted the
attitude, when thinking, considering, or talking of our great
project, that it began after 23,000 feet, and that anyone should
be expected to easily arrive at that point with or without a
load on his back. -
This, although probably an illogical conclusion, had the
perfectly logical result that we had hoped for.
CHAPTER II
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
The first march from Phari is always something of an
event. To begin with there is the great question whether
sufficient transport animals will materialize to enable the
expedition to start at all, and April 7, 1924, provided no
exception to the rule, for the dilatory and obstructive methods
of the Dzong Pen of Phari and his Gyembus (or head-men)
were fully up to standard, and it took Geoffrey Bruce and
Shebbeare six hours of arguing and driving before the last
of our 300 odd transport animals were fairly on the road.
Then there is the joy of doing a whole march close under
that most beautiful mountain Chomulhari, whose isolated
position and perfect shape combine to produce a picture
from which one can hardly take one’s eyes. The peak is
seen at its best from a mile or two south of Phari; this day’s
march takes one rather too close under it, and this detracts
from its outline, but, on the other hand, one opens out a
Series of vistas of the spurs which form its western buttresses
and which, viewed end on, are striking to a degree. As we
neared camp we looked straight up a ridge which begins
in a knife-edge of rock worthy of the Chamounix Aiguilles
and is continued towards the mountain by what must be
One of the steepest and narrowest ice arêtes in the world.
The route we were to follow for the next four days crosses
the north-eastern spurs of a big snow mountain called Pau
Hunri, and for some reason this area is the most inhospitable
of any we meet on the Tibetan plateau. I have now crossed
it four times, both in spring and summer, and never without
31
32 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
encountering a blizzard or constant storms of snow and
sleet. So we were not surprised to find it trying to snow
as darkness came on ; and for the first time we appreciated
the joys of our new mess tent, which, specially designed as
the result of our previous experience, proved of all this year's
innovations the most complete and permanent success.
Our march on April 7 was a very short one, for we knew
that transport difficulties would delay our start. On April 8
we lengthened 'our stride and covered 12 miles. The miles
of the great Tibetan plains are long; sometimes they seem
as long as Irish miles after a day's hunting. And towards
the end of this day’s march we began to marvel at our hardi-
hood two years before, when we covered in one day the full
20 miles comprised in our first two marches this year, and
that in a blizzard and for the most part on foot, only to go
One better next day with a march of some 25 miles. And
it must be remembered that we were now at an altitude
Somewhat greater than that of the top of Mont Blanc, and,
unacclimatized as we were, this factor affected our going
power more than a little.
Half-way through this second day’s march we met a mes-
senger from Hingston with a note to tell us that General
Bruce was sick of a fever and lying up at Tuna—a piece of
news that greatly disconcerted us.
On April 9, marching with the thermometer at 4°Fahren-
heit and in a strong and bitterly cold wind, we crossed that
series of three 18,000-foot passes which we know collectively
as the Donka La, and got into camp at 5.30 p.m. The
entry in my diary for the day finishes with : “As often before
I am lost in admiration of the servants, porters, etc., who
walk 18 miles in bitter weather, get into camp and work
like beavers to get their Sahibs (who have ridden much of
the way) fed, clothed and housed.”
On the 10th we marched all day, only getting into camp
at dusk. Our route lay over a vast gravelly plain, the very
abomination of desolation ; on the north the horizon was
bounded by variegated limestone hills rising to 18,000 or 19,000
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 33
feet. To the south the plain rose gently to a skyline, perhaps
10 miles away, over which appeared the great blunt Snow-
capped summits of Pau Hunri, Kinchenjhau and Chomiomo.
At this season the plain appears utterly devoid of vegetation,
yet herds of kyang and Tibetan gazelle surrounded us in
every direction, all looking as sleek and round as if their chosen
habitat were the finest pasture in Asia. To the best of my
recollection we had not seen a human being for the last two
days.
That evening certain anxieties we had already felt about
the health of the party began to take a more definite form.
Beetham was evidently suffering from a severe attack of
dysentery, and Mallory had some very disquieting symptoms.
Somervell suspected the possibility of appendicitis, and spent
Some hours into the night in making plans to deal with his
case if the worst came to the worst.
Next morning we descended steeply on to Kampa Dzong.
After the rough march from Phari, Kampa has each year
been something of a haven of refuge, and this time it gave
us a particularly warm welcome. Tucked away in a sheltered
corner of the hills, this picturesque village is a veritable sun
trap, and the descent from the great plateau we had crossed
to a height of about 14,000 feet was itself a relief to our so
far unacclimatized party. The scenery as you descend on
the village is striking; the great flat plain of Kampa stretches
10 miles to the west, and from this point of view has an iri-
descent quality which a closer acquaintance scarcely explains.
The variegated foothills which border it look as if they were
composed of knife-powder, rust and wood ashes, and the
horizon is bounded on three sides by what appear at this
Season to be all Snow mountains. On the south stretch the
great peaks of the main range of the Himalayas, where Tibet
borders on Sikkim and Nepal, and on the north is a range,
Snow-capped except for two summer months, which borders
the valley of the Brahmaputra. Eastward, the fine shapes
of the Gyankar range merge into the giants of the Mount
Everest system, though these, tinted golden by 100 miles
$)
34 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of atmosphere, still seem to dominate the nearer range less
than half as distant. This morning the familiar shapes of
Everest and Makalu remained almost clear of cloud until the
foothills shut them from our view, and only as we were losing
them did they begin to fly the cloud banner which in this
region always marks the master-peak.
Arrived at Kampa, we occupied the walled enclosure
which has always been allotted to us by the courtesy of the
local officials. There is an unchanging quality about Tibet
which was brought home to me whenever we re-occupied
one of our old camp sites; here at Kampa not a stone was
changed: the same Tibetan hares hopped about, and the same
Snow cock cackled on the hill over our camp, and in the
broken-down willow tree which our enclosure boasted lived
the same magpie and the same little brown accentor.
At Kampa we were to change transport animals, and
wherever this occurred the routine was much the same. The
local Dzong Pen or Gyembu would meet us on our arrival,
and having vaguely assured us that our requirements would
be punctually fulfilled, would leave us to settle into camp after
arranging for a meeting later in the day. In due course he
would arrive, and Geoffrey Bruce and I would entertain him
to tea in the mess tent. After preliminary courtesies and
an interchange of gifts we would state our requirements and
he the difficulties of meeting them ; these we would counter
by producing the passport provided by the Tibetan Govern-
ment and carrying the Dalai Lama’s Seal, in which all officials
of the specified districts were strictly enjoined to give us
every assistance. The effect of this document would be varied:
in some cases it would be treated with the greatest respect,
in others it seemed to carry very little weight.
Prevarication and delay was generally our guest’s strong
suit—ours a polite firmness as to numbers and dates. Finally
would come the battle royal as to the rate to be paid per
animal—yak or donkey. The Dalai Lama's pass said that
we were to receive transport at the “current rate,” but the
trouble was that this proved a façon de parler ; there was no
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 35
such thing as a current rate. Most fortunately the head
Gyembu of Kampa Dzong—for the Dzong Pen was away
—an ugly bucolic man, but straightforward and honest withal,
proved singularly accommodating in this respect, and we
founded our future ideas of a current rate largely on his modest
demands, which were rather lower than the average prices
paid in 1922. At some stages—notably Tinki Dzong—we
had to arrange for a further interview, and then to take a
very strong line before we could secure our transport at a
reasonable rate. Our conversations, which were carried on
through the medium of an interpreter, always finished on a
friendly note, no matter how severe had been the tussle.
Sometimes we were ourselves entertained in the Dzong, and
if the negotiations were prolonged, we were apt to find the
keen edge taken off our bargaining powers by a Surfeit of
macaroni and mutton, Sweetmeats and Tibetan tea—that
vile decoction flavoured with salt and butter—or chang (the
local form of beer).
On this occasion our hopes of a speedy resumption of
our journey were dashed, and we found that we must wait
four days for our transport. But there were several reasons
why this forced inaction was not unwelcome : it gave time
for the invalids to recover, and, as we hoped, for the General,
of whom we had no further news, to rejoin us; it enabled
us to spread out kit, have a welcome bath, and generally ease
off after our first taste of high-level marching. It gave us
the chance also seriously to discuss our programme for
climbing the mountain.
In this we had so far reached something of an impasse.
As long ago as the previous Christmas in England I had
circulated a paper containing my ideas on the subject, and
with these Mallory had by correspondence disagreed in
certain respects. At Darjeeling, and again at Phari, we had
held lengthy discussions—Mallory, Somervell, Geoffrey Bruce,
and myself—and, failing to agree altogether, had decided
to continue our arguments across the endless plains of Tibet.
At Kampa we hoped for a final decision and a cut-and-dried
36 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
plan of which the details could be worked out on the fort-
night’s trek still ahead of us. Now was the chance, and each
day we went at it, sometimes Mallory and I, sometimes he
and I with the addition of Somervell and Bruce, and once
in full committee of all the climbers.
But we were to leave Kampa with our plan still in the
air; Mallory’s and my points of disagreement were much
narrowed down, but enough remained to preclude a final
decision. I cannot now remember the exact points on which
we split, but I do remember the very pleasant spirit in which
we differed. Mallory was, I think, impatient by nature;
yet with me he showed throughout these discussions the most
perfect patience and tact, and that despite the fact that,
owing to his eleventh-hour decision to join this year's Expedi-
tion, I had been appointed leader of the climbing party, a
rôle to which his previous record on the mountain might
well have entitled him, and which he assumed as Soon as I
became leader of the Expedition.
On April 13 fell the blow that we had begun to fear. John
Macdonald arrived alone with a couple of pack mules ; the
General, under Hingston’s escort, had had to return to Phari
on a stretcher and so by easy stages to Yatung and Darjeeling.
A note from Hingston left little doubt as to the wisdom of
this decision.
This was indeed a shot between wind and water, and we
were a gloomy party in the mess tent that night. It is
hard to explain to those who have not served under him
what the loss of our leader meant to us. It was said of
Wellington in the Peninsula that “the sight of his old nose
was worth 10,000 men’’ in a critical situation. General
Bruce's nose may not be much like that of the Great Duke,
but it might well have been worth the last 1,000 feet of the
mountain to an Everest expedition. He had a peculiar genius
for the leadership of such an expedition ; his prestige among
the Mongolian people of both Nepalese and Tibetan stock
stood very high, for he understood these folk as few white
men do, and his temperament was exactly suited to dealing
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 37
with them ; in the troublous times ahead of us his influence
over the porters would have been invaluable, and he was
both known and greatly trusted by the Tibetan officials with
whom we were to deal. He had a happy knack of sweeping
away difficulties in the most lighthearted and effective way,
and, perhaps most important of all, he had the gift of uniting
the British members of a party and of inspiring them with
something of his own cheerful spirit. Looking back now I
can see clearly that though we of the 1924 Expedition were
perhaps as happy a family as ever faced together the trials
inseparable from such enterprises, we lost from April 13th
something of that lighthearted atmosphere which the General
alone could maintain.
But if we were henceforth to be deprived of General
Bruce’s leadership, he left us as legacy a most efficient
organization ; I doubt if so strong a party will ever again
be got together to climb Mount Everest. Of the climbers
Mallory, Somervell, Geoffrey Bruce and myself had all been
high in 1922, while Mallory had carried out the climbing
reconnaissance in 1921 as well. Odell, Beetham and Hazard
were Alpine climbers of notable speed and endurance and
of great experience. Young Irvine's record was somewhat
different, for his mountaineering experience was limited
(though sufficient to guarantee him a safe member of any
climbing party); but he had rowed two years in the Oxford
boat, and if further proof of the essential qualities of endurance
and courage were necessary, he had given them amply while
sledging in Spitzbergen with Odell the previous summer, and
later ski-ing in Switzerland.
To anyone interested in “make and shape ’’ the party
was an instructive study. By trial and error, so to speak,
we have evolved a type to climb at extreme altitudes, and
it is exactly the type which I have for many years believed
to be the best all-round build for a man : 5 foot 11 inches
in height and 11 stone 7 lb. in clothes. Mallory, Somervell,
Geoffrey Bruce and Hazard fulfilled these conditions so
nearly that they might all have exchanged clothes very
G
38 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
respectably, and in proof of the all-round usefulness of the
type, I may add that Geoffrey Bruce is that rare combination
—a horseman and an athlete of quite remarkable versatility.
Hazard, perhaps the slimmest of the four, has been noted for
feats of strength ; Somervell has to his credit an astonishing
record of consecutive performance on the first-class peaks of
the Alps; while Mallory, the graceful and accomplished moun-
taineer par eaccellence, had also made his mark at football
and rowing. Odell only deviated from type by an inch or
two of extra height, and he also had a record second to none
for toughness and endurance both in the Alps and in Spitz-
bergen.
Beetham and I were at opposite ends of the scale.
Beetham, of stockier build than the rest, was active as a cat
and—So Somervell declares—a perfectly heartbreaking man
to live with in a long day in the Alps. Previous to this
Expedition he had never been on a horse, but his force of
character was more than equal to so mild a test as a twelve-
hand Tibetan pony, and it was an inspiriting sight to see
him scouring the plains of Tibet on “Ginger,” whom he quite
frequently persuaded to go in the direction he indicated.
“It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.” As
for me, I approximate to Euclid's definition of a straight
line. Irvine, as befitted a rowing blue, was big and powerful
—with fine shoulders and comparatively light legs; he was
only 22, while the remaining seven climbers were all between
33 and 40 years of age.
Hingston being away, the only other members of the
party at this time were Noel, Shebbeare, and John Macdonald.
Noel accompanied us as cinema expert, and it was largely
through him that the funds necessary to finance the Expedition
had been provided. He ran a small organization of his own
and was self-supporting as regards equipment, transport and
personnel. As he had been a member of the 1922 party and
had been to the North Col that year, he knew the ropes and,
placing the good of the Expedition always before his own
interests, he was a most valuable member of the 1924 party.
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 39
Shebbeare shared with Bruce the duties of transport
officer : an officer of the Indian Forest Department, he had
made a speciality of elephants, tame and wild, but the wilder
the better. Tibet, however, is curiously deficient in elephants,
and he owed his place on the Expedition to his great know-
ledge of, and sympathy with, the Mongolian people of the
foothills, and to a temperament which made him from the
start as popular with the porters as he was with all of us. John
Macdonald, the son of the British Trade Agent at Yatung,
came with us to the Base Camp and thence returned to
Phari, thus organizing that most efficient service of mail
runners which kept the outer world in touch with our doings.
His intimate knowledge of the Tibetans and his cheerful
willingness to help us out in all our negotiations with the
local officials were a great asset to the Expedition.
Our 70 odd porters, syces, cooks and domestic servants
were all recruited in Darjeeling under General Bruce’s aus-
pices. For the moment I will only speak in general terms
of this splendid body of men, on whose shoulders we literally
climbed Mount Everest. All without exception were of
Mongolian stock—Bhotias (or true Tibetans) and Sherpas
(Tibetan by race, but hailing from the higher valleys of
Nepal). Like the British members of the party these men
were carefully picked, and picked to a definite type evolved
by previous experience. Light and wiry must be your good
high-altitude porter, for he cannot afford to carry, in addition
to his pack, a load of brawn and muscle. More, he must
be a good-class man of some intelligence : the bucolic bump-
kin with coarse features and slow brain fails no less than
the “hefty” giant, under the stress of high-altitude conditions.
To deal with individually and en masse these men are singularly
like a childish edition of the British soldier, many of whose
virtues they share. They have the same high spirit for a
tough and dangerous job ; the same ready response to quip
and jest. As with the British soldier, the rough character,
Who is perpetually a nuisance when drink and the attractions
of civilization tempt him astray, often comes out strongest
40 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Ç
when “up against it ’’ in circumstances where the milder
man fails.
A strong element in our organization was a party of four
Gurkha non-commissioned officers lent (for the second year
in succession) by the kindness of the 2/6th Gurkha Rifles,
the battalion which also lent the services of Geoffrey Bruce,
and to which the Mount Everest Expedition owes a debt of
gratitude.
In a later chapter their work will be described in greater
detail, and all I shall say here is that in allotting tasks to
the officers of the Expedition I always regarded these N.C.O.'s
as so reliable that they could be employed in any position
of trust—such as the care of our very considerable treasure
chest—on an equal footing with officers. Perhaps the most
salient characteristic which they all shared was a remarkable
sense of duty. The subsequent loss of Lance-Naik Sham-
sherpun was a very sad blow to all of us and cut short what
would undoubtedly have been a brilliant military career.
Such was the party that I was now to lead; and I must
take this opportunity of acknowledging another debt of
gratitude : for if we owed the excellence of the party to the
organization of General Bruce, I certainly owe the fact that
we reached the mountain punctually, smoothly and without a
hitch to the never-failing advice, guidance and organizing
power of his cousin, Geoffrey Bruce. In 1922 I had not dealt
with many of the Tibetan officials, whereas Geoffrey had
assisted at all the General’s interviews, and So knew the
ropes; but it was as much his character and general efficiency
as his previous experience which made him my more than
right-hand man in 1924.
If the Suaviter in modo was my strong point, he supplied
the fortiter in re, and I remember our very good friend the
Dzong Pen of Shekar simulating a certain anxiety when he
enquired if that very determined young soldier was to take
part in our discussions. When we pulled his leg about this
afterwards, he replied, “Well, it’s quite right that a soldier
should be very firm.” Firm he could be, as some of the more
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 41
obstinate and obstructive Gyembus and minor officials dis-
covered, on those trying occasions when, by about midday,
the last twenty loads were still lying on the ground and
the empty plains of Tibet showed no signs of disgorging
the last of the promised transport.
We left Kampa Dzong on April 15. Our route to Tinki
lay due west across a wide plain relieved by one long hog-
backed hill half-way through the first day’s march. Crossing
this, we regained the plain and camped that night at Linga,
a pleasant camp surrounded by a swamp and a number of
shallow ponds; here the ruddy sheldrake and bar-headed
geese were already busy with domestic affairs and almost
as tame as barndoor fowls. On April 16 our march skirted
the swamp that leads to Tinki Lake. Shebbeare had preceded
us by one day to Tinki to hasten the supply of transport,
which we were to change at this stage, and which we had
ordered some days previously from Kampa. As we approached
the village he, with the Dzong Pen and a party of retainers,
rode out to meet us.
The Dzong Pen, a youth of 21, held a temporary appoint-
ment, pending confirmation from Lhasa, to the post of his
father, with whom we had dealt in 1922 and who had since
died. The lad proved courteous and friendly, and though
we had a good deal of trouble to fix a reasonable rate for our
transport, we finally succeeded in doing so and arranged
to continue our march after one day’s halt.
On this day, in addition to a lot of useful work by all
members of the party on stores and oxygen, we finally settled
the outline of our plan of campaign. To Mallory goes all
the credit of evolving, from the conflicting views held up to
date by him and me, a plan which combined all the good
points of both, and which was that evening unanimously
approved by all the climbers in conclave. I will explain
this plan later, for its details were worked out down to the
last porter load and coil of rope before we reached the Base
Camp. At the time we were all entirely satisfied with it,
and though the Fates ruled that it should never be put into
42 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
execution, I still think that, with the knowledge we then
had of our resources and the task before us, we could not
have bettered it.
It was at Tinki also that another load was lifted from
my mind. Our invalids here showed clear signs of recovery.
To be exact, Mallory's trouble had never become serious
and had been mending from Kampa onwards, but it had
been touch and go whether Beetham was not to leave us
at that place and head for the Swedish Mission at Lachen in
Sikkim, to rejoin us—possibly—on his recovery. In fact, I
had advanced on his tent with an ultimatum to this effect,
feeling like the executioner with the bowstring, and he must
have recognized me as such, for never did victim put up a
better fight for a few days’ grace. I finally gave in, and
sternly bade him recover by Tinki—or thence seek a lower
altitude. That he did recover by Tinki was due, I believe,
to sheer dogged determination, and it has always been a
matter of keen regret to me that this obstinate quality, of
which he has so large a share, was fated to be wasted in
fighting up to Camp III this and a subsequent ailment, when
it would have been so great an asset higher on the mountain.
When I say that he recovered, I mean that he recovered
from the acute stage, for you do not quickly recover from
dysentery when you have been treating it for a fortnight
in the Tibetan spring by marching 15 miles a day at an
average height of 15,000 feet.
So it was with light hearts that we marched from Tinki
on April 18 and headed for the Bahman Dopté Pass and the
Chiblung Chu route to the Phung Chu valley.
Our transport for the next six days consisted almost
entirely of donkeys. These tiny creatures carry the same
load as a yak—160 lb.--at a distinctly faster pace and for
any distance up to 25 miles a day over passes rising 3,000
feet above the plains. How their little legs—no thicker
than walking-sticks—can do it, is a mystery.
By now we had got well into the Swing of marching.
The early mornings were usually still and gloriously sunny,
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 43
and we breakfasted in the open about 7 o'clock, by which
time the big mess tent would be packed and away on a
pair of fleet mules of our own which we had bought for this
purpose in Kalimpong. By 7.30 or 8 the whole Expedition
would been route, strung out in little parties of donkeys, horse-
men and pedestrians over a mile of country. We most of
us rode and walked about half and half, for our experience of
1922 had taught us the necessity of Saving the energies of
the climbers for what was ahead. But there were Some
very determined pedestrians, notably Shebbeare, who seldom
rode.
About 11.30 we would sit down by twos and threes, or
collect into little parties in some sheltered spot—for by
then the inevitable Tibetan wind would be going strong—
and eat a light lunch of biscuit and cheese, chocolate and
raisins. We usually got into our new camp about 2, though
we were occasionally as late as 7 p.m. The mess tent would
be pitched and waiting for us, and often its well-known out-
line would be a beacon to guide us the last mile or two. If
all were well the position of camp would be further marked
by a wisp of smoke from a yak-dung fire, indicating that
the advanced cook had also arrived and had tea ready. In
the grateful shelter of the tent we enjoyed a more substantial
tiffin, and soon after our tents and belongings would begin
to arrive. By 5 p.m. on most days the whole camp would
be pitched and snug, and a visit to the porters’ tents would
disclose a circle of grinning faces sitting round a yak-dung
fire right inside each tent, with a savoury brew sizzling in
the pot and an atmosphere that no European could have
stood for five minutes. Dinner would be about 7.30, and so
to bed by 8.30. The minimum temperature at night during
this stage averaged 10° Fahrenheit pretty consistently.
What a happy life it was . The more so for a feeling of
optimism that began to be apparent about this time, due
partly to confidence in our plan, the details of which were
shaping under our constant discussions; partly to the increas-
ing fitness and form of the party; partly also, I think, to the
44 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
fact that we were beginning to know one another well—
and with such a party mutual acquaintance could not but
breed mutual respect and confidence.
I walked much with Mallory, and I remember how often
we would wind up a long discussion on ways and means
with the remark, “If only a non-oxygen party can sleep
at 27,000 feet and an oxygen party at 26,500 feet, the trick
is done—both ways.” Dis aliter visum.
From Tinki we climbed to the Bahman Dopté Pass, at
about 17,000 feet, and thence descended into the Chiblung
Chu valley. This we followed for two days, and camped
on the night of April 20 at its mouth, just above the quick-
sands and old lake-bed near Shiling. On the morning of
April 21 we climbed a hill above camp and enjoyed, at about
60 miles range, that most striking view of Mount Everest
which the mountain presents to the east, for on this side it
is a true snow-peak, its slopes running in clean straight lines
from the summit 6,000 feet down to where its base is lost
among the cluster of smaller peaks. A beautiful and a
formidable mountain it seems from here.
On this day we entered the valley of the Phung Chu (or
Arun, to give it its Nepalese name), whose left bank we followed
for three days to Shekar Dzong. With the exception of
our glimpse of Mount Everest from near Shiling we were
now out of sight of the big snows, for the valley was shut
in on both sides by unimpressive limestone hills rising 3,000
or 4,000 feet above the river. As we neared Shekar these
grew always more completely barren and desolate, until one
could picture oneself among the mountain scenery of the
moon; utterly devoid of vegetation, they were of every shade
of colour, from lemon-yellow to rust-red or purple.
On April 23 we reached Shekar Dzong, and the Dzong Pen,
our friend of 1922, rode out to meet us, greeted us most
courteously and promised every assistance in his power.
It was a relief to hear that our fresh transport was to be
ready for us in two days. All details were arranged at an
interview in camp the same afternoon, and it was a real
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 45
pleasure to deal with this straightforward and efficient
gentleman—a man who was entirely master in his own
house and who yet ran his subordinates so quietly. But
quiet though he was, we did not fail to note that his Gyembus
jumped to obey his Orders.
I remember that through some slip or misunderstand-
ing there was a small mistake made in the price fixed for
our transport—a mistake in Our favour—which, Small though
it was, was by no means negligible when multiplied by nearly
300. We at once offered to rectify this, but the Dzong
Pen refused to go back on an undertaking he had once given.
April 24 was spent by all hands working in their various
departments. It was here that Odell and Irvine, the oxygen
experts, definitely ascertained that the apparatus supplied
us had some very serious defects; a large proportion of its
numerous valves were found to leak. Many of the cylinders
were partially—some completely—empty, and various other
defects came to light. The two experts, who had for days
been working every afternoon, and often late into the night,
put in a regular field-day, and finished by evolving a new
and simplified arrangement of the apparatus, which was satis-
factorily tested the same evening by Mallory and Somervell
On the steep sides of the hill on which stand the fort and
monastery. At my instance Odell wrote a comprehensive
report on the faults of the apparatus, to be sent to the Mount
Everest Committee.
I myself carried out a difficult duty here. This was to
inform the various members of the climbing party in which
attempt they were to take part. For some days, now that
the plan of campaign had been decided in principle, I thought
that I had detected a slight air of constraint and uneasiness
in the party, and from my own feelings I judged that the
Sooner every one knew his place in the coming operations
the better.
Our plan was briefly to attack the mountain at as early
a date as possible by an attempt consisting of two parties
of two climbers each, one pair equipped with oxygen, one
46 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
without. The two parties after sleeping at 26,500 feet and
27,200 respectively (or as near these heights as the porters
could put their camps) were to go for the top on the same
day, independently, but ready mutually to support one
another. Four more climbers would support this attempt
Or remain in reserve, and in the event of an initial failure,
these four would repeat the attempt with any modifications
dictated by the experience of the first attempt.
It was significant of our confidence at this stage that
most of us felt the odds were against a second attempt being
necessary, and it will be guessed how keen was the competition
—unexpressed though it was—to take part in the earlier
attempt. It was one of the penalties of leadership that I
had to take on myself the entire responsibility of allotting
climbers to one or other of the attempts : not that I kept the
decision in my own hands; on the contrary, I had discussed
it exhaustively with Mallory, Somervell and Bruce—the three
veterans of 1922—for some days.
As it turned out various considerations Settled most
of the places inevitably. A member of each party must
know something either of Nepalese or Hindustani. The
more experienced mountaineers must, as far as possible, be
evenly distributed as well as those with previous knowledge
of the mountain. Those who were fittest or promised to
acclimatize early must take part in the first attempt, and
each oxygen party must include one of the oxygen experts.
My own position I left to Mallory and Somervell to decide.
The arrangement which resulted was as follows: First
attempt, Mallory and Irvine with oxygen ; Somervell and
myself without. Second, Geoffrey Bruce and Odell with
oxygen; Beetham and Hazard without. Of course this
was to be subject to alterations dictated by the subsequent
form of the members of the party. I explained this decision,
with the reasons that led to it, at a conference of all the
climbers the night before we left Shekar Dzong, and it was
one of the first indications of the fine spirit which the 1924
party later showed so conspicuously that there was not a
ºd INVO ºsvºſ I. v sºlº, L（I0, I

THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 47
word of protest or dissatisfaction from any of the disappointed
climbers.
We presented our friendly Dzong Pen with some of our
most handsome and costly presents, but we subsequently
heard that what his soul really yearned for was a cheap camp
chair and a pair of the snow goggles with which our porters
were equipped. The latter want was easily supplied, but
we were short of chairs, and I could only promise to send
him one from Darjeeling on our return—a promise I duly
kept four months later.
On April 25 we started the last stage of our march, turning
due south and heading directly for the mountain. The march
from Shekar to Panglé is always a short and enjoyable one ;
our journey was nearing its end, and the knowledge that
we had only four or five more of these pleasant marching days
ahead of us made me, for One, enjoy each one more and
more. We were a large enough party to assure constant
change of companionship and the possibility of sharing
diversity of interests with the others. In the absence of
Hingston, our naturalist, Shebbeare, Beetham and I all did
a bit in the bird line ; Odell’s geological knowledge was in
great demand, and I spent many a pleasant hour watching
Somervell sketching and feebly trying to emulate him.
These marches also afforded a good opportunity of getting
to know the porters. Bruce, Shebbeare and I took every
opportunity of watching their form on the march and of
studying their characters. They were the most cheerful,
friendly fellows imaginable, and responded instantly to a
joke. One Mingma, a baby-faced lad whose character belied
his innocent expression, had distinguished himself earlier in
the march by biting off one of his friend’s fingers—so he
became Mingma Kukar (the dog), and we used to bark and
growl at him when we passed him on the road. Shebbeare
Would yarn away with the porters by the hour, and Somervell,
who hit it off with them famously, often threw additional
light on their characters, as he took the daily sick parade,
and had an equally unerring eye for a malingerer or for the
48 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
stout heart that made light of a genuine ailment. Of serious
sickness among them I cannot remember a single case from
Phari to the Base Camp.
We camped the night of the 25th at Panglé and next
morning, after a light sprinkling of snow in the night, we
climbed the last high pass of our march. This pass, the
Pang La, rises some 3,000 feet above our camp ; it is distin-
guished from the many similar passes we had crossed by
the fact that we reached it after just three weeks on the
Tibetan plateau, and three weeks seems to be the period
necessary to produce effective acclimatization. So here we
watched our own form and that of our companions with
Some curiosity, as probably affording for the first time some
definite indication of how we were going to shape in the
bigger trials ahead. I was elated to find, on reaching the
pass, that I had beaten my 1922 time by a quarter of an hour
—the more so as I had had some heart-searching over one
or two of the earlier passes: on the Bahman Dopté, for
instance, Mallory and Odell had quite run away from me.
From the Pang La, a striking panorama of the main
Himalayan range comes into view, with Mount Everest, its
central point, some 35 miles away as the crow flies. Four
of the highest mountains in the world are to be seen in one
coup d'oeil. Climb a small hill over the pass and you will
add two more, one at each extreme flank. From left to
right they run : Gosainthan, Cho Uyo, Gyachung Kang,
Mount Everest, Makalu, and Kanchenjunga. And that nothing
may be lacking from the grandeur of the view, each of the
giants is so spaced from its neighbours that none is dwarfed,
and each stands dominating the Serried ranks of lesser peaks
which stretch in a jagged wall from horizon to horizon.
Above 20,000 feet or thereabouts all is Snow and ice except
where the cliffs are too sheer for Snow to lie, with one exception.
By some freak of the inclination of the rock to the impact
of the perpetual north-west wind, the northern face of the
whole topmost pyramid of Mount Everest—6,000 feet of it
—is at this season almost bare of Snow.
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 49
The day was singularly windless, and the sun on the
Southern side of the pass hot enough to allow us to sit for
perhaps an hour, and out came binoculars and telescope, maps,
cameras and sketch-books. We took the climb to the north-
east shoulder—over 27,000 feet—as done, and every eye Was
turned on the last 2,000 feet. When we had climbed Mount
Everest by every conceivable route, we turned our attention
to Makalu, and were promptly stumped. It is going to be
quite a long time before Makalu reaches the last stage of
the once inaccessible Alpine peaks and becomes “an easy
day for a lady.”
This barren pass—for its character belies its name, which
means the grassy pass—is for some reason a great place
for early flowers, butterflies and lizards, and we all scattered
after specimens on the way down, finding but little this year
to reward us, though I saw a tern (apparently the common
tern) flapping its way northward over the pass; truly spring
migrants in Tibet must be inspired by the faith that moveth
mountains.
That night we camped at Tashi DZom, in the valley of
the Dzakar Chu. We were now to follow it to its source,
just above the Base Camp, where it emerges from the snout
of the Rongbuk Glacier. Next day, April 27, we covered
perhaps the dullest stage of all our journey, the 15 miles
to Chödzong, the last village we pass through before entering
a land of utter desolation relieved only by the big monastery
at Rongbuk.
The stage from Chödzong to Rongbuk bears to the wide
plains behind and the big glaciers ahead somewhat the
Same relation as, in an approach march of the Great War,
the ruined areas bore to the fertile fields of France behind and
the stricken battlefield ahead. For it is a cheerless, desolate
Valley suggestive at every turn of the greater desolation to
which it leads. The valley is narrow and the river absurdly
Small to represent the drainage of four great glaciers with
Some dozens of smaller tributaries. The hills on both sides
are ugly brown humps of limestone devoid of any beauty
E
50 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of colour or form. For 10 or 15 miles on either bank of the
river-bed stand the great moraines that once flanked the now
shrunken glacier, for all the world like interminable railway
embankments. Against the brown hillsides these moraines
look almost white, for they are composed of crystalline rock
which I, in my ignorance, should call granite (though Odell
has another name for it). Every rock in them has fallen
in Some remote age from the cliffs of Mount Everest, Gyachung
Rang, or their satellites. High above on the steep hillsides
the Snouts of glaciers begin to appear, almost hidden by their
terminal moraines. The marked drop in temperature and the
bite to the wind that blows straight off the big snow-fields
above further serve to emphasize the fact that the land of
ice and Snow is getting very near.
Soon one gets a first glimpse of it, for the tributary valley
of the Gyachung Chu opens up a peep of the great Snowy
amphitheatre of Gyachung Kang and its neighbours. Next
a turn in the main valley shows a white shoulder which can
only be the west peak of Everest. Soon comes another twist,
and quite suddenly the familiar form of Everest itself and the
Rongbuk monastery come almost simultaneously into sight.
We camped on the open stony shelf, itself the top of
an old moraine, just in front of the monastery. It was
a disappointment to hear that the head lama was sick and
could not at present carry out the ceremony of blessing the
whole expedition, on which, on behalf of our porters, we
set considerable store. In addition to a selection of our best
presents we sent him a yak-load of cement ; this he had
asked for in 1922, as he wanted it to carry Out Some repairs
to the big “chorten º’ which overlooks the monastery, and
we had brought it all the way from Darjeeling. Hazard, our
ex-sapper, volunteered to give some instruction in how to
mix and use it and, on an opportunity occurring later, was
able to do so.
On April 29 we covered the last stage of our journey
to the site of our old Base Camp, 4 miles up the valley from
the monastery. Before leaving Rongbuk we said good-bye
THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 5]
to our good little ponies which had carried us so well for
a large part of our 300-mile march from Darjeeling ; the
going above Rongbuk was too rough for them, and they
turned back under the charge of our Syces heading for a
village in the valley below to enjoy a well-earned rest in
its comparatively balmy climate and so-called pastures. I
confess to having stifled a feeling of envy for them as We
turned our faces in the opposite direction.
Picking our way through the tumbled heaps of old moraine,
we found ourselves by 11.30 at the old camping-ground,
which looked as if we had only left it yesterday. In another
hour every yak had disappeared down the valley again, and
the camp was as busy as an ants’ nest.
That was a hard day; every one had his appointed task,
and we now began to reap the fruits of all the work we had
done with pencil and paper from Darjeeling onwards, for we
were able to get to work with the minimum of delay and the
maximum of organization. The tents were soon up ; nearly
300 yak-loads of provision boxes, rolls of bedding and stores
of all sorts, dumped higgledy-piggledy off the yaks, began to
sort themselves into orderly lines and piles; and a steadily
increasing dump of boxes and bundles, all appropriately
labelled, represented the loads to start no later than the
very next day for Camp I on the shoulders of our local Tibetan
porters who had been specially enlisted for the purpose from
Shekar and the intervening villages by the good offices of
the Shekar Dzong Pen.
And then down came the Snow : whirling powdery stuff,
blotting out the landscape and making us bitterly cold, but
—and this is the Saving grace of this country—so devoid
of any wetting quality that you can be snowed on for hours
without any need even to change your coat ; a shake and a
brush and it is all gone. My diary notes that this was one
of the coldest days that I had ever known at the Base Camp,
and we all worked muffled to the eyes in our full outfit of
woollen and wind-proof clothes ear-flapped caps and long
mits. But we kept at it without stopping until dusk, and by
52 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
then were in a position to send off 150 porter-loads next day.
We had left Phari one day earlier than in 1922, and it
had been my intention to make up one more day on the
march so as to reach the Base Camp two days sooner than
in that year, and in this we had succeeded. The reason for
haste was this : we hoped if all went well to put in our first
attempt on the mountain as early as May 17. If this failed,
and even should the monsoon break, as in 1922 (an excep-
tionally early year), on June 1, we should still have ten days
in which to make any necessary additions or modifications
to the high camps before a second attempt ; and this interval
might serve to allow some climbers from the first attempt
to recuperate sufficiently to take part in or to support the
Second attempt, or even perhaps to form a third.
But before the first attempt, the general organization
of which I have already described, could take place, there
was much to be done. Camps I, II, and III had to be
established and stocked ; the route from Camp III to the
North Col had to be reconnoitred by a party of climbers, for
this route follows a steep glacier, and it was certain to have
changed since 1922. Camp IV must then be established
and stocked with stores and oxygen both for itself and the
higher camps. Next Bruce and Odell were to escort a party
of fifteen porters to a site for Camp V at about 25,500 feet,
there to prepare the camp and dump tents and stores for it
and for higher camps. Somervell and I were then to start
from Camp TV, sleep One night at Camp V and another at
Camp VII (at about 27,200) feet, and while we were climbing
to the latter, Mallory and Irvine were to go from Camp TV
to Camp VI at about 26,500 feet, there to sleep. With this
programme to precede our combined attempt on the summit
on May 17, it will be understood that time pressed.
Again it was considered important that the climbers
should get above the Base Camp as soon as possible in order
to continue the process of acclimatization, or rather adaptation
to altitude, for though we were by this time well acclimatized
to marching and sleeping at an average height of, say, 14,000
‘II 'ON A INVO

THE MARCH ACROSS TIBET 53
feet, with occasional excursions over passes 3,000 feet higher,
we were now confronted with another step in the ladder.
The Base Camp is at about 16,800 feet and every step beyond
it is a step higher. To me, though perhaps not to all, a
marked change takes place at about 16,000 feet. Above
this height the not very serious malaise that we experience
on the outward march becomes something more definite and
unpleasant. On first arrival at the Base Camp one is conscious
of it all the time; the least exertion, such as getting into a
sleeping-bag or putting on One's boots, is exhausting; lighting
a pipe is quite a business, for one’s breath gives out about
the same moment as the match, and the pipe has gone out
before it is recovered.
I confess that the first trip to Camp I is pain and grief
to me. I remember that the first time I did it this year
my right arm and shoulder became weary merely from the
weight of my ice axe, and I thought I should have to find a
lighter axe. Walking is a labour, and in the keenest air
there is no exhilaration ; rather is there an indefinable
feeling of discomfort and distress.
After a trip or two to Camp I things improve, but the
process is repeated with each new rung in the upward ladder
until further acclimatization is achieved, and though, on
returning to the Base after a sojourn at Camp III or higher,
One forgets much of this unpleasantness, yet I am convinced
that life above 16,000 feet is never quite what it is below
that level. There seems to be something lacking all the time,
and indeed there is something lacking—and that something
the very breath of life—oxygen.
So finished the first phase of the Expedition; we were up
to time, and we had a surprisingly clean bill of health. So
Smoothly had the machine run so far that we may be pardoned
if we were optimistic as to the future. If the party which
met for dinner in the mess tent at 7 p.m. that night was
not hilarious, all, I think, displayed the tempered cheerfulness
of high altitudes; we little guessed what rude buffets the
future had in store for us.
CHAPTER III
THE RONGBUR GLACIER
By CAPTAIN J. G. BRUCE, M.C.
As Colonel Norton has already described, the first attempt
on the summit was fixed to take place on May 17, by which
time it was calculated that the three glacier camps and the
camp on the North Col would be established and stocked.
There was, however, a great deal to be done in these few
days. Not a moment could be wasted, and the great rapidity
with which the first two camps were completed was due,
firstly, to the very careful calculation and labelling of boxes
and equipment done by Norton and Shebbeare before the
Expedition left Darjeeling, and, secondly, to the tactful and
skilful manner in which the Gurkha N.C.O.'s handled the
local labour.
On arrival in the Base Camp, we had with us just over
150 local Tibetans, who had been recruited, with the permission
of the Shekar Dzong Pen, from the area between Shekar and
Rongbuk. Our arrangement with them was that they
should be paid at the rate of 4 tankas a day (about a shilling),
and given some rations. They were not to be employed on
Snow or ice, and were to be quickly released when the work
was done as they had the sowing of their fields to attend to.
They undertook to look after themselves as regards other
amenities, which meant that they were quite Satisfied to sleep
in the open at 18,000 feet with no cover or blankets. Had
they been of a less hardy race, their maintenance in such
country would have been wellnigh impossible.
In order to save the climbers from any arduous work
before it was absolutely necessary, I suggested to Norton
54
THE RONGBUR GLACIER, 55
that the Gurkha N.C.O.'s should be allowed to establish
the first two camps, putting into Camp II all necessary stores
and equipment for camps farther on. He agreed to this
proposal, and on April 30 three of them set out from the
Base Camp with a convoy of 150 Tibetans, men, women, and
boys, carrying at least 40 lb. each regardless of age or sex.
I made considerable efforts before their departure to hand
out the lightest loads to the women and boys, but it was no
good, and I had to resort to the only plan that ensures swift
allotment and complete satisfaction in Tibet. Tibetans all
wear prettily woven garters of distinct colouring round the
tops of their boots, and immediately recognize their own
colours. The best method of distributing loads consists in
collecting a garter from each person, shuffling them well,
and throwing one on to each load. The owner of the garter
then claims his or her load, and carries it all day without
further complaint.
We were lucky in having a glorious day for this first move.
From the Base Camp we could watch the coolies threading
their way up the stony valley, singing and joking as they
went, then taking to the higher route along the shelf, and
finally disappearing from sight into the mouth of the East
Rongbuk Glacier. This was a really good start, and we felt
optimistic for the future. That evening in the Base Camp the
dinner to celebrate our safe arrival was a large affair—five
courses and champagne.
Two of the three N.C.O.'s conducting the convoy to
Camp I had been with the previous Expedition of 1922, and
could be relied on to reconnoitre the route from Camps I to
II without assistance from us. Their orders were to send
Seventy-five coolies back to the Base Camp on arrival at
Camp I, and to keep the other seventy-five with them for
the first move to Camp II next day. Seventy-five came back
all right from Camp I, but next morning we were greeted
with the news that fifty-two had disappeared in the night.
This was a very serious matter, for everything depended on
these men, and a transport strike at this juncture would
56 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
effectively cripple the whole programme. So Norton, Sheb-
beare and I went up to Camp I to see how the N.C.O.'s were
faring. We were relieved to find no evidence of discontent,
and that everything was running smoothly.
Just after we arrived the convoy of seventy-five Tibetans
from Camp II came in. They were full of cheer. We told
them that they were doing splendid work, and if they com-
pleted Camp II with all the necessary loads by the following
evening we would give them extra wages and a good feed.
They were delighted, and promised to see the matter through.
Although we made full enquiries, no light could be thrown
on the sudden departure of the fifty-two from the Base Camp.
The performances of the women are worthy of record.
One carried her child of about two years on the top of her
40 lb. load from 17,500 feet to 19,800 feet, deposited her
load there and carried the child back again. She at once
expressed her readiness to repeat the journey if necessary.
Another woman of maturer age—she had grey hair—treated
us to a little step dance before sitting down to her food.
It was a great relief to find them like this, and we calculated
that by using some of our own porters in place of the fifty-two
deserters, the programme could yet be kept up to time.
Moreover the N.C.O.'s told us that the route between Camp
I and II had scarcely changed at all in the last two years,
and had presented no difficulties.
Camp I was—for the Rongbuk Glacier—a snug retreat
which managed to catch any Sunshine going, while missing
most of the wind. It was situated a few hundred yards
from the junction of the main and East Rongbuk Glaciers.
Away from it on both sides of the stream ran steep scree
slopes culminating in vertical cliffs. Here and there one
could see pillars of rock fashioned by the wind almost into
the shape of men. The “Sangars ” built by the 1922 Expedi-
tic a were still in good condition, and by stretching the flies
of the Whymper tents over them, comfortable shelters for
the N.C.O.'s had been made. Camp I was easily the best
camp on the glacier, but unfortunately the one that could
THE RONGBUR GLACIER 57
be least used by reason of its distance from the mountain.
After drinking a mug of hot tea with Tejbir, Hurke and
Shamsher, we started for the Base Camp. On Our way down
we passed a party of Noel's photographic men, leading two
of their mules laden with cinematograph outfit towards
Camp I. They said that they had experienced little difficulty
in getting mules along. They reached Camp I all right, and
repeated the journey several times on subsequent days.
But the inadequate supply of fodder for the mules, which
had to be brought up from Chodzong to the Base Camp, a
distance of about 22 miles, made the employment of coolies
better worth the while in the end. For this reason I do not
think animal transport on a large scale beyond the Base
Camp is deserving of consideration.
In the meanwhile every one at the Base Camp had been
busy perfecting the plans, and making ready for a move
beyond Camp II as soon as news was received of its comple-
tion. On the evening of May 2 a note was brought into
camp from Tejbir and Hurke, to the effect that all loads were
safely deposited in Camp II, and that they were sending
down the coolies to be paid off. This was indeed a great
success, particularly as there had been a slight snowstorm
during the day, and we had feared that it might interrupt
the smooth working of the convoys. Towards evening the
coolies arrived, and we gave them their promised feed and
extra pay. It was delightful to see these simple folk enjoying
a good feed and apparently satisfied with their lot. We were
certainly satisfied with what they had done. Six of the best
coolies among them were kept on for odd jobs about the
camp, and the rest went happily back towards Rongbuk.
The next task before us was the transportation from Camp
II of the necessary stores for Camp III and the higher camps.
For this work our own porter corps was formed into two
parties of twenty each, and a reserve of twelve. Briefly,
these parties were to be utilized as follows:
No. 1 party was to go through with some of the climbers
to Camp III, establish it, and remain based there for the
58 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
purpose of getting the next camp on to the North Col. A
day later No. 2 party was to move to Camp II, and work
between II and III. The reserve party was to remain at the
Base Camp ready to replace casualties among the first two
parties, for in dealing with Everest, anywhere beyond the
Base Camp may be considered as the “danger zone,” and
trouble may surely be expected in some form or another.
To the Gurkha N.C.O.'s was given the responsible task of
taking charge of a glacier camp each, which included seeing
to the feeding and welfare of every one in it, and supervising
the arrivals and departures of convoys.
As the success or failure of the attempt scheduled to take
place on May 17 depended so greatly on the work of our porter
corps during the next two weeks, a slight digression may here
be permissible in order to give some idea of them and their
limitations. Apart from cooks, syces, and bootmakers, we
had enlisted seventy men as carriers in Darjeeling during
March. News had preceded us that we should require men
to accompany the Expedition, and volunteers were so plentiful
that we found a small army of nearly 300 from which to pick.
Among them were many who had taken part in the 1922
Expedition, and those who had done really well that year
were at once re-engaged. The selection of the remainder
with nothing but appearance to go by was a difficult matter,
and bound to be in the nature of a gamble, since there were
neither time nor means available to test them individually.
The guiding principle was to take men of obviously good
breeding who appeared lithe and active in preference to the
thick-set and at first sight more impressive-looking giants.
Among those finally chosen there were, nevertheless, several
big men, but it is interesting to note that when the time came
none of them were fit enough to take part in the really high
climbs.
The journey from Darjeeling to the Base Camp afforded
excellent opportunity for getting the porter corps into good
physical condition for the hard work before them, and at the
same time to study them closely with a view to ear-marking
*（131 Iov T£) >1 na o NOYI LsvȚI

THE RONG BUF GLACIER, 59
those likely to go high on the mountain. Throughout this
period they always had the best of food, clothing, and tent
accommodation, and were never burdened with heavy loads.
This policy amply repaid us, for when we arrived at the Base
Camp we had none of them on the sick-list. To keep them
upon the straight and narrow path for several weeks had been
no easy matter, for Sherpas and Bhotias are a light-hearted
and inconsequent people with a thirst that has to be quenched.
As carriers they are unsurpassed, for they are brought
up to it from their youth. When quite small children they
learn to carry loads, fetching and carrying water and grain
for the upkeep of their homes. Born and bred in the moun-
tains they are sure-footed and self-reliant, and owing to
the rigorous climate of their homes can withstand more than
average exposure and fatigue. Some of our porters were
inhabitants of Solah Khombu, a Sherpa settlement in Nepal,
just to the south of the Nangba La. Solah Khombu lies on one
of the main trade routes between Nepal and Tibet, and the
two countries are separated by the high Nangba Pass, 19,000
feet above sea-level. That these people think little or nothing
of traversing this high and wind-swept pass is clearly shown
by the fact that there is continuous traffic across it for five
months of the year, and that among the travellers are fre-
Quently to be seen women carrying their babies and small
children on their backs.
The severe tests of this year showed us how extremely
difficult it is to gauge the true form of the porter, and to
estimate how much strength and determination he has left
after a certain amount of hardship. One minute all goes
well, the next he collapses both physically and mentally,
having apparently reached a limit beyond which he cannot
go. I do not say that this happened in every case. The
“Tigers,” for instance, whose exploits will be described later,
never failed us, and very few ever gave in before they put
their loads into camp.
May 3 was a cold, stormy day, with threatening clouds
in the sky, when the first party of climbers and porters set
60 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
out from the Base Camp. The climbers were Mallory and
Irvine, whose intention it was to help with the establishment
of Camp III, and then remain there for a few days to acclima-
tize and test their oxygen apparatus; and Odell and Hazard,
who were to push on from Camp III and construct the route
up the North Col. Noel, with a portion of his cinema outfit,
accompanied them, and on the next day Havildar Umar
and the second party of porters followed. The rest of us
had another day or two to wait at the Base Camp in order
to give the first lot time to accomplish their tasks.
The Base Camp daily presented scenes of considerable
activity. Our chonzay * had his fuel (yak-dung) and meat
supplies coming in regularly from below, and these had to
be checked and paid for. One day a couple of enterprising
Sherpas from Solah Khombu, remembering that the previous
expedition had been glad to buy vegetables, came into camp
with potatoes to sell. We bought them all, and sent them
back for more. Another day a suspicious-looking villain,
leading two donkeys with equally suspicious-looking loads,
was found to be a purveyor of Chinese spirit, and had to be
removed outside the 3-mile limit. On another Occasion a
messenger came in bearing a complaint from the Shikar of
Tashi Dzom to the effect that we had “beaten two of his
subjects without reason at Rongbuk.” Untrue though the
allegation was, we could not ignore it, for much of our supplies
and the welfare of the ponies we had left with him depended
upon this man’s good-will. Accordingly Paul, the inter-
preter, was despatched to visit Tashi Dzom, and to do what
he could to pacify the Shikar. This ambassadorial rôle
exactly suited Paul's fancy, and as soon as he was able to
procure a pony, he went off looking very important—a
vain young man, but efficient. He carried out his mission
most satisfactorily, and came back a week later with all
kinds of friendly messages from the Shikar.
Before Norton left the Base Camp he gave the Gurkha
surveyor, Hari Singh Thapa, who was attached to the Expedi-
* A subordinate official of a Tibetan district.
THE RONG BUF, GLACTER 61
tion from the Survey of India Department, full instructions
about what he was to do during the next few weeks. The
most important piece of country to be dealt with was the
West Rongbuk Glacier, but it was thought unsafe to send
the survey party without at least one expert climber to escort
them. As there were no climbers available for the West
Rongbuk Glacier, Hari Singh was told to do two important
but easily accessible areas, one in and around Gyachung
Kang Glacier, and the other to the east of the Rongbuk
Monastery. He set off on May 5, with a small convoy of
local coolies, on what subsequently proved to be a very success-
ful survey expedition.
There was a further exodus on the 6th, when Norton,
Somervell and Beetham moved out. Norton and Somervell
were to go quietly through to Camp III, and gradually
acclimatize themselves before their non-oxygen attempt on
the 17th. Beetham was almost fit again. He had made
a marvellous recovery, mainly by sheer determination not
to give in and allow himself to be packed off to Darjeeling.
As he could not yet be counted upon to take part in this first
attempt, he volunteered to help generally all along the line,
and particularly to assist Noel with his photographic work.
So far everything appeared to be running smoothly ahead.
My turn to follow up the glacier came on May 7. Norton
had asked me to follow up behind the rest of the party, make
a thorough inspection of each camp en route, and ensure
that the non-commissioned officers understood exactly what
they had to do. I had to join Odell in Camp III by the
11th, ready to go on with him up the mountain and establish
Camp V. I took with me the reserve party, among whom
were some of the old hands of 1922. They had originally
rather resented being relegated to this job, for they had all
been told that the men to go highest would reap the greatest
rewards, and they considered that they were not getting a
fair start. I did my best to assure them that they were
there for a good purpose, little thinking at the time how soon
this would be proved.
wº-
... *
62 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
We arrived at Camp II on May 8, and found the tents
pitched in the same spot as they were two years ago, beside
the frozen lake, with the high wall of glittering ice cliffs
closing it in on the lower side. Instead of finding the camp
empty except for a cook and an odd porter or two, we found
it fully occupied. There had been a severe breakdown, which
Would undoubtedly have developed into a complete collapse
of the porters had Norton not been present at the critical
moment to keep them on their feet and restore their ebbing
Courage and spirits. He explained to me what had hap-
pened on the two previous days. He and Somervell reached
Camp II on May 7 without incident, but on arrival discovered
that No. 2 party based there had encountered such appalling
weather that Mallory had decided to form a dump on the
glacier, a mile short of camp, and send them back. That
evening between four and six o'clock they observed some
porters staggering wearily down the glacier from the direction
of Camp III. These men belonged to the first party, and
had made one journey to the camp with full loads two days
before. They had since then been confined to their tents in
Camp III, with only one blanket apiece, and a little uncooked
barley to eat, and were now driven out unable to bear it
longer, utterly exhausted. This meant that there was almost
double the number of men in Camp II that it was calculated
to accommodate, and all of them in need of nursing and
comforting. Consequently all the stores and tents intended
for the higher camp had at once to be broken open and
distributed to meet this grave emergency. Mallory, Irvine,
Hazard and Odell, with two or three men, were apparently
still in Camp III, but no further news was forthcoming until
Mallory himself came down to Camp II early next morning
(a few hours before the reserve party and I arrived). His
story amplified the information the porters had given. He
said that a terrible wind with a temperature as low as —22°
E. had played havoc with the men, and had resulted in the
failure of the second party to carry as far as Camp III. Con-
sequently the party already in Camp III had been stranded
THE RONG BUR GLACIER, 63
with only the barest necessities of life for forty-eight hours.
He had ordered them back himself, and, owing to their dis-
heartened condition, only with the greatest difficulty induced
them to leave their tents and move down. He also said
that Odell, Hazard and Irvine were remaining in Camp III,
and that the two former were to make an attempt that day
to reconnoitre the North Col route.
This was the situation on May 8, and a very unenviable
one, particularly for our leader, upon whose shoulders rested
the responsibility of deciding what the next move was to be.
Fortunately for us all, he was one of those really great leaders
of men, who by their own resolution and courage inspire
their comrades and followers with some measure of their
own qualities. Norton is certainly one of these, though,
characteristically, in his despatches he takes no credit for
the resumed advance to himself. He wisely decided to rest
the first party at Camp II, while Somervell, who was always
a great favourite with the men, and who had a happy way
of getting the best out of them, should take the second party
up as far as the dump with loads, and get them to carry
from there to Camp III sufficient stores and bedding to make
the camp habitable. If the first party of porters could be
pulled together again in twenty-four hours' time, they were
then to be utilized to keep Camp III supplied from Camp
II. The breaking up of stores and equipment intended for
high camps, and the temporary dislocation of the programme,
made it necessary to call up Shebbeare from the Base Camp
to take charge of Camp II, where his knowledge of the men
and their language would be of the utmost value. But he
could not be removed from his important post at the Base
Camp, leaving our money bags and the fuel and meat arrange-
ments to look after themselves. So messages were despatched
telling Hazard to relieve Shebbeare at the Base, and Shebbeare
to come up to Camp II as soon as he had handed over the
Base Camp to Hazard.
The rest of that day was spent in revising plans and
cheering up the men for another effort. On the following
64 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
morning Norton, Mallory and I, with twenty-six porters,
started off for Camp III. The presence of the reserve party
Was a great asset, for being fresh they were able to do most
of the heavy carrying, and their energy and keenness had a
Very favourable effect upon the others.
The route over the glacier was almost the same as in
1922, except that, instead of crossing the “trough,” it followed
up it until the general level of the glacier was almost reached.
Even in this case blue pinnacles of ice surrounded us like a
forest. Some of them were gigantic at the lower end of the
“trough,” getting smaller and fewer as we emerged to the
glacier itself. The glacier surface consisted of absolutely
Smooth ice, varied by depressions and cracks full of powdery
Snow. Here, as well as in the “trough,” crampons were of
the utmost assistance, and the porters were quick in appreci-
ating their value. Without them, this stage of the journey
was always a very tiring and tedious one, and ordinary
climbing nails were not sharp enough to grip the surface.
Snow began falling soon after we left Camp II, and con-
tinued to fall all day. About half-way Hazard met us,
making his way down to the Base Camp to relieve Shebbeare.
He told us that he and Odell had tried to reconnoitre the
North Col the day before, but had been unable to get higher
than some three-quarters of the way to Camp IV and to make
a dump of some ropes and pegs at the foot of the ice slopes.
We gathered from him that Camp III was an exceedingly
unpleasant place. With the wind and Snow increasing every
moment it was obviously going to be even worse than he
painted it, but it was little use trying to talk in half a gale,
so we bade him farewell, and pushed on as rapidly as possible.
From the dump we sent back to Camp II all except eight of
the reserve party. By the time we reached Camp III (21,000
feet) the wind and snow had assumed proportions of a real
blizzard, which was to last for forty-eight hours. Camp III
was a picture of desolation. Though situated in the only
possible place for a camp, it seemed to catch every icy blast
that blew. No one moved about the camp ; it seemed utterly
THE RONGBUE GLACIER, 65
lifeless. The porters there were wretched, and this terrible
blizzard, coming immediately on top of their hardships of
a few days ago, completely damped their spirits and energy.
Many of them became so apathetic that they would not even
attempt to cook for themselves, even when stoves and oil
were pushed inside the tents for them. Our eight stalwarts
of the reserve again proved their value in helping with the
cooking and comfort of the others. But the fierceness of
the wind made movement outside a tent almost impossible,
so after a hasty meal we turned in, two to a tent, where the
excellent sleeping-bags at any rate afforded warmth.
The blizzard continued with unabating violence, and snow
drifted into our tents covering everything to a depth of an
inch or two. The discomfort of that night was acute. At
every slightest movement of the body a miniature avalanche
of Snow would drop inside one’s sleeping-bag and melt there
into a cold wet patch. It was a very severe test on the
tents, and although the largest of them only weighed 16 lb.
not a single one gave way under the terrific strain. Morning
came, and the Snow stopped falling, but fallen snow was
being driven along the surface of the glacier, producing the
Same effect as a blizzard. Up to ten o’clock it was useless
to attempt to leave the shelter of a tent. It was then that
Kami, Our cook, produced for us a breakfast that none of
us will ever forget. How he succeeded in cooking anything
will remain a mystery. He announced that the meal was
ready, and the five of us crowded into the tent nearest his
to eat it, looking forward more than anything to a mug
of hot tea. To our intense disappointment, however, tea
was not yet ready. The first dish thrust into the tent con-
tained what Kami was pleased to call “monkri,” and which
on closer investigation proved to be macaroni. Without
wishing to appear ungrateful to Kami, I must say that it
Was a most unappetising dish. Unfortunately we could not
have our tea until we had disposed of the “monkri” and
handed back the pot for the tea to be brewed in. After an
hour's wait the tea came, and was most hot and comforting.
F
66 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
We clamoured for more, although it had been brewed in the
Same greasy pot as the macaroni. At the time we were not
particularly struck by the humorous side of this meal,
but afterwards reference to “monkri” and “ Kami cha” +
never failed to produce a laugh.
After breakfast the situation was discussed, and it was
decided that Mallory and Irvine should move down to Camp
II that day, as both of them were showing signs of the strain
that had been imposed upon them, and prepare for the
possibility of evacuating altogether should this kind of
weather continue. These two had been in the thick of it
from the start, never sparing themselves for a moment.
Irvine’s capacity for work was immense. After the most
gruelling day on the glacier, he would settle down with his
tools inside a tent, improving the Oxygen apparatus, or mend-
ing stoves, regardless of time or temperature, long after the
rest of us were inside our sleeping-bags.
When Mallory and Irvine left us, the wind was still
tearing across the glacier, Snatching up the Snow and hurling
it through the camp. Tater in the day Norton and Somervell
did a fine piece of work in finding their way down to the
dump with seventeen of the porters and bringing up nineteen
loads, of which they carried one each. I was left in camp
with Odell and a few men to make arrangements for a hot
meal for every one, and to get the Snow out of the tents.
The porters who went to the dump with Norton and Somervell
were just about played out when they returned. Struggling
back against that piercing wind had taken all the strength
out of them. They simply flopped into their tents and lay
there. We forced them to eat and drink, took off their
boots, and saw them safely tucked into their sleeping-Sacks.
I do not think I have ever seen men so tired, and it was
not to be wondered at, for the majority of them had carried
loads through wind and snow on five successive days.
As evening came on, the wind blew still harder in tre-
mendous gusts from every direction. All the tents were
* Kami's tea.
** º Iov T£) × na o NoŅI J.svg|-Hºno， L ≈ H L

THE RONGBUFC GLACIER, 67
again filled with snow with all the consequent discomfort.
The cold was intense, and the thermometer fell to 39° below
freezing-point. Sleep was an impossibility with the noise
of the wind and the wild flapping of the tents. Dawn came
at last, but the wind still continued. It was now quite
obvious that the North Col would be impracticable for
several days even if the weather improved. So there was
no other course open but retreat. As we were talking over
plans at 9 a.m., the temperature was still below zero. The
first step was to turn out the men and strike the tents, as
it was not considered safe to leave them standing exposed
to the elements during our absence. This was easier said
than done, and it was some time before we were able to make
the men move at all. They were huddled in their tents, not
caring whether they lived or died, and even the idea of with-
drawing to the Base Camp with its comforts, warmth and
good food left them unmoved. Eventually, however, they
were persuaded to face it, and while I struck the tents,
Norton and Somervell made lists of what was left in the camp.
Then we took to what Norton has aptly described as the
“Via Dolorosa,” first down the wind-swept glacier to Camp
II, then the rough miles of tumbled moraine, withdrawing
every man to the Base Camp, with a melancholy procession
of snow-blind, sick, and frost-bitten men, being shepherded
down by their comrades.
Just outside Camp II we met Irvine. He told us that
One of the porters—Tamding—had fallen with his load on
the ice and broken his leg, and that Somervell’s services
were urgently required to set it. The man had been Somer-
vell’s servant on the journey across Tibet, and during that
time Somervell had lost one or two articles of underwear,
which had never been traced. Inspection of the fractured
limb now revealed the fact that the missing garments had
been “borrowed '' by Tamding. The condition of his leg was
not very Serious, though it gave him considerable pain, and
arrangements had to be made to carry him down to the
Base Camp.
68 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
By the evening (May 11) Mallory, Beetham, Irvine and
Noel were at the Base Camp, Somervell and Odell with half
the porters at Camp I, and Norton and I with the other
half of the porters at Camp II.
Norton and I shared a tent there which had been put in
Order for us by Shebbeare, and turned in early to have a
long sleep. When I woke up in the morning I remarked
that I had enjoyed an extremely comfortable night’s rest,
and was surprised to find Norton not in the least enthusiastic
about the manner in which he had passed the night. He
appeared to be examining his bedding and comparing it
with mine, and finally pointed out that while he had only
one thickness of eiderdown between him and the East
Rongbuk Glacier, I had been “hogging it ’’ on no less than
two eiderdown quilts and two thick mattresses
We started down from Camp II at 9.15 a.m., leaving tents
and stores as they stood ready for reoccupation. Tamding
had to be brought down in a carrier, and reached the Base
Camp by evening. We found Somervell at Camp I with
his hands full. Casualties were mounting up, and there
were some very sick men. The worst case was Shamsher,
one of the Gurkha N.C.O.'s, practically insensible, suffering
from a clot of blood on the brain. Manbahadur, the cobbler,
was in a fearful condition with both his feet frost-bitten up
to the ankles. Another man was down with severe pneumonia,
while many had minor ailments. We managed to get them
all away except Shamsher, who could not be moved, and a
N.C.O. and a couple of porters were left to look after him.
What a haven of rest the Base Camp seemed to be that
night ! Warm spacious tents, hot food in plenty, and luxuri-
ous camp beds. Best of all Hingston, whom we had already
met near Camp I en route to visit Shamsher, was there to
cheer us up and to administer comfort to the sick and needy.
He had arrived on the 11th, just when he was most wanted,
having conducted General Bruce safely to Gangtok and
hastened across Tibet to rejoin us.
So ended the first attempt to reach the mountain.
THE RONGBUR GLACIER 69
This setback was a very great disappointment, but the
Expedition, though much weakened as the result of it, was far
from defeated. A few days’ rest was the first consideration,
during which time it was hoped that the weather would really
clear up, and give us the chance we wanted. On the morning
of May 13 Paul, the interpreter, was despatched to the
Rongbuk Monastery to request the Holy Lama to bless all
our men on the 15th. They were very anxious to obtain
his blessing, and on our part we gave them every encourage-
ment and assistance in arranging for it. A trip down to the
monastery would do them a lot of good, while the influence
of the Lama’s blessing would be invaluable in helping to
restore their moral. After only one night at the Base Camp
they were beginning to look more like themselves again,
but it was obvious that if we were to get the best out of them,
some reorganization would be necessary. After breakfast
Norton and I talked it all over, and decided to make them
up into three definite parties, each to be led by a selected
porter, with the next best as his second-in-command to
take charge if anything happened to the leader. These
leaders and seconds-in-command would be given extra
pay, and be generally treated as non-commissioned officers.
The one advantage that accrued from the hardships of the
past week was that we now had a really good idea of which
were the outstanding men, and had little difficulty in selecting
six as leaders. We then called them up, and explained what
was expected of them. In arranging the parties we allowed
them, as far as possible, to pick their own men. They
seemed very pleased with the idea, and the scheme had the
advantage of supplying a little healthy rivalry and esprit
de party throughout the porter corps. Of the three originally
selected as leaders, Narbu Yishé and Lobsang subsequently
became famous, when with the strongest of their respective
parties they carried loads to Camp VI at nearly 27,000 feet.
In reorganizing the porters, we were careful to have at least
two men in each party detailed for training in the use of
meta (Solidified spirit) and the Primus stove.
70 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Meanwhile Hingston was busy attending to the sick men
in camp. Manbahadur, the cobbler, was still in a terrible
state, and even if he had lived would undoubtedly have lost
both feet as far as the ankle. All the rest were progressing
well. Hingston and I with a stretcher party set out at
about eleven o’clock for Camp I to see Shamsher, hoping
that after a quiet night’s rest he would be better, but Hurke
met us as we came into camp, and said that he thought
Shamsher was worse. This was indeed the case, and Hingston
decided that the only hope of saving his life lay in moving
him down to a lower altitude. He was placed on a stretcher,
and although carried with the utmost care, was unable to
last out the journey and died that evening half a mile from
the Base Camp. By his death the expedition were the
poorer of a gallant and loyal young man, who had worked
with the most conspicuous and whole-hearted zeal through-
out. Manbahadur died a few days later, and they were
buried in a sheltered spot near the Base Camp.
The following day was a busy one, and though the camps
as far as III were established and partially stocked, there
was a great deal to do in correcting the lists and ensuring
that nothing was left out. The porters’ food and clothing
also required much attention, and the men detailed as cooks
had to be shown how to use the Primus stoves. The weather
was still very unsettled, and that afternoon Snow fell in the
Base Camp, and the mountain looked impossible all day.
May 15 was the day fixed for the blessing. The whole
expedition was to be blessed—climbers, Gurkhas and porters.
Before we started each man was given 2 rupees with which
to make an offering to the Lama, and then we all set out
for the Rongbuk Monastery, 4 miles down the valley. On
arrival the men were told to remain in the large Outer court,
while we were taken up a flight of narrow stairs to the Lama’s
antechamber, where a table was laid for a meal. The usual
form of Tibetan dish, consisting of macaroni and spices, was
handed round by some of the young Lamas of the monastery,
and was quite appetising. We were then taken into the
THE RONG BUR GLACIER, 7I
presence of the Holy Lama, who was seated at an altar on his
roof-court, attended by a dozen lesser Lamas. We were
given seats along the sides of the court opposite him, while
our men filled up the space in the middle. In turn we walked
up to his altar, and he touched each of us upon the head with
his silver prayer wheel which he held in his left hand. The
Gurkhas and porters followed us, and appeared to be deeply
affected by the simple ceremony. The Lama then delivered
a short but impressive address, encouraging the men to
persevere, and assuring them that he would personally pray
for them. Nothing could have been more Satisfactory. The
reverence with which the men entered and left the presence
of the great Lama was eloquent proof of his influence over
them. His prayers and blessing put fresh heart into them,
and on the return journey to the Base Camp they were very
nearly their cheery normal selves once more. That evening
Paul came to the mess tent and announced that the porters
were all very pleased and grateful “to him and the Colonel
Sahib '' for having arranged for the ceremony.
The 16th was a brilliantly fine day, not a cloud in the sky,
and the mountain clear and Serene. It looked as if this
weather had really come to stay, and so it was decided to
make a fresh start next day. Since our return to the Base
Camp on the 12th, Mallory had been busy making a new pro-
gramme, showing the movements of each climber and each
party of porters for the next ten days. The intention was
to put the Original Scheme in motion again, with the date
of the final attempt on the summit put back from May 17
to 29. As a preliminary move, the Gurkha N.C.O.'s and
a small party of men left the camp on the evening of the
16th, and reoccupied Camp I, so that there should be no
delay in making a real start on the morrow. Arrangements
seemed as perfect as we could get them that night, and we
were hopeful that great things might yet be accomplished.
Next morning, however, trouble again appeared—Beetham
was down with an acute attack of sciatica, and could scarcely
move. It was hard luck that the Fates should have thus
72 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
afflicted him just as he was recovering his true form and
was so tremendously keen to take his place at the front.
By the evening of May 19 the Expedition was once more
in full occupation of the glacier up to Camp III. Weather
conditions appeared much more favourable, and the last
day or two had been bright and Sunny, though there was a
certain amount of cloud about the mountain. The climbers
were distributed as follows:
Norton, Somervell, Mallory, Odell at Camp III.
Irvine and Hazard at Camp II, en route for Camp III.
Shebbeare, in charge of the working of convoys up the
glacier, at Camp II.
Noel and I at Camp I, en route for Camp III.
Hingston and Beetham at the Base Camp.
How the Expedition fared in this renewed advance will
be described in the next chapter by Colonel Norton.
CHAPTER IV
THE NORTH COL
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
This chapter deals with that phase of the campaign of
1924 in which we struggled to establish ourselves on the North
Col. Looking back on it all now one realizes that it was
really the decisive one. In a sense we won, for we did succeed
in establishing Camp TV on its selected position, yet the effort
left the party so weakened that our ultimate failure became
almost a foregone conclusion.
Throughout this phase it is important for the reader to
remember that a vital consideration was our uncertainty as
to the date of the arrival of the monsoon. In 1922 it had
broken on June 1; the soft breath of the south-east wind
had then its inevitable effect on the steep Snow slopes below
the North Col, and a party of climbers and porters was swept
away in an avalanche which killed seven of the latter, the
climbers and remaining porters only escaping by a miracle.
Now we believed that the monsoon was a fortnight before
its normal time that year, but we had no accurate data on
this point, and in any case it was not safe to rely on its post-
ponement to a later date. This year, when we were persistently
assailed during the latter half of May by weather conditions
which resembled the first stages of the monsoon, we were
always obsessed by the fear that we were already too late and
that its full force would be on us before we had even established
ourselves on the North Col; for it must be remembered that
its arrival does not always take an unmistakable form. It
may do so, but it may also arrive in a half-hearted fashion,
alternately advancing and clearing off again ; and my diary
73
74 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
at this time refers more than once to a “preliminary monsoon
current.” Hence the idea in our minds was that we must
at all costs establish the North Col Camp ; then a fine interval
before the arrival of the monsoon proper might just give us
the time to put in one serious attempt on the summit. This
explains our exhausting attempts to compete with impossible
weather—weather which, as we now know, had nothing
to do with the monsoon, but was the outcome of conditions
that from end to end of the Himalayas produced, in the latter
half of May, low temperatures and a series of storms unprece-
dented in the memory of the oldest planter in Darjeeling.
Foreseeing this uncertainty we had, before leaving Dar-
jeeling, made arrangements for telegrams to be sent us both
from relations of Mallory's in Colombo and from the meteoro-
logical department at Simla, to keep us informed as to the
progress of the monsoon, which generally takes at least three
weeks to reach Northern India after it has broken in Ceylon
and on the Malabar coast ; these telegrams were duly sent,
but, carried as they were by relays of mounted men or runners
from Phari onwards, the first that gave us really useful
information arrived just too late, for it met us on our final
return to the Base Camp when all was over—a day or two
before the monsoon broke in the Rongbuk Valley.
Camp III is pitched on the northern flank of the highest
tributary glacier which flows down to join the East Rongbuk
Glacier on its left or western side. This tributary glacier
fills the great bay which lies between the north-eastern
spur of Everest and the long parallel spur of the North Peak,
and its source is actually the very top of the saddle connecting
these spurs, which we call the Chang La or North Col, where,
sheltered from the prevailing west wind, a great mass of Snow
accumulates immediately under and up to the crest, and
thence pours down the steep slopes below in the form of a
hanging glacier to join the more placid surface of the sea
of ice which fills the bay I have already described. It
follows that the route up this steep glacier must vary in
detail from year to year. In 1924, in One place, a great
THE NORTH COL 75
line of ice cliffs represented the upper lip of what in 1922
had been a narrow crevasse a few feet across, and which then
ran transversely across the top of the steep traverse just below
Camp IV; for the lower lip had fallen away some hundreds
of feet in the intervening two years, as the mass of ice poured
down the slopes below.
The last chapter describes how the first party, which
started on May 8 to work out a route to the North Col, had
to turn back somewhat short of the position of Camp IV,
owing to insufficient acclimatization and bad Snow conditions.
Time now pressed, and as this next step in our ladder was
one of vital importance it was decided that in the renewed
attempt Odell should be accompanied by Mallory and Somer-
vell, a pair who not only knew the old route better than
any of the rest but who, working together, could be relied on
to succeed if success were humanly possible. As, however,
I judged that neither Mallory, who was suffering from the
prevalent “high-altitude '’ throat, nor Somervell, who had
a touch of the sun, might prove fit to go, I also decided to
accompany the party, at least as far as the foot of the steep
slopes below the Col, in case either of the others dropped out.
Lhakpa Tsering, a wiry and active porter, was to come and
carry a load of Alpine rope and pickets with which to affix
it in the more difficult places. I asked him if he thought he
was up to the climb, and he replied with a fine scorn: “Why,
didn’t I go twice to 25,000 two years ago 2 °
Our route from Camp III followed the left lateral moraine
of the glacier for perhaps three-quarters of a mile, and up
this we trudged on the morning of May 20. It is an Alpine
tradition to start at a very steady pace in the early morning ;
but at 21,000 feet and over it is not only tradition which
enforces what might more truthfully be called a crawl; it is
the lowered vitality of the early hours—or so I have always
imagined; for upward-bound parties leaving Camp III always
made a very poor showing and often returned many hours
later looking brisker than when they started.
This morning was no exception, and it soon became evident
76 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
that one of the party—Somervell—had more the matter with
him than the early morning lassitude; he was in fact suffering
rather severely from the sunstroke he had contracted in the
windless glare of the “trough " the day before. I believe
he had had a high temperature all night, and as, leaving the
moraine, we crossed the smooth and glassy bosom of the
glacier and approached the foot of the steep slopes, it became
evident that he was in no condition to go on. Obvious though
this was, it needed a concerted attack by both Mallory and
myself to convince him, and it was with the greatest reluctance
that he at last conceded the logic of our arguments and,
turning on us a back view eloquent of protest, headed down
the glacier again.
A very short examination of the slopes above now decided
Our plan—for Mallory and I in the little 16 lb. tent we shared
had discussed and agreed on the principle that dictated
it. The obvious and easy route of 1922—the scoop in which
the fatal avalanche took place—must be avoided ; but this
year a large crescent-shaped crevasse, some quarter of a mile
long, crossed the whole face of the steep slopes on its right
in such a fashion that its left or southern end just reached
the top of the scoop ; a series of slightly convex snow slopes,
mostly at a comparatively gentle angle, gave access to the
right or northern end of the crevasse, and as these slopes ran
right down to the level surface of the glacier with no serious
bergschrund or ice cliffs at their base, we argued that they
offered a fairly safe approach to the crevasse, by following the
lower lip of which we could safeguard this portion of our
route from the danger of avalanches and so regain the top
of the scoop in safety. From this point to the shelf on which
it was hoped to pitch Camp IV it appeared unlikely that
we could under any circumstances select a route that would
be safe under dangerous snow conditions, but this mattered
less as an upward-bound party would have had ample warning
of danger and could turn back before reaching that point—
as was, in fact, done by Bruce and Odell three days later.
In their previous attempt Odell and Hazard had followed
'too H.L HON

THE NORTH COL 77
the 1922 route, and they had made a cache of rope and pickets
at the bottom of the slopes; so it was now decided that, while
Mallory and I headed half right to the proposed new route,
there to get on with any step-cutting that we found necessary,
Odell and Lhakpa Tsering should collect the dumped stores
and, cutting across the foot of the slopes, join us higher up.
Of our ascent to the crevasse there is little to tell ; we
led in turns, sharing the laborious work of cutting or stamping
steps. Mallory and I always climbed well together at these
altitudes, for though on his day he was often too fast for
me lower down, up here we always went very comfortably
in double—or perhaps I should say tandem—harness. We
met two minor crevasses and crossed them without difficulty.
The last pitch up to the big crevasse, taken straight up the
slope, was as steep as was pleasant, but we were satisfied that
we could make this bit good with a fixed rope from above.
Arrived at the crevasse, certain suspicions we had felt below
were confirmed : the lower lip on which we now stood was
broken about half-way across, and in order to regain it beyond
the break it became necessary to descend into the bottom of
the crevasse and climb out again by what looked a nearly
vertical wall of broken ice leading up to a narrow crack
or chimney; this seemed to lead once more to the lower lip
beyond the break and an easy route to the far end of the
crevasse. The handle of the sickle, so to speak, took us
to the break; to reach the curved blade, of which we proposed
to follow the inner, or cutting, edge, we must climb the wall
and chimney.
All impatience to know if our labours so far were to prove
vain, we pushed quickly on after a few words with Odell
and Lhakpa, who were plugging along in Our footsteps below,
within easy shouting distance.
Confronted with a formidable climbing obstacle Mallory's
behaviour was always characteristic : you could positively
see his nerves tighten up like fiddle strings. Metaphorically
he girt up his loins, and his first instinct was to jump into
the lead. Up the wall and chimney he led here, climbing care-
78 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
fully, neatly, and in that beautiful style that was all his own.
I backed him up close below, able now and then to afford him
a foothold with haft or head of my axe. The wall, like
most walls, was not as steep as it looked and needed only
careful step-cutting ; but the chimney, on this our first
experience of it, was the deuce, for it was very narrow (it
Widened later under the influence of a hot sun), its sides were
Smooth blue ice and it was floored—if the term “floor ’’ can
be applied to a surface that mounts almost vertically—with
Soft Snow which seemed merely to conceal a bottomless crack
and offered little or no foothold. The climb was something
of a gymnastic exercise, and one is little fitted for gymnastics
above 22,000 feet. I suppose the whole 200-foot climb to
a most welcome little platform at the top took us an hour
of exertion as severe as anything I have experienced. From
the platform we looked down on the very top of Odell’s and
Lhakpa’s heads and, with a shouted word or two, pushed
on to make good the remaining half of the crevasse. Odell
was carrying a light load of pickets—wonderfully constructed
hollow wooden pegs, some 18 inches long and only weighing
a few ounces, which we used for attaching fixed ropes. Partly
owing to this load and partly to the fact that he was one of
those who acclimatized slowly and did not at this time show
his subsequent wonderful form, he was feeling the effects of
altitude pretty badly. However, by the time Mallory and
I, after an abortive attempt, discovered the right way on,
Odell and Lhakpa were close behind us.
Our route from the platform ran steeply upwards along
a narrow ridge of ice with the crevasse on our right and airy
space on our left. Here we cut good steps and soon reached
more level going on a narrow knife edge of Snow, the lower
lip of the crevasse, which soon brought us to its far end.
Beyond this we were on steep Snow slopes and shortly had to
traverse the concave scoop, which represented the upper part
of the alternative route followed in 1922. All this part was
subsequently made as good as ingenuity and an elaborate
system of fixed ropes attached to the pickets already described
THE NORTH COL 79
could make it, and I remember one very comforting rope
which was tied right round a great “serac * or ice pillar.
Just beyond this serac we were confronted by the steepest
bit of the whole climb–some 200 feet of Snow slope at the
extreme angle on which snow would lie, falling away at the
bottom in a great ice cliff; and this slope we had to traverse
diagonally before arriving on the shelf just above it and the
old site of Camp IV. We both had unpleasant recollections
of this traverse, which had changed little since we last crossed
it on our descent in deep fresh snow two years before, when
at every step it looked as if the whole surface Snow was bound
to peel and carry us with it into the abyss below ; and for
Mallory it recalled an even more sinister incident, for in 1921,
when he first discovered this route to the North Col, the
whole surface did peel off between his party crossing it in
the ascent and their descent an hour later.
Mallory's nerves responded as usual to the call on them,
and he again insisted on taking the lead. We agreed that
the safest way to negotiate the place was to climb nearly
vertically up the steepest pitch and only traverse to the
left at its top where the slope began to ease off towards the
edge of the shelf above. Odell, who was going better and
better as the day wore on, was now with us, and he and I
prepared to hold Mallory from below from a safe corner by
the big serac if the treacherous surface should slip and carry
him past us. But all went well, and perhaps half an hour
later we each followed in turn up the steep ladder of steps
which he had cut with such labour in the half-ice, half-snow
surface.
It was a good moment when we arrived about 2.30 p.m.
on the shelf, still bathed in sunlight and pleasantly sheltered
from the west by a wall of ice above. Our first thought
was to look for signs of our old camp left all standing in 1922,
but of course there was no trace of it, for the whole jumble
of snow hummocks and ice cliffs was, as I have explained,
part of a true glacier and so all on the move. The shelf
was narrower than in 1922, and now formed a hog-backed
80 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
ridge of untrodden, glistening snow barely affording level
space for our proposed row of little 6-foot square tents.
We were well pleased at our success in establishing once
more the most difficult portion of the whole route up the
mountain. I would say we were elated, but that I think
one is never elated at 23,000 feet; at these heights one’s
emotions are all in half tones, and we were not a little weary,
for we had not been content merely to climb : every footstep
of the way had been kicked or cut with the axe to leave a
clear and safe track for the laden porters to follow next
day. Stretched on the snow in the sun we ate a hasty snack
and feasted our eyes on the wonderful view over the Lhakpa
La and Khartaphu to the maze of peaks which encircle
Everest to the east, away 60 miles to the Gyankar Range
and beyond where the eye of faith might pick out distant
Ranchenjunga ; yet fine though it was we knew it to be tame
compared to the view in the opposite direction, now hidden
by the ice cliff at our backs—a view whose savage grandeur
is unequalled by anything I have seen.
Nothing now would please theindomitable Mallory but that
the route onwards from our shelf to the actual Col must be
reconnoitred, and Odell at once volunteered to lead the way.
For myself I discovered an urgent need to drive some pickets
for a fixed rope which should hang down the steepest part of
our ladder of steps below—a ten-minute job.
The task of the other two proved the affair of a long
hour, and Mallory, who had borne the heaviest brunt of the
previous work, looked nearly at the end of his tether by
the time they rejoined me, for the site of Camp TV is
separated from the Col by a maze of snow ridges and partially
concealed crevasses—Cruel hard work for a tired man. In
1922 all access by this most direct route was denied by an
impassable crevasse, and a devious way surmounting the ice
cliff over the camp had to be worked out. Here it was that
Mallory, Somervell, Morshead and I, returning from our highest
climb that year, spent the hours between 7 and 11 p.m. groping
our way over some 300 yards by the light of a candle lantern.
THE NORTH COL 81
This year Odell happily succeeded in finding a bridge across
the most serious crevasse and established a feasible route to
the Col which served us throughout the campaign ; this
put the finishing touch to a good day's work.
We started down at 3.45, and the less said about the
descent the better. We took the 1922 route and, going very
fast, had a series of slips and tumbles into crevasses, for
which there could be no explanation but sheer carelessness.
I must exempt Odell from this stricture, but even he pleaded
guilty to allowing Lhakpa Tsering to tie himself on to the
rope with a reef knot, with the result that when once he
slipped the rope came undone, and he was only saved from
fatal consequences by a lucky patch of soft Snow. It was
indeed an instructive sight to see this superior young gentle-
man, who had climbed all day in excellent style and rather
scoffed at our solicitude for his inexperience on Snow and ice,
suddenly converted into the veriest worm, clinging like a
wet towel to steep ice slopes where safety is only found in
an upright position.
Herein lies a moral for those of us (and I was among
them) who have advocated adding a good Sherpa porter to
a party of two climbers for the “last lap * on Mount Everest.
These men are not really all-round mountaineers; they have
little knowledge of snow and ice, and are as subject as other
inexperienced amateurs to sudden loss of nerve if something
goes Wrong.
We were back in Camp III by 6.30 p.m.—a weary party;
and our satisfaction at a good day’s work was tempered by a
very persistent doubt as to how it would be possible, even
with the aid of fixed ropes, to get loaded porters up the ice
chimney. My diary for this day finishes with the following
remarks: “Indifferent night—head too full of the very
apparent difficulties and dangers of the whole business;
Overcast and warm, light snow in early a.m. Don’t like the
look of weather much. Pray Heaven it’s not the beginning
of monsoon, as no power on earth can make parts of North
Col route safe under monsoon conditions.”
G
82 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
In describing the work which was now carried out by
other members of the party I am handicapped by having only
my own brief diary and imperfect memory to remind me of their
fine performances, and I hope I shall not be accused of egotism
if I appear to pass lightly over some of these, while I describe
in more detail events in which I myself took an active part.
It was a busy and a strenuous time, and as each tired party
returned to Camp III, one listened almost perfunctorily to
its story, Satisfied that the work was going on, and then
immediately turned one’s attention to the next step ; and
later, when it was all over, these doings were overshadowed
by more dramatic events, so that much of the story remained
untold.
T)uring all this phase Camp III was a truly horrid spot.
The stones of the moraine on which it was pitched, stones
which in 1922 radiated pleasantly the heat of the sun, were
always covered with fresh snow; the little trickle of running
water which their warmth should have produced was frozen
stiff, and every drop of drinking or cooking water (I omit the
usual reference to washing !) had to be melted over a Primus
stove. Never a meal was eaten in the open, and I remember
particularly the hatefulness of the evening meal, with the
camp in cold shadow and one’s feet like stones. We made
rather a point of collecting in a spare tent pitched for the
purpose to eat our meals—a last flicker of the Social amenities.
We had a real live cook at Camp III this year. Three of our
total staff of four cooks took it turn and turn about at each
of Camps I, II and III; and if I shudder now at the recollec-
tion of some of those hateful meals, I am fain to admit that
seldom has food been cooked under more difficult conditions.
Tea made with water which boils at a temperature in which
you can bear the hand isn’t very palatable even if it does
not contain an admixture of paraffin oil and last night’s
“mutton and veg.” Kami, Tsering and Kancha—we owe
those cooks a debt of gratitude : alas, poor Kancha died of
ptomaine poisoning in his own home a few days after our
return to Darjeeling. Before turning in, feet had to be
THE NORTH COL 83
warmed up somehow, and as the moraine was too rough
and the glacier too glassy to admit of a tramp, we used to
carry out that military manoeuvre known as “double mark
time ’’ on a flat stone, sometimes for ten minutes, and even
then, perhaps, without much effect ; but then it was a poor
imitation of a “ double.” We mostly slept two in a tent ;
Mallory and I shared a tent, with Somervell and Odell next
door. “How's Sandringham 2 ° we would ask, the right
answer being, “All snug, how’s Balmoral * *
On May 21 Somervell, who now professed himself recovered,
Irvine and Hazard got off about 8.30 with a convoy of twelve
porters laden with tents, stores and provisions to establish
Camp IV; the morning was unduly warm with a lot of
light cloud about. Light, dry snow kept falling at intervals,
but, the sun coming through now and again, we anticipated
no trouble. The plan was that Somervell and Irvine were
to accompany the party as far as Camp TV to help the loaded
porters up the chimney and fix ropes in various places noted
by our party the day before. They were then to return,
leaving Hazard for one night alone at Camp TV with the
twelve men. The following day Odell and Bruce were to
join him, and after sleeping the night at Camp TV, go on
with the twelve porters to 25,500 feet and establish Camp V.
To quote again from my diary : “Up to 1 p.m. North
Col slopes remained clear, but no sign of party along big
crevasse ; Soon after it began to snow in earnest and nothing
more could be seen. As I write at 6.20 p.m. Somervell and
Irvine have not returned, and it is still snowing—very soft,
wet snow. I am anxious. G. Bruce with 19 porters arrived
from II about 2 p.m., having cleared II and practically all
dumps (of stores). I spent the whole day on loads, stores
and bundobust,’ and am now so sick of it that I can hardly
bear to think any more about it.
“6.35 p.m. Somervell and Irvine just in—Hazard and
party reached Camp IV—so all is more or less well.”
This is a very bald outline of a gruelling day’s work.
To begin with, fresh fallen snow had practically—and later
84 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
entirely—obliterated the tracks Mallory, Odell and I had
been at such pains to make. The snow soon became deep
enough to make the going exceedingly laborious, if not dan-
gerous. The climbers drove a quantity of pickets and attached
all the necessary fixed ropes before the porters followed them.
Then came the chimney; they decided that it would
be best to haul all loads by hand up a vertical ice cliff in one
pull from the bottom of the wall clear up to the little platform
at the top, and then to let the porters climb the wall and
chimney unladen. Somervell and Irvine took their stand
On the platform, Hazard directing operations from the
bottom, and the two former hauled the twelve 20 to 30 lb.
loads clean up the cliff, experiencing great difficulty with
an obtrusive bulge half-way up. They afterwards described
it as heartbreaking work, and I can well imagine it ; the
wonder is that they escaped frostbitten hands. Young
Irvine was a perfect tower of strength, and his splendid
physique never stood him in better stead. Somervell,
yesterday an invalid with a temperature, did his full share
of what must have been—I speak from memory—a two or
three hours’ job. Having seen Hazard and his none-too-merry
men on to the shelf where they were to pitch the camp, with
snow falling heavily, Somervell and Irvine returned, as already
described, to Camp III.
Next morning, May 22, found it snowing hard ; in fact,
snow had been falling all night, and it continued without
stopping until 3 p.m., so that there was never any question
of Bruce and Odell starting for the Col. Our preparations
in camp being finished, we all spent the day in our sleeping-
bags with feet like stones, reading our home mail and papers
which had arrived from Camp II with Bruce's party the
day before. It was a miserable day, for we were haunted
by the idea that this might be a first taste of the monsoon,
and it was followed by an even more miserable night. The
thermometer fell to minus 24° Fahrenheit—the coldest ever
recorded in these parts, and I would emphasize the fact—
for the benefit of those who are accustomed to figures like
-
-
THE CHIMNEy, North Col.

THE NORTH COL 85
60 “below * in Canada or Arctic regions—that, with an
insufficient supply of oxygen and the lowered vitality of
these heights, minus 24° Fahrenheit is a more serious matter
than the bare figures indicate. Many of the party got little
or no sleep.
May 23 broke cloudless, windless and brilliantly fine,
though the air was keen as a knife. After such a cold night
we concluded that the fresh fallen Snow on the slopes below
the Col should be safe, and as every day was now precious,
it was decided that Bruce and Odell should carry on with
their programme. Bruce was very much “all there,” in
spite of the trying experience of the last twenty-four hours,
and got the party of seventeen porters off in fairly good heart
at 9.30.
About 1 p.m. it once more began to Snow steadily, shutting
out all view of what was going on above, but not before
we had seen considerable movement on the traverse just
below Camp IV—rows of little black dots slowly moving
downwards and to the right like flies on a whitewashed
wall. We concluded that Hazard had decided to evacuate
Camp IV and return with his party; this was a relief, as if
this were really the monsoon, the sooner they were back
at Camp III the better. About 3 p.m. Bruce, Odell and their
porters were sighted coming down the moraine : they had
reached a point just short of the big crevasse, where they decided
that the snow was in a dangerous condition and that it would
be unsafe to go on. Their decision to turn back was confirmed
by seeing Hazard’s party descending the chimney above
them, but though they spent some time trying to communicate
by shouting, they could not make themselves heard.
Looking back now I am puzzled at our constant failure
to make ourselves heard on the mountain. I can think of
three occasions when our voices failed to carry distances of
200 yards or under, and that in a land of absolute silence,
in shelter from the wind. Our voices were often feeble, of
course, but I am not satisfied that this was enough to account
for it.
86 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
We spent an anxious two hours waiting for the arrival
of Hazard’s party; some instinct must have warned us that
all was not well. At 5 p.m. he arrived, accompanied by
only eight of his twelve men. It appeared that he had gone
first across the traverse to test the condition of the fresh
surface Snow, which rendered it a very dangerous passage;
eight men had followed him, one crossing at a time, but
the last four had turned back, either because they were sick—
the remaining porters said that two of them were suffering
from frostbite—or, more probably, because one of them had
started a patch of the surface snow slipping and they had
been afraid to come on. Certain marks on the steepest part
of the traverse next day gave colour to this explanation.
The situation had suddenly taken a very serious turn.
The snow was falling persistently and—an ominous sign—
had begun to take the form of soft feathery flakes, such
as we had been accustomed to associate with nothing but
monsoon conditions. The four men were alone at Camp TV,
a prey to the superstitious terrors to which those of their
race are always prone on the big snow mountains. Two of
them were reported frostbitten, and we now learnt for the
first time that, during their ascent two days before, a load
of assorted food had been lost over an ice cliff. They were
thus restricted to a diet of barley-meal, unless they had
the initiative (and the tin-opener) to use the Small amount
of Sahib’s food already in the camp. It was quite evident
that they must be rescued, and that no later than next day;
for the frostbite question alone made it imperative to avoid
even one more day’s delay.
It was equally obvious that it was at present out of the
question to continue our attempts on the mountain ; the
whole party at Camp III was already in a bad way. Mallory
and Somervell were both suffering from very bad high-altitude
throats. Odell had had hardly any sleep for several nights;
Irvine had diarrhoea, and Hazard had just had a very trying
three days. The porters were for the most part quite unfit,
morally and physically, for further efforts at present.
THE NORTH COL 87
Both above and below the North Col there was sufficient
fresh snow to put any attempt to climb the mountain out of
the question for the present, while we were all more or less
convinced that this was really the beginning of the monsoon.
Sitting huddled in our dining-tent by the light of a candle
lantern, we made our plans for next day. Mallory and I had
had a longer period of rest at Camp III than any of the
others, and as a party of at least three was required to bring
down the four men, it was decided that Somervell should
accompany us; we three had climbed together in 1922, and
we knew we could go well as a party. Bruce, with Hazard
and Irvine, was to evacuate Camp III, leaving only Odell
and Noel (the latter having arrived from Camp II) with
half a dozen porters to wait for our return in case there
should be casualties to carry down the glacier.
It was a gloomy little conference; we could not but
recognize that to turn our backs once more on the mountain
at this date might well mean the abandonment of all hope
of success for the year. We were about to send three of
the four climbers detailed for the first attempt on what
must be a severe test of endurance, and this would still further
diminish our chances of success if a change in the weather
permitted a resumption of the attack. But at the time these
seemed but minor considerations; the only thing that
mattered was to get the men down alive. Personally my one
fixed determination had all along been that we must on no
account have any casualties among our porters this year,
and here we were, faced with the very real possibility of
losing four men ; for it must be admitted that our chances
of rescuing the marooned porters did not appear rosy at this
time. We were all distinctly the worse for wear ; both
Mallory and Somervell had very bad cough. ..... sore throats,
which hampered them badly in climbing; the condition of
the North Col slopes must make climbing exceedingly slow
and laborious, and there was the danger of avalanche. As
we lay in our tent that night and listened to the soft pattering
of the Snow on its walls, I now know that neither Mallory
88 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
nor I would have taken a bet of two to one against a successful
issue to our undertaking next day, though at the time we
kept such pessimistic views to ourselves. About midnight
the Snow stopped falling and the moon came out.
By 7.30 next morning we were off. Though the sun
had been up two hours, the temperature was still only 2°
Fahrenheit.
Of the climb which followed I remember only certain
phases distinctly ; the rest was just treadmill—with the
Snow anything from a foot to waist deep. As usual we were
at Our Worst when we first started, and we looked so like a
party of hospital convalescents that my hopes sank to zero.
Mallory, who on these occasions lived on his nervous energy,
kept urging us on : I remember his chiding us sharply for
Some momentary delay and later apologizing for his impatience.
I wore crampons,” and owing to the constriction of their
straps I suffered all day from cold feet. At the foot of
the chimney I had to take off my boots while Somervellrubbed
my feet, but I never properly restored the circulation that
day.
The three of us did the wall and chimney in fifty minutes.
Arrived at the top we could see one of the marooned porters,
One Phu, standing on the edge of the shelf, and I repeatedly
hailed him to find out what was the condition of the four.
I had the greatest difficulty in getting an answer out of him,
and it was only when we arrived at the foot of the final
traverse that the following conversation took place : “Hi,
Phu ! Are you all fit to walk 2 * This had to be repeated
several times. At last came the answering query, “Up or
down 2'' (so little apparently did he realize the seriousness
of their situation). “Down, you fool.” Whereupon he dis-
appeared, and almost at Once reappeared with the remaining
three. They said that one, Namgya, had all the fingers of
both hands badly frostbitten, and that another, Uchung,
had some toes slightly affected, but that all were fit to come
* A contrivance of eight sharp spikes fitted to the boot after the fashion
of skates.
THE NORTH COL 89
down. This was a relief, for though I had brought one of
our “one-man carrier ‘’ frames to be prepared for the worst,
I very much doubt if we could have got a man down on
it—certainly we could not have done so before dark.
Up to the final traverse the condition of the surface
snow had proved less dangerous than we had anticipated,
but it was obvious that the traverse was to be the crux of
the climb. Here Somervell insisted on going across, while
Mallory and I prepared to belay the 200 feet of rope that
we had brought with us, driving both our ice axes into the
snow up to their heads as a holdfast, round which we passed
the rope, paying it out yard by yard as Somervell slowly
and laboriously made his way diagonally upwards and
across; he punched big safe steps and continually stopped
to cough and choke in the most painful manner. After one
or two of these fits of coughing he leant his head on his
forearm in an attitude of exhaustion, and so steep was the
slope that the mental picture I have of him as he did this
shows him standing almost upright in his steps with his
elbow resting on the snow level with his shoulder.
Some five or ten yards short of where the crest of the
slope formed the edge of the shelf on which the four men
were waiting, Somervell reached the end of the rope; the
full 200 feet were out, and by eye we judged it a near thing
whether, in the event of his slipping, the length of the rope
was not too great to stop him before he disappeared over
the lip of the ice cliffs below. It was now 4 p.m. Time was
all too short if we were to get down in daylight, and a brief
shouted consultation decided us that the men must chance
the unbridged ten yards and join Somervell unroped as
best they could. Each man as he reached Somervell was
to be passed across the taut rope in turn to where Mallory
and I, Securely anchored by my old friend the big serac,
represented safety.
The first two reached him safely. One of them was
across with us and the second just starting when, with my
heart in my mouth, I saw the remaining two, who had stupidly
90 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
started from the edge of the shelf together, suddenly flying
down the slope. A big patch of the fresh snow surface had
given way and the men were going down on their backs,
feet first, in an almost upright position. For one paralysing
Second I foresaw the apparently inevitable tragedy, with the
two figures shooting into space over the edge of the blue ice
cliff, 200 feet below ; the next they pulled up after not
more than 10 yards, and we breathed again. The accumu-
lated Snow under their feet had been bound by the cold of
the early morning and the hot sun which followed to a holding
consistency. Somervell, as cool as a cucumber, shouted to
me, “Tell them to sit still,” and still as mice they sat, shivering
at the horrid prospect immediately beneath their eyes, while
quite calmly Somervell passed the second man across to us,
chaffing the wretched pair the while—so that one of them
actually gave an involuntary bark of laughter.
Somervell then untied the rope from his waist, drove
his ice axe in up to its head in the soft Snow, passed the
rope round it and strained it so as to make every foot he
could, while Mallory and I held our end at extreme arm’s
length. Holding his own end in the same way he then let
himself down to the extreme length of the rope and of his
own arm, while with the other hand he grasped, one after
the other, the two porters by the scruff of the neck and pulled
them back to the anchor of his axe. Somehow they got
across to us, for their nerve had gone and they slid and
slipped, ruining the steps all the way across, and only saved
themselves from repeating their previous performance by the
rope handrail. Finally Somervell followed, after again tying
the rope round his waist; and it was a fine object lesson in
mountain craft to see him, balanced and erect, Crossing the
ruined track without a slip or mistake.
At 4.30 we started down ; the slopes were already in
chill shadow and it was evident that we were in for a race
with darkness. Mallory led with one porter on a rope,
then followed Somervell shepherding two ; and I brought
up the rear with Namgya and his frostbitten hands. Many
ROUTE UP THE CHIMNEY.

THE NORTH COL 9]
times during the descent, but particularly in the chimney,
I blessed my crampons, for Namgya's hands were useless and
more than once I had to hold his full weight ; but he put
up a gallant showing until, at dusk, we reached the glacier
and safety, when he rather broke down. Poor lad! He must
have suffered a lot in those two and a half hours.
About 7.30 p.m., as we were leaving the glacier for the
moraine three-quarters of a mile from home, some figures
loomed up out of the darkness ahead, and we found Noel
and Odell waiting for us with hot soup in a liquid-air flask
—almost as memorable a drink as the never-to-be-forgotten
coffee and brandy which greeted us in nearly the same place
after another trying descent two years before. I think a
laconic entry in my diary is the most sincere tribute I can
pay to Noel and Odell, for it was written at the time : “Both
awfully good to us here and, later, in camp.” Noel had a
peculiar genius for coming out strong on times like this, and
I look back with gratitude to more than one occasion on
which the shelter of his specially designed tent or some of
his own private delicacies comforted me marvellously after
a hard day.
Mallory's cough and the condition of my feet (which never
really warmed up till next morning) precluded our enjoying,
that night, the sleep we had earned, and we lay awake exchang-
ing a murmured word from time to time. But our feelings
were somewhat different from what they were when we had
lain in the same tent the night before listening to the rustle
of the falling snow and counting our chances for the morrow.
Next morning we thankfully turned our backs on Camp III
and, escorting a miserable little convoy of the halt, the lame
and the blind, reached Camp II in due course in the teeth
of a north-east wind and with snow falling again. The
following day, May 26, Somervell and I reached Camp I.
The party was now disposed as follows: Odell, Noel and
Shebbeare remained at Camp II with some twenty porters;
Mallory, Somervell, Bruce, Irvine and I with another twenty
porters were at Camp I. Hazard had gone right through
92 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
to the Base, where he had joined Hingston and Beetham.
About a dozen of the least useful porters were by now perman-
ently kept at the Base and used only for the daily fuel and
ration fatigues as far as Camps I or II.
The idea in thus stringing out the party in echelon was
to enable us to resume operations with the minimum of delay
should the weather let us. Those intended for the next trip
to the North Col were to be at Camp II so that when once
the word was given Camp TV could be reoccupied with
Only one day’s delay. On May 15 Beetham had retired to
the Base suffering from a very severe attack of sciatica ; it
was a cruel blow, no less to him than to the rest of the party,
that just as he was really recovering from the weakening
effects of his previous illness he should be thus smitten down
again. If ever man conquered a physical disability by sheer
will power Beetham had done so once, and though this
Same will power of his was going to have another very deter-
mined and obstinate try for it, for the moment Hingston had
him in his clutches and safely tucked into bed at the Base.
On this same afternoon we held a council of war at
Camp I. Several facts made it obvious that if the Fates were
to give us one more chance, we must be prepared to put into
operation some simplified plan. Firstly, Shebbeare and Bruce
were agreed that not more than fifteen—at first Shebbeare,
by no means a pessimist, said twelve—out of our original
fifty-five porters could now be counted on to reach Camp
IV, though it was rightly estimated that those who could do
this might well go much higher. I was horrified at this
idea, and went through the list of porters on paper very care-
fully, only to arrive independently at exactly the same
result. The number physically disabled was very small ;
but a high proportion had shown by now that the unusual
and unexpected conditions of the year had taken all heart
out of them and they would not come up to the Scratch
again. This was cutting down our transport with a vengeance,
for so far we had barely established Camp TV with four tents
and sleeping-bags for twelve porters and one climber ; all
THE NORTH COL 93
the food and fuel had still to be carried up, as well as every
oxygen apparatus and cylinder required on the mountain,
and the whole of the tents and stores for the higher camps;
and it may be remembered that after Camp IV had been
fully stocked the next step in our original plan was to send
a party of fifteen porters, escorted by two climbers, to establish
and stock Camp V.
Then there was the vital question of time. For the
moment things looked a little better, and we again began to
doubt if the weather we had experienced was really anything
to do with the monsoon. At this time I developed a parrot
cry which used to lead to concerted “booing ” whenever I
started the well-known formula : “I have a theory . . .”
My theory, which I certainly only half believed myself,
was to the effect that for the monsoon to gather sufficient
impetus to carry right up to and over the main Himalayan
range, the great oven represented by that part of Northern
India adjoining the range must be stoked up by a fortnight’s
really hot weather; and that, therefore, we could still count
on a sufficient spell of climbing weather before the true mon-
soon. Bruce’s rival theory that, whatever happened below,
it was always brilliantly fine over 27,000 feet, was obviously
only a childish attempt to produce some alternative optimistic
theory. But theories fade away in the hard light of facts :
here we were within six days of the date on which the monsoon
broke in 1922; we must have two or three days’ rest, and we
must waste one more day reaching Camp III. Our plan
must obviously be such as would enable us to stage a serious
attempt on the summit with the least possible delay when
we again advanced to the assault.
There were a number of minor considerations, with which
I will not weary the reader, except to mention our uncom-
fortable doubt as to whether those who had already tried it
had derived any real benefit from the oxygen apparatus.
The council of war was long and undecisive, and I summoned
another for next day, sending messengers to Camp II and
the Base to invite Odell, Shebbeare and Hazard to join in
94 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
these important deliberations. They were resumed next
day with the addition of Odell and Shebbeare, and the whole
matter was most carefully thrashed out, every possible
combination of our seven available climbers being tried. In
the end the simplest possible plan carried the day and was
adopted mem. Con., after I had made a careful analysis of the
transport it entailed, as compared with that required by any
other form of attempt. We decided to scrap oxygen alto-
gether and to assault the mountain in a series of attempts, each
of two climbers: the parties to leave Camp IV on consecutive
fine days and to sleep twice above that point, once at Camp V,
at about 25,500 feet, and once at Camp VI, at about 27,200 feet,
or as near to those heights as we could induce porters to
carry for us. I insisted on a supporting party of two climbers
to be at Camp IV always, and this seemed to indicate that
not more than two attempts could be made, for we could
hardly believe that, after what we had already undergone,
anyone would be found to do more than one really high
climb. But here we judged by the standard of 1922, and
Mallory and Odell were yet to show us what was to be the
standard of 1924.
In allocating the climbers to these various rôles I stipulated
that Mallory had the right to join the first party if he wished.
His throat was markedly better, and though he had so far
borne the brunt of the hardest work, yet the energy and
fire of the man were reflected in his every gesture, and none
doubted his fitness to go as high as any. Of the remainder
Bruce was now palpably the strongest ; he had been strong
all along, always showing a flat back and a free easy carriage,
when some of us had been fain to bend and crawl, and chance
had arranged it that he had so far done less above Camp
III than the rest. So Mallory and Bruce were to make
the first pair—and I must say they looked a pair to inspire
confidence in success if, at this stage, success were humanly
possible. Somervell’s throat was benefiting a little by the
warmth of Camp I, but was still far from right; but Somervell’s
prestige since 1922 was enormous, and his last performance
· Noos Noſ\ on Innol o NINIAI–LS$1\\o Nixiooni ºvº o N1， I won I

THE NORTH COL 95
with the marooned porters had enhanced it. Anyhow, Mallory
and I had little doubt that he must be one member of the
next attempt. For choice of the second member, as I was
in the running, I again stood down and asked Somervell
and Mallory to choose between Odell, Irvine, Hazard and
myself. They chose me, and in this connection it must not
be forgotten that physical fitness and technical proficiency
were not the only considerations: there was the vitally impor-
tant question of providing each party with a climber who
could talk sufficient Nepalese to carry the porters with them
when their resolution began to flag, as we expected it to do
at Camp V. Odell and Irvine were to play the all-important
rôle of supporters at Camp IV, Hazard to remain in reserve
at Camp III.
May 28 (as had been the 27th) was cloudlessly fine and
hot, and the firebrands—Somervell and Noel—wanted to be
up and away ; but much as I hated losing another day, I was
so impressed with the improvement in the general health of
the party after two days’ rest that I decided to postpone our
departure for one more. The day was not wasted ; the
picked fifteen porters on whom now all our hopes centred,
and whom we nicknamed the “Tigers,” were collected at
Camp II; Irvine joined Odell there, and the famous “old
firm ‘’ produced perhaps their most useful mechanical contri-
vance in the shape of a magnificent rope ladder of Alpine
rope and tent pegs destined to enable loaded porters to climb
the steep ice wall below the “chimney.”
The rest of us finished a communiqué to The Times,
wrote home letters, continued the endless jig-saw puzzle of
allotting porters’ loads for the work ahead, and generally
basked and revelled in a sun which was at times almost too hot.
Camp I has always been a good place; never has its
sunny welcome proved more beneficial than during this brief
three days of recuperation.
The climbing parties reached Camp III on the 30th,
accompanied by Noel and cinema outfit. Hazard, destined
to support from Camp III, arrived a day later. And with
96 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the climbing parties were assembled that picked gang of
fifteen porters, the “Tigers,” who were considered still reliable
for going high.
The weather continued perfect, and on June 1 Mallory
and Bruce, accompanied by nine of the “Tigers,” camped
at the North Col, establishing en route a rope ladder. Odell
and Irvine were to remain in support at Camp IV.
On June2, still apparently under perfect weather conditions,
the two climbers and eight porters started up the great
north ridge to establish Camp W. But the weather on
Everest is not always what it seems. Once past the jumble
of crevasses and seracs separating Camp TV from the true col,
a bitter north-west wind, one of the most formidable foes we
have to face on Everest, smote the little party on the flank.
This wind must be felt to be appreciated. Every member
of the party was equipped with every device of wind-proof
clothing which experience could invent. Yet such was the
keenness of the wind that it appeared to have the double
quality of penetrating through their clothes and yet nearly
blowing the laden porters out of their steps.
Progress up the north ridge of Everest does not lend itself
to description. It is a fight against the wind and altitude,
generally on rock, sometimes on Snow, at an average angle
of 45°. It will appeal to those who have ever tried mountain
climbing over 23,000 feet. Camp V was to be situated on
the east or sheltered side of the ridge at about 25,300 feet.
At about 25,000 feet the endurance of the porters began
to flag, and of eight only four made Camp V under their own
steam. The remainder deposited their loads, unable to go
on. While Mallory set to work to organize the camp, Bruce
and one Lobsang, meriting the distinction of being one of the
leaders of the “Tigers,” made two trips back from the level
of the camp and brought up the missing loads on their own
backs. But white men cannot carry loads at these altitudes
with impunity, and it is scarcely to be wondered at that
Bruce's heart was strained, happily only temporarily, in
this fine performance.
THE NORTH COL 97
Camp V was now established—two fragile 10 lb. tents
perched on an almost precipitous slope. The tents occupied
by the non-oxygen party in 1922, collapsed and held in position
by big stones, were clearly seen 200 feet below. According
to plan, five porters now returned to Camp IV, three picked
men being retained to stay the night and carry a still tinier
camp some 2,000 feet higher on the morrow. Obviously
everything depended upon the physical condition and moral
of these three men. But the most persuasive powers of Bruce
could elicit from them little enthusiasm for their next day's
task. Apparently the wind had taken the heart out of them.
And after the truly miserable but inevitable routine in high
altitudes of cooking the dinner the party went to bed with
the sun still gilding the tops of the surrounding mountains,
but with no rosy anticipations for the morrow.
It was intended to make an early start next morning.
This had been done before, therefore it was not impossible,
but where Sherpa porters are concerned it certainly approaches
the limit of the possible. Making a long story short, a series
of visits to the men’s tents while the climbers’ breakfasts
were being prepared produced nothing but the unwelcome
information that only one was fit to proceed. The other two
professed to be sick and totally unable to carry a load. Bruce
talks their language fluently and has great influence over
them, and if anyone could have stimulated them to go it was
he. But it was fairly evident that the three porters had
shot their bolt and that nothing more was to be got out of
them. So after a brief consultation it was decided to return
to Camp IV.
Mallory and Bruce, on arrival at the North Col, were met
by Odell and Irvine, who were fulfilling, for the first time in
the history of Everest climbing, the official rôle of supporters.
Since 1922 we had recognized the necessity of this rôle, pictur-
ing the comfort to a returning party of weary climbers such
support might afford. The most optimistic imagination fell
short of the reality as produced by that “well-known firm,”
Odell and Irvine. For over a week those two lived on the
H
98 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
North Col (23,000 feet), and cooked every meal—and only
those who have done it can appreciate the recurring hatefulness
of this operation. They went out day and night to escort
and Succour returning parties and climbers over the intricate
approaches to the camp, carrying lamps and drinks, and
even oxygen to restore the exhausted. They ran the camp
and tended the sick, and Odell for one went down to Camp
III and returned to Camp IV, escorting parties or fetching
provisions on three consecutive days. No members of the
climbing party pulled more weight in the team than these
two by their unostentatious, unselfish gruelling work.
CHAPTER V
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
Somervell and I started off from Camp III on June 1
to follow in Mallory and Bruce's steps. But before starting
it became my sad duty to return Beetham to the Base.
The reader will wonder how he came to be at Camp III, for
I last mentioned him as safely tucked into bed at the Base
suffering from sciatica, under Hingston’s charge. I regret
to say it was simply a case of mutiny : Hingston was told
that he could go to the devil, and that he, Beetham, was
not going to miss all share in the great doings that were
projected ; if he could do nothing else he could cook or
carry a small load—anything to pull some weight in the team.
So, limping and hobbling and taking wonderful photographs,
he had reached Camp III on May 30. But he was too
obviously a cripple to permit of any thought of using him
on the mountain, and as we might now be very glad of our
doctor in a day or two, when parties of porters and climbers
who had been high came filtering back to Camp III, Beetham
must return to take his place in charge of the Base Camp.
It was never possible to leave the Base entirely without an
Englishman, for we had a considerable sum of money in
notes and copper coins in the treasure-chest, and it was always
possible that some important communication might arrive
from the outside world.
So for the second time Irisked making Beetham my enemy
for life—and I really thought I had done it this time—as I
sent him, volubly protesting and limping like a cripple, down
the glacier. He has, I believe, long since forgiven me. And
99
100 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
TXTAGRAM OF HEIGHTS ON MOUNT EVEREST
-
Ž
\\ \
*\ & vº-
Nº
:=sº
j > wº-
fºr . Sºº-ººrºº
º: SºHºst **te,
* : * Sº .”:
s: e. - I fºr tº ºtº º -> ºfflº
& ** * * * ~...~A- ºf E. J. Nº. . .” º -->
sº * : * - . . . *s-º a sº- º, º f * ** \º ºš=>
* . Xº, * 2-) & Sº ls § ſº -: * * : scº º
- - ** . - º -
# ... “ §:: ) is tº º sº Esº- ~.
v “ sº wº > * *
ºº::=s: "N
ºf ſº ſ Şāsº
a . N V º N W \\ S. Qa. sº 3. / /
ººz.<\SSNN. N\º: , .N. šć ( , /
Camp VI, 26,700 feet.
The point reached by Somervell in 1924.
The point reached by Norton in 1924.
“The Second Step,” where Mallory and Irvine were last seen.
“The First Step.”
The point reached by Finch and Geoffrey Bruce in 1922.
The point reached by Mallory, Norton, and Somervell in 1922.
The summit, 29,002 feet.
:


















NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 101
in justification of my own brutal conduct I may add that
Hingston's medical skill was very badly required almost as
soon as he arrived at Camp III.
Throughout the operations which followed, Shebbeare
remained at Camp II, with periodic visits to Camp III. He
was in charge of what might be described as the reserve
porters’ rest-camp, and was responsible for the whole of
the Lines of Communication from the Base to Camp III.
Enjoying as he did the complete confidence of the porters,
he was an ideal transport officer, for the men were perfectly
happy under his charge, and he knew more about stores than
anyone in the Expedition. We at Camp III never had to
give a moment’s thought behind us, but were free to concen-
trate out attention on the mountain, knowing that Our
supplies would arrive punctually as required, and that when
porters were sent up to us they would arrive well fed and
in good heart.
The porters told off to accompany Somervell and me, and
to establish our camp at 25,500 feet, were six in number, and
of these three were to come on to 27,000 feet. Bruce and I
had tossed for first pick, and then chosen alternately from
among the “Tigers,” so that each party should be equally
strong. My first three picks were Narbu Yishé, Llakpa
Chédé and Semchumbi. Narbu Yishé was a plausible
rogue, a Mongolian replica of a well-known type in the British
Army—the old soldier: his nickname the “Purana Miles''
will convey as much to those whose scholarship is both classi-
cal and Oriental. Here was a man who, whatever his failings
below, was, I knew, capable of great things high up.
Llakpa Chédé will be familiar in person to all who have
seen the “Epic of Everest '' film at the Scala. Theatre—
probably giving the impression of a very small, shy and
frightened-looking man. In his own milieu nothing could
have been more different—quiet still, but with the quietness of
complete self-confidence; independent, sturdy, of irreproach-
able character, and a brilliant man on the mountain. As
to Semchumbi, Geoffrey Bruce will tell you that he was a
102 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
loafer, a cadger round the officers’ mess kitchen, and a ne'er-
do-weel. My view of him is different, as will appear.
At 3 p.m. on June 1, Somervell and I with our six porters
reached Camp IV, where Odell and Irvine took charge of us,
allotted us tents and cooked and served us our meals, for
they were now installed in their new rôle as “supporters.”
And a thankless job this was, for almost the whole day was
taken up with performing alternately the menial duties of
cook, waiter, or Scullion; going out to escort returning parties
of porters or climbers across the crevasses and seracs leading
to the North Col, or, not infrequently, descending to Camp
III for more stores, while more fortunate climbers passed
through and disappeared in succession up the mountain.
Yet, thankless though the task may have been, Odell and
Irvine gave such an exhibition of how it should be done that
those of us who once passed through their hands are now
spoilt for life : never again shall we enjoy such support as
we were given by the “old firm.” In a year when, to a
conspicuous degree, all played for the side, none did so more
conscientiously or with less thought of self than these two.
The morning of June 2 broke fine, and by 6.30 Somervell
and I were off with our little party of six porters. The
reader will understand that Mallory and Bruce were to have
established Camp V overnight ; this morning they should
have been heading up the North Ridge for Camp VI, carrying
with them the tent and sleeping-bags in which they had slept
the night before. Our loads, therefore, must comprise one
10-lb. tent, two sleeping-bags, food and “meta ?? (Solid spirit)
for ourselves for a possible three nights and for the porters
for one ; above the North Col porters’ loads were always
cut down to a maximum of 20 lb. a man, preferably a little
under that weight. I cannot remember the exact details
of the loads our men carried, but I know they were laden So
near the limit that Somervell and I had to carry (as we had
done the day before) a light rucksack apiece, with compass,
electric torch, a few spare woollen garments, a change of
socks, etc., for our own personal use.
‘v’I 0 N VII O ȘI HJ, OL º LºnONI TIH L
(ººpal syna uo)
Aſ dure o

NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 103
Our route crossed the actual Col just below the Western
lip and, as we emerged from the snow hummocks to traverse
it, we suddenly found ourselves in shadow and exposed to
the full force of the west wind—from which we were Com-
pletely sheltered both at Camp IV and in the intervening
section; that was a bad moment, its memory is still
fresh. The wind, even at this early hour, took our breath
away like a plunge into the icy waters of a mountain lake,
and in a minute or two our well-protected hands lost all sensa-
tion as they grasped the frozen rocks to steady us.
Some little way above the Col we emerged into sunlight
again, and though we got the full benefit of the wind all the
way up the ridge we never again experienced anything quite
so blighting as those few minutes in the shady funnel of the
Col. Nevertheless the wind was all day a serious matter.
Though it seemed to cut clean through our windproof
clothes, it yet had so solid a push to it that the laden porters
often staggered in their steps.
I should here explain that our kit was specially designed
to exclude the wind. Personally I wore thick woollen vest
and drawers, a thick flannel shirt and two sweaters under a
lightish knickerbocker suit of windproof gaberdine the knickers
of which were lined with light flannel, a pair of soft elastic
Rashmir putties and a pair of boots of felt bound and soled
with leather and lightly nailed with the usual Alpine nails.
Over all I wore a very light pyjama suit of Messrs. Burberry’s
“Shackleton ’’ windproof gaberdine. On my hands I wore
a pair of long fingerless woollen mits inside a similar pair made
of gaberdine ; though when step-cutting necessitated a sensi-
tive hold on the axe-haft, I sometimes substituted a pair of
silk mits for the inner woollen pair. On my head I wore a
fur-lined leather motor-cycling helmet, and my eyes and
nose were protected by a pair of goggles of Crookes’s glass,
which were sewn into a leather mask that came well over the
nose and covered any part of my face which was not naturally
protected by my beard. A huge woollen muffler completed
my costume. Somervell was dressed in much the same
104 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
style, and the porters were equally well equipped—each in
a light green canvas windproof suit over a variety of woollen
and leather garments. We got used to one another’s appear-
ance in time, but every now and then I was struck afresh
with the absurdly “gollywog ' appearance of the party.
We followed our old route of 1922—the blunt ridge known
as the North Arête. For the first 1,500 feet or more the
edge of a big snow-bed forms the crest of the ridge, repre-
Senting the very top of that great mass of hanging ice which
clothes the whole of the eastern slopes and cliffs of the North
Col. Ascending, we stuck to the rocks just clear of this snow-
bed; descending, it is possible to glissade the whole length
of it down to the Col. The rocks are quite easy, but steep
enough to be very hard work at those heights. About half-
way up this day’s climb was the spot where two years before
I had, while taking a short rest, placed between my feet my
rucksack, containing a few woollen comforts for the night,
and something starting it off, it slipped from my grasp and
in a second was leaping and bounding like a great football
with the evident intention of stopping nowhere short of the
main Rongbuk Glacier below. This gives a fair picture of the
general angle of the climb.
Somewhere about this same spot we heard something
above and, looking up, were not a little disconcerted to see
one Dorjay Pasang, descending to meet us. He was Mallory's
and Bruce’s leading porter, their first pick and one of the
men on whom our highest hopes centred. We had hardly
heard his tale of woe and read a note he brought from Mallory
when we saw above Mallory, Bruce, and three more porters
descending in his tracks.
The wind was too cold for a long conversation, and their
story was distressingly simple. On the preceding day they
had met a very bitter wind all the way up the arête on which
we now stood—so bitter that it had quite taken the heart
out of their porters. They had pitched two tents at Camp V
at a little over 25,000 feet and spent the night, but next
morning nothing—not even Bruce's command of the language
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 105
and well-known influence over these men—would induce any
of the porters to go higher, and the end of it was that they
had to return. Incidentally, Bruce had had to help the last
two or three porters into camp the night before, carrying their
loads for them for a short distance, and it was quite evident
to us that these excessive exertions had affected him in some
way—a surmise which was later confirmed by the discovery
that he had strained his heart. So he himself was in no fit
state to go on, though none who know him will doubt that
he would have done so could the porters have been induced
to accompany him. Now there is a moral attached to this
story. My diary (written at Camp IV) for the day when this
fatal wind was encountered mentions the fact that the
weather was “quite perfect ’’; the porters who failed were
the pick of the “Tigers,” presumably among the best men
we had. Yet these picked men, under the one Sahib of all
our party who knew best how to lead the Sherpa porter and
on a day which at Camp TV appeared “ quite perfect,” were
clean knocked out by wind and couldn’t be induced to advance
beyond 25,200 feet. How evident it becomes that it will
never be possible to ensure success on any given day at these
extreme altitudes
As Camp V had been left all standing with tents and bed-
ding destined to go higher that morning, Somervell and I
were able to detach two of the porters who had accompanied
us so far, to return with the descending party, and we now
continued with four men, the three whose names I have
already given and One Lobsang Tashi, a simple, good-natured
giant from the eastern borders of Tibet. We reached Camp V
without incident about 1 p.m. We had no difficulty in find-
ing the camp from Mallory's description and from certain
strips of coloured cloth which each party carried to serve
as sign-posts and which had been put up at the point where
we were to leave the ridge. The two tents were pitched
one above the other on crumbling platforms built on the
steep slope just over the edge, and on the east or sheltered
side of the North Arête.
106 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
The afternoon was spent as every afternoon must always
be spent under these conditions. On arrival one crawls into
the tent, so completely exhausted that for perhaps three-
quarters of an hour one just lies in a sleeping-bag and rests.
Then duty begins to call, one member of the party with groans
and pantings and frequent rests crawls out of his bag, out
of the tent and a few yards to a neighbouring patch of snow,
where he fills two big aluminium pots with snow, what time
his companion with more panting and groans sits up in bed,
lights the meta burner and opens some tins and bags of food
—say a stick of pemmican, Some tea, sugar and condensed
milk, a tin of Sardines or bully beef and a box of biscuits.
Presently both are again ensconced in their sleeping-bags
side by side, with the meta cooker doing its indifferent best
to produce half a pot of warm water from each piled pot
of powdery snow. It doesn’t sound a very formidable pro-
ceeding, and it might appear that I have rather overdrawn
the panting and groans; but I have carried out this routine
on three or four occasions, and I can honestly say that I
know nothing—not even the exertion of steep climbing at
these heights—which is so utterly exhausting or which calls
for more determination than this hateful duty of high-altitude
cooking. The process has to be repeated two or three times
as, in addition to the preparation of the evening meal, a
thermos flask or two must be filled with water for to-morrow’s
breakfast and the cooking pots must be washed up. Perhaps
the most hateful part of the process is that some of the
resultant mess must be eaten, and this itself is only achieved
by will power : there is but little desire to eat—sometimes
indeed a sense of nausea at the bare idea—though of drink
one cannot have enough.
When we had done our duty, I visited the tent where the
four porters were packed like Sardines, to persuade them to
do theirs. For some time I could elicit nothing but grunts,
but I succeeded at last in infusing some life into the comatose,
unwilling figures, and it then appeared that some stones had
fallen from our tent platform and, landing on the porters’
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 107
tent, had cut Lobsang Tashi's head—a slight affair despite
a good showing of blood—and Semchumbi's knee. The
latter was a much more serious matter—a nasty gash right
across the knee-cap.
With one last look at the panorama of glacier and mountain
spread out below—a world composed of three elements only,
rock, snow and ice, the mountain-tops now gilded by the
declining sun and Camp III just discernible in the cold
shadow of the North Peak under our feet—we turned in for the
night, with gloomy forebodings for the morrow ; for there
was nothing whatever in the attitude of our porters to-night
to encourage us to hope that we should next day succeed
any better than Mallory and Bruce.
My diary records that we spent a “fair night '', only
some 200 feet below we had seen the collapsed forms of two
tents in which two years before Mallory, Somervell, Morshead
and I had spent a truly miserable night, Scarcely any of us
getting any sleep. The difference was largely accounted for
by improvements in our equipment and in the Organization
of our camp, and it is by this progressive raising of the standard
of comfort high on the mountain that we shall some day
reach the top.
On the morning of June 3 we were up at 5 a.m., and while
Somervell busied himself with preparations for breakfast
I climbed down to the porters’ tent with some misgivings
as to what their condition would prove to be. My fears were
justified, and for some time groans were the only answer
to my questions. But having at last, as I thought, inspired
the men sufficiently to induce them to cook and eat a meal, I
returned and had breakfast. I then again tackled them, for
they seemed incapable of making any sort of a move without
much stimulating, and it was at once evident that Lobsang
Tashi was finished and useless for any higher climbing. His
head wound was nothing, but he complained of sickness, and
it was evident that his heart was not in the task of going any
higher. Semchumbi was genuinely lame, his knee was much
Swollen, and he looked an unlikely starter, despite the fact
108 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
that he showed a good deal more spirit than the other wounded
Iſla,I\.
Llakpa Chédé I judged fit and willing to go higher provided
that any of the others would, and so I concentrated most of
my persuasive powers on Narbu Yishé. I talked for a
long time to these men, pointing out the honour and glory
that they would achieve if they would but carry their loads
another 2,000 feet—thus passing by 1,500 feet the highest
point to which loads had ever been carried.
I remember saying, “If you put us up a camp at 27,000
feet and we reach the top, your names shall appear in letters
of gold in the book that will be written to describe the achieve-
ment.” To make a very long story short I succeeded in
inducing the three—Narbu Yishé, Llakpa Chédé and Sem-
chumbi—lame as he was—to come on, and we actually
started from camp at 9 a.m.—four hours after we had got
up. Truly it is not easy to make an early start on Mount
Everest Lobsang Tashi was sent down alone to Camp IV;
as soon as his face was turned in the right direction he showed
considerable alacrity, and we had the satisfaction of seeing
him reach that camp in Safety an hour or two later.
Of our ascent of the ridge there is little to tell; it was
a repetition of the climb of the day before and was over
ground familiar to Somervell and myself, as we had traversed
exactly the same route when making for our highest point
two years before. Narbu Yishé and Llakpa Chédé went
splendidly when once they were started. Somervell was
feeling his throat very badly and had constantly to stop and
cough, so he took on himself the task of shepherding Sem-
chumbi, who, to do him justice, performed a very fine feat
indeed in climbing for four and a half hours with a 20 lb.
load, and, though inevitably slow and a drag on the whole
party, he remained cheerful and willing and did his very
best. The weather continued fine and the wind was markedly
less severe than on the day before.
Some time after midday we recognized and passed the
highest point that Mallory, Somervell and I had reached
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 109
in 1922. As I have said before, one’s sensations are dulled
at these altitudes, but I remember a momentary uplift at
the thought that we were actually going to camp higher than
the highest point ever reached without oxygen. With a
clear day ahead of us, and given favourable conditions, what
might we not achieve
About 1.30 it became evident that it would be impossible
to urge the gallant Semchumbi much farther, so I selected a
site for our tent, a narrow cleft in the rocks facing north
and affording the suggestion—it was little more—of some
shelter from the north-west wind. Here I set the two leading
porters to scrape and pile the loose stones forming the floor
of the cleft into the usual platform for a tent. I can safely
say that in two excursions up and down the whole length of
the North Arête of Mount Everest I have never seen a single
spot affording the 6-foot square level area on which a tent
could be pitched without having to build a platform. As
Somervell helped and encouraged Semchumbi up the last
steep pitch, I went off for three-quarters of an hour to
reconnoitre the beginning of next day’s climb.
About 2.30 we sent the three porters down. They had
nearly 4,000 feet to descend, for we have since estimated the
height of Camp VI at about 26,800 feet, and one of them was
lame : so there was not too much time for them to reach
Camp IV by daylight. I gave the men a note to be shown
to the Sahib in charge of each camp to say that they had done
splendidly, and were to be fed on the fat of the land and
passed comfortably to the Base Camp and a well-earned rest.
We afterwards learnt that on this day, Odell and Hazard,
the latter of whom had reached Camp IV the day before,
climbed to Camp V, returning to Camp TV the same night.
Odell was after fossils, and actually found the first ever col-
lected on Mount Everest, and Hazard accompanied him for
air and exercise. This little stroll is a curious commentary on
the fact that two years before the scientists were debating
whether human beings could exist without oxygen at 25,000
feet.
110 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Somervell and I spent the afternoon as on the day before,
With the exception that we had now no porters to stimulate,
and this was fortunate, for as you near 27,000 feet you have
no great surplus of determination. My diary for the day
finishes with the surprising entry: “Spent the best night
since I left Camp I’’; yet it was true in my case, and Somer-
Vell was at least fairly comfortable if he didn’t sleep quite
So well as I did. As one of our doubts had always been
whether it would be possible to sleep, or even rest well, at
27,000 feet, this is an interesting point. Besides my boots
I took to bed with me in my eiderdown sleeping-bag two
thermos flasks filled with warm tea; towards morning I
found that one of these had got rid of its cork, and its contents
—no longer warm—had emptied into my bed.
Once more our hopes of an early start were shattered ;
Snow had to be fetched and melted to provide the essential
drink for breakfast. If-as I have before described—vitality
is low in the early hours at Camp III at 21,000 feet, it can
be guessed how near the limit 6 a.m. found us at 27,000.
Yet somehow the job was done and we were off at 6.40.
Perhaps an hour beyond camp we encountered the bottom
edge of the great 1,000-foot-deep band of yellow sandstone
that crosses the whole north face of Everest from shoulder
to shoulder, and is so conspicuous a feature of the mountain
as seen from the north. This afforded easy going as we
traversed it diagonally, for it was made up of a series of
broad ledges running parallel to its general direction and
sufficiently broken up to afford easy access, one to the next.
The day was fine and nearly windless—a perfect day for
our task—yet it was bitterly cold, and I remember shivering
so violently as I sat in the sun during one of our numerous
halts, dressed in all the clothes ſhave described, that I suspected
the approach of malaria and took my pulse. I was surprised
to find it only about sixty-four, which is some twenty above
my normally very slow pulse. I was not wearing snow
goggles except when actually on Snow—a very small propor-
tion of the day’s climb–as I had found that the rims of my
MR. T. G. SOMERVELL.

NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 111
goggles somewhat interfered with a clear view of my steps.
At a height of about 27,500 feet I began to experience some
trouble with my eyes; I was seeing double, and in a difficult
step was sometimes in doubt where to put my feet. I thought
that this might be a premonitory symptom of snow-blindness,
but Somervell assured me that this could not be the case,
and he was undoubtedly right, for I have since been told
that it was a symptom of lack of control and due to the
insufficiency of oxygen in the air I was breathing.
Our pace was wretched. My ambition was to do twenty
consecutive paces uphill without a pause to rest and pant
elbow on bent knee; yet I never remember achieving it
—thirteen was nearer the mark. The process of breathing
in the intensely cold dry air, which caught the back of the
larynx, had a disastrous effect on poor Somervell’s already
very bad sore throat and he had constantly to stop and
cough. Every five or ten minutes we had to sit down for a
minute or two, and we must have looked a sorry couple.
The view from this great height was disappointing.
From 25,000 feet the wild tangle of snowy peaks and winding
glaciers, each with its parallel lines of moraine like cart
tracks on a Snowy road, was imposing to a degree. But we
were now high above the highest summit in sight, and every-
thing below us was so flattened out that much of the beauty
of outline was lost. To the north, over the great plateau of
Tibet, the eye travelled over range upon range of minor
hills until all sense of distance was lost, only to be sharply
regained on picking up a row of Snow-peaks just appearing
over the horizon like tiny teeth. The day was a remarkably
clear one in a country of the clearest atmosphere in the world,
and the imagination was fired by the sight of these infinitely
distant peaks tucked away over the curve of the horizon.
Towards noon we found ourselves just below the top edge
of the band of sandstone and nearing the big couloir or gully
which runs vertically down the mountain and cuts off the
base of the final pyramid from the great northern shoulder.
The line we had followed was one roughly parallel to and
112 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
perhaps 500 to 600 feet below the crest of the North-east
Arète; this was the line Somervell and I had always favoured
in preference to the actual crest, which Mallory advocated.
At midday Somervell succumbed to his throat trouble.
He declared that he was only delaying me, and urged me to
go on alone and reach the top. I left him sitting under a
rock just below the topmost edge of the sandstone band and
went on. I followed the actual top edge of the band, which
led at a very slightly uphill angle into and across the big
couloir ; but to reach the latter I had to turn the ends of
two pronounced buttresses which ran down the face of the
mountain, one of which was a prolongation of a feature on
the skyline ridge which we called the second step, and which
looked so formidable an obstacle where it crossed the ridge
that we had chosen the lower route rather than try and
surmount it at its highest point. From about the place
where I met with these buttresses the going became a great
deal worse ; the slope was very steep below me, the foothold
ledges narrowed to a few inches in width, and as I approached
the shelter of the big couloir there was a lot of powdery snow
which concealed the precarious footholds. The whole face
of the mountain was composed of slabs like the tiles on a
roof, and all sloped at much the same angle as tiles. I had
twice to retrace my steps and follow a different band of
strata ; the couloir itself was filled with powdery Snow into
which I sank to the knee or even to the waist, and which was
yet not of a consistency to support me in the event of a slip.
Beyond the couloir the going got steadily worse; I found
myself stepping from tile to tile, as it were, each tile sloping
smoothly and steeply downwards; I began to feel that I was
too much dependent on the mere friction of a boot nail on
the slabs. It was not exactly difficult going, but it was a
dangerous place for a single unroped climber, as one slip
would have sent me in all probability to the bottom of the
mountain. The strain of climbing so carefully was beginning
to tell and I was getting exhausted. In addition my eye
trouble was getting worse and was by now a severe handicap.
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 113
I had perhaps 200 feet more of this nasty going to surmount
before I emerged on to the north face of the final pyramid
and, I believe, safety and an easy route to the summit. It
was now 1 p.m., and a brief calculation showed that I had
no chance of climbing the remaining 800 or 900 feet if I was
to return in safety.
At a point subsequently fixed by theodolite as 28,126 feet
I turned back and retraced my steps to rejoin Somervell. In
an hour I had gained but little—probably under 100 feet in
height, and in distance perhaps 300 yards—on the position
where we had separated. Surveying is an exact science, and
I must not quarrel with Hazard for fixing our highest point
24 feet below the height of Kanchenjunga, the third highest
mountain in the world. º
I feel that I ought to record the bitter feeling of dis-
appointment which I should have experienced on having
to acknowledge defeat with the summit so close ; yet I cannot
conscientiously say that I felt it much at the time. Twice now
I have had thus to turn back on a favourable day when
success had appeared possible, yet on neither occasion did
I feel the sensations appropriate to the moment. This I
think is a psychological effect of great altitudes; the better
qualities of ambition and will to conquer seem dulled to
nothing, and one turns downhill with but little feelings other
than relief that the strain and effort of climbing are finished.
I was near the end of my powers, and had for some time
been going too slowly to hope to reach the summit. Whether
the height I had reached was nearing the limit of human
endurance without the artificial aid of oxygen, or whether
my earlier exertions and hardships in the month of May
accounted for my exhaustion, I cannot, of course, say, but
I incline to the latter opinion; and I still believe that there
is nothing in the atmospheric conditions even between 28,000
and 29,000 feet to prevent a fresh and fit party from reaching
the top of Mount Everest without oxygen.
One small incident will serve to show that I must have
been very much below my proper form at this time, and that
I
114 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
my nerve had been shaken by the last two hours of climbing
alone on steep and slippery going. As I approached Somer-
Vell I had to cross a patch of snow lying thinly over some
sloping rocks. It was neither steep nor difficult, and not to
be compared to the ground I had just left, yet suddenly I
felt that I could not face it without help, and I shouted to
Somervell to come and throw me the end of the rope. Here
again I remember the difficulty I had in making my voice
carry perhaps 100 yards. Somervell gave me the required
aid, and I could see the surprise he felt at my needing it in
Such a place.
Then came the descent. Soon after we started down, at
about 2 p.m., Somervell’s axe slipped from his numb fingers
and went cart-wheeling down the slopes below. This must
have been somewhere about the point where an hour or two
before he had taken his highest photograph; and it is a proof
of the deceptive picture of the true angle of the mountain
conveyed by these photographs that it does not give the
impression that a dropped axe would go any distance without
coming to rest, yet his never looked like stopping, and dis-
appeared from Our view still going strong.
We retraced our steps of the morning; we made very
poor going, descending at a very much slower pace than we
had made two years before when we turned back from our
highest point some 1,000 feet lower.
We looked in at our tent at Camp VI, finding it without
difficulty, collected one or two of our belongings and a section
of tent pole as a substitute for Somervell’s axe, collapsed
and weighted the tent with stones, and started down the
interminable North Arête. Sunset found us level with Camp
V, which we left below us on the right without departing
from the blunt crest of the Arête. We were unroped, for
here the going was both Safe and easy. Arrived on the big
snow-bed Iglissaded for some little distance before I realized
that Somervell had stopped behind, and I had to wait quite
half an hour for him to catch up. I concluded that he had
stopped to sketch or photograph the effect of the Sunset
"…Lºlº1 ！!oor ‘ŞzINO （I.I (1× v \\ 11J， ON :) NI>100， I

NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 115
glow on the great panorama of peaks surrounding us—a
proof that I had by no means realized his condition , actually
he had been stopped by a more than usually severe fit of
coughing which had ended by very nearly choking him, and
he was probably only saved by coughing up the obstructing
matter along with a lot of blood. When he rejoined me,
coming very slowly down the rocks, as he could not trust
himself to glissade on the snow, it was already dark and I lit
up my electric torch.
As we neared the Col I began to shout to Camp TV, for
it was one of our rules that any party of porters or climbers
descending from the mountain must be met at the Col and
escorted and roped over the intricate route into camp by
one or more of the supporters, who knew the way by heart.
At last Imade myself heard, and an answering shout informed
us that our escort was coming and was bringing an Oxygen
apparatus and cylinder. But there was something we wanted
far more than oxygen, for we were parched and famished with
thirst. I remember shouting again and again, “We don’t
want the d–d oxygen; we want drink.” My Own throat
and voice were in none too good a case, and my feeble wail
seemed to be swallowed up in the dim white expanse below
glimmering in the starlight.
A hundred feet or more above the Col, Mallory and Odell
met us, and told us that Irvine was in camp hard at work
preparing our dinner. Somervell had a go at the oxygen,
but seemed to get little benefit from it, and I tried it with
the same result. But we were perfectly fit to get along with-
Out it, and perhaps another three-quarters of an hour saw
us arrive in camp. Mallory and Odell were kindness itself,
and they kept congratulating us on having reached what
we estimated as a height of 28,000 feet, though we ourselves
felt nothing but disappointment at our failure. We reached
Camp IV at 9.30 p.m., and what a different welcome it gave
us to that we had received at the same place two years before
On Our arrival at eleven at night in an empty and deserted
camp ! Young Irvine had both tea and soup ready for us,
116 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and we had something to eat; but our appetites were meagre,
and herein lies one of the difficulties of high climbing: one
eats from a sense of duty, and it is impossible to force oneself
to take enough food even to begin to make good the day’s
Wastage of tissue.
As Mallory and I lay in our tent, he explained that he
had decided that if we two failed to reach the summit, he
Was determined to make one more attempt, this time with
Oxygen, and how he had been down to Camp III with Bruce
and collected sufficient porters to enable the attempt to be
staged.* I entirely agreed with his decision, and was full
of admiration for the indomitable spirit of the man, deter-
mined, in spite of his already excessive exertions, not to admit
defeat while any chance remained, and I must admit that
—such was his will power and nervous energy—he still seemed
entirely adequate to the task. I differed with him in his
decision to take Irvine as his companion—for two reasons:
firstly, that Irvine was now suffering from the prevalent
throat trouble, though certainly not as badly as Somervell
had been before the start of our climb ; secondly, that he was
not the experienced climber that Odell was, while Odell was
obviously fit and strong, and, acclimatizing very slowly as
he had done, was now beginning to show unmistakably
that we had in him a climber of unequalled endurance and
toughness. Mallory’s reasons for his choice were that though
Odell and Irvine were both thoroughly au fait with every
detail of the oxygen apparatus, yet the latter had a peculiar
* It may be asked how it came that sufficient porters were now available
for an attempt with oxygen, seeing that we had decided against an oxygen
attempt at Camp I on the grounds of inadequate transport.
Mallory and Irvine decided to use practically no oxygen up to Camp VI;
two or three porters who had returned from Camp V after the abortive
attempt, were employed again; the continued fine weather had so heartened
the porters that two extra volunteers over and above the fifteen “tigers ”
were found; and, lastly, Camp VI having been established with tents and
bedding by Somervell and me, nearly every available porter could now be
used for carrying oxygen cylinders.
It was to Bruce's energy (despite his strained heart) that the successful
organization of the transport for this attempt must be credited.
NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 117
genius for mechanical expedients, and had taken the lead in
devising means to obviate its numerous shortcomings ; and
he insisted that those who were to use the apparatus must
have faith in its efficacy. Odell, having used it with Bruce
on the day of their abortive attempt to reach Camp IV
without apparently benefiting from it, certainly had not this
confidence.
But it was obviously no time for me to interfere with the
composition of the party, and when I found that Mallory
had completed his plans I made no attempt to do so.
Some time after eleven o’clock that night, as I was dozing
off to sleep, I was suddenly wakened by sharp pain in my
eyes, and found that I had been smitten with a severe attack
of snow blindness. In the morning I found myself completely
blind, and I remained in this condition for the next sixty
hours, suffering a good deal of pain.
June 5 was spent in the usual preparations for Mallory
and Irvine’s climb, on which they were to start next day. I
was only able to help by periodically coming to the door of
my tent and talking to the porters, for, poor though was my
knowledge of Nepalese, there was no one else at Camp IV
who could do so even as effectively as I; Mallory had learnt
a sufficient smattering of Hindustani to communicate with
these men to a certain extent, but it was evident that his
party might have considerable trouble in getting their porters
on from Camp V to Camp VI (though we hoped that their
reluctance would be reduced to some extent by the fact that
the carry had now been once successfully accomplished), and I
had to do my best to stimulate the porters in advance for
this crucial moment. That afternoon Somervell descended to
Camp III and thence next day went on down to the Base
Camp, and Hazard arrived from Camp III to take Irvine’s
place, with Odell as supporter at Camp TV.
On June 6 at 7.30 a.m. we said good-bye to Mallory and
Irvine, little guessing that we should see them no more.
My last impression of my friends was a handshake and a word
of blessing, for it was only in my imagination that I could see
118 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the little party winding its way amid the snow humps and
ice crevasses leading to the Col—the two climbers, never to
return, accompanied by four or five porters.
About 10.30 a.m. Hingston arrived from Camp III with
two porters, to see what could be done for my eyes, of which
Somervell had told him. Hingston is nothing if not efficient ;
he had already proved himself a remarkable goer on the glacier
as far as Camp III, and we were scarcely surprised when he
arrived in Camp IV with the matter-of-fact ease of an experi-
enced mountaineer. Yet with a view to what followed it is
worthy of note that he had never previously climbed a
mountain in the Alpine sense.
An examination of my eyes showed that nothing could
be done to restore my sight at the moment, though there
was little question that they would recover in a day or two ;
but I was anxious not to remain a useless encumbrance on
the supporters at Camp IV and, Hingston volunteering to
escort me with his two porters, I decided to go down, blind
as I was, to Camp TTI.
Hazard offered to accompany us as far as the top of
the ice chimney to rope me from above down this steepest
portion of the route, including the chimney itself and the
wall below it. Accordingly, about 11 a.m. we started the
descent. The two porters, Nima Tundrup and Chutin, were
both strong and steady climbers, and between them and
Hingston—the last doing all the really responsible work
—my every footstep was guided and my feet placed for me
the whole way down, while Hazard held me with a rope down
each steep section in succession. It was indeed a remarkable
performance on the part of Hingston : he gave me the impres-
sion of having the steadiness and confidence of an Alpine
guide. I was shod with crampons, and thanks to them and
to the help of my companions I never had an anxious moment,
though it was necessarily a most laborious and tedious process.
To make a long story short we reached the glacier without
incident and hence sent one porter on to fetch six men,
with the one-man carrier, from Camp III to meet me where
LIEUT. Col. E. F. Norto N, D.S.O.

NORTON AND SOMERVELL’S ATTEMPT 119
our route took to the moraine; for on its rough boulders
I could never have made any progress at all.
These six men took it in turns to carry me, and did so
over the most appalling going—boulders, ice, and frozen
scree—without a single false step until, about 5 p.m., we
reached Camp III; there I was welcomed by Bruce and
Noel with that extraordinary solicitude and kindness which
I have come to recognize as the one great reward that awaits
the unsuccessful Everest climber.
Next morning I was beginning to see a little, and in two
more days was completely recovered. Bruce, Noel, Hingston
and I decided to remain at Camp III until the fate of Mallory
and Irvine’s attempt was decided. During the next four
days we were to pass through every successive stage of
suspense and anxiety from high hope to hopelessness, and
the memory of them is such that Camp III must remain to
all of us the most hateful place in the world.
CHAPTER VI
MALLORY AND IRVINE’S ATTEMPT
By N. E. ODELL
Of all our long line of camps from the Base Camp to Camp
VI, No. IV on the North Col was perhaps the most remark-
able and the most distinctive in character. It was the only
one in which we had perforce to forsake the warmth and
dryness of a rock foundation and take to the dubious alterna-
tive of snow. The experience of at least two of us in the
Arctic had taught us that, unless altogether impossible, it
was worth while going to infinite trouble to pitch on rock.
Snow may be delightful for a temporary siesta, if Nature
has provided one with a good hide and a low coefficient of
thermal conductivity, but it is remarkable how soon it con-
geals to the consistency of the hardest rock, and how difficult
it is to smooth out the relief of one’s anatomy first impressed
upon it ! But there have been many worse camps on snow
... than that on the North Col at 23,000 feet ; indeed, in my
experience it was one of the best. Perched on an ice-ledge
in about the same position as the camp of 1922, it had four
tents: two for Sahibs and two for porters. The ledge was
a shelf of névé with a greatest breadth of about 30 feet,
and a high wall of ice which rose above it on the western
side gave comforting protection from the chilly winds that
constantly blew from that direction. Indeed, had it not
been for this natural Screen the camp could never have been
occupied for such long periods as it eventually was. To
the east one looked out over the upper névé basin of the
East Rongbuk Glacier, and beyond its high border and the
Hlakpa La, to the distant rugged range of Gyankar out-
120
MALLORY AND IRVINE'S ATTEMPT I2]
lying the wide depression of the Arun River : a commanding
view which, when in addition the effulgence of Sunrise touched
and tinted the nearer rock spires of Chomo-Lönzo, formed a
picture that made it worth while leaving the warmth of one's
sleeping-bag at 4 a.m. to gaze upon in an ecstasy of adora-
tion. During my eleven days’ residence here I experienced
all kinds of weather conditions, not the least remarkable
being two days when the sun temperature at midday was
105° F., while the air temperature at the same time was
only 29°. It is a question if the air temperature up here
ever exceeds that of the freezing-point, and it is probable
that the fallen snow wastes away entirely by direct evapora-
tion. The snow was consequently very dry and uncon-
solidated, and in the complete absence of any running water
supply, snow melting and water boiling was a rather pro-
tracted occupation of mine as camp cook. The ledge was
fortunately extensive enough to allow of an ample area of
clean snow being reserved for water supply, and the preserva-
tion of this and all the other little duties attendant on camp
life fell to my lot while in charge. One is so often asked
what it feels like living up at these altitudes, and the only
reply that can be given is that after some degree of acclima-
tization one’s sensations are really quite normal, and it is
only when great exertion is necessary that one feels “like --
nothing on earth '' . And certainly the adverse effect of
high altitude on one’s mentality has been exaggerated : the
speed of one’s mental processes may perhaps be slowed down,
but their capacity is but little impaired. And this is not
Self-delusion, as some physiologists would wish to make out,
from evidence derived from unacclimatized subjects
To reach the actual saddle of the North Col, which lay
nearer the foot of the North Ridge of Everest than the ledge on
which the camp was situated, it had been necessary in 1922
Owing to the presence of difficult schrunds to make a way up
towards the North Peak and then back again along the crest
of the Col. An annoying and time-wasting necessity this had
proved to be, especially when tired climbers were returning
122 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
from the mountain at dusk, and we were anxious at the
Outset to try and cut it Out. And this we succeeded in doing,
as on the occasion of our first reaching the site of Camp
IV, on May 20, Mallory and I found it was just possible
to force a somewhat complicated route from the southern
end of the camp ledge direct up to the Col. This route,
though a little treacherous from two doubtful snow-bridges,
proved to be negotiable until the end.
On June 1 I had gone down to Camp III, and on getting
back to TV next day with a fresh supply of stores, I had
been surprised to see Mallory and Geof. Bruce returning
-- from V, their attempt to get higher having been rendered
abortive by the refusal of the porters to go on. Mallory
was not a little disappointed and upset about this, and he
took the view, possibly on account of the strained condition
of Bruce's heart, that a further attempt should not be made
except with the use of oxygen. He went down with Bruce
and Irvine that same day to Camp III, intent on investiga-
ting afresh with Bruce's aid the question of available
porterage. It was found just possible to collect together
sufficient men, who were not indisposed, to carry up oxygen
supplies for such an attempt. Irvine occupied himself
meanwhile in putting the final touches to the recreated
oxygen-breathing sets. I was still in charge of IV, and in
the meanwhile with Hazard had been up to V in support of
Norton and Somervell’s wonderful attempt on the summit
without oxygen, and to conduct their porters back to the
North Col.
On the evening of June 4 Mallory and Irvine with a few
coolies came up from III, the two former using oxygen. They
were able to cover the distance in the fast time of two and a
half hours, and seemed well pleased with a performance which
had no doubt been prompted by the wish to demonstrate
the real efficacy of oxygen. But in my opinion the demon-
stration was hardly justified, and Irvine's throat at any rate,
that had already given him considerable discomfort from
the cold dry air, that at these altitudes can reduce this
MALLORY AND IRWINE’S ATTEMPT I 23
delicate passage to the consistency of cardboard, was palpably
aggravated by the effect of the oxygen. Mallory's throat
was less affected, though it was undoubtedly causing him
some little irritation ; and, besides, his usual equanimity
was perhaps a little disturbed by the feeling of responsibility
consequent upon this being probably the turning-point in
the success or failure of the campaign. Who with the fighting
spirit of Mallory, or with the long-tried obsession of attain-
ment of the greatest goal of his ideals, could be otherwise
than impatient to be off on the culminating challenge of
a lifetime, nay even of a whole generation of active moun-
taineers And Irvine, though through youth without the
same intensity of mountain spell that was upon Mallory,
yet was every bit, if not more, obsessed to go “all out ’’ on
what was certainly to him the greatest course for “pairs ‘’
he would be ever destined to “row ’’. I had frequently
shared a tent with Sandy Irvine in one or other of our glacier
camps, but it was the previous year on Our sledging journey
across Spitzbergen that I had first got to know him intimately.
The effects of high altitude somewhat enhanced his natural
reserve, but he told me on more than one occasion how much
he hoped he would have a real chance of “a shot at the
summit.” And careful and devoted though his work was
on making the Oxygen apparatus efficient for use, he did
not hesitate to tell me that he would rather reach the foot
of the final pyramid without the use of oxygen than the
summit by means of its aid He thought that if it were
worth while doing at all, it was worth while doing without
artificial means. Nevertheless when the call came from
Mallory for this one last effort with every means at our
disposal, he saw the necessity of foregoing any personal
preference in the matter, and welcomed almost with boyish
enthusiasm a chance that he had little thought would come
his way.
It was late the same evening of Mallory and Irvine’s
arrival at Camp IV that the former and myself went up
to meet Norton and Somervell returning from their record
124 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
climb, the events of which have already been described.
June 5 was spent quietly at the North Col, one and all of
us feeling a sense of impotence at our inability to diminish
the suffering that poor Norton was undergoing from his
painful attack of snow-blindness, and Somervell on account
of his severely relaxed throat. The latter, however, with his
customary fortitude and resolution, announced that he was
fit enough to go down to Camp III, and down to Camp III
in the evening, of course, he went. Hazard was signalled
for from Camp III by means of our usual code of blankets
placed against the Snow, and Irvine and I busied ourselves
with re-testing and putting further final touches to the
Oxygen apparatus. It was a brilliant day with a maximum
midday sun temperature of 105°, though the air temperature
never rose above freezing. We had to darken the tent
where Norton was lying by an outside covering of sleeping-
bags. I took the precaution of wearing a sun helmet up
here on the North Col, and at times on the glacier below,
though I could never get an authoritative opinion from either
of our medical experts as to the necessity of such a procedure,
so detached, or arbitrary, in their counsel can the advanced
thinkers in that dignified profession become ! But though
blessed with a fairly thick skull, I was taking no risks, and
while in respect of the sun considerations of latitude rather
than altitude were perhaps uppermost in One's thoughts,
yet the altitude and prevailing air temperature never allowed
to go far out of mind the possibility of one’s shaded side
freezing !
I think most of the party, with perhaps the exception
of the unfortunate Norton, slept well that night, though
Irvine admitted his sorely sun-scorched face had caused
him distinct discomfort at times. Hazard and I were up
early the morning of the 6th, and soon had frizzling and
crackling over the Primus stove a choice fry of Sardines,
to be served up in Mallory and Irvine's tent with biscuits
and ample hot tea, or chocolate. On the announcement
of this breakfast they seemed pleased enough, but I must
（LI W IN OS GI H L H O vºl H OL LI INGI.I.LV （Iv NII ŞI III, ȘI O Id \\ v O vºi o Nv H O º Avººl o L Laoav º NIAM I (1 Nºv w （1011 v IN

MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 125
admit that either owing to excitement or restlessness to be
off they hardly did justice to the repast, or flattered the
cooks At 8.40 they were ready to start, and I hurriedly
“snapped " them as they were loading up with the oxygen
apparatus. Their personal loads consisted of the modified
apparatus with two cylinders only and a few other small
items such as wraps and a food ration for the day, amounting
to not more than perhaps 25 lb. This may sound to many
a very heavy load to carry at such altitudes, and in actual
fact it is, but it is an easy load compared with the total
of 40 lb. or more that the original breathing apparatus as
well as the items of extra clothing, etc., that must be carried,
amounted to. The eight porters, who accompanied them
from Camp IV, carried provisions, bedding, and additional
oxygen cylinders, but of course no breathing apparatus for
their own use. It always amazed us how little on the whole
our Sherpas were affected by moderate loads, though as a
matter of fact at these altitudes we contrived to give them
no more than 20 to 25 lb. to carry. The party moved off
in silence as we bid them adieu, and they were soon lost to
view amidst the broken ice-masses that concealed from
view the actual saddle of the North Col and the lower part
of the North Ridge of the mountain.
Though a brilliant morning, my diary records it as very
cloudy in the afternoon and even snowing a little in the even-
ing. It was at 9.45 that morning that Hingston arrived
and conducted Norton in his sightless condition down to
Camp III, Hazard going down as far as the rope ladder and
then returning to me on the North Col. I occupied myself
meanwhile with various camp duties and observations.
That evening, soon after 5 o'clock, four of Mallory's porters
returned from Camp V, where his party was spending the
night, and brought me a note saying, “There is no wind here,
and things look hopeful.”
On the 7th Mallory’s party was to go on up to Camp VI,
and I that same day with Nema, who was the only porter
of the two available at the North Col, followed up in support
126 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
to Camp V. This method of support, a stage as it were
behind, was rendered necessary by the limited accommoda-
tion at these two high camps, consequent upon the inadequate
number of porters available to carry up sufficient tentage,
etc. I had expected on my way up to Camp W to find a
Spare oxygen-breathing set that had been left there earlier,
but discovered that Irvine the previous day had taken the
mouthpiece from it for a spare, and so rendered it useless
to me. However, I carried it on up to Camp V in case another
mouthpiece were available there ; but this was not so,
though it did not bother me, since I found I was able to get
along as well without its aid, and better without the bulky
inconvenience of the whole apparatus. Not long after my
arrival Mallory and Irvine’s four remaining porters returned
from Camp VI, their advent having been heralded by stones
falling unpleasantly near the tent, that had been unwittingly
displaced by them during their descent of the steep slopes
above. The exposure of Camp V in this respect had been
borne in on me during my first visit with Hazard, when
Norton and Somervell’s returning porters had likewise
unknowingly bombarded our frail tents with stones and
struck a porter of ours, though fortunately with no severe
results. Mallory's porters brought me the following message:
“DEAR ODELL,~
“We’re awfully sorry to have left things in such a mess
—our Unna Cooker rolled down the slope at the last moment.
Be sure of getting back to IV to-morrow in time to evacuate
before dark, as I hope to. In the tent I must have left a
compass—for the Lord’s sake rescue it : we are without.
To here on 90 atmospheres * for the two days—so we’ll
probably go on two cylinders—but it’s a load for climb-
ing. Perfect weather for the job
“Yours ever,
“G. MALLORY.”
* This refers to the pressure, and consequent amount, of oxygen they
had been using. For full supply, the pressure stood at 120 atmospheres.
MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 127
Nema, my porter, was obviously much affected by
mountain sickness, which made it very unlikely that he would
be able to go higher next day, and consequently I decided
to send him down that evening with the other four returning
men. It is wonderful how soon that strange malady, so
often described as “mountain sickness,” seems to disappear
not only with the descent, but when the decision to descend
has been made : at any rate I have noticed it time and
again with these native porters, if not with other climbers
When no further effort is to be called for, the psychological
effect is such that a fresh stimulus to normality is given, and
sickness and other effects disappear. And as the little
party started down Nema seemed as active and fit as the
rest of them. However, I was not loath to let him go, as
I knew by so doing I should be freer on the morrow to wander
about over the North Face and make a more thorough
geological examination of it on my way up to Camp VI.
After a short search within the tent I duly found Mallory's
missing prismatic compass. That evening as I looked out
from the little rock ledge on which my tent was situated,
the weather seemed most promising, and I knew with what
hopeful feelings and exultant cheer Mallory and Irvine would
take their last look around before closing themselves in
their tiny tent at VI that night. My outlook, situated though
I was 2,000 feet lower down the mountain-side than they,
was nevertheless commanding and impressive in the extreme,
and the fact that I was quite alone certainly enhanced the
impressiveness of the scene. To the westward was a savagely
wild jumble of peaks towering above the upper Rongbuk
Glacier and its many affluents, culminating in the mighty
Cho-uyo (26,750 feet) and Gyachung Kang (25,910 feet),
bathed in pinks and yellows of the most exquisite tints.
Right opposite were the gaunt cliffs of Everest’s North Peak,
their banded structure pregnant with the more special and
esoteric interest of their past primeval history, and in this
respect not detracting by its impression from the vision of
such as can behold with more than single eye. This massive
128 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
pyramid of rock, the one near thing on God’s earth, seemed
only to lend greater distance to the wide horizon which it
intercepted, and its dark bulk the more exaggerate the
brilliant Opalescence of the far northern horizon of Central
Tibet, above which the sharp-cut crests of distant peaks
thrust their purple fangs, one in particular rising supreme
among them. To the eastward, floating in thin air, 100 miles
away, the Snowy top of Kanchenjunga appeared, and
nearer, the beautifully varied outline of the Gyankar Range,
that guards the tortuous passages of the Arun in its headlong
plunge towards the lowlands of Nepal. It has been my
good fortune to climb many peaks alone and witness sunset
from not a few, but this was the crowning experience of
them all, an ineffable transcendent experience that can
never fade from memory.
A meal of “Force ’’ and a little jam varied with
macaroni and tomatoes completed my supper, and then by
dint of two sleeping-bags and the adoption of a position
to avoid the larger stones of the floor I stretched myself
diagonally across the tiny tent in an endeavour to obtain
what sleep I might pending a visit from the notorious Sukpas,
or even the watchdogs of Chomolungma . For all I know
none put in an appearance, and even the wind did not attain
its usual boisterous degree, or threaten to start the somewhat
precarious built-up platform on which the tent was perched
from a glissade down the mountain-side. I kept reasonably
warm and consequently had a fair amount of sleep. I was
up at 6, but the great efforts necessitated and energy absorbed
at these altitudes, by the various little obligations of break-
fast and putting on one’s boots, etc., prevented my starting
off before eight o’clock. Carrying a rucksack with pro-
visions in case of shortage at Camp VI, I made my Solitary
way up the steep slope of snow and rock behind Camp V
and so reached the crest of the main North Ridge. The
earlier morning had been clear and not unduly cold, but
now rolling banks of mist commenced to form and sweep
from the westward across the great face of the mountain.
MALLORY AND IRVINE’S ATTEMPT 129
But it was fortunate that the wind did not increase.
There were indications though that this mist might be chiefly
confined to the lower half of the mountain, as on looking
up one could see a certain luminosity that might mean
comparatively clear conditions about its upper half. This
appearance so impressed me that I had no qualms for Mallory
and Irvine’s progress upward from Camp VI, and I hoped
by this time that they would be well on their way up the
final pyramid of the summit. The wind being light, they
should have made good progress and unhampered by their
intended route along the crest of the north-east shoulder.
My plan was to make a rather circuitous route outwards
over the northern face in order to examine the geological
structure of the mountain. The lower part of it is formed
of a variety of gneisses, and on these rest a mass of rocks,
mainly highly altered limestones, which compose the greater
part of its upper half, and here and there are to be seen in
Small amount light granitoid rocks which break across, or
are interbedded with, all the other series. But for a fuller
description I would direct the reader's attention to Part III,
the above being sufficient to indicate roughly the general
character of the rock met with. The whole series dips out-
wards from the mountain at about 30°, and since the general
slope of this face, above 25,000 feet, is about 40° to 45°,
the effect is to make a series of overlapping slabs nearly
parallel with the slope, and presenting a number of little
faces often up to 50 feet in height, which can be climbed,
usually by an easy though sometimes steepish route, while
most can be entirely circumvented. The rocks are not on
the whole rotten in texture since they have been consider-
ably hardened by the igneous intrusions of granitoid rocks.
But the slabs are often sprinkled to a varying degree with
débris from above, and when to this is added freshly fallen
Snow, the labour and toil of climbing at these altitudes may
perhaps be imagined. It is not so much the technical
difficulty as the awkwardness of a slope of uncertain footing
not quite steep enough for the use of one’s hands.
R
130 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
At about 26,000 feet I climbed a little crag which could
possibly have been circumvented, but which I decided to
tackle direct, more perhaps as a test of my condition than
for any other reason. There was scarcely 100 feet of it, and
as I reached the top there was a sudden clearing of the
atmosphere above me and I saw the whole summit ridge
and final peak of Everest unveiled. I noticed far away on
a Snow slope leading up to what seemed to me to be the
last step but one from the base of the final pyramid, a tiny
object moving and approaching the rock step. A second
object followed, and then the first climbed to the top of
the step. As I stood intently watching this dramatic appear-
ance, the scene became enveloped in cloud once more, and
I could not actually be certain that I saw the second figure
join the first. It was of course none other than Mallory
and Irvine, and I was surprised above all to see them so
late as this, namely 12.50, at a point which, if the “second
rock step,” they should have reached according to Mallory's
schedule by 8 a.m. at latest, and if the “first rock step ’’
proportionately earlier. The “second rock step ’’ is seen
prominently in photographs of the North Face from the
Base Camp, where it appears a short distance from the base
of the final pyramid down the Snowy first part of the crest
of the North-east Arête. The lower “first rock step ’’ is
about an equivalent distance again to the left.* Owing
to the small portion of the summit ridge uncovered I could
not be precisely certain at which of these two “steps” they
were, as in profile and from below they are very similar,
but at the time I took it for the upper “second step.” How-
ever, I am a little doubtful now whether the latter would
not be hidden by the prejecting nearer ground from my
position below on the face. I could see that they were
moving expeditiously as if endeavouring to make up for
lost time. True, they were moving one at a time over what
was apparently but moderately difficult ground, but one
cannot definitely conclude from this that they were roped
* Wide diagram in Geograph. Journal, Vol. LXIV, No. 6, p. 457.
MALLORY AND IRVINE'S ATTEMPT 13]
together—a not unimportant consideration in any estimate
of what may have eventually befallen them. I had seen
that there was a considerable quantity of new snow covering
some of the upper rocks near the summit ridge, and this
may well have caused delay in the ascent. Burdened as
they undoubtedly would be with the oxygen apparatus,
these snow-covered débris-sprinkled slabs may have given
much trouble. The oxygen apparatus itself may have
needed repair or readjustment either before or after they
left Camp VI, and so have delayed them. Though rather
unlikely, it is just conceivable that the zone of mist and
clouds I had experienced below may have extended up to
their level and so have somewhat impeded their progress.
Any or all of these factors may have hindered them and
prevented their getting higher in the time.
I continued my way up to Camp VI, and on arrival there
about two o'clock snow commenced to fall and the wind
increased. I placed my load of fresh provisions, etc.,
inside the tiny tent and decided to take shelter for a while.
Within were a rather mixed assortment of spare clothes,
scraps of food, their two sleeping-bags, oxygen cylinders,
and parts of apparatus; outside were more parts of the
latter and of the duralumin carriers. It might be supposed
that these were undoubted signs of reconstructional work
and probable difficulties with the oxygen outfit. But,
knowing Irvine’s propensities, I had at the time not the
slightest qualms on that score. Nothing would have amused
him more—as it ever had, though with such good results—
than to have spent the previous evening on a job of work
of some kind or other in connection with the oxygen apparatus,
or to have invented some problem to be solved even if it
never really had turned up ! He loved to dwell amongst,
nay, revelled in, pieces of apparatus and a litter of tools,
and was never happier than when up against some mechanical
difficulty And here to 27,000 feet he had been faithful to
himself and carried his usual traits, though his workshop
for the purpose would be decidedly limited, and could not
I32 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
have run to much more than a spanner and possibly a pair
of pliers | But it was wonderful what he could do with
these. I found they had left no note, which left me ignorant
as to the time they had actually started out, or what might
have intervened to cause delay. The snow continued, and
after a while I began to wonder whether the weather and
conditions higher up would have necessitated the party
commencing their return. Camp VI was in rather a concealed
position on a ledge and backed by a small crag, and in the
prevailing conditions it seemed likely they would experience
considerable difficulty in finding it. So I went out along
the mountain-side in the direction of the summit and having
Scrambled up about 200 feet, and whistled and jodelled
meanwhile in case they should happen to be within hearing,
I then took shelter for a while behind a rock from the driving
sleet. One could not see more than a few yards ahead so
thick was the atmosphere, and in an endeavour to forget
the cold I examined the rocks around me in case some new
point of geological significance could be found. But in the
flurry of snow and the biting wind even my accustomed
ardour for this pursuit began to wane, and within an hour
I decided to turn back, realizing that even if Mallory and
Irvine were returning they could hardly yet be within call,
and less so under the existing conditions. As I reached
Camp VI the squall, which had lasted not more than two
hours, blew over, and before long the whole north face became
bathed in sunshine, and the freshly fallen Snow speedily
evaporated, there being no intermediate melting phase as
takes place at lower altitudes. The upper crags became
visible, but I could see no signs of the party. I waited for
a time, and then I remembered that Mallory had particularly
requested me in his last note to return to the North Col
as he specially wished to reach there, and presumably if
possible evacuate it and reach Camp III that same night,
in case the monsoon should suddenly break. But besides
this the single small tent at Camp VI was only just large
enough for two, and if I remained and they returned, one
MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 133
of us would have had to sleep outside in the open—a hazardous.
expedient in such an exposed position. I placed Mallory's
retrieved compass that I had brought up from Camp V in
a conspicuous place in the corner of the tent by the door,
and after partaking of a little food and leaving ample pro-
visions against their return, I closed up the tent. Leaving
Camp VI therefore about 4.30, I made my way down by the
extreme crest of the North Ridge, halting now and again
to glance up and scan the upper rocks for some signs of
the party, who should by now, it seemed to me, be well on
their downward tracks. But I looked in vain : I could,
at that great distance and against such a broken background,
little hope to pick them out, except by some good chance
they should be crossing one of the infrequent patches of
snow, as had happened that morning, or be silhouetted on
the crest of the North-east Arête, if they should be making
their way back by that of their ascent, as seemed most
likely. I was abreast of Camp V at 6.15, but there being
no reason to turn aside to visit it, situated as it was a hundred
yards or so off the main ridge eastward along the face, I
hurried downwards. It was interesting to find, as I had
earlier, that descending at high altitudes is little more fatiguing
than at any other moderate altitudes, and of course in com-
plete contrast to the extraordinarily exhausting reverse of
it, and it seemed that a party that has not completely shot
its bolt and run itself to a standstill, so to speak, on the
ascent, and in any attempt on the summit, should find itself
unexpectedly able to make fast time downward and escape
being benighted. And as I shall mention later, the unneces-
sity of oxygen for the properly acclimatized climber seems
never more evident than in this capability of quick descent.
I was able to speed up my headlong descent upon the North
Col by taking to the crest of the snow cornice to the leeward
of the North Ridge, and finding the snow between 24,800
and 23,500 feet hard and conveniently steep, it was possible
to indulge in a fast standing glissade that brought me to
Camp IV by 6.45 p.m. It was rather surprising and withal
134 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
useful to know that this distance between Camps IV and V,
which upwards necessitated at any time three to four hours
of arduous toil, could be covered in barely thirty-five minutes
descending by means of a glissade; but it was a glissade
that involved care and judgment to avoid the Scylla of the
rocks on the one hand, and the Charybdis of the cornice
edge on the other *
Hazard welcomed me at Camp IV, and right glad was I
of his wonderful brew of hot soup made from a mixture of
at least six varieties of Maggi. Fortunately I am not habitu-
ally cursed with thirst on a mountain, but I was rather
surprised to find how little Everest with its excessive dryness
affected me in that way. However, whatever necessary
moisture had been evaporated from my constitution during
the last two days was now speedily replaced from the amazing
quantities of soup and tea put in front of me by Hazard.
And what a two days had it been—days replete with a gamut
of impressions that neither the effects of high altitude, what-
ever this might be, nor the grim events of the two days that
were to follow could efface from one’s memory ! A period of
intensive experiences, alike romantic, aesthetic, and scientific
in interest, these each in their various appeals enabling one
to forget even the extremity of upward toil inherently involved,
and ever at intervals carrying one’s thoughts with expectancy
to that resolute pair who might at any instant appear returning
with news of final conquest. They would be late, for were
they not behind their scheduled time when last seen 1 And
hence they would succeed in reaching Camp VI only, or Camp
V possibly, before darkness. The evening was a clear one,
and we watched till late that night for Some signs of Mallory
and Irvine’s return, or even an indication by flare of distress.
The feeble glow that after sunset pervaded the great dark
mountain face above us was later lost in filtered moon-
light reflected from high summits of the West Rongbuk.
We hoped that this would aid them if perchance some
* The place is well seen, though foreshortened, in the background of
the frontispiece of the Assault on Mount Everest, 1922.
‘ON vs.div.NI O HO + o swoNs ， HJ. NoLº SN 0 S

MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 135
incident had precluded their return as yet to Camp V
or VI.
Next morning we scrutinized through field-glasses the
tiny tents of those camps far up above us, thinking they
must be at one or other, and would not as yet have started
down. But no movement at all could be seen, and at noon
I decided to go up in search. Before leaving, Hazard and
I drew up a code of signals so that we could communicate
to some extent in case of necessity : this was by a fixed
arrangement of sleeping-bags placed against the snow for
day signals, and as far as I was concerned Hazard was to
look out for them at stated times at either of the upper camps.
Answering signals from him were also arranged. For use
after dark we arranged a code of simple flash signals, which
included, of course, in case of need, the International Alpine
Distress Signal. We had by this time three porters at the
North Col Camp, and two of these I managed after Some
difficulty to persuade to come with me. We started off at
12.15, and on our way up the North Ridge we encountered
that bitter cross-wind from the west that almost always
prevails, and which had really been the means of rendering
abortive Mallory and Bruce's earlier attempt. I found my
two Sherpas repeatedly faltering, and it was with difficulty
that one in particular could be persuaded to proceed. We
reached Camp V, however, where the night was to be spent,
in the fairly good time of three and a quarter hours. I hardly
expected, I must admit, to find that Mallory and Irvine had
returned here, for if they had, some movement must have been
seen from below. And now one’s sole hopes rested on Camp VI,
though in the absence of any signal from here earlier in the
day, the prospects could not but be black. And time would
not allow, even if I could have induced my men to continue
in the conditions, of our proceeding on to Camp VI that
evening. We made ourselves as comfortable at V as the
boisterous wind would permit, but gusts sweeping over the
North Ridge would now and again threaten to uproot our
small tents bodily from the slender security of the ledges
136 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
on which they rested, and carry them and us down the
mountain-side. Fleeting glimpses of stormy sunset could
at intervals be seen through the flying scud, and as the night
closed in on us the wind and the cold increased. The porters
in their tent below mine were disinclined for much food, and
were soon curled up in their sleeping-bags, and I went down
and added a stone or two to the guys for the security of
their tent. I did likewise to mine and then repaired inside,
and fitted up for use next day the oxygen apparatus that
had lain idle here since I brought it from the ridge two
days previously : having with me another mouthpiece,
it was now ready for use. I managed to cook a little
macaroni and tomatoes on the Meta stove, and that with tea
and “Force ’’ comprised my meal. The cold was intense
that night and aggravated by the high wind, and one remained
chilled and unable to sleep—even inside two sleeping-bags
and with all one’s clothes on.
By morning the wind was as strong and bitter as ever,
and on looking in at the porters’ tent I found them both
heavy and disinclined to stir. I tried to rouse them, but
both seemed to be suffering from extreme lassitude or nausea.
After partaking of a little food myself I indicated that we
must make a start, but they only made signs of being sick
and wishing to descend. The cold and stormy night and lack
of sleep had hardly been conducive to their well-being, and
to proceed under these conditions was more than they could
face. I told them, therefore, to return without delay to Camp
IV, and seeing them well on their way downwards I then set
off for Camp VI. This time with an artificial oxygen supply
available I hoped to make good time on my upward climb.
But the boisterous and bitter wind, blowing as ever from the
west athwart the ridge, was trying in the extreme, and I
could only make slow progress. Now and then I had to take
shelter behind rocks, or crouch low in Some recess to restore
warmth. Within an hour or so of Camp VI, I came to the
conclusion that I was deriving but little benefit from the
oxygen, which I had been taking only in moderate quantities
MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 137
from the single cylinder that I carried. I gave myself larger
quantities and longer inspirations of it, but the effect seemed
almost negligible : perhaps it just allayed a trifle the tire
in one’s legs. I wondered at the claims of others regarding
its advantages, and could only conclude that I was fortunate
in having acclimatized myself more thoroughly to the air
of these altitudes and to its small percentage of available
oxygen. I switched the oxygen off and experienced none
of those feelings of collapse and panting that one had been
led to believe ought to result. I decided to proceed with
the apparatus on my back, but without the objectionable
rubber mouthpiece between my lips, and depend on direct
breathing from the atmosphere. I seemed to get on quite
as well, though I must admit the hard breathing at these 'º
altitudes would surprise even a long-distance runner.
On reaching the tent at Camp VI, I found everything as I
had left it : the tent had obviously not been touched since I
was there two days previously : one pole had, however,
given way in the wind, though the anchorages had prevented
a complete collapse. I dumped the oxygen apparatus and
immediately went off along the probable route Mallory and
Irvine had taken, to make what search I could in the limited
time available. This upper part of Everest must be indeed ..,
the remotest and least hospitable spot on earth, but at no
time more emphatically and impressively so than when a
darkened atmosphere hides its features and a gale races over
its cruel face. And how and when more cruel could it ever
seem than when balking one’s every step to find one’s friends 2
After struggling on for nearly a couple of hours looking in
vain for some indication or clue, I realized that the chances of
finding the missing ones were indeed small on such a vast
expanse of crags and broken slabs, and that for any more
expensive search towards the final pyramid a further party
Would have to be organized. At the same time I considered,
and still do consider, that wherever misfortune befell them
Some traces of them would be discovered on or near the ridge
of the North-east Arête : I saw them on that ridge on the
138 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
morning of their ascent, and presumably they would descend
by it. But in the time available under the prevailing condi-
tions, I found it impossible to extend my search. Only too
reluctantly I made my way back to Camp VI, and took shelter
for a while from the wind, which showed signs of relenting its
force. Seizing the opportunity of this lull, with a great effort
I dragged the two sleeping-bags from the tent and up the
precipitous rocks behind to a steep snow-patch plastered on
a bluff of rocks above. It was the only one in the vicinity
to utilize for the purpose of signalling down to Hazard at the
North Col Camp the results of my search. It needed all
my efforts to cut steps out over the steep snow slope and
then fix the sleeping-bags in position, so boisterous was the
wind. Placed in the form of a T, my signal with the sleeping-
bags conveyed the news that no trace of the missing party
could be found. Fortunately the signal was seen 4,000 feet
below at the North Col, though Hazard’s answering signal,
owing to the bad light, I could not make out. I returned
to the tent, and took from within Mallory's compass that I
had brought up at his request two days previously. That and
the oxygen set of Irvine's design alone seemed worth while
to retrieve. Then, closing up the tent and leaving its other
contents as my friends had left them, I glanced up at the
mighty summit above me, which ever and anon deigned to
reveal its cloud-wreathed features. It seemed to look down
with cold indifference on me, mere puny man, and howl
derision in wind-gusts at my petition to yield up its secret—
this mystery of my friends. What right had we to venture
thus far into the holy presence of the Supreme Goddess, or,
much more, sling at her our blasphemous challenges to
“sting her very nose-tip " ? If it were indeed the sacred
ground of Chomo-lungma—Goddess Mother of the Mountain
Snows, had we violated it—was I now violating it 2 Had
we approached her with due reverence and singleness of heart
and purpose ? And yet as I gazed again another mood
appeared to creep over her haunting features. There seemed
to be something alluring in that towering presence. I was
MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 139
almost fascinated. I realized that no mere mountaineer
alone could but be fascinated, that he who approaches close
must ever be led on, and oblivious of all obstacles seek to
reach that most sacred and highest place of all. It seemed
that my friends must have been thus enchanted also : for
why else should they tarry In an effort to suppress my feel-
ings, I turned my gaze downwards to the North Col far below,
and I remembered that other of my companions would be
anxiously awaiting my return, eager to hear what tidings
I carried. How then could I justify my wish, in face of
such anxiety, to remain here the night, and prolong my search
next day ? And what hope, if I did, of finding them yet alive 2
Alone and in meditation I slowly commenced my long
descent. But it was no place for silent contemplation, for
buffeted by storm-blasts that seemed to pierce one through,
it needed all one’s attention and calculation to negotiate
safely the exposed slabs of the ridge and prevent a slip on
their débris-sprinkled surfaces. Hampered as I was with
the unwieldy oxygen outfit, which I had no need to use but
wished to recover, these slabs were in places, under these
conditions, decidedly awkward. I quickened my pace on the
easier ground farther down, but at times found it necessary
to seek protection from the biting gale in the lee of rocks and
reassure myself that no symptoms of frostbite were imminent.
Hazard had seen me coming, and sent his one remaining
Sherpa to welcome me at the foot of the ridge. Arrived
at the North Col Camp I was pleased to find a note from
Norton and to discover that I had anticipated his wishes that
I should return and not prolong my search on the mountain,
Seeing that the monsoon seemed likely to break at any moment.
Next day Hazard, the porter and myself, leaving the tents
standing and loading ourselves up with all we could save,
evacuated the North Col Camp, and went down in good
weather, and in quick time, by the “avalanche route ’’ to
Camp III, where we found the rest of the party gone, save
Hingston and Shebbeare who were about to evacuate it. After
a rest and good meal here, we proceeded on down the changed
140 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and wasted glacier to Camp II, where we spent the night,
and the following day rejoined the main party at the Base
Camp, to revel in the joys of opening spring, so long withheld
and now let loose on us in all their glory of flower and insect
life, as we plungedforth from our erstwhile Arctic environment.
I have already mentioned the possible reasons why
Mallory and Irvine were so late in reaching the point at
which they were last seen, which if the “second rock step,” as
referred to earlier, would be an altitude of about 28,230 feet,
as determined by theodolite from the Base Camp by Hazard;
if the “first rock step,” then not more than 28,000 feet.
And in the latter event we must assuredly and deservedly
attribute the known altitude record, the greatest mountain
height definitely attained by man, to Norton, who reached
not less than 28,100 feet. I propose, therefore, very briefly
just to speculate on the probable causes of their failure to
return. From the “second step ’’ they had about 800 feet
of altitude to surmount, and say 1,600 feet of ground to
cover, to reach the top, and if no particularly difficult obstacle
presented itself on the final pyramid they should have got
to the top at about 3 to 3.30. Before, however, he left Camp
VI Mallory had sent a note to Noel at Camp III saying he
hoped to reach the foot of the final pyramid (about 28,300
feet odd) by 8 a.m. So on this schedule they would be perhaps
five or six hours late in reaching the top, and hence they
would find it almost impossible to get down to Camp VI
before nightfall, allowing five or six hours for the return.
. But at the same time it must be remembered there was a
moon, though it rose rather late, and that evening it was
fine and the mountain clear of mist as far as could be seen.
In spite of this they may have missed their way and failed
to find Camp VI, and in their overwrought condition sought
shelter till daylight—a danger that Mallory, experienced
mountaineer that he was, would be only too well aware of,
but find himself powerless to resist. Sleep at that altitude
and in that degree of cold would almost certainly prove
fatal. Norton, I know, finds it difficult to reconcile this
MALLORY AND IRWINE'S ATTEMPT 141
explanation with the fact that no light was seen on the
mountain after dark, and I am well aware it is a potent
argument against it. But to me it is by no means conclusive
since anything might have happened, in the way of damage
or loss of their lantern or flash-light, to have prevented
their showing a light. And the same applies to the magnesium
flares which we supposed that they carried. In the tent at
Camp VII found one or two of the latter, which indicates
the possibility of their having forgotten them the morning
of their departure.
The other likely possibility, that many will not unnaturally
subscribe to, is that they met their death by falling. This
implies that they were roped together, a suggestion that I
have mentioned earlier need not necessarily be inferred from
their observed movements when last seen. It is at the same
time just possible that though unroped they may have been
climbing, on the ascent or descent, on Some steepish pitch
in close order, and the one above fallen on the lower and
knocked him off. But it is difficult for any who knew the
skill and experience of George Mallory on all kinds and
conditions of mountain ground to believe that he fell, and
where the difficulties to him would be so insignificant. Of
Sandy Irvine it can be said that although less experienced
than Mallory, he had shown himself to be a natural adept
and able to move safely and easily on rock and ice. He
could follow, if not lead, anywhere. Such had been my
experience of him in Spitzbergen, Norway, and on our own
home mountains. They were, of course, hampered by the
Oxygen apparatus—a very severe load for climbing with,
as Mallory had mentioned in his last note to me. But could
such a pair fall, and where technically the climbing appeared
SO easy 2 Experts nevertheless have done so, under stress
of circumstances or exhaustion. Following what we called
the “ridge route,” i.e. by the crest of the North-east Arête,
there seemed to be only two places which might in any way
cause them trouble. The first was the “second step,” already
referred to more than once. This seemed steep, though
142 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
negotiable at any rate on its north side. And if it were this
step, as I thought at the time it was, that I saw the first
figure (presumably Mallory) actually surmount within the
five minutes of my last glimpse of them, then we had been
deceived as to its difficulties, as at the distance we might
Well be. The only other part of the ascent that might have
presented any difficulty, and probably not more than awk-
wardness, is the very foot of the final pyramid, where the
slabs steepen before the relatively easy-looking ridge to the
final summit can be attained. Norton at his highest point
was close below this section, and he has expressed the opinion
that these slabs, sprinkled with Snow, might constitute a
considerable source of danger in the case of a slip. But
with all due deference to Norton’s actual view of this place,
- from what can be seen of the local detail both in Somervell’s
photograph taken at 28,000 feet and in Noel's wonderful tele-
photograph of the final pyramid taken from above Camp III,
the difficulties here look decidedly as if they could be circum-
vented by a nearly horizontal traverse to the right to the
actual foot of the ridge of the final pyramid. In any case
to a leader of Mallory’s experience and skill such moderate
difficulties, as these would present, cannot long have detained
him, much less defeated him, and during the descent such
places as the above, and the probable consequences of a slip
thereon, would be so impressed upon him, as well of course
as on Irvine, that the greatest care and attention would be
exercised.
Again, it has been suggested that the oxygen apparatus
may have failed and thereby rendered them powerless to
return. I cannot accept the validity of this argument, for
from my own personal experience, to be deprived of oxygen
—at any rate when one has not been using it freely—does
not prevent one from continuing and least of all getting
down from the mountain. On my second journey up to
Camp VI, as related earlier, when Twas using oxygen, I switched
it off at about 26,000 feet and continued on, and returned,
without it. Mallory in his last note to me said they were
MALLORY AND IRWINE’S ATTEMPT 143
using little oxygen, and that they hoped to take only two
cylinders each, instead of the full load of three each, from
Camp VI. But even if later they were using much oxygen,
they had both during the previous weeks spent adequate
time at extreme altitudes, namely 21,000 feet and over, to
become sufficiently acclimatized and not liable to collapse
in the event of the oxygen failing. The importance of this
factor of acclimatization is discussed elsewhere.
JHence I incline to the view first expressed that they
met their death by being benighted. I know that Mallory
had stated he would take no risks in any attempt on the final
peak; but in action the desire to overcome, the craving for
the victory that had become for him, as Norton has put it,
an obsession, may have been too strong for him. The know-
ledge of his own proved powers of endurance, and those of
his companion, may have urged him to make a bold bid for
the Summit. Irvine I know was willing, nay, determined,
to expend his last ounce of energy, to “go all out,” as he put
it, in an utmost effort to reach the top : for had not his whole
training in another hardy pursuit been to inculcate the faculty
of Supreme final effort 2 And who of us that has wrestled
with some Alpine giant in the teeth of a gale, or in a race with
the darkness, could hold back when such a victory, such a
triumph of human endeavour, was within our grasp 2
The question remains, “Has Mount Everest been climbed ?”
It must be left unanswered, for there is no direct evidence.
But bearing in mind all the circumstances that I have set out
above, and considering their position when last seen, I think
myself there is a strong probability that Mallory and Irvine
Succeeded.
CHAPTER VII
THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
June 12 saw all the surviving members of the Expedition
collected at the Base Camp, with the exception of Shebbeare.
He, with all the porters, was occupied in clearing all camps
from III downwards of those stores which we considered
worth transporting back to Darjeeling; and so efficient was
his organization that he arrived at the Base on the 13th
with his task completed. There was no question of any
further resumption of hostilities on the mountain ; at my
request Hingston examined the whole party and reported
that, without exception, all those who had been above
Camp IV had their hearts dilated to a greater or lesser
extent, and, though there was no reason to anticipate
lasting ill effects to anybody, he warned us that further
exertions at high altitudes would be liable to cause serious
permanent disability.
One of those who had apparently suffered least was Odell;
this was indeed a testimonial to his remarkable physique
and an indication that the man who acclimatizes slowly to
altitude may well prove in the long run the most enduring;
for Odell’s performances have no equal in our short record of
high climbing. In addition to three previous attempts to
reach the North Col, one successful and two abortive, he,
between May 31 and June 11, went three times up and down
from Camp III (21,000 feet) to Camp IV (23,000 feet), once
from Camp IV to Camp V (25,200 feet), and twice from
Camp IV to Camp VI (26,800 feet), these last two ascents
occupying four consecutive days; during these twelve days
144
THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP 145
he slept every night, with one exception, at 23,000 feet or
higher.
We were a sad little party; from the first we accepted
the loss of our comrades in that rational spirit which all
of our generation had learnt in the Great War, and there was
never any tendency to a morbid harping on the irrevocable.
But the tragedy was very near ; our friends’ vacant tents
and vacant places at table were a constant reminder to us
of what the atmosphere of the camp would have been had
things gone differently. To several of us, particularly to
those who, on previous expeditions to Mount Everest or
Spitzbergen, had been close friends with the missing climbers,
the sense of loss was acute and personal, and until the day
of our departure a cloud hung over the Base Camp. As so
constantly in the war, so here in our mimic campaign Death
had taken his toll from the best, for they were indeed a
splendid couple.
Mallory's was no common personality. Physically he
always seemed to me the beau ideal of the mountaineer ;
he was very good looking, and I have always thought that
his boyish face—for he looked absurdly young for his thirty-
Seven years—was the outward and visible sign of a wonderful
constitution. His graceful figure was the last word in wiry
activity and he walked with a tireless swing which made him
a man with whom few could live uphill; he was almost
better downhill, for his years of mountain training had added
balance and studied poise to his natural turn of speed.
But it was the spirit of the man that made him the great
mountaineer he was : a fire burnt in him and caused his
willing spirit to rise superior to the weakness of the flesh;
he lived on his nerves, and throughout two campaigns on
Mount Everest (I never climbed with him elsewhere) it was
almost impossible to make out whether he was a tired man
or not, for he responded instantly to every call that was made
On him, and while the call lasted his would remain the
dominant Spirit in any enterprise. The conquest of the
mountain became an obsession with him, and for weeks and
- L
146 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
months he devoted his whole time and energy to it, incessantly
Working at plans and details of organization ; and when it
came to business he expended on it every ounce of his
unrivalled physical energy.
Such was Mallory the mountaineer; but there was another
and quite different Mallory, whom we knew in the mess tent
and at times when there was no call for action. This aspect
of him was curiously at variance with the other ; it showed
us a nature aesthetic and gentle combined with a keen and
cultured intelligence ; though here too a flash of the same
impatience with which he urged on our flagging footsteps on
the mountain would sometimes break out in our arguments
and discussions; for his views were always clear-cut and
decided and his nature masterful. We used to dub him a
“high brow ’’ and in fancy I can hear Longstaff chaffing
him in 1922: “Mallory, you know the one good thing the
Bolsheviks have done in Russia 2 They’ve obliterated the
Intelligensia.”
His death robs us of a right loyal friend, a knight “sans
peur et Sans reproche’’ amongst mountaineers and the
greatest antagonist that Everest has had—or is like to have.
Young Irvine was almost a boy in years—he was twenty-
two ; but mentally and physically he was a man full grown
and able to hold his own with all modesty on terms at least
of equality with the other members of our party, who averaged
twelve years older than he. Physically indeed he was not
only a man full grown, he was a splendid specimen, as
befitted an Oxford rowing blue, with the powerful shoulders
and comparatively slim legs characteristic of the best oars.
His experience as a mountaineer was limited to the rocks
of the British Isles and a climb in which he distinguished
himself in Spitzbergen; but the previous summer he had
been a member of the Oxford Expedition to those islands,
and it was largely the outstanding reputation he had there
gained for endurance, initiative, and all those moral qualities
which go to make the right man for such an enterprise that
had led to his being selected for the Mount Everest party.
ANDREw I R v IN E.
A rom a 2% of ograph by G. Binney, Esq.

THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP 147
He had further added to his reputation by the extraordinary
aptitude he had shown for ski-ing as a novice in Switzerland
the preceding winter. One more invaluable characteristic
was his turn for things mechanical, for in this respect he
was nothing short of a genius, and he became our stand-by
in dealing with the troubles and difficulties we encountered
over this year's oxygen apparatus, and, for the matter of
that, in every department—from a lampshade to a rope
ladder.
He shares with Odell the credit of having shown us all
how to “play for the side,” stifling all selfish considerations,
for nothing in the record of 1924 was finer than the work
these two put in as “supporters ” at Camp TV.
Sandy Irvine's cheerful camaraderie, his unselfishness
and high courage made him loved, not only by all of us, but
also by the porters, not a word of whose language could he
speak. After the tragedy I remember discussing his character
with Geoffrey Bruce with a view to writing some appreciation
of it to The Times ; at the end Bruce said: “It was worth
dying on the mountain to leave a reputation like that.”
Men have had worse epitaphs.
Workis the best specific against depression, and fortunately
we had work to do in plenty, for the transport animals to
take us away were ordered for the 15th, and we had more
than enough to keep us all busy for the next three days.
But before we tackled our various tasks I assembled a confer-
ence to discuss the disaster. With one dissentient, Odell,
we were agreed that it was in all probability due to a simple
mountaineering accident—a slip and sudden death. Odell
inclined to the belief that the missing climbers had delayed
their return too late and, after very probably reaching the
top, had found themselves exhausted and benighted, and,
unable to find Camp VI, had wandered about in the darkness
looking for it until they finally succumbed to exhaustion and
exposure. The truth must always remain a matter of pure
Speculation, but it may be of interest to put down here the
reasons which led to these diverse views: Odell argued that
148 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
two climbers of Mallory's and Irvine's skill could scarcely
have fallen on what, at least at lower altitudes, would be
considered an easy rock peak; that both were men of
indomitable spirit, and to such the lure of the summit so
close, with the last serious obstacle surmounted by one
o'clock, might have proved irresistible, while a brief calcu-
lation makes it evident that to have reached the summit
from the place where they were last seen just before 1 p.m.
might well have delayed their return to a dangerously late
hour.
Against this view I argued that a slip is always possible
in the case of the most experienced mountaineers; and from
my own observation of the rock in the neighbourhood of the
point where they were last seen a serious slip for one of a
roped party of two might well spell destruction for both.
More particularly would this be so when—as on the day in
question—these sloping slabs are covered with a thick
powdering of fresh snow. I knew Mallory's innermost
thoughts and intentions, for I had discussed our prospective
climbs with him a score of times, and on one point he had
most definitely made up his mind—that as leader of a party
the responsibility lay heavy on him to turn back, however
near the summit, in good time to ensure a return to safety.
I cannot agree with Odell that Camp VI was pitched in a
place that would be difficult to find, even after dark, for it
was on the very backbone of the North Arête, just below the
point where the steepest part of the upper Aréte alters its
character and becomes a gently rounded hump. Finally,
and most conclusive, if the pair were benighted on the
mountain, why was their torch (it is inconceivable that
Mallory, after his experience in 1922, could have started
unprovided in this respect) not visible to the eyes of those
of us who watched for them So anxiously from Camps TV
and III? For a watch was kept on the mountain until
long after dark from both camps; the night was clear, and
from both probably, certainly from Camp TV, a light moving
on the mountain must have been detected after dark. We
THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP 149
had even arranged a signal—the letters S.O.S. in Morse code
—which was to be sent repeatedly to Camp IV by any climbers
benighted high on the mountain and unable to reach Camp
VI. Briefly these were the arguments on both sides.
The much-debated point as to whether, in either case,
they reached the top before the disaster occurred can never
be settled until, perhaps, some day a successful party discovers
there some sign—such as an oxygen cylinder—to prove that
success was theirs too. They were last seen at 12.50 roughly
800 feet from the top, which they might conceivably have
reached by 3 or 3.30 p.m., and so have had four hours of
daylight in which to descend to Camp VI; such a programme
would not have been incompatible with what I knew of
Mallory's intentions, for he and I were both agreed that a
party might be justified in leaving the top as late as 4 p.m.,
returning to Camp VI for the night. It remains a case of
“not proven,” and that is all that can be said about it.
Another matter remained to be settled : one of the
subsidiary tasks allotted to the 1924 Expedition was to survey
certain areas, the map of which the 1921 Expedition had
not been able to complete ; the most important of these was
the area about the head of the West Rongbuk Glacier. The
Survey of India had lent us the services of a Gurkha surveyor,
and throughout the time that we had been occupied on the
mountain he, with a small party, had been diligently employed
on a plain table survey of the required areas. He had by now
mapped all of these with the exception of the most important
—the head of the West Rongbuk Glacier. It was thought
that this was too serious an undertaking until the party
could be led by an expert mountaineer.
Hazard, despite the hard time he had had, at once expressed
himself willing to undertake this duty, and Beetham, who
was now beginning—just too late—to recover from his attack
of Sciatica, volunteered to accompany him. After some
discussion it was decided that Hazard only should go, for
we needed Beetham’s skill as a photographer to record the
fine views we hoped to obtain on a short expedition to the
150 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Rongshar Valley—one of the great gorges running down
into Nepal to the west of Mount Everest. The party was
now bound there for a brief period of recuperation at lower
altitudes before beginning the homeward march.
Hazard appeared thoroughly to enjoy the prospect of a
return to Snow and ice and all the discomforts of a tiny
tent under glacier conditions, and set to work to organize
the transport and supply of his party with enthusiasm,
and this despite the fact that every indication pointed to
the immediate break of the monsoon. It did, in fact, break
the day after he started ; but, though the resultant cloud
and snowstorms limited the possibilities of his task, he
successfully achieved the main object of his expedition and
brought back a valuable survey of the doubtful area.
The rest of us now got to work on the tasks that remained
to be done before we left the Base Camp. To Somervell
and Beetham was allotted the building of a monument to
commemorate the names of the twelve men, British and
Himalayan, who in three years have lost their lives in the
attempt to climb Mount Everest. A committee, consisting
of Hingston, Noel and Hazard, redistributed the stores for
our next move, for, besides the main body bound for the
Rongshar Valley and Hazard’s party, another under Noel
was to start at once for Shekar Dzong and the Chumbi Valley.
Bruce and Shebbeare, in addition to their routine work as
transport officers, redistributed our porters into three parties:
one to accompany Hazard, one to accompany the main body,
and one, the largest, to return with Noel to the Chumbi
Valley and so on to Darjeeling, where arrangements were
made to pay them off on their arrival. In addition they made
a selection of stores, the value of which would not pay for
hire of transport back to Darjeeling, and which were either
left with the lamas of the Rongbuk Monastery or destroyed.
The sad task of disposing of the belongings of Mallory and
Irvine was undertaken by Odell ; and I was fully occupied
in writing reports, Press communiqués and letters.
The construction of the monument for which Somervell
THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP 15]
and Beetham were responsible was a big undertaking.
Beetham with a gang of assistants cut a simple inscription
on certain large flat slabs of blue slaty rock which left a
white surface when chipped. Somervell, with the aid of all
the porters who could be spared from other duties, built
a solid square plinth of big rocks, 3 feet high and some 15
feet square, on the most prominent of the rounded moraine
heaps overlooking the Base Camp. On this plinth he raised
a cone of glacier-worn rocks, and the inscribed slabs were
let into that side of it which overlooked the Base Camp ;
the height of the whole structure was perhaps 10 feet. The
inscription read: “In memory of three Everest Ex-
peditions.” Then followed, “ 1921, Kellas,” “ 1922 ”—with
the names of the seven porters killed in the avalanche :
“ 1924, Mallory, Irvine, Shamsher, Manbahadur.”
The few days we spent at the Base Camp before leaving
represented the height of summer in the Rongbuk Valley.
The monsoon actually broke on the mountain the day after
we left and, judging from the experiences of 1921 and 1922,
this meant a return to bleaker conditions with constant
snowstorms; so the week which precedes the monsoon is
presumably the nearest approach to summer that this region
knows. After our experiences higher up we found it very
pleasant ; the Sun was often almost too hot, and though the
inevitable wind down the valley always got up about nine
or ten o’clock and blew till sundown, it seldom cut with the
keenness of six weeks earlier.
At a casual glance the Valley was bleak and bare as ever,
and no hint of green relieved the grey and yellow hillsides;
but look more closely and you would find that the last
month had worked a miracle. The tiny creeping or low-
growing plants that sparsely dotted the moraine heaps
were all doing their best to flower; as far up the moraine
as just below Camp I a little pink primula and the charming
amoena gentian—a white bell with emerald markings inside
and a chocolate streak outside each petal—coyly revealed
themselves here and there to the seeing eye; the prickly
152 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
brown grass that surrounded the spring at the Base Camp
Was quite unmistakably trying to look green, and amongst
and around it the little clumps that looked like pincushions
or half-buried stones had burst into thick clusters of tiny
white flowers with pink or yellow centres—almost indis-
tinguishable at a little distance from the whitish granite
Stones.
Butterflies were common and of strangely familiar types;
Swallow-tails, tortoise-shells, Apollos, and a kind of clouded
yellow predominated. The birds walked about all round
our feet, the hill rock-dove, the alpine chough, the little
brown accentor—true friend of man like all his species—
Adam’s snowfinch and Brandt’s ground-linnet, most of
them actually nesting in the vicinity. And one day a herd
of “barhel ”—one of the shy and wary wild sheep of the
Himalayas—grazed within 25 yards of our tents, all fear
of man banished by the fact that the solitary lama inhabiting
the hermit’s cell just above the camp made a practice of
feeding them. Fully to appreciate these things you must
have spent six weeks up the East Rongbuk Glacier in the
land of rock and ice where life is not.
From motives of economy we had arranged—as already
described—to send the bulk of our porters straight back to
Darjeeling with Noel, there to be paid off. The privileged
dozen or fifteen who were to accompany us to the Rongshar
Valley and on the homeward march were selected from
among those who had gone highest and done best on the
mountain ; these men were mostly required to perform the
duties of our personal servants, and to Odell was allotted the
ruffianly but stout-hearted Narbu Yishé, who had accom-
panied Somervell and me to nearly 27,000 feet, and of whom
I have already spoken more than once.
Now if you know no Oriental language and have to talk
to a man who has no English, there is more than one way
of doing it. Beetham adopted the Ordinary methods of
John Bull on the Continent : he talked good simple English
rather kyudly and slowly and produced surprisingly successful
THE RETURN TO BASE CAMP 153
results. Odell adopted a more sonorous style, and addressed
the Sherpa porter in rolling periods worthy of Doctor Johnson.
I was much intrigued one day at overhearing a conversation
between Odell and his new valet in the tent next to mine.
The latter, to my surprise, did know one word of English,
which was “yes,” but I’m not sure that this really helped
matters. It went something like this :
Odell. “Ah, good morning, Narbu Yishé. I under-
stand you are undertaking the duties of my personal servant.”
N. Y. “Yes, Sahib.”
Odell. “Well, I have been excellently served in the
past by Pu and Namgya and I am very sorry to part with
them, but I am convinced that if you display the same spirit
that they have done we shall get on together to our mutual
satisfaction.”
N. Y. “Yes, Sahib.”
Odell. “Let us examine my luggage and I will show you
how my various belongings are disposed.”
N.Y. “Yes, Sahib.”
After this auspicious beginning there must have been a
hitch in the proceedings, and in a few minutes Narbu Yishé
appeared at my tent with his best military salute. “Please
ask the Sahib,” said he, “to give me his keys and leave the
rest to me; I quite understand the duties of a bearer, and
he will find that his kit will be looked after and all his work
perfectly done.” But I am sorry to say that Narbu Yishé
proved himself a good deal more addicted to the flowing bowl
than to pitching his sahib’s tent and looking after his belong-
ings, and we finally parted from him with mutual esteem
but with little regret soon after we started our homeward
march. He decided to return to his home in the Solah Khombu
district of Nepal, where, I believe, he now wears with all honour
a bronze medal presented by the Committee of the 8th
Olympiad. For the qualities which take a porter with
20 lb. On his back up to 27,000 feet are not necessarily those
of Jeames de la Pluche.
By midday on June 15 the last yak had left the Base
154 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
Camp and headed down the valley, winding in and out among
the hummocks of old moraine, and the last members of the
party, following in its track, could turn back and look on
what had for six weeks been so busy a scene, now once more
reverted to solitude : that grim, forbidding little basin which
could yet seem a very haven of refuge to the weary traveller
from the bleaker land above. But now there is a new
feature in the landscape; the cairn built by Somervell and
Beetham stands conspicuous on the highest stony hillock
over the camp, outlined against the great mountain which
lured to their death those whose names it commemorates.
Who can tell what white men will next turn that corner
and see—for nothing ever changes in Tibet—the cairn,
“In memory of three Everest Expeditions * *
MEMORIAL CAIRN.

CHAPTER VIII
THE RETURN JOURNEY
By BENTLEY BEETHAM
June 15 saw the evacuation of the Base Camp and the
beginning of the journey to the Rongshar Valley.
Our last view of the Base—a place of many different
memories—is likely to remain with us to the end. Geoffrey,
Somervell and I, the last to leave, stopped to look back.
In the foreground was the now empty camping site ; away
in the background towered Everest, aloof and expressionless
as ever, and now partially veiled by drifting cloud and mist,
while between stood out with startling boldness the dark
moraine and its memorial cairn. It was a silent, impressive
picture. Slowly we turned away from it, thinking much
but saying nothing.
It was the end of the third round. We had taken punish-
ment ; we were retiring to a corner to recuperate. There
was to be another round, or rounds, of course. The mountain
could and would be climbed—when depended more upon
the Fates, the vagaries of weather, than upon the plans of
men. Such, I think, was the burden of our thought. There
was no repining. The deepest wish of every member was
that he might take a part in the next attempt. That still-
born question, “Is it worth while 7 ° is surely a product of
town life : it could never arise like a canker to infect our
thoughts out there on the plateau, in front of the great
mountain.
What a different Rongbuk Valley, what a different
atmosphere, mental as well as meteorological, was this on the
downward journey in June from that of the upward march
155
156 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
in April. Then all was speculation, every one was tense
and striving ; now it was over, and we knew ; we were
relaxed and going easy—we were on holiday. On the way
up everything had been sterile, inhospitable and dreary,
but now as we Sauntered down we soon began to meet
familiar little alpine blossoms peeping out from overhanging
rocks or pushing up between the stones. As the supply
of nectar increased, winged insect life became more and
more plentiful and Hingston got busy with his net. Geoffrey,
whose sporting nature was aroused by the quest of anything,
also got busy, but in his own particular way. It was scarcely
pure Science with him—if you like, it was a blending of the
interests of polo and entomology. As he rode he carried
a male bamboo and with it took his insects on the wing.
The amazing thing about it was not so much the number
of insects he brought down as the slight damage many of
them suffered. Fancy striking an Apollo in full flight with
a heavy cane and picking it up almost undamaged How
many “biggest bees in Asia he winged and bottled in this
way only Hingston will know, for Hingston was the recipient
of all our catches.
It is surprising that this Rongbuk Valley, the main
artery leading from the greatest mountain in the world, is
so featureless, so unimposing ; it is just one vast wilderness
of stones. There are no fine precipices, no shapely aiguilles,
no noble glaciers abutting on its flanks to break its grey
monotony. Yet, as we passed down even this dead valley,
all about Za Rongbuk seemed to be trying to put on a vernal
smile ; true, it was a very wan, thin Smile, but one just
perceptible in the warm June Sun.
Opposite the old monastery we camped, arriving early
and thoroughly enjoying the holiday spirit now pervading
the whole party. Norton and Bruce, ever critical of horses,
had their ponies’ manes close-cropped—Shebbeare, Somervell
and I performed a like office on each other's hair. We had
not seen our ponies since they were sent down to recuperate
at Tashi Dzom, nearly two months before. It was now all
THE RETURN JOURNEY 157
too evident that they had been neglected, ill-fed, and villain-
ously shod. Hazard’s mare was in a sorry plight and was not
ridden again.
During the evening two of us crept into the great hall
of the monastery where a service was in progress. Hitherto
we had felt nothing but repulsion for the lamas : their mode
of life and everything that pertained to them. We were
therefore hardly in a mood to be prepossessed. Yet it must
be admitted that that was the most impressive, the most
moving service I, for one, have ever attended. Perhaps it
was the unexpectedness of the whole thing, and especially of
the worshippers’ profound devotion. In any case it must
have been only an appeal to eye and ear, and not to the
conscious mind, for we could not understand One word of
what was said. It was an instinctive acquiescence in their
earnest consecration. The building was in such darkness
that at first we could see nothing, but as the eyes grew
accustomed to the gloom, row upon row of lamas were revealed
seated motionless as images upon the floor. Only the
unimpassioned faces of the lamas chanting the deep guttural
prayers appeared, their crouching bodies, swathed in dark
togas, remained unseen. Such light as entered illumined the
faces of the idol-buddhas and filtered down between a maze
of old silken banners reaching from the roof nearly to the
worshippers. The music was supplied by a large number of
deep drums, cymbals and Some reed instruments, and as
it rose and fell the air vibrated as with an organ. At intervals
the worship ceased, and tea—the ultra-Tibetan type—was
brought round by little boys; then the service was resumed.
Looking back we lose much of the glamour, but one thing
remains which makes this and other Eastern services so
impressive. It is the obvious fervour of the people. They
may be misguided, but with them there is no pretence. It
is merely the crowd spirit, if you like, but it is just this that
makes the difference. We see a trace of it in our revival
meetings. These Tibetans may be wrong, they may be
deceived, but they are obviously in earnest : an English con-
158 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
gregation may not be deceived, but are they in earnest ?
The next day Noel, with his own bandobast and part
of the Expedition’s native personnel and stores, left us in
order to rejoin his wife as quickly as possible. She, with
Helps the artist, was awaiting him at Chumbi. We were
all very sorry to lose him.
Hazard had already gone with Hari Singh and the surveyors
to the West Rongbuk Glacier, so the main party, that heading
for the Rongshar, was now reduced to seven—Norton, Bruce,
Somervell, Hingston, Odell, Shebbeare, and myself.
A little below the monastery the Dzakar Chu, which has
So far run in an open dreary course, now cuts through a spur
of rock. The precipitous gorge so formed is short, but is
spanned by a frail plank bridge. Some of the ponies shied
and refused. Somervell had much trouble with his, and
just as he had got it across it suddenly backed and almost
sent him headlong over the edge into the cauldron beneath
—but the rider was Somervell, so of course it didn’t quite.
We continued down the left side of the valley, gradually
bearing away to the west, and crossed a torrent, the result
of the melting snows on Gyachung Kang. Here we had
lunch and lazed, and though still at over 15,000 feet the stones
were almost too hot to sit on. Myriads of large black bugs
(Rynchota) like small cockroaches were swarming over the
rocks just above the water-line. ‘What they found to eat
on this glacial stream even Hingston could not suggest, but
we watched some choughs up-stream who were busily feeding
on them and gobbling them up at a great rate.
That night we camped in a grassy basin high up among
the hills. Below was a delightful alpine pasture Spangled
with dwarf primulas of a rich carmine. Already every one
was feeling and looking better. The air was getting softer
—moister. Somervell’s throat and breathing were the most
obvious legacies of the Everest blizzards. We were Ostensibly
going to the Rongshar to recuperate, but it must not be
imagined that we were a very decrepit party : far from it !
From the experience gained in 1922 we had absolutely escaped
THE RETURN JOURNEY 159
frostbitten face or fingers; we were unmaimed. But, for
all that, though our bodies did not need what might be
termed structural repair, they sorely needed refitting, refur-
nishing. The last reserves had been used up long ago, and
our limbs would have moved a cannibal chief to tears, but We
were in excellent health and spirits.
From a hill some 18,000 feet high just behind the camp
there was a wonderful view of Everest and the great valley
leading down from it which we had just left. The view-point
was far enough away to allow the foreground, the foothills,
to take their true perspective, yet close enough to enable
us to see every detail.
That night as Ilay in my sleeping-bag looking out through
the doorway of the tent, I could see the whole of the historic
ground, the scene of the protracted adventure, spread out
like a map and bathed in soft, full moonlight. And what
a strange impelling light it is Poets and lovers have always
extolled it, but even to the most unromantic there is some-
thing in it peculiarly moving, especially when it is experienced
in Solitude and in the desolate spaces of the earth. Never is
its spell more potent than in the presence of great mountains.
By day we see things and facts in their normal guise, as we
are wont to think of them ; by moonlight we review them
afresh, and they then appear perhaps more nearly as they
really are, shorn of all convention and preconceived ideas.
Without labouring the point too far—by daylight we view
matters in an eminently earthly, worldly aspect ; moonlight
seems to bring us face to face with greater and more lasting
ideas : it lends a touch of the supernatural to our vision.
That night and with that scene in front of one, it was quite
easy to realize that the price of life is death, and that, so
long as the payment be made promptly, it matters little
to the individual when the payment is made. Somewhere,
up there, in that vast wilderness of ice and rock, were two
still forms. Yesterday, with all the vigour and will of perfect
manhood, they were playing a great game—their life’s desire.
To-day, it was over, and they had gone, without their ever
160 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
knowing the beginnings of decay. Could any man desire a
better end ? It seemed not.
Next morning we trekked on up and over the gentle
Lamna La (17,400 feet), and down the other side—pleasant
going all the way. Then across huge mile-wide stone fans
Which bygone glacial torrents had deposited in the plain
and through which now gushed numerous streams, the dwind-
ling descendants of the parent flood. The camping site at
Sichu was provided with a splendid spring of water issuing
below a chorten bedecked with a thousand votive prayer-
canes. Paul * said that here the offering was for the purpose
of Seeking a blessing on the spring from the gods and not,
as was more usual, to drive away the devils. However, in
Tibet the procedure in each case appears to be identical, so
I suppose the gods and evil spirits are left to settle the point
of ownership between themselves.
On June 18 we came into full view of Cho Rapzang at
the head of the Kyetrak Valley, while over on our right
lay a beautiful mass of unnamed and wholly unknown moun-
tains, whose slender, shapely summits rose to over 23,000
feet. Many of us planned future climbing holidays here—
and elsewhere !
The lateral moraines in the lower valleys hereabouts were
the largest any of us had ever seen. They were estimated
to be at least 1,000 feet high and extended for miles, like
great snakes writhing across the land. When moraines,
especially terminal ones, become grass-grown they often form
a pleasant feature in the landscape, as in so many of our
English Lakeland dales, but in their original nakedness they
are perhaps the ugliest thing in nature. Surrounded as it
is by these great featureless heaps of whitish-grey stones,
the village of Kyetrak, built of the same material, is the most
dreary and forlorn of human habitations. The hovels are
of the most primitive and insanitary description. Neverthe-
less Kyetrak is in its way an important place. Its raison
d'être is its position on an old trade route between Tibet
* Our interpreter.
THE RETURN JOURNEY 16]
and Solah Khombu in Nepal. The pass is still freely used and
so this desolate village acts as a market for the exchange
of goods passing either way—wool, Salt and cloth from
Tibet ; rice, sugar, grain and sheet copper from Nepal.
Hardy traders these, to take their merchandise over an icy
pass 19,000 feet high. Some of our porters had their homes
in the Khombu Valley and their comely sisters, with fine sis-
terly spirit, but without invitation, came over the pass to
accompany their brothers and help them bear their loads,
somewhat to the embarrassment of the rest of the Expedition.
At Kyetrak we were able to buy our first sheep—about
four shillings and sixpence apiece. True, they were not fat,
but their wool hid some of their angularity, and their owners
handled their limbs with pride, and called the Sahibs' attention
to parts where flesh might be distinctly felt. Fortunately
their interiors were better furnished, and their livers quite
out of proportion to the rest of the carcase.
With us on the northern side of the main watershed
the weather was still gloriously fine, the tumult of monsoon
cloud boiling up from Nepal along the southern edge of the
Himalayas only Serving to improve the view and emphasize
Our good fortune.
Our way was now over the Pusi La to Tazam on the
southern side. As usual we could get no definite information
as to the extent of the journey. Estimates varied from
two days to four hours—the latter by a party who said they
had just crossed. In point of fact we left at 8 a.m. and
reached the camping site soon after 5 p.m. Either they of
the four hours must have had winged heels, or we must have
been still more exhausted than we thought.
The pass itself, though something over 17,000 feet, is at
an easy gradient in its upper parts, though some of its lower
earthy slopes are very steep. On the way up we turned
aside, and by climbing the old lateral moraine got a magnificent
panoramic view with Cho Rapzang, Smothered in tumbled
glaciers from head to foot, right in front of us and Cho Uyo
and Gyachung Kang away to the left—the east. It is
M
162 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
between the first two that the route to Solah Khombu lies.
Immediately over the pass we could see the beginning of
the stream which forms part of the head waters of the Rongshar
Chu, the river we were about to follow to Nepal. The glacial
runners soon carved out a valley which quickly deepened
and became more contracted, the mountains seeming to
advance upon it till nought was left but a narrow rocky gorge
without a scrap of alluvial bottom, the torrent usually occupy-
ing the whole bed. As we descended, the lichens, starveling
grasses and dwarf alpines rapidly succeeded each other and
in turn gave place to larger growths—azaleas and heath-like
plants, and then to low-spreading junipers and cypresses,
not growing upright but closely following the contours of
the rocks they clothed almost, as it were, a giant woody
moss. Following them came other conifers, small birches,
mountain ash, and here, just on the tree line, we made our
camp, revelling in a crackling fire of fir branches—the first
we had seen for several months.
The scenery was majestic and impressive, but always extra-
ordinarily curtailed. The rocky mountain walls on either
hand went up and up till lost in the pall of monsoon clouds
overhead, which latter ceaselessly drifted up the valley from
the south. Nowhere had the gorge a straight course, so that
all one saw was a length of V-shaped tunnel leading ever
downward. When a black thundercloud closed in the roof
the whole effect was most weird : it might well have been the
realization of Jules Verne's road to the centre of the earth.
All next day we continued down the gorge, following a
crazy path on the right side. The temperature was steadily
rising as we descended, though rain and mist had now taken
the place of sunshine. By the end of another march we
had reached a zone warm enough to allow one to indulge in
utter idleness: we had reached our goal—a place for rest
and recuperation. But so narrow was the defile and so
steep were its sides that the difficulty was now to find a
site on which to place the camp. At last in a small branch
glen a suitable place was found, and here our Rongshar Base
THE RETURN JOURNEY 163
was made. It was an altogether delightful place. Set in
a steeply terraced jungle of flowering shrubs and trees its
most beautiful feature was the profusion of pale blue irises
of exquisite form that grew on every open patch of ground.
It seemed sheer vandalism to pitch one's tent on top of them :
instead, we gathered them. We knew that the great moun-
tain Gaurisankar lay directly opposite to our camp, but even
in the early mornings the clouds never lifted far enough to
reveal more than a peep of the lower ends of the glaciers
and of shapely ridges in between.
On June 24 Bruce, Hingston, Shebbeare, Odell and I set
off with a minimum bandobast to penetrate as far down
into Nepal as we could. To our surprise, instead of the gorge
opening out, as it had shown some signs of doing, its sides
became even higher and more steep. Often great walls of
rock rose straight up from the water for a thousand feet or
more without a break, then a few shattered ledges or a terrace,
then up again till lost in the clouds. Some of these huge
slabs of rock had their faces slightly cavernous, the upper
parts overhanging menacingly. Such walls were of course
utterly impassable, and had two occurred opposite each other
the valley would have been permanently sealed, but as they
did not, by crossing and re-crossing the river we could
continue the descent. We had now reached a zone of sub-
tropical forest where magnificent timber grew. The branches
of the trees were festooned with hanging lichen and crowded
with Creepers and epiphytes—ferns and others. Often the
host was itself dead, but was greener and more leafy than it
had ever been in life. Very little animal life of any kind
revealed itself, though occasionally high up about the tree-
tops we saw, as it were, flocks of gorgeous butterflies, no
doubt drawn together by some nectared tree blossoms.
Earlier in the day we had already passed the Tibet-Nepal
frontier and, greatly to our surprise, found it was marked
by a boundary stone. True, delimitation of territory may
well have prompted some of man’s earliest erections, yet in
its trim formality this boundary stone looked strangely out
164 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of place in this remote and inaccessible gorge. One wonders
if there are like stones in each of the other valleys leading
down into Nepal from the Himalayas.
A very creditable erection it was too. It looked rather
like a shrine. There was a stepped plinth surmounted by
a large well-dressed slab of gothic tombstone shape. On
this was cut an inscription in two languages, Nepalese and
Chinese. One of our cooks, Tenchutta, who claimed to be
able to read both languages, told me that the notice was
to the effect that Tibetans were forbidden from descending
the valley beyond that point, while the Nepalese were pro-
hibited from ascending past it. He seemed rather perturbed
about the notice ; but fortunately, as we were neither Nepalese
nor Chinese, we felt free to do both ! This same Tenchutta
had one strong point in his favour as an Expedition cook—
he was a really excellent forager. He could conjure up
chickens (sic) or eggs where no fowl appeared to be. In
holy valleys, too, when no life was allowed to be taken and
when I had to arrange for a murrain (a form of cervical
haemorrhage) to fall upon the birds during the night, he
would solemnly report their death to me in the morning.
Moreover, he was always on the look-out for any gifts Nature
might have to offer in the way of wild fruits, herbs, etc. One
of his quite most successful efforts was bamboo au gratin.
This dish was composed of the thick, soft young shoots of
the plant, peeled and stewed with cheese and covered with
white sauce. It really was most delicious. But the shoots
must be young and tender. Sometimes his zeal to produce
the dish overcame his discretion in selection, and—well,
every one knows what bamboo is like Another discovery
of which he was inordinately proud was a kind of fungus.
It grew as a jelly-like slime on rotten wood and decaying
trees, whence he diligently Scraped it with his finger-nails
—certainly admirable implements for the purpose. The
stuff itself was nearly translucent, but with it came chips of
rotten wood and bits of lichen, and when the collection
had been duly transferred to his cap for transit, it really did
THE RETURN JOURNEY I65
look a horrid mess. At first I felt a certain responsibility in
allowing it to be served, but the anxiety was allayed by
watching his preparation of it, which showed that the venture
was no new one to him and that he was quite familiar with
the process. Arrived at camp he immersed the mass in
water, and by working it about he brought to the surface
all the chips of wood and bits of lichen, and the stuff was
cleaned. When cooked it had little flavour and was certainly
not worth the trouble it involved. Later, we got some fine
“horse ’’ mushrooms at about 15,000 feet, which we greatly
enjoyed.
The gorge was still getting more and more precipitous and
the route more and more crazy. Really some bits of the
way tracked out across the face of a slab might have given
Mr. Heath Robinson an inspiration. The faith the engineers
had in a few wisps of bamboo fibre as lashing was hardly
reassuring to the European mind. The ladder portions of
the way were all fastened with this material, but as if to
give the thing an air of stability, though probably to prevent
its being blown bodily away, large slabs of stone were inserted
at intervals between the treads. These hardly facilitated
one’s passage and looked heavy enough in themselves to
bring the whole thing down. Airy horizontal traverses were
thus often almost paved with stones, but if one was indiscreet
enough to pry over the edge and examine the substructure
one found that the stones were laid on brushwood, which was
in turn supported by the flimsiest and most sketchy framework
of branches, attached to the cliff apparently by faith alone :
then only did one appreciate even the bamboo lashing !
Considering our position on the south side of the Himalayas
and the time of year, the weather was kind to us, for although
a great deal of rain fell it was mostly precipitated in the
evenings and during the night : the early mornings and
Sometimes a large part of the day were fine ; but the clouds
always closed our valley in, as by a lid, and hid the tops of
the rocky walls.
We knew that we were trespassing on a grand scale,
166 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and wondered more and more that no one had turned up
to bar the way. The next day, June 25, provided what
was probably the explanation of our freedom. We had
not been descending long that morning before the cliff
On Our side of the gorge became utterly impassable, even
as an acrobatic feat of rock-climbing, and it was therefore
obvious that a bridge had existed hereabouts to lead to the
other side. Unfortunately it was equally apparent that no
bridge remained : it had been swept away, only a few tattered
fastenings showing where its near end had once been anchored.
The spot was most impressive. If I have used the word
impressive rather frequently I must be forgiven, for I can
think of no other that suits the lower Rongshar quite so well.
The scenery is simply overwhelming : one is almost appalled
by the display of terrestrial force—potential in the overhang-
ing rocks, kinetic in the water.
The river, which throughout its course is one mad cataract,
here takes a sudden plunge of 200 or 300 feet. On the very
edge of the abyss there stands up out of the racing water
two jagged points of rock, and it was by these that in three
lengthy spans a way across had once existed. From the
middle span the view must have been marvellous.
The failure of the bridge had brought about an interesting
situation, and incidentally no doubt accounted for Our
unopposed descent. The first Nepalese village of any account
lay still farther down the valley, and none could now ascend
from it beyond the broken bridge, so that the upper part of
the gorge (cut off, as it were in the rear, by the Himalayan
Chain) was isolated from the rest of the world almost as effec-
tively as if it had been an oceanic island. One wondered
who in this wild place would take the initiative, and have the
means to reconstruct the bridge, and when. Would it be
months, or years, before the people, caught as in a trap in the
depths of this stupendous gorge, again have access to their
neighbours other than by the lofty mountain passes 2 If
the initiative had to come from the Tibetan side, one felt one
knew the answer
THE RETURN JOURNEY I67
Shebbeare, a forest officer, looked longingly at the job,
but after he had reluctantly satisfied himself of theimpossibility
of our making a temporary way across, there was nothing for
it but to retreat to a good camping site we had passed a
little higher up-stream. Here on a gravel spit we pitched
the tents just as the rain began in earnest. Opposite the
camp on the other shore was a dark overhanging cliff. Pre-
sently someone noticed suspended from the roof of this
overhang nine large combs of honey and four lesser ones.
Through glasses we could see that they were covered black
with crawling bees: in fact no comb was visible, and they
looked exactly like gigantic swarms. Heavy rain and
leeches made exploration of the jungle round about less
inviting than it at first appeared, and before long every one
found occupation in his tent.
Under some rotting balks of timber Hingston and I turned
out some great furry spiders. They were such ugly-looking
customers that one felt inclined to shoot them first and pick
them up afterwards ! But they were soon pushed uncere-
moniously into the cyanide bottle.
Next morning agitation among the coolies awoke me soon
after 5 a.m. It was the bees . The smoke from the newly
kindled mess fires had been wafted up the opposite cliff to
where the combs were hanging, and the bees had come down
to see about it. From then onwards until the sun became
obscured about 8.30 things grew increasingly lively. They
were huge bees—the largest of the three forest species—and
were nearly black. They came straight at us and stung as
they alighted. They were so big that we could watch them
in flight for quite a long distance and clearly follow their
tactics. They came Swooping down the drift of smoke and
then began systematically to quarter the ground, looking
for the enemy and keeping about 15 inches above the surface.
So long as you remained quite still they usually passed
by, but move a leg and you were at once their quarry.
Instantly they came straight for you, but when within a
few inches of your puttee, instead of alighting there they
168 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
suddenly shot upwards and pitched unerringly on the top
of your head. This was our salvation, as nine times out of
ten they stung the hat. Occasionally on the upward swoop
they spotted a patch of fur and dived for it, and we had hastily
to knock them out of our beards before they reached the
skin. Tippoo, one of our cooks, was simply splendid. He
was wearing a woolly helmet, and each time he passed from
the cookhouse to the mess-tent he was bespattered with bees,
and you could hear an angry buzz as he approached. I
shall never forget his cheery face, framed in bees, appearing
in the doorway. We had to make him thin them out a
little before we allowed him inside, lest, while handing round
the welcome breakfast, he should also distribute with it a
liberal sprinkling of the angry bees. What a jolly meal
that was . Every one got his share of stings, and so provided
mirth for others. I can see old Tippoo now standing in the
doorway and plucking the bees off his hat and beard with
his fingers. If he didn’t nip them hard enough as he threw
them from him—and one doesn’t linger in the handling of
a live bee—they flew straight back again as if attached
to his head by an elastic string. Fortunately the poison
inserted by their sting was as mild as the bees were large
and vicious, and seemed to cause less swelling than that of
an English bee. The coolies were half afraid and half amused
—they loved to see each other, or a Sahib, stung, but they
ran madly about when their turn came. Shebbeare said
their fear was not unfounded, as he had known of Several
cases where attack by these forest bees had ended fatally
to men and horses. In such cases, however, it is not the
attentions of a few skirmishers, but the descent of the whole
colony which is the danger.
From this camp we got our only glimpse of what we
imagined to be Gaurisankar, or rather a part of it, for I do
not think that what we saw can have been the actual Summit.
It looked fine, but not as grand as we had anticipated. Per-
haps, if indeed it was Gaurisankar, the stupendous nature
and verticality of the foreground killed it, as well it might.
THE RETURN JOURNEY 169
On June 26 the return march to Tazam was begun. On
the way we re-passed the only little stretch in the river's
course that was not a wild descent, elsewhere it is almost
one continuous cataract throughout. Here a landslide on
a grand scale had dammed the valley, momentarily holding
up the waters before they took a plunge more profound than
usual. There was shingle in this pent-up reach and on it
as we passed down we had seen birds I took to be ibisbills.
They were not in evidence when Hingston passed, and he
was very much disappointed to have missed them. Now
on the ascent the same thing happened. As we went by
they were there, evidently nesting, and as noisy as oyster-
catchers, but an hour later when he was at the place there
was no sign of them. As soon as he came into camp and
learned that they had again been seen at the same place,
with his usual enthusiasm he set off back immediately without
waiting for a meal. He was well rewarded, for not only did
the old birds show up, but he saw their chicks, nearly as
large as themselves, running about and being fed on a gravel
islet in mid-stream. The young of this species he believed
to be unknown to Ornithologists, and he was very anxious
to examine it. There was the priceless chick running about
in full view of him, but between them was half the Rongshar
torrent. Much though Hingston coveted it, he would not
allow Geoffrey or me to try to swim across to get it. We
had no cord to act as a life-line, and if the swimmer failed
to make the island—well, the first stop would have been
Nepal. Tell it not in South Kensington, but I really felt
rather glad that the chick escaped. It looked so forlorn on
its scrap of shingle, with its parents calling mournfully
around, while half an expedition sat on the bank and plotted
for its capture.
Near this spot we found in the forest a little encampment
—a family in three generations—of primitive paper-makers.
I got quite friendly with these simple, jolly people, and was
able to follow the whole of their ancient and interesting
process from start to finish—from the growing plant to the
170 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
folded paper. Small trees, rather like our elder, were cut
down and stripped of their “bark’” to the cambium layer.
The naked branches were left lying on the ground, not being
needed for fuel, of which there was an abundance everywhere,
but the “bark ’’ was carried home through the forest in
baskets. There women laboriously tore and cut the tough
white bast fibres from its inner side, using fingers, knife, and
teeth. The Outer corky part was waste and was used only
as fuel, but the bast was macerated and later boiled in large
copper cauldrons over slow wood fires, until it went down into
a jelly-like pulp of a light reddish-brown colour. Then
shallow wooden frames like window-sashes, but glazed with
fabrics, were got ready and immersed in clean cold water.
The pulp was ladled into them, there to be deftly worked
and spread under water until it formed a thin even layer
upon the fabric. Then the frames were gently raised above
the surface and allowed to drain, first in a horizontal position
and then vertically, propped up in a circle round a great wood
fire. When thus hardened off the paper was stripped easily
from the canvas backing and was ready for use. The people
told me that they had come from Lhasa to make the paper,
that they and their ancestors had always made it in this
valley, and that it was required in Lhasa for official purposes.
Fancy an entire family making a yearly journey from Lhasa
to the Rongshar in order to make a few sheets of paper
When we got back to the Rongshar Base, Norton and
Somervell, who had remained there, were bubbling over with
enthusiasm about a view they had had—or purported to have
had—of Gaurisankar. In fact they were SO effervescent about
it that we began to doubt the seriousness of the vision.
Certainly their sketches of it tallied, as did their stories;
but had they not had ample time in which to prepare both,
and did we not often in these leisured days extend each
other’s hind limbs Moreover there was a suspicious absence
of photographic evidence. Gradually, however, we realized
that it had all happened—that they had seen a mountain-
peak which eclipsed all others, and we were filled with a
THE RETURN JOURNEY I7]
desire to see it ourselves. Their view-point had been an
alpine meadow some 1,500 feet above the camp. Here was
a small Tibetan village and the remains of a much larger one,
evidently of great antiquity. The mani-walls (prayer-stones)
had once been of an unusually imposing nature, but were now
so weather-worn that only the faintest trace was left of the
inscription they once bore. Bruce, Odell and I took tents
and sleeping-bags up to this meadow next day, and, as if
to show bona fides, Somervell accompanied us. All that day
the clouds looked like dispersing, but they never did so.
Late in the evening we got some delightful views looking
down the gorge towards Nepal between piled-up masses of
coppery cumulus clouds, but of Gaurisankar we saw not a
trace. I looked several times during the night and just at
dawn, but a steady rain was falling. In the morning Bruce
and Somervell went down to the Base. After breakfast
Odell and I mounted higher in an endeavour to get above
the clouds, but the rain got steadily worse, so he too gave it
up. In the hope of getting photographic records I stayed
another night—our last before the homeward trek—but
with no better fortune. Never a glimpse of the great mountain
appeared, although the clouds that hid it were in ceaseless
motion—forming, rising, dispersing, and reforming. By eight
o'clock on June 30 my coolies had come up for the things,
as the camp below was being struck, so the last hope of
getting pictures of Gaurisankar vanished.
On July 3 we re-crossed the Pusi La, now much more
Snowy than on the outward journey.
Norton and I had a very pleasant morning. Many new
flowers had appeared since we passed; some of them, he
thought, were new and unrecorded species, as they had not
been noted on the 1922 Expedition. One pleased us par-
ticularly. It was of a rich azure blue and had blossoms not
dissimilar to those of Ranunculus glacialis, only rather smaller,
the flowers being so closely set as to form a cushion. Snow-
cock were disporting themselves on every side (how wonder-
fully invisible they are among the stones!), while a pair of
I72 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
lammergeiers behaved as if their eyrie were somewhere
close at hand. In point of fact we saw no nest of any species
of Vulture in Tibet, and we wondered where these birds, which
play such an important rôle in the disposal of the dead, could
have their nurseries.
Having descended from the Pusi La we found that the
numerous streams furrowing the great stone waste below
the Snout of the Kyetrak Glacier were in full spate, and we
just managed to get across without our horses being swept
away. These Tibetan ponies are willing, plucky little fellows;
they faced the icy water time after time till every one was
safely over.
It was now full summer, but Kyetrak had not smiled to
greet it. How could it 2 Whitish-grey stones look much
the same in July as in December. It is altogether a most
unlovely place.
We were now leaving the Himalayas behind and passing
out into the open spaces of Tibet. Wide brown plains were
everywhere bounded by bare barren hills, the whole rimmed
round by distant blue-grey mountains and white glaciers.
Here and there on the vast horizon dark thunder-clouds
were gathered and from their under surfaces we could see
drifting curtains of descending rain. Behind these isolated
little storms and to the right and left of them the country
was bathed in sunlight, which made them look strangely
artificial, theatrical, one might almost Say. The major span
of the horizon was in places some 200 miles across, and the
area of country seen was so great that though these storms
were always on the move it was some days before one actually
crossed our path.
We had not been down on the plain long before we saw
and were seen by a herd of kiang. They watched us inter-
estedly for a time and then retreated towards a small nullah.
We held on our course until the last One had disappeared
over the ridge, then pulling our ponies round we galloped
hard for a point some way higher up the nullah where we
judged they might now be. It was our first kiang hunt and
THE RETURN JOURNEY 173
one of our most successful. As we topped the ridge and
looked over it there, right below us, were thirteen of the
beautiful animals trotting leisurely in single file up the middle
of the valley. Instantly on seeing us they were off with
a shaking of necks and a kicking of heels, and without the
slightest prompting on our part our ponies were off after
them in a mad gallop down the nullah side, heedless of rocks
and pika burrows. Shebbeare and I, who were rather farther
up than Geoffrey, tried to head them off while he rode straight
at the last one. In the first dash the ponies seemed almost
as fast as the kiang and he got to within some 15 yards of
them, but as soon as they settled down to an easy swinging
gallop they proved too swift, and quickly drew away from
us. Still, it was all great Sport.
A couple of miles away we could see Norton trying, single-
handed, to manoeuvre a herd of about twenty towards us.
Riang are certainly inquisitive beasts, but withal somewhat
stupid. Several times they broke past him on the flank
and then stopped and turned round to stare at him, so each
time he regained his position and began to drive them in
our direction, till finally they took alarm and galloped past
him like a flash and were quickly out of sight. The Tibetans
told us that they were very good to eat, and I can well believe
it, though we never had an opportunity of tasting their flesh.
To shoot these in the nullah would have been an easy matter,
but it may well be otherwise sometimes. Later, we saw a
herd that would not allow an approach within half a mile.
We camped that night at Sharto. The country was
beginning to get fertile ; there were little enclosures of
barley coming up strongly, notwithstanding that the altitude
was close upon 15,000 feet, and there was quite a profusion
of plant life. Terrific rain fell that evening, and the cook-
house had an impromptu river running through it—a golden
opportunity for washing grimy utensils which was taken
full advantage of. In the morning the village brought out
its halt and sick. The Tibetans imagined that all the bugs
and beetles, lizards and grasshoppers that Hingston caught
174. THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and bottled were for medicinal purposes, and the fame of
him soon spread abroad. We did not correct this opinion
as it allowed him to collect these lowly things in holy places,
where otherwise such action would probably have given
offence. Unfortunately on this occasion the medical equip-
ment had gone on before this impromptu sick parade began.
But Hinky was never at a loss. Most of us would have
bungled—have said that the medicine-chest had already
been despatched and that we were sorry we could do nothing.
Not So he. Having examined the patients with professional
mien—pustular skin diseases, withered limbs, acute conjunc-
tivitis—he handed round bull’s-eyes and acid-drops; the
former to be taken in hot water on retiring, the latter, twice
a day in milk. It was rather pitiful to see them borne away
rejoicing, but faith might do something for them, and a
refusal to tend them certainly could not do anything and
would almost surely be misunderstood. Moreover, as all
his colleagues were careful to assure him, all his medicines
were equally good | Lest this action of spontaneous tact be
misunderstood, let it be stated that Hingston, and Somervell
too, were able to relieve much suffering on our way across
Tibet. At this very village of Sharto the previous night,
I believe, he had opened out a dangerous abscess and probably
saved a life.
Tingri was reached on July 5, and turned out to be a
much more important place than at first sight it appeared
to be. It has a considerable trade, possesses much arable
land, and is a garrison town. Not that this last qualification
signifies much, as I think the only trace of soldiery which
we saw was a little group cleaning Martini rifles, and I remem-
ber we thought that the men so employed might with great
advantage have turned their attention upon themselves—
or is it that these Tibetan outposts are advanced students
of the art of camouflage. The top of the hill above the
village is crowned by a commanding-looking Dzong. From
a distance its battlemented walls look Sound, but in reality
the whole place is dreadfully dilapidated and entirely unoccu-

THE RETURN JOURNEY 175
pied. The roofs are now gone, floors and ceilings are tumbling
in and the walls everywhere are crumbling down. Some
hazardous “first ascents * were achieved as we explored
the place, one member disappearing through a floor, as if
it had been through a hole in ice, but judging by the volume
of sound that issued from the under chamber his lungs at
least were quite uninjured. Had we been able to read
Tibetan and Chinese we might have found much of real interest
here. Some of the rooms had evidently formed a sort of
muniment store, and on stone shelves amid the collapsing
walls were bales of folded manuscript. Large sheets, of the
Same type as those we had seen made in the Rongshar, were
folded and packed away as it were in quires. These writings
no doubt dealt with matters pertaining to the fort and might
have revealed much information on past days, knowledge
which is so lacking in Tibet. The libraries of the monasteries
with their great wooden-backed tomes, each in its stone
pigeon-hole, are said to contain nought but Buddhist, or rather
Lamaic, theology.
The people of Tingri were noticeably less shy and more
interestedly inquisitive than those met with elsewhere. They
had heard of the wonders of my “picture box” as our coolies
called my reflex camera. They knew that if you looked
into it you could see a picture in all its colours and motion,
so they followed me about in droves. Unfortunately their
knowledge of the instrument was imperfect, and they persisted
in trying to peer in through the lens. The result of this was
that as I looked in at the hood, in the orthodox method to
photograph anything, all I could see was a sea of Tibetan
faces—mostly out of focus, instead of the picture I sought.
Gradually I got them to understand that it was necessary
to have an open space in front of me in order to take a photo-
graph, and therefore I found myself at the apex of a V-shaped
lane of craning necks. In their desire to look in at the lens
they continually encroached upon this open space, and I had
to keep them back by playfully throwing stones at the
intruders, for which purpose I kept my pockets filled with
176 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
missiles. These Tibetans are by nature an easily amused
and cheery people, and provided one does such actions as
this in the right spirit, they will take anything in good part.
This widening of the “V” they regarded as a sort of game,
and every time anyone was hit, the others roared with laughter.
In fact they made so much noise that soon half the village
was attracted, and the only way I could manage the crowd
was to sit down and point the camera in the wrong direction
and let them form up in a hopelessly encroaching V, then
turn round quickly and take the picture before the crowd
had time to reform on the new front. Their appreciation
of tactics was bad for a garrison town, for during the whole
morning they never spotted the meaning of this simple
manoeuvre. Now and then I allowed a few of them to
look through the camera at the moving picture of their fellows
reflected on the ground glass. It simply delighted them and
they were never tired of watching it. It made me wince to
see them press their filthy, greasy heads into the hood. Many
of them had skin eruptions with Open Sores, but I only had
to hope that such were not contagious.
Every member of the Expedition was now in splendid
form and health, and we began to seek outlets for Our Spare
energy. From the bottom of a kitbag I unearthed a rope
quoit we had used for training on the California, and with
it we improvised “Tibetan tennis.” The court we marked
by scratching the surface of the plain; ice axes and a bandage
made the net. It was astonishing how Soon one got out of
breath. We were, so we thought, perfectly acclimatized.
We went about our ordinary daily routine as easily as if it
had been at sea-level instead of over 14,000 feet above, but
immediately we did anything in the least violent, or impeded
the breathing in any way, as by stooping, then altitude
began to assert itself again in no uncertain manner. By
nothing was this more emphasized than by this tennis.
There were only three of us who played : Bruce, Somervell
and I–Norton, who would have made a fourth at any sport,
was lame through foot trouble during most of the homeward
THE RETURN JOURNEY 177
march–so we had to play singles. We started feeling fit
enough for a wrestling bout or a cross-country run, but if
the game was in the least fast in ten minutes we were com-
pletely done. At Yatung, some three weeks later and 4,000
feet lower, there was a marked improvement in our form ; our
state there was perhaps what at home would be described
as one of “rank bad training.” Now it is noteworthy that at
14,000 to 15,000 feet the Tibetans can run up steep hillsides
chasing and shouting at their yaks, and return unwinded.
How long, I wonder, would it take a European to acclimatize
himself thus far—is it a matter of months or years, or is it
one of generations of heredity ?
This matter of acclimatization is a fascinating subject.
It is so very real, such a vital factor to success, and yet it is
so indefinite, so immeasurable. That is it—we want somebody
to devise a simple meter. It is no measure of acclimatization
that one man takes a pass gaily and as if he likes it, while
another plods heavily along and seems to labour. The real
difference in the two may be masked entirely by opposite
temperaments, by spirit and the exercise of will power. The
one may be exhausting his reserve of strength, while the
other who envies his companion his seeming fitness may
unconsciously be husbanding his own resources. One of
those who made the “heaviest going ” over the passes on
the outward journey was Odell, yet it was he who later gained
by far the greatest victory over altitude that has ever been
achieved by man. Of course the estimation of the number
of red corpuscles in a given quantity of blood provides a
direct indication of the response the blood system has made
to the change in altitude, but, altogether apart from the
trouble of making this test in the field, it may be questioned
whether it gives the measure of acclimatization of the man
as a whole.
Perhaps it might be well if, on a future Expedition, a
longer time was spent between leaving Calcutta and reaching
the Base Camp. After the voyage and the heat of the
plains of India there is useful acclimatization to be done in
IN
178 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, and again, later, in that
of Yatung, before finally going up on to the plateau. Three
days, and one day respectively, at these places, as in 1922, is
perhaps hardly enough.
It is so difficult not to confuse ordinary bodily training,
i.e. condition of the muscles, with acclimatization, i.e. adjust-
ment of every organ concerned with a reduction in atmospheric
pressure. Anything in the nature of long or exhausting
marches on the outward journey may well be a mistake—
acclimatization does not lie that way. Presumably the men
chosen for the expedition will be muscularly fit and will not
require much hardening off in that direction—and in any
case they will have had it by the time they reach Base Camp
—all this is required to get their whole bodies in tune with
their new surroundings. The evidence all seems to point
to the advisability of going easy until the great final effort ;
but there is something harder than to put the brake upon
oneself when feeling fit in any form of sport, nor would it
be a much easier task for the leader to curb his team ; but
it may be worth the doing.
Erom Tingri we marched by Memo, and arrived at Shekar
on the evening of July 7. Here we were able to replenish
our stores from a dump left with the Dzong Pen on the outward
route. Some cases of sugar were particularly welcome.
We made him a handsome present of surplus stores, and
received a sheep and some eggs—assorted ages—in exchange.
There was every reason to be grateful to this headman :
he had had more to do for us than any other Dzong Pen and
he had carried out his contracts well. Here Geoffrey had a
kit inspection for the men, a necessary proceeding every
now and then. Otherwise there is no limit to what the coolies
would carry back—the carriage at our expense. In this case
he cut the transport down by several mule-loads. The
marches to Shekar were very pleasant Ones: we dawdled
through the country, birds”-nesting as we went along. Now
it was a sand-lark that started up from her eggs at our ponies’
feet and ran fitfully about amongst the desert Scrub, her deep
THE RETURN JOURNEY 179
cup-shaped nest sunk to the rim in sand and usually beside
a tuft of vegetation, but whether this was for concealment
or protection against the wind was a matter of dispute.
Now it was a pair of showy hoopoes that held the attention,
flying in and out of their nesting site in the crumbling earthen
walls of some old building; or it might be nobler species.
Here a white-tailed eagle was seated on a rocky ridge perform-
ing its toilet and quite disinclined to move ; then, a lordly
lammergeier, beating the mountain-side, was sweeping by in
majestic flight, the tip of its great primaries straining and
bent upwards with the rush of air. Yonder, on a steep Crag
overlooking the plain, an upland buzzard had its nest and
young. Lizards—no two seeming quite alike—scuttled across
the sand; frogs we found in water up to 15,000 feet, and
grasshoppers everywhere were indiscreet enough to hop and
so disclose their presence to Hingston, who had a perfect
mania for bottling them. There was always something to
interest or amuse.
On the route between Shekar and Tinki it was very
noticeable that now in midsummer the distant landscape
looked more wintry than it had done in April. Hills that
were then quite bare and brown were now white nearly down
to the plain. Of course the mean temperature would be far
lower in April than in July, but at the former time precipitation
was nil, while now it was abundant and fell as Snow. I
remember that on the way up from India we had noticed
a similar phenomenon. Looking back, Southwards and
downwards towards Sikkim, the country seemed snowbound
and Arctic, while looking northwards and upwards to higher
elevations, the land was snow-free. No doubt this effect
was accentuated by the greater melting power of the sun’s
rays on the southern slopes (which alone you see when
looking north) than on the northern faces, but it was chiefly
due to a difference in precipitation.
The streams were now at their maximum and often
afforded excitement in crossing them. Soon after leaving
our camp near Jikkyop on the 12th we had to negotiate the
180 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Puchung Chu, a river coming down from the Brahmaputra
Watershed. It was considered doubtful whether we should
be able to get across. It appears that in such a difficulty
the Tibetan method is to drive a herd of cattle over in order
to consolidate the bottom and so prevent the single-hoofed
ponies and donkeys from sinking in too far. After less than
the usual delay the herd was forthcoming and was with
much forcible persuasion driven over and back again. The
route was now declared open. Our transport at this time
consisted of small donkeys, some of which were now pushed
in. But though the cloven-hoofed cattle had managed it,
the donkeys couldn’t. Their small hoofs and heavy loads
made them sink too deeply, and they were soon swept off
their feet and carried down-stream. Three were all but
drowned—one had to have artificial respiration (not provided
for in the Royal Life Saving Society’s handbook). After
this it was evident that there was nothing for it but to unstrap
the loads and to man-handle everything across : three hours’
hard work for 200 yards ! Most of our coolies and all the
Tibetans from whom we had hired the transport entered
the water willingly enough, carrying the loads on their backs.
The bottom was none too good, yet they worked so steadily
that not a single case was dropped. One old Tibetan excelled
all others by bearing four cases at a time—a fine feat of
skilful balance as well as strength.
So we jogged on, past Chiblung and Khenga and over
the Bahman Dopté, the “steepest pass.” Here Norton,
Eruce, Somervell and I branched off to visit the Tsomo-tre-
tung Lake, an arm of which one could see from the top of
the pass, peeping round invitingly from behind some inter-
vening hills. Even now, after many disillusionments, we
were again hopelessly deceived in the matter of distance.
It seems impossible to read into the Tibetan landscape the
mileage that is really there. The marvellous clearness of
the atmosphere simply does not allow vision to take heed
of distance. Another factor in deception is the flatness of
the plains that lie between the hills. Standing on the level
THE RETURN JOURNEY I81
the horizon is, I suppose, about 3 miles away, and since the
effects of space have been optically cancelled the nearest hills
seem to be about that distance away. Mount an eminence
and the horizon of course recedes, taking with it, so to speak,
the hills. This will continue until the horizon passes beyond
the actual base of the hills, after which they recede no farther.
But whatever the explanation, the lake was at least twice
as far away as we expected it to be, and the last descent
to it from a little col not less than three times the distance
we estimated. When at last we reached it, we found it was
alive with duck. They were resting on the shore, but put
out at once on our approach. They were not at all tame,
and even had we been allowed to shoot it is doubtful if we
should have got many, though a punt-gunner might have
had his wildest dream fulfilled. The lake showed evident
signs of the rapid desiccation which the district generally
appears to be undergoing. That part of the Tibetan Plateau
through which we travelled now, supports only a fraction of
the population that formerly existed there. Whole districts,
sections of valley systems, are now uninhabited, dotted over
with ruins which speak of considerable former population.
Three recent successive conquests of this land,” the first at
least of a very bloody nature, must have thinned out the
inhabitants, but increasing desiccation may well have been
a potent factor in depopulation. Unfortunately of this latter
cause we have no dates or data, though evidences of its effect
are plentiful enough.
The homing instinct was now beginning to draw us back.
Unconsciously we experienced an unwillingness to tarry :
only one night was spent at each of Tinki, Kampa, and Phari.
Not that there was much inducement to linger at the Donka
La, for the weather was bitterly cold and wet. The cooks
* First the Gurkhas came up over the Himalayas from Nepal and pillaged
the country to such an extent that the Tibetans, unable to cope with them,
sought and received the help of China. By what must have been a wonderful
military expedition the Chinese crossed Tibet and drove out the Nepalese,
but themselves occupied the land. There they remained until quite recently,
When the Tibetans were at last strong enough in turn to drive them out.
182 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
had rather a rough time of it hereabouts through absence
of a cookhouse, but they were always cheerful, and never
sulked. As typical of the good spirit of our men, I remember
that here, after they had had a particularly miserable time
struggling with a refractory stove in driving sleet, they
came joyfully to tell me that there were fish to be caught
in the stream near by. I think that most people would have
“Sat tight ° about those fish at the end of a long day’s march
and under those conditions, especially as the only method
of catching them was by thrusting our arms into the icy water,
but not so they. In half an hour we had got enough for a
fry, but they were not the bright ‘‘snow trout ’’ we had caught
before. They were a species of loach, slimy and muddy,
and that evening I came to the conclusion that Jan Ridd’s
taste in fish-flesh was not the Sarne as mine.
At Kampa, Odell went off to “solve some more problems”
of a geological nature in a valley to the South. Shebbeare
went with him to look after the transport, so our party was
still further reduced. We did not see them again until they
arrived in Darjeeling the day after we got there.
The ride into Phari was a cold and Soaking one, and our
ponies were dull and listless. They were feeling the wet far
more than they had done the zero temperatures in the dry
cold. Even a promising “pie-dog '' well out in the open
failed to rouse their spirits, much to the chagrin of Norton
and Geoffrey—joint masters of the Everest pack. The whole
party was just attuned thoroughly to appreciate the comfort
the Phari bungalow offered. Chairs and a fire, china cups
and plates, a tub and a house—how little one felt to have
missed them, but what real pleasure they afforded at their
reappearance
John Macdonald had come up from Chumbi to meet
us, and had thoughtfully sent on in advance fresh garden
produce : lettuces and peas, turnips and potatoes. How
delicious everything tasted |
Accommodation in the Phari bungalow was limited, so
the specimens, Hinky and I, shared a room and tried to dry
~1，1，1(10)~lva onNo.l.， 10 Nwonxia ºo ºf
ºn ºn vºi ſu ſi ºn his1\ v 11.1.11，1% i（1，1，1）^1th w OsN o.l.s.， N11，Cixi vzvrae
· Þz61 º No.1.1.1 (1，1，1xºſ și H L & O sºlºſi wº IN
| ~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ------
） （**）（-ae）.
… --
…：! *----
-- ………|-

THE RETURN JOURNEY 183
off a little before a roaring fire. Mould was attacking the
botanical collection, and we had to spread all the sheets out
in turn to try to arrest its ravages. It was not until you
began thus to handle the collection that you fully realized
Hingston’s zeal and untiring patience. Besides the collection
of plants I believe the Expedition brought back nearly 10,000
zoological specimens, mostly beetles, bugs, and other inver-
tebrates. This was 10,000 dead, official specimens—there
were many others which travelled with us unofficially as
stowaways.
Leaving Phari and the plateau on July 21, the descent
through the upper Chumbi Valley was nothing but a sheer
joy: no quantity of rain could hide or mar the wonderful
flora of this gorge. Up to this point I admit that I had been
rather disappointed with the Himalayan flowers. Individually
they are unsurpassable—the magnolias and rhododendrons;
Primula Sikkimensis and all its kind; the yellow meconopsis
sending up great pyramidal spikes like a giant Canterbury-bell;
the dwarf blue things of the higher terrain, and the perfectly
delightful iris of the Rongshar, are each as fine as, or finer
than, anything I had seen before—yet nowhere had we met
that almost wanton profusion, alike of variety as well as mass,
that is seen on Alpine slopes and meadows. But here at the
head of the gorge such floral wealth was spread with lavish
hand. One could have stayed here for days merely to enjoy,
not necessarily to collect, the flowers. Perhaps most of them
were of familiar form, but of new variety—old friends in a
new guise. Many, however, were utterly strange to us who had
Only an acquaintance with European blossoms. Some of
these exotics were of striking grace and beauty, and would be
an asset anywhere. One longed to be able to show them to
flower-lovers one knew at home, but it is almost impossible to
transport roots from such a place, and seeds were not yet ripe.
The next day we reached Yatung, and were at once enter-
tained to lunch by the Macdonald family. The hospitality
we were shown by them and by Captain and Mrs. Noel was
beyond all thanks: they simply could not show us kindness
184 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
enough. I think their best reward must have been our
wholehearted appreciation of it ! For there is nothing so satis-
factory as to see that which one has prepared be unreservedly
enjoyed—in this, I suppose, lies much of the pleasure which
children afford their elders.
We had already given away to various Dzong Pens as much
of our spare stores as we could without risk of spoiling the
pitch for a subsequent Expedition, and now finding that
the rates for transport to Darjeeling were exorbitantly high
we decided to hold an autumn clearance sale of tents, stores,
and general equipment. It was an event of no small import-
ance in the valley. It was, in fact, a unique sale—it contained
bargains. We had no front-page advertisements in the Press,
but we had a goodly company of prospective purchasers.
It was in every way a sale befitting the dignity of the Expedi-
tion, though perhaps the salesman’s style was a little cramped
by the use of an interpreter, and by the necessity for little
explanations of the different shades of use of such similar
looking articles as dubbin and golden syrup. The sale was
voted a great success all round, and certainly every purchaser
got very good value for his money. It was interesting to
notice how well to the fore was the feminine element in the
advent of a sale even in Tibet ; and incidentally, it may be
added, it was only one of the fair sex that changed her mind
and brought her purchase back For what it is worth, let
me suggest to Sociologists that this sale mania, which is so
noticeable a feature of the modern woman, is nothing more
than a new expression of the deep-seated collecting, husbanding
propensity typical of the female sex in its widest biological
SéI].S62.
A small native garrison, an outpost of the empire, is
stationed at Yatung, and the men were very anxious to
play the Expedition at football. Geoffrey with great good-
nature arranged the match, but omitted to turn out himself.
Naturally it was an event of first importance in the village,
but the monsoon, now at its height, did its best to wash the
fixture out. Though failing in this, it was more successful
THE RETURN JOURNEY 185
with the field : that it quite obliterated, substituting for
much of it a rippling sheet of water. All the preceding night
and that morning the rain roared down unceasingly, yet
about the appointed hour the spectators began to turn up
smilingly. Something had to be done. Apart from that
wretch Geoff., who was not to be found, there were only three
of us fit enough to play—Hingston, Somervell and myself—
so filling up gaps in a somewhat sketchy side with likely
looking coolies, and borrowing two men (our best) from the
garrison reserve, we took to the water. It must have been
one of the strangest games of football ever played. We won
the toss, and elected to play down-stream, hoping thereby
that we might get a goal washed through. Nailed climbing
boots made large enough for three pairs of woollen Socks
do not tend to make one nimble, especially when they are
filled with water; nor was the going what would be described
as fast, but perhaps this was just as well, for we were soon
very short of breath. We found this sort of football, played
at 10,000 feet, an exhausting game, and it says much for our
acclimatization that we were able to stick it out. The specta-
tors revelled in the game. Yatung was beating an “English ’’
team . There was no doubt about the beating: they were
far too good for us; the only doubt was in their designation
of our side. They played most sportingly and took every-
thing in good part. When anyone was sent sprawling in
the water the people roared with delight, just as heartily if
it was one of their men as when it was one of ours. Nothing
really exciting happened, no one actually got out of his
depth, but when the whistle went for full time with the
score 5–1 for them, they were wild with delight. It seemed
a pity to stop their fun, every one looked expectant, so we
gave them ten minutes more each way. They put on two
more goals, and were enjoying it so much that we gave them
a last ten minutes, but, thanks to the current, they failed
to score again. It is up to the next expedition to avenge
our defeat ; but Yatung will always prove a difficult side to
beat on its home ground !
186 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Before we left the Chumbi Valley we invited the Mac-
donalds and the Noels to a little lunch a la Base Camp,
served, with true local colour, in the mess-tent. Perhaps
it was not a strict copy of the meal as usually served in that
well-known restaurant, but at least every course was founded
On fact, that is to say it had been evolved and more or less
approved of at some period of the Expedition. The only real
innovation was the lettuce.
Every one entered thoroughly into the spirit of the thing
and was very jolly, and if some of the courses did get a little
mixed and somebody was offered, and in all innocence
accepted, brandy sauce while still busy with chicken pie, it
only helped to enliven the proceedings. The menu, as it
appeared, was as follows:
Ralimpong Beer. God bless Kalimpong.
Lunch a la Base Camp.
Sardines, hard-boiled eggs, potato cream and Chumbi herbs.
Quails in pâté de foie gras and lettuce.
Pea soup, Erbowurot ; fried bread and grated cheese.
Mutton cutlets, sauce Kyetrak; green peas.
Chicken-and-ham pie à la Teuchutta; new potatoes.
Plum pudding; sauce, trois étoiles cognac.
Baked custard, French plums, très Ordinaires.
Cheese omelette à la Rongbuk.
Tea, mixed biscuits, crystallized ginger.
Grace—anglaise.
July 24, 1924.
July 25 saw the beginning of the last stage in our journey,
and I think every one felt sorry that it was coming to a close.
We took a different route from that followed on the outward
march and camped a few miles short of the Natu La, at the
THE RETURN JOURNEY I87
beautifully situated Champetang bungalow. In one village
we passed through we saw hanging suggestively outside the
Depen's house the various implements of punishment for
evildoers: whips, thorny sticks, nailed batons and chains
for beating, small flat-faced bats for Smacking the cheek and
sole of the feet, and the usual large square wooden Chinese
collars of detention—altogether a most chastening sight.
The Natu La is on the boundary between Sikkim and
Tibet. It was very noticeable that the moment we crossed
it and entered British territory the forest track became an
efficient road, in parts built up and engineered like a railway
embankment. All day we passed through what must be
most magnificent country, but the monsoon was busy and
we could only see, as it were, a horizontal slice of it : the
tops of the gorges were lost in cloud, the bottoms were filled
with swirling mist. That night at Karponang the ponies
had a dreadful time with leeches. The place was swarming
with them. From the damp woodwork of the bungalow
alone we collected more than Hinky needed. While he was
busy bottling them we noticed dangling from behind his ear,
like an onyx pendant, a fine well-fed specimen : So that too
went in with the others. It is strange how often you may be
unaware of a leech’s presence even when it is drawing your
blood. Quite a large one may have been hanging on the back
of your neck for a long time before you are vaguely conscious
of something being there and put up your hand and find it.
Often when the boots were taken off at night they were found
to be a bloody mess inside—the unfelt work of small leeches
that had wormed their way through eyelet-holes and stockings.
They are strange creatures—blind, deaf, and without apparent
Senses, there they sit in the streaming forests poised on a
leaf waving their “tails '' about in the hope of touching some
passer-by. It Sounds to be a precarious mode of existence,
but is evidently one by which the species is able to thrive
exceedingly. What their sense organs are, how they scent
their prey, we hadn’t time to investigate, but it was obvious
that they could detect your presence. Those on the wood-
188 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
work of the bungalow became agitated and waved their tails
about every time we passed them closely.
Soon we were down into the hot steaming forest where
the cicadas, sitting on the bark, deafened one with their
strident notes—surely, all things considered, one of Nature’s
strangest noises. This zone, about the rice line, is one of
great luxuriance alike in fauna and in flora. Gorgeous
butterflies were flitting by on every side, but Hingston was
superior to their gaudy charms; they were already well
known and catalogued and therefore ceased to interest him.
Whereas the wonderful variety of bugs and hemiptera in
quaintest forms might well reveal new species, and of these
he welcomed as many as we could bring him. But though
Hinky ignored the painted scraps of life, they had a quixotic
effect on Geoff. He rode the forest paths doing battle all
the way: once nearly going over the khud in a magnificent
encounter with a fine Apollo.
At night in the forest bungalows the moths were attracted
by the lights and flickered across the whitened ceilings. This
was the signal for postprandial exercise. Mounted pick-a-
back upon each other’s shoulders, the top man armed with
cyanide bottle, we chased the moths around. Sometimes, in
order to reach the apex of the roof, we had to build a three-
man pyramid, which often collapsed just as the moth was
about to be secured. How we laughed and panted ' What
honest fun it was ; we were back at School again, and revelled
in the free good-fellowship !
Now we were getting back to the modern world, and as
we approached the Tea, the planters showed us every kindness
in their delightful homes, and the days sped all too fast. On
August 1, when only a few miles out from Darjeeling, we were
met by General Bruce and a fleet of cars to take us in. How
glad we were to see him looking as fit and being as cheery
as ever, and what a hearty, boisterous welcome he gave us
all His joviality infected every one as usual, and even sup-
ported us during the baneful attentions of the inevitable
Press photographer. Very tactfully the Sahibs were taken
THE RETURN JOURNEY 189
back severally from here to our head-quarters at the Mount
Everest Hotel, while a processional entry into Darjeeling
was arranged for the native personnel of the Expedition.
It was exactly what would most appeal to them. The pro-
cession was really an imposing affair, headed by the Police
Band. All the town was on holiday, and every one was in
the market-place to welcome them. We lent our servants
our ponies; some of the coolies borrowed others, the remainder
walked. The “make up ’’ of the whole thing we left entirely
in the hands of the men, and as the procession passed us We
noticed that some of the best fellows, the men who had gone
really high, were walking almost shyly in the rear, while some
of the less worthy rode almost ostentatiously in front—all
the world, all alike.
Everywhere there was great excitement and enthusiasm.
Her Excellency Lady Lytton made a little speech of welcome,
General Bruce replied, and the procession started off again ;
in fact the men liked “processing ” so much that it seemed
doubtful if they would ever stop. Every one was very
indulgent ; and I feel that anything that can be done to show
these Sherpa porters that we appreciate them is not too much.
They are splendid fellows, and it must always be remembered
that success in reaching the summit depends almost as much
on them as on the actual climbing party. Some of these
men have sprung from families living at 12,000–14,000 feet,
and have habitually crossed passes over 16,000 feet, and so
it comes about that when the Expedition has reached 20,000
feet, these fellows are only some 6,000 feet above their normal
habitat, while the European members are feeling the effect of
a change in altitude of the full 20,000 feet. Thus it is that it
is possible for them to carry a light load where a sahib can
only manage to stumble along unencumbered. It has been
Said that these men could easily reach the top if they them-
Selves really wished to do so. I do not believe it for one
moment. I think we are no less necessary to them than
they are to us—they have the acclimatized bodies, but lack
the right mentality; we have the will power, the necessary
190 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Spirit, but are woefully deficient in acclimatization. It is
just one example of the splendid team work that is so notice-
able a feature of these Everest Expeditions: we are mutually
dependent, and one day we shall help each other to the top.
I believe that some of the local Tibetans have an even better
natural equipment than our Sherpa men, and it might well
be worth making a strenuous effort to get a few of them to
go high. I believe they did not go above the Base Camp
in 1922; last year they went to Camp II, but would not go
beyond it, because that involved crossing the open glacier
with its crevasses, in each of which an evil spirit was supposed
to lurk. Nothing we could do or offer would induce them
to go on, though physically they were magnificently fit.
But Surely some way can be devised by the next expedition
of laying the evil spirits for them. Great lamas can give
charms potent against any ill—they gave the Tibetan soldiers
charms infallible against the English bullets during the 1903
campaign, and when the men complained that their comrades
were shot down without regard to talisman, the lamas decided
that the artful English must have changed the nature of the
bullets for which the charms were valid, and it was therefore
necessary for them to prescribe new ones. Such was the
faith of these simple people that this explanation did duty
again and again, and so the Sad game went on. Now great
lamas are not wholly without regard to mundane things,
and might be willing to help a future expedition, and it
seems to me that a similar charm, with equal faith, might
work much better against the glacier devils than did the
others against the rifle bullets. If these genii of the ice
were once laid, the only difficulty of this kind remaining would
be to appease the anger of the goddess on the mountain top.
She unfortunately resents all intrusion upon her Snowy
sanctuary. It will be remembered how the four porters
marooned on top of the North Col lay listening to the bark,
bark, barking of the watchdogs which guard her throne.
When we visited the Rongbuk Monastery on the way up
to the Base Camp we saw a new mural painting that had been
--- ---.
- - - - - -
* - - -
-
- -
:
i
s

THE RETURN JOURNEY 191
executed since the 1922 Expedition. It was, in a Way,
commemorative of that event : it was designed to record
the defeat of the party in their endeavour to reach the summit,
and in particular to call attention to the tragic accident when
seven coolies were swept to their death by an avalanche.
In the painting, there was the party being pitchforked down
the mountain-side by hoofed devils and sent spinning into
the colder hell. I like this idea of a twofold nether region.
They have the ordinary variety, the place of heat and flames,
almost identical with ours; but since the idea of fire is sug-
gestive of comfort, almost of bliss to the Tibetan mind,
the lamas have conjured up a second Gehenna, a place where
nought but ice and snow and perishing winds prevail. The
latter was destined for us.
But to return to Darjeeling before the Expedition finally
breaks up. However unlooked-for it may be, some word
of appreciation, of honest thanks, must be offered to the
residents of this hill station for the wonderful kindness and
hospitality they showed to us. For about a fortnight we
were engaged in settling up accounts and in bringing the
Expedition to an orderly conclusion, and throughout that
time we enjoyed a constant round of entertainment. To
particularize in such a matter may seem invidious, but certain
memories of that time stand out so prominently as to compel
some mention of them. First and foremost was the hospitality
in its widest sense, so freely offered by Her Excellency Lady
Lytton and by all at Government House. Nothing could
have been kinder, more in sympathy with our needs—
formality at a minimum ; welcome at the maximum. Then
there was the never-to-be-forgotten “Planters’ Dinner * on
August 9 and 10 ! The dignity of the first part, followed
without break or discord by the athletics of the second, could
only co-exist with perfect fellowship. It reminded me of
an adult—very adult—edition of the juvenile “tea and
games.” Yet it is said—and truly—that we take our pleasures
Sadly—yes, but not always Then, too, we had the great
privilege of being Honorary Members of the Planters’ and
192 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Gymkhana Clubs. There were delightful, strenuous hours
in the Canadian Tennis Courts, and other memorable ones,
not less strenuous, when some of us, under protest, made
Our first essay on roller skates. There was a pleasant after-
noon with Mr. English at the Museum, when Hirudo glacialis
(and other strange new beasts of very recent evolution) were
first revealed to the world of science Finally, there was
the generosity of Mr. Stephen, who not only housed the
Expedition in his two splendid hotels in Calcutta and Dar-
jeeling for as long as its members chose to stay, but who also
invited us all to a unique luncheon-party at his country
residence. Little wonder that we were loath to disband.
But, as ever, the best of friends must part, and so the different
members slipped away down the little mountain railway
from Darjeeling to the plains, and then, by various routes, to
home. The Mount Everest Expedition of 1924 was ended :
ended, that is, in an active state ; as a cherished memory it
will remain an undying possession for each of us to the last.
CHAPTER IX
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES +
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
Turning to the future, the difficulties which will confront
another expedition may be summarized as :
(i) The Weather.
(ii) Physical Mountaineering Difficulties.
(iii) Porter Organization.
(iv) The Physiological Problem and the Use of Oxygen.
(i) The Weather.—As regards the weather. I hope it may
be assumed that the weather met with in May of last year
was exceptional; the Darjeeling tea-planters said that for
at least twenty years no such weather had been known at
this season.
On the other hand, Odell has an interesting paper by a
man in Calcutta who has compiled very convincing statistics
to show that the weather in India runs in cycles of sixteen
years, and that we are now at the bottom of a wave corre-
sponding to a series of wet years; he claims that he foresaw
that last year’s Expedition was foredoomed to failure, and he
says that no new expedition should be undertaken until 1929.
But it must not be forgotten that the year 1924 would
have been sufficiently favourable if we could have foreseen
what was coming ; Camp TTI could have been established
and stocked, but not used for sleeping, and an advance to
Camp TV and onwards only undertaken with the beginning
of the spell of three weeks’ fine weather which begun on May
26. This would have sufficed, though it would be preferable
to have more margin ; the point is, can we—or can we not
* Reprinted from The Alpine Journal, May, 1925. By permission.
193 O
194 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
—reckon on three clear weeks of fine warm weather before
the monsoon ? I believe that normally we can.
There is one more point about the weather : it must
be recognized that during any spell of fine weather it is im-
possible to guarantee that within three days there may not
be a snowstorm or a particularly severe wind on the mountain
—in this respect the Himalayas do not differ from other
mountains—and so a party starting from the North Col
gambles on three suitable days running. If it encounters
bad weather it runs the risk, not only of temporary failure,
but also that its members may have shot their bolt for the
year; we are not all Odells to go repeatedly to 25,000 and
27,000 feet.
(ii) Physical Difficulties.—In all probability these exist
only in two places—the slopes leading to the North Col and
the approach to the final pyramid a little above 28,000 feet;
with these two exceptions the route is all easy and safe, except
perhaps after new Snow.
The approach to the North Col is simply a steep glacier,
and the route evidently varies from year to year; unexpected
difficulties may always confront a future expedition here.
The obvious route, the zigzag trough used throughout
the 1922 attempts, was avoided last year on account of the
dangers of avalanche, for it was here that the whole party
was swept away during the last attempt of that year, and
seven porters were killed.
The alternative route adopted in 1924 avoided the dangers
of the trough, but entailed some very laborious climbing and
carrying. -
The final steep traverse before arriving on the shelf,
where Camp IV has been pitched for two years, is unavoid-
able, and will always be a source of possible danger.
The approach to the final pyramid appears to be the only
other place entailing any danger, except perhaps when new
snow is lying. Here there are two possible routes; the
first, which Mallory always favoured, and which he followed
in his last climb, is by the crest of the North-east Arête.
THE FINAL PYRAM ID.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 195
There was always the doubt that a feature in this route,
which we called the second step, might cause considerable
difficulty; it presents a vertical face to the south and east,
but seemed surmountable, though evidently steep, to the
north. Mallory and Irvine were last seen on the top of
the step, and so must have climbed it ; but this is not quite
sufficient to guarantee this route, as they may well have
fallen from it on the descent.
From the point where they were last seen to a point some
300 feet below the summit it is all steep, but almost certainly
easier than the place they had just surmounted ; the last
300 feet is obviously easy.
The alternative route which I favoured, and which Somer-
vell and I followed, is roughly parallel to the crest, but 500
to 1,000 feet below it on the north face. This route becomes
steep and rather dangerous, though nowhere difficult—if I
may so differentiate—in, and just west of, the big couloir,
which cuts off the final pyramid from the great north-east
shoulder of the mountain. For a short distance, perhaps
200 feet, the going is very steep, and composed of overlying
slabs approximating to the general slope of the mountain ;
there is always apt to be a sprinkling of Snow here, which
conceals the footholds and constitutes the principal danger
of a slip, for, sheltered as it is from wind and Sun, the snow
is powdery (of the consistency of coarse salt) and nowhere
supports the foot.
About 200 feet above the point I reached, all of which
is of the steep slabby rock I have described, you emerge on to
the face of the final pyramid, and, as far as we could judge
from the Base Camp, there should be no further difficulty
up to the summit.
Thus by either route there is some steep climbing at about .
28,200 feet, steeper than anything on rock below ; this factor
must not be forgotten in estimating times both in ascending
and descending, for over portions of it it may be necessary
to move one at a time on a belayed rope.
(iii) Porter Organization.—Our principle was that, in the
196 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
early stages, parties of porters must always be escorted by
climbers on the glacier between Camps I and II, and between
Camps III and IV. When the route and the generally negli-
gible crevasses between Camps II and III became well
marked, and when the elaborate system of fixed ropes which
We used below Camp TV was established, such escort could be
dispensed with if necessary. On the North Arête of the
mountain, between Camps IV and VI, it has always been
considered justifiable to send down returning porters with-
Out eSCOrt.
Above the North Col the whole difficulty—a very real
and vital one—will always be the lowered vitality at high
altitudes and its effects on the moral of the porters; it becomes
necessary to stimulate their will-power to carry out what their
physical powers are certainly capable of.
(iv) The Physiological Problem and the Use of Oxygen.—
Is it possible to climb the last 1,000 feet without oxygen 2
After our experience at 27,000 feet in 1922, we were
Somewhat disappointed at the bad progress we made last
year near 28,000 feet. It was merely a question of pace :
our going-power seemed steadily to diminish, there were no
other symptoms; one could sit down and Smoke a pipe in
comfort, and my pulse after sitting for some minutes was
only some twenty above normal. The trouble was that
one went so miserably slowly uphill; downhill, on easy going,
one could always go all right.
As regards pace at this height, we have no satisfactory
figures to guide us, for though it is true that I only mounted
something under 100 feet and progressed horizontally about
200 yards in my last hour, this hour included the only com-
paratively difficult going we met.
I was precluded from mounting by a series of buttresses,
which forced me to traverse until I reached the big couloir :
I had twice to retrace my steps and select a new route, and
I was bothered by the powdery snow, and some trouble with
my eyesight (the beginnings of snow-blindness, which attacked
me the same evening).
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES I97
I was alone, unroped, and had to be exceedingly careful.
Finally, I was not in a fit condition to provide a test case,
as I had lost too much condition throughout the month of
May, and the same applied in a greater degree to Somervell
—owing to his throat trouble.
I myself believe that an average rate of 200 to 500 feet
an hour could be maintained for the last 1,000 feet of Mount
Everest by a fit party without oxygen.”
Is the oxygen apparatus, in its present form—viz. Com-
pressed gas in steel cylinders entailing a weight of 20 to 30
lb. on the climber's back—sufficiently beneficial to outweigh
the time, labour, and organization it involves 2 It is very
hard to say ; in its favour are:
(a) The experience of Finch and G. Bruce two years ago.
(b) A somewhat vague statement by porters that Mallory
and Irvine were going well up to 27,000 feet (though Mallory

* The following times are the quickest recorded for a party of two or
more. Some exceptionally quick times by a single climber are omitted.
With one exception all are without oxygen.
TJP. DOWN.
Difference Feet per
Stage. in Height. Hours. |Hour. Hours. | Feet per Hour.
III 21,200 3 500
to 1,500 ft. || with O, 1% 1,000
IV 22,700 23 564
IV 22,700 *—
to 2,600 ft. || 6 433 1} 2,000
V 25,300 (glissading)
V 25,300
to 1,500 ft. || 44 333 1} 857
VI 26,800
VI 26,800
to 1,300 ft. 6} 205 about 2% about 520
28,100
198 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
wrote to Odell that they had used very little oxygen up to
this point).
(c) A record I have discovered in the Camp diaries of a
quick climb from Camp III to IV by Mallory and Irvine in
which they are stated to have used oxygen.
(d) The very optimistic note from Mallory, written from
Camp VI, telling Noel to be on the look-out for them with
his cinema at the foot of the final pyramid at 8 a.m. This
surely must indicate that they had reason to anticipate
great things from the oxygen next day.
Against it are :
(a) The experience of G. Bruce and Odell, who both
obtained very little—if any—benefit from it up to 23,000
feet.
(b) The subsequent experience of Odell, who used it up
to 27,000 feet with similar results. He admits that he used
it very economically, but states that when he turned on the
full two litres it did him no more good.
(c) Mallory's and Irvine's actual appearance, at 12.50
p.m., at a point still below the foot of the final pyramid,
indicating a rate of progress but little better than Somer-
vell’s and mine without oxygen.
Personally, I think that this unaccountable delay was,
at least partly, due to some mechanical defect in the apparatus,
which postponed their start while Irvine was putting it right,
but I do not propose to touch on the mechanical question
here : this must be the subject for discussion by experts.
There you have the data about the oxygen : it remains
the unknown quantity—the aſ of Mount Everest.
Other physiological problems are those of food and
acclimatization.
There is no doubt that it is exceedingly difficult to hit
on the right form of food for high altitudes. It should be
palatable, for men will not eat enough of anything which is
not ; it should be so easily digestible as not to handicap the
climbers’ going-power for the next three hours, during the
process of digestion ; yet it must be sufficiently sustaining
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 199
to prevent a hollow feeling soon after it is eaten, to support
life for several days of severe exertion, and to offer resistance
against cold.
Of acclimatization we have learnt a good deal this year,
though we have, no doubt, much still to learn.
There appears to be a certain permanent acclimatization
which lasts over a period of at least two years, for there is
small doubt that those of the party who had been there
before adapted more readily than the new-comers.
The undoubted superiority of Mallory in pace and general
going-power over all of us, in both 1922 and 1924, may
have been partly due to his having a year’s start over the
rest.
I believe that everybody has a certain limit up to which
he improves under favourable conditions, and that this
limit varies from, say, 19,000 to 23,000 feet.
There is also no doubt that some men adapt faster than
others, and that some of those who adapt slowly prove the
strongest in the long run : Somervell in 1922 and Odell in
1924 are good examples of this.
For some, three weeks’ acclimatization at each advance
in altitude would be desirable—were it possible.
On the other hand, during five days at Camp III, in the
third week in May this year, when the weather conditions
were very bad, the whole party deteriorated so rapidly that
it became imperative to retreat ; the general ill-effects of
hardship, cold, and lack of sleep far outweighed the question
of acclimatization.
The difficulty will always be to strike a balance between
these conflicting considerations.
Solution.
I will now give you, as briefly as I can, my own suggestions
as to how the difficulties I have described may be dealt
with.
(i) The Weather.—The Meteorologicall)epartment at Simla
should be approached for any data as to :
200 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
(a) The probability of a cycle of unfavourable years in
the near future; for the reasons I have already given I do
not consider this so important as:
(b) Whether a spell of fine hot weather immediately
preceding the monsoon is normally to be expected.
If the answer to this latter question were in the affirmative,
it would be a great help to the leader of a future expedition
in making up his mind when to “drop the flag.”
With the same object in view, another possibility is
the provision of a wireless receiving set to accompany the
expedition, who would thus be enabled to receive messages
as to the progress of the monsoon. Last year we made
arrangements for such telegrams to be sent us both from
Simla and Colombo, but they inevitably arrived too late:
the first useful message we received met us at the Base Camp
just as we had finished for the year.
Armed with this knowledge, the leader of a future expedi-
tion should be able to avoid the exhausting process of
unnecessarily fighting severe weather conditions.
(ii) Physical Difficulties.—I would not advocate any
attempt to find an alternative route to the North Col. The
approach from the west via the main Rongbuk Glacier
may well be as liable to avalanche as the present route ;
it is more exposed to the danger of falling Stones, it entails
a climb of nearly 1,000 feet more, and both it and the camps
below would be exposed to the full force of the west wind.
Our experience of two years tends to show that the
1922 route, what I have called the trough, may probably
be used with safety until the advent of the true monsoon
and the soft south-east wind, for even after a new fall of
snow the hot sun and cold nights, which are characteristic
of the pre-monsoon north-westerly weather, soon render it
safe. An alternative route on the same side, like the one
used last year, should, if possible, be worked out to provide
a bolt-hole if necessary.
The final traverse should never be tackled from below
immediately after a fresh fall of Snow ; if it becomes necessary
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 201
to descend by it, a judicious use of ropes, fixed and other-
wise, one man only moving at a time, should make it
reasonably Safe.
As regards the route to be followed for the last 1,000
feet, I think that the experienced climbers who will lead
future attempts must form their own conclusions from their
reconnaissance of the ground and the data of last year's
experiences.
Eor myself I still incline to the lower route.
(iii) Porter Organization.—There is only one way of over-
coming the difficulty I have mentioned—that of inducing
porters to go to somewhere near their physical limit on their
highest day—and this is for a large proportion of the climbers
to acquire such influence over the porters that the latter
will follow them.
To do this the first essential is that they must learn at
least something of their language. I have learnt Something
of four Oriental languages, and I speak from experience
when I say that, given the necessary determination and
goodwill, much can be done between leaving England and
arriving at Rongbuk ; but I would go farther, and insist
that, with the aid of the London School of Oriental Languages,
of retired officers of Gurkha regiments, or some such means,
members of a future expedition should, before sailing from
England, acquire a foundation on which to build rapidly
when once they get among the hill folk.
In addition, every climber should know every porter
by name—here again I speak with certainty when I say that
it is perfectly easy to know fifty or sixty men by name in
a week Or two ; and more, not only must he know the men,
the men must know and trust him.
Without these fundamentals the small amount of leader-
ship required is impossible; surely I do not ask too much
when the success or failure of the whole expedition may—
nay, must—depend on this one link in the chain.
(iv) The Physiological Problem and Oaxygen.—As regards
the use of oxygen, the balance of probability is now that
202 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
men can reach the top without ; but it is by no means
certain. I do not think it would be justifiable to send an
expedition unequipped in this respect.
It must be for the experts—using Odell’s invaluable
experience—to rectify as far as possible the faults of last
year's apparatus. I believe there is little—if any—hope of
materially lightening it.
I would suggest that a future expedition would do well
to confine themselves to using it only above 27,000 feet,
for the acclimatization acquired in climbing to that height
without oxygen is the Surest Safeguard against serious effects
of a breakdown of the apparatus high up.
I would deprecate any attempt to influence beforehand
the decision of the leader of an expedition as to the extent
to which oxygen is to be used ; supply the best apparatus
that can be made, and leave the party a free hand whether
—or when—it is to be used.
Without oxygen the surmounting of the last 900 feet
resolves itself into a question of “time and space.”
With or without, I now consider it essential to sleep
two nights—and only two—above 23,000 feet ; to sleep
three nights above this height would entail impossibly big
intermediate camps.
I am quite satisfied that Camps V and VI can be pitched
250 and 500 feet higher, respectively; we have always
aimed at putting Camp VI just under the north-east shoulder,
at about 27,200 feet, but if a suitable site can be found nearer
the summit at this level it would be much better.
This would leave 1,800 feet for the last day against,
say, 1,300 covered by the non-oxygen party this year. This
party started at 6.40 a.m., having been delayed an hour
by an accident to a thermos flask. They turned back at
1 p.m. and reached Camp IV at 9.30 p.m.
I should say here that an early start in the Alpine sense
seems impossible on Mount Everest ; I can only suppose
that this is due to the lowered vitality of the early hours.
But assume a start at 5.30 a.m. and a return to Camp V
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 203
only; we save at least three hours in which to cover the
remaining 500 feet—up and down. This runs it very fine
indeed, but I am taking the rate of progress of this year's
party, and I think the pace ascending—but particularly
descending—should be considerably faster with a fitter
party.
The position of Camp VI will be the deciding factor.
The nearer it is to the summit the greater the chance of
success—obviously—but also the greater the risk that a
party, with the tempting goal so close, will postpone their
return until too late to reach safety. Leaders of future
climbing parties should keep a clear sense of their responsi-
bility in this respect.
As regards the food question, I can only suggest that
some keen biologist might be asked to tackle the matter
scientifically—it is worth all possible investigation—but I
am not hopeful of improving very much on what we had
last year.
Finally, as regards acclimatization and the conservation
of energy, I would take a leaf from Longstaff’s book and say,
if conditions are bad : “Go as often as possible to 20,000
feet—even to 23,000 feet—but do not stay there.”
Sleep no higher than you can sleep well, than the highest
point where you can to some extent enjoy your food, but
spend as long as possible at this height.
In any case, I would not advocate going higher than
23,000 feet, until it is necessary, for above that point most
people lose more in general condition than they gain in red
corpuscles.
It must be the aim of a future expedition to make Camp
III almost as comfortable as the Base Camp was this year;
it is an impossible ideal, but we can get very much nearer
it than we ever have before.
I have alluded to what Longstaff said about acclimatiza-
tion; I should like to pay a tribute to his remarkable insight
into the whole problem under discussion. In many other
respects his prognostications, made years before the 1921
204 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Expedition first reconnoitred the mountain, have been
proved accurate : the height of the snow-line on the northern
side of the range, the height of the Base Camp, the organiza-
tion and positions of intermediate camps, the composition
of the climbing party and the best type of porter, the minimum
rate of progress necessary to ensure success—in all these
matters he has been a true prophet, and I hope that a future
expedition will not fail to benefit by the advice and help
which he is always willing to give.
-
- ºn cheºnge Kampa.
zºº
- -
**** º º
º * * º * *
/ º z º.
* ºn
º
º
tº
PANORAMA or the Route to Mount Everest.
Drawn by Mr. D. Macpherson ºr the Mount Everest committee.
-----
/* *.
i. ac

PART II
MALLORY'S LETTERS
NoTE.—These letter diaries were written to Mrs. Mallory during the pro-
gress of the Expedition and have kindly been placed by her at the disposal
of the Mount Everest Committee.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
By GEORGE LEIGH MALLORY
I
HOTEL MOUNT EVEREST,
DARJEELING,
March 25, 1924.
These have been full days since we came up here on
Friday, and to-morrow, Wednesday, early we start for Kalim-
pong—so that our stay has been short enough, and much
taken up with packing and arrangements of one sort and
another. Norton has got the whole organization under his
hand, and we shall economize much time and money by
dumping some of our boxes en route ; all the stores for the
high camps have practically been settled already. The
party looks very fit altogether. We had a very hot journey
through India. The hot weather apparently came with a
rush this year just before we landed, and the temperature
must have been up to 100° a good part of the time we were
in the train, as it was reported to be 99° in Calcutta ; it’s
a grimy dusty business, and I was glad to get to the end of
our train journeying. I was feeling a bit short of sleep,
otherwise very fit. The only doubts I have are whether
the old ankle one way or another will cause me trouble.
Four of us walked up to Seneschal Hill yesterday afternoon
to see the magnolias—I was trying my new boots from
Dewberry; they are going to be good, but my right ankle
didn’t feel too happy.
The magnolias were magnificent—a better show than
last year—four different sorts, white and deep cerise pink
and two lighter pinks between—they do look startlingly
207
208 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
bright on a dark hillside. The country here is very dry at
present and a haze of dust blown up from the plains hangs
about. We haven’t seen the mountains until this morning
When Kanchen [Kanchenjunga] has very dimly made an
appearance. Somervell and Odell, besides the General, Geof-
frey Bruce, and Norton, etc., were here before us; it was
very nice to see Somervell again, and Odellis one of the best.
Really, it is an amazingly nice party altogether ; one of the
best is Hingston, our M.O., an Irishman, a quiet little man
and a very keen naturalist. The only one I don’t yet know
is Shebbeare, who belongs to the Forestry Department and
is said to be a particularly nice man ; he knows all about
trees and shrubs, which is a very good thing, but nothing
about flowers—so that we shall once more be without a real
botanist. -
To-morrow we go to Kalimpong all together, as before,
and then separate in two parties; I shall be with the second,
with Norton, Hingston, Irvine and Shebbeare, I believe.
Noel’s movements are independent.
The English mail should have come in yesterday, but
the ship was twelve hours late and we shan’t get it until
to-day and consequently will have precious little time for
answering.
II
RONGLI CHU,
March 29, 1924.
This is the great day of valley-ease and warmth and
languor and the delights of the lotus-eater, and I must write
to you here with my feet in the splashing stream and heaven
all about me as I look up. We started from Pedong this
morning—sloped easily down the 2,000 feet to the stream
where I bathed last time while Noel immortalized the event ;
there Irvine, Odell and I bathed, properly this time, even
finding a pool to dive into, and at length. Thence on ponies
up to Rheenok—you should be able to follow all this on
one of my old maps of Sikkim—where I made some attempts
MALLORY'S LETTERS 209
at photographing the remarkable houses, and thence, not
up over the pass by Ari to get here by the shortest way,
but contouring the hill until we could drop into this Valley
6 miles below the bungalow. It is a very lovely valley,
quite one of the best parts of Sikkim, and we had a good
walk up, quite energetically carrying heavyish rucksacks. I
was wearing my new boots for the first time for a whole
march and found them pretty comfortable, my ankle and
hip and all going quite well too, so that I quite CXpect by
the time we reach Phari I shall have ceased to think about
them. The weather is perfectly fine, but very hazy, Owing
to the great number of fires in the valleys. It is the custom
of the country to burn a good deal of undergrowth and
dead leaves in the forests in order to get better new grass
in the spring—but I can’t remember anything like so much
haze as this last year. Consequently we have had nothing
at all of a view all the way from Darjeeling, and the country
is looking more dry and dead than last year; it has, in fact,
been very dry. I hear there has been exceptionally little
Snow in Tibet and that the plains are already beginning to
look green—but this is hardly credible. Incidentally, there
are signs of a change of weather this afternoon—but then
we had a thunderstorm in Kalimpong which made absolutely
no difference
It has, apart from views, been a pleasant journey So far.
We started in motors for 6 miles from Darjeeling, and half-way
down the hill Norton, Hingston, Somervell and self had
breakfast with a tea-planter called Lister—it is a famous
tea-garden, I believe, and he certainly gave us to drink Orange
Pekoe of the most delicious flavour (a series of violent splashes
at this point). After that pleasant interval we took all the
short cuts, hurrying down to Tista Bridge, where we arrived
dripping and found our ponies; my pony which is to carry
me to Phari is quite a good beast—the best I have had at
this stage, and my saddle is comfortable, and I feel very
well off altogether ; we went straight up the hill on our ponies
and were in Kalimpong at 1.30 for tiffin.
P
210 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
At Kalimpong next day last time’s performances were
repeated—a “tamasha' for boy scouts and girl guides and
a wonderful little ceremony in the big schoolroom with all of
us on the platform singing the metrical version of Psalm crxi.
to the tune of the Old Hundredth, and prayers and speech-
making divinely mixed. Old Dr. Graham is really a wonder,
and if one were going to be a missionary one couldn’t do
better. He has between 600 and 700 children under his
charge, and does them well all round. When the old Scot is
short of money he goes down to Calcutta and collects a few
lakhs of rupees from the big business-men, who all know
and believe in him, and so his institutions flourish.
I think I told you the name of the second party, but
omitted Odell. Shebbeare the forest officer is an excellent
fellow. We went a little walk into the forest above Pedong
last evening and we saw quite close a very fine jungle cat,
about as high as Raven, but with the proportions of Agapanthus,
or rather perhaps of the other Westbrook cat, which it also
resembled in colour. Shebbeare didn’t get a very good view
of it and couldn’t tell me what it was ; but it is extraordinary
how it makes the whole forest seem alive to see a beast like
that. We couldn’t be a nicer party—at least I hope the others
would say the same ; we go along our untroubled way in
the happiest fashion.
Since I began writing the air has become unbearably
stuffy and a thunderstorm is brewing. The one crab about
this place is that there is no water supply which is at all
likely to be unpolluted—and so one drinks tea, but our tiffin-
tea has left me very thirsty and I long for a long lemon
squash or whisky-and-soda. You see how completely a
physical animal one has become.
I’m spending a certain amount of time and effort as we
come along learning Hindustani; it is very unsatisfactory
because the coolies themselves are SO bad at it, but I do find
already that I get on with them more easily. We shall be
very short of men who can speak to porters higher up.
I’m really enjoying myself now with a good holiday
MALLORY'S LETTERS 2II
feeling. To-morrow’s march is all up hill to Sedongchen,
and the next, still up to Gnatong (12,500), is the great rhodo-
dendron march, but only the very lowest will be in flower.
I have in mind another little detour, by way of variety,
from Kapup, diverging to the Natu La instead of by the Jelap
La as before.
III
YATUNG,
April 2, 1924.
It seems I ought to get off a letter to you to-morrow
morning in order to be certain of catching the mail. I
don’t know that I have a very great deal to tell you.
All goes well with me. The march from Sedongchen to
Gnatong was glorious, Kanchenjunga and his neighbours
appearing magnificently; I haven’t seen any distant mountain
view before from this part and we counted ourselves very
lucky. Gnatong (12,500 feet) was not so cold this time, though
the verandah was bunged up with Snow, and from there we
made two easy stages here, stopping the night in a little rest-
house an hour down this side of the Jelap La. Norton and I
walked up to the pass (14,500 feet) together and were pleased
to think that we felt fitter than last year. I certainly am
feeling very fit now. I sleep long and well and can walk as
fast as anyone. We have had a few good signs of spring—on
the Sikkim side a most lovely little primula flourishing from
9,000 to 11,000 feet, with the habit of our English primrose,
Only somewhat smaller and neater, and of a delicious crimson
colour; and Rhododendron falconeri, the big bright red
fellow, was flowering freely a bit lower. On this side we have
another primula, denticulata, paler in colour and of the
polyanthus type, very freely scattered over the meadows;
and we have our old friend Daphne, I know not what species.
The conifers too in this valley are all showing green.
It has been a wonderfully pleasant journey so far, with
bright sun and pleasant conditions altogether. And it has
been a very jolly company. We found the first contingent
212 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
here no less happy than ourselves. The General has not
been quite well and has stayed here to-day while Norton takes
On the first party. The slack day has been very pleasant.
I have had a long ramble with Irvine.
IV
ONE MARCH FROM PHARI,
April 7.
I stupidly didn’t write from Phari—not realizing that I
should probably have no chance of sending a letter back on
the way to Kampa. But it happens there may be a chance
to-morrow, so I will write a few lines in bed to-night. It
isn’t easy to write because the site of my tent dips slightly
towards the head of my bed and no amount of propping seems
quite to overcome the difficulty. If I had my bed the other
way round my head would be at the mouth of the tent and
this would create a difficulty about light; besides, it is snowing
slightly and may snow more, and though I don’t mind having
my feet Snowed upon for the sake of fresh air, I am unwilling
to have my head Snowed upon during the night. As it is
my tent is a wonderfully comfortable spot. The little table
made for me by our friend in Maid's Causeway is at my bedside
and on it my reading-lamp : I expect I shan’t always be
able to have oil for this, but so long as I can I shall burn
it. Did I tell you about the Whymper tents : We each
have one to himself: they have two poles at each end, a
much more convenient plan than the other with single poles.
A ground-sheet is sewn into the sides so that draught and
dust are practically excluded if one pitches in the right
direction ; and, a great blessing, the tent has plenty of pockets.
Moreover, it is by no means small—7 feet square or very
near it. The mess-tent also is a great improvement on
last year’s : there is ample head room, and the mess-servants
can pass round without hitting one on the head with the dishes;
the tables are wooden (three-ply wood varnished), and it is
supposed that messes will be wiped off without difficulty;
and they fit conveniently round the poles. The lamps, which
MALLORY'S LETTERS 213
burn paraffin vapour (assisted by some clockwork arrange-
ment inside), are also good and an enormous improvement
on the dim hurricane lamps used last time. In short, a certain
amount of care and forethought has made us much more
comfortable without spending a great deal of money.
I must tell you how wonderfully fit I have been these
last days, much better at this stage I’m sure than either in
’21 or ’22. I feel full of energy and strength and walk up
hill here already almost as in the Alps; I sleep long and
well; my digestion is good, and in short I haven’t a trouble
physically, unless one may count my ankle, of which I’m often
conscious, but the leg seems perfectly strong and I’m sure
it won’t let me down.
The General is not coming with us to Kampa Dzong
(last year's route), but in six days instead of four, by another
way which will allow him to camp lower. It is difficult to
know how much to make of his trouble ; I think it is 10 to 1
he will be all right.
I can’t write much more in this position and my arms are
getting cold. I was going to tell you something about our
plans, but I will leave that until next letter. Tibet is much
warmer this year, though this afternoon was pretty cold.
V
KAMPA DzoNG,
April 12.
As I sit in my tent writing I have at my side a pot of
grease into which I occasionally dip my finger and then rub
a little on to the Sorer parts of my face. The wind and sun
between them have fairly caught us all these last three days.
Norton says that he was accused by his people after the
last Expedition of having acquired a permanent dint in his
nose, and he is determined to prevent the samething happening
again—but how to do it 2 Personally I limit my desire in
that direction to keeping my nose the same size as usual;
I don’t like to feel it swollen with sunburn. Somervell,
who started with a complexion tanned by Indian suns, is
214 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
now exactly the colour of a chestnut, and, as he greases
freely, no less shiny. Beetham so far has the best beard,
but then he had a start as he didn’t shave after Kalimpong,
and I’m inclined to back Geoffrey Bruce against him in the
long run, as his will be blacker. The face with greatest
number of flaky excrescences and crevasses is undoubtedly
that of Hazard, and the underlying colour in his case is
vermilion.
In my last letter I told you how well I was. But I have
not been altogether well since then—something wrong with
my tummy—a slight colitis or something of the kind. Conse-
quently I have felt very feeble, and as I am strictly dieted
have little to sustain me beyond biscuits and jam. We shall
have two clear days here and I shall have time to get better,
and in fact I am already much better and haven’t the least
doubt I shall be perfectly strong again when we are on the
IſlC)Ve OIO, C6, ITO Ore.
Though we have almost exactly followed our tracks of
1922 from Phari to Kampa, it has been a very different journey
—not only different companions and incidents, but a rather
different Tibet. The second march from Phari landed us
half a mile beyond the “Blizzard Camp ’’ of 22; we had
no blizzard this time, but neither had we the bright high
lights of Tibet. Chomulhari, a mountain which impresses
one more each time one sees it, was veiled at first in thin
grey mist, and then apparently caught it properly from
the north ; we were continually threatened at the other
side of the great Tuna Plain and had a nasty wind in our
faces, but escaped worse. I can’t tell you how much I am
interested by the weather—it's so difficult to make out what
causes it, or what the signs may mean, or how it is to be
compared with what we experienced in ’21 and 22. This
day I’m talking of was more like a day during the monsoon ;
in the evening smoky grey clouds were clinging to the hillsides
as though the air were laden with moisture ; and yet all
the weather reports from India have shown a deficiency of
moisture in Bengal. One of the novelties this year is our
*(c1）， Hsi NI） N/m) ssºlnilno， o NozGI va w v>I

MALLORY'S LETTERS 215
mess-tent, Norton’s special child. It goes on in advance
on a mule so as to be ready for us when we arrive—at least
that is the idea ; on the night I’m speaking of Some of us
were the first to arrive in camp and set to work pitching
our ample green marquee. The first procedure is to lay
down a string in the chosen spot marking the perimeter
of the pegs; a place is marked on this string against which
each peg has to be driven in-driving pegs into stony ground
at these altitudes makes one puff ; the floor, a large sheet
of green canvas, is placed in the correct position with the
line of pegs and upon this the tent is hoisted. I must Say
it is a great success. It has perpendicular sides about 4
feet high below the slant of the roof and consequently there
is ample headroom. The floor dimensions I should guess at
18 feet by 9 feet. The mess waiters have plenty of room to
pass behind us. The tables, which are none of your gim-crack
canvas-topped X pattern or other, but pukka wooden tables
with three-ply wooden tops and screw-in legs, are 2 feet 6
inches square, made to fold into half that size, and are arranged
in series down the middle of the tent—and then, cunningest
device of all, there is a piece to go round the pole in the
centre and fitting on to two half-tables, so that no gap is
left. We have no tablecloths, as it was thought that our
tables duly wiped would prove a cleaner way.
On the night of the second march from Phari (i.e. April
8), having pitched our tent, we lay about in it waiting the
arrival of (1) the cooks, (2) the yaks. The former, whose
business it is to go on ahead and have a meal ready if possible,
Or as Soon as may be, had lost themselves on this occasion.
The yaks are in very poor condition and go even slower than
I remember ; the men with them (about 300 beasts) were
too few, so that loading up was very slow (two to three
hours) in the morning, and one could hardly expect the bulk
of the animals at the end of a long march before nightfall.
So there we sat, or rather lay, out of the wind in our green
tent, chatting—chaffing, until gradually one by one nearly
every one had a snooze ; and as they lay there snoozing with
216 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
faces rendered ghastly by the green light they looked like a
collection of corpses.
The night of the 8th was decidedly chilly—the wind got
up from an unexpected quarter and blew violently into our
tents ; the minimum temperature was 4°. I should have
told you, however, that before we turned in we were cheered
by a clear view of Chomulhari. The point of Chomulhari
is the way it dominates the plain. The view of it from
Do-chen reproduced in The Reconnaissance gives you some
idea of what I mean ; but coming across this way to Kampa
Dzong we don’t go so far north, and the farther you go from
the mountain the more its great wall of rock presents itself
as the barrier of the world in which you are. Good-bye to
Chomulhari—I should like to have a whack at him one of
these days.
The march of the 9th corresponded with that of 1922,
except that we stopped about 4 miles short of our last time’s
camp, but it was a bitter journey; the wind blew in our
faces all day, often very strongly and terribly cold, and the
sky was white or overcast and the sun had no warmth.
And I had a bad tummy; I walked almost the whole way
to keep warm, and it was very tiring work under those
conditions. We camped in a good spot looking up nullah
to Pau Hunri. The wind died down in the evening; the
stars were bright, and the temperature fell to 2° below zero.
Beetham was up fifteen times in the night.
The 10th was supposed to be a short march and a com-
paratively short day. The yakmen had had enough of it
on the previous day, and consequently we made a very late
start, 10.45 I think. It was supposed that if we didn’t stop
in last time’s camp, 4 to 5 miles farther on, we should be
able to stop 3 miles farther on again. However, no water
was met with for another 10 miles. We went on and on over
the wide plain sloping upwards; in the distance at last we
saw a little cloud of smoke and a little later some flash of
bright green near it—the smoke was from our cook’s fire
and the green spot was our mess-tent, which we reached
MALLORY'S LETTERS 217
towards sundown; and then turning to look back towards
the east I saw the black battalions of yaks still a long way
off, and beyond them in the distance once more across the
plain, nearly 40 miles away, the great wall of Chomulhari,
appearing as though the spurs of Pau Hunri, which we had
crossed with so much labour, had no existence. A beautiful
camp this one with a velvet-sided hill to the South of us,
and to the north a long line of hills near at hand, while
the snowy side of Chomiomo appeared through a gap ; and
a good night, not so cold.
On the 11th to Kampa ; a pleasant and easy march
with much looking at Snow-mountains, Chomiomo and
Ranchenjunga principally. Everest was not clear as we
came down to Kampa, though we could make out where
it was.
April 14. Yesterday we had the news that the General
is not coming on. The possibility had been in the back
of our minds since Yatung. We are all very sorry for him.
We’ve lost a force, and we shall miss him in the mess.
Meanwhile Norton takes command. He has appointed
me second-in-command in his place and also leader of the
climbers altogether. I’m bound to say I feel some little
satisfaction in the latter position.
I’ve been very busy the last two days formulating a plan
of attack to be discussed as a commentary on Norton’s
plan, and we have just been having a general powwow about
the two schemes. I don’t know whether I told you anything
about this before. Roughly Norton proposes (a) two without
oxygen establish Camp V at 26,500 and sleep there. Next
day they go on and get as near as possible to the summit,
partly by way of reconnaissance, partly by way of taking
the chance if it exists of getting to the top.
(b) The day they go on a party of three with oxygen
come up to V and are there to receive the first two, and
themselves go on next day.
The valuable points in this scheme are: (1) that the oxygen
party should not this way be let down by their load failing
218 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
to arrive at V; (2) that one attempt supports the other.
The weakness, I think fatal weakness, is that you spend
two men making an attempt without the best chances of
Success, the best chance gasless being with two camps above
Chang La ; from the point of view of making the best possible
gasless attempt supposing the first gas attempt fails two men
have been wasted.
We had a very useful and amicable discussion of various
points arising from these two plans and hope to get something
settled by Tinki.
We are on the eve of resuming our march. The worst
news is about Beetham, who has not yet properly recovered
from dysentery and is a very weak man. It is not yet decided
whether we shall send him down to Lachen to-morrow.
If he comes on and gets bad and Somervell (in the absence
of Hingston with Bruce) has to take him back we shall have
lost two of the best and be left without a medical officer,
a very Serious position. Beetham is just on the turn ; but
even if he is going to get better up here it might pay better
to send him down at once with a fair prospect of his rejoining
us at the Base Camp about May 8 to 10.
This letter is full of news and very impersonal. Now
about myself. I was able to feel definitely this morning that
my trouble has passed. The tenderness in my gut is no longer
sensitive, like an old bruise rather, and I feel strong and
full of energy and myself, and I haven’t the least doubt I
shall remain fit : I shall take every care to do so. The warm
pleasant days here have done us all good.
I’m happy and find myself harbouring thoughts of love
and sympathy for my companions. With Norton, of course,
I shall work in complete harmony; he is really one of the
best. I read little what with Hindustani words and Sherpa
names to learn, but I have occasional hours with Keats’
letters or the Spirit of Man, which give perhaps more pleasure
here than at home. I have had no mail since I last wrote.
If the English mail had been sent off as soon as it reached
Phari we should have received it by now ; but the arrangement
MALLORY'S LETTERS 219
is for the runner to come through and return so as to fit
the out mail to England (a very bad arrangement on the
surface) and consequently we shan’t get our letters before
we get to Tinki. I’ve written to no one but you this
time. Please do what you can—at all events Write to my
people.
VI
TINKI DZONG,
April 17, 1924.
This is only a hurried line at the end of a full day—to
tell you : (1) that my tummy is in perfect Order again, and
I feel as fit as possible. It was a funny go altogether and
quite inexplicable. Naturally there was a small appendicitis
scare as the tenderness was on the right side, but Somervell
was practically sure from the start that I was free from
that.
(2) Beetham came on with us. It was Somervell’s decision
on the very morning of leaving Kampa Dzong—that is to
say Somervell had to decide that Beetham would get better;
and no doubt he is right. But it is one thing to have no
more dysentery and another to get really fit again after all
that when living at this altitude. At present Beetham looks
years older, in much the same way as Raeburn did in ’21,
only at a younger stage and has quite lost all kick, and there
was no one more energetic earlier.
(3) I’ve had a brain-wave—no other word will describe
the process by which I arrived at another plan for climbing
the mountain :
(a) A and B with 15 porters (about), starting from IV
(North Col), establish V, building emplacements for 4 tents
at about 25,500, and descend.
(b) C and D, gasless party, go to V with another 15 porters,
of whom 7 carry loads, and descend, the other 8 go up without
loads, practically speaking, and sleep.
(c) C and D proceed to establish a Camp VII at 27,300
(about) with these 8 porters carrying up 6 loads.
220 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
(d) E and F, gas party, on the same day as (c) start with
10 porters (about) from IV, go without loads to V and from
that point E and F, using oxygen, they take on the stores
and gas previously dumped at V about 1,000 feet higher to
VI at 26,500.
(e) Then the two parties start next morning and presum-
ably meet on the summit.
You will readily perceive the chief merits of this plan;
the mutual support which the two parties can give each
other; the establishment of camps without waste of reserve
climbers (A and B will not have done so much that they
can’t recover); the much better chance this way of establish-
ing VI without collapse of porters. And then if this go
fails we shall be in the best possible position to decide how
the next attempt should be made ; four climbers we hope
will be available and the camps either way will be all
ready.
This plan has such great advantages over all others
that Norton has taken it up at Once and this evening we
had another powwow and every one has cordially approved.
I’m much pleased about this, as you may imagine—if only
for this it seems worth while to have come. It is impossible
yet to say who the parties will be. Norton and I have talked
about it ; he thinks Somervell and I should lead each one of
these two parties; he puts himself in my hands as to whether
he should be one of them—isn’t that generous 2 We shall
have to judge as best we can of people's fitness when we
reach the Base Camp. Either Odell or Irvine must be of
the gas party.
We have stayed one day here for transport, as against
three last year when Longstaff was ill; and we hope only
to stay one day at Shekar, and so we should be two or three
days up at the Base Camp. -
No mail yet—one should have arrived to-day. I didn’t
tell you that I bought a pony at Kampa Dzong, a very good
animal, though too thin.
MALLORY'S LETTERS 221
VII
CHIBLUNG,
April 19, 1924.
I don’t know whether you will easily find this place on the
map. We have come north from Tinki, avoiding unpleasant
customers at Chushar and Gyanka Nampa, and this valley is
divided from that in which Rong Kong lies by a low range
of hills. We are encamped just at the corner of the Chiblung
Chu; Sanghar Ri and the ridge where Somervell and I
climbed in 1922 is our view to the west.
To-day, at last, an English mail has reached us.
Rarma Paul, who brought our mail, also brought news of the
General, whom he left in Phari; he must be pretty ill still
as he was unable to walk and was to be carried down to
Chumbi; Hingston will accompany him to Gangtok and
should rejoin us at the Base Camp about the middle of May.
Meanwhile Beetham gets on slowly and can’t be said to have
got rid of dysentery yet, let alone picking up after it—however,
I think he’s on the mend.
I heard from Mary to-day with news of the weather in
Colombo, and it looks as if the earliest breath of the monsoon
is a fortnight early 1 But that doesn’t necessarily mean much.
The bad sign is the weather here, which is distinctly more
unsettled than in '22, and the last two nights have been
unhealthily warm. To-day we have been in a regular storm
area, though no rain or Snow has actually fallen here.
April 24 at SHEKAR DZONG.
I’ve left it rather late to go on with this letter. That
is partly because one way or another I have been spending
a good many spare moments on the elaboration of our plans.
The difficult work of allotting tasks to men has now been
done—Norton and Iconsulted and he made a general announce-
ment after dinner two days ago. The question as to which
of the first two parties should be led by Somervell and which
by me was decided on two grounds: (1) On the assumption
that the Oxygen party would be less exhausted and be in the
position of helping the other, it seemed best that I should use
222 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Oxygen and be responsible for the descent. (2) It seemed more
likely on his last year's performance that Somervell would
recover after a gasless attempt to be useful again later.
It was obvious that either Irvine or Odell should come with
me in the first gas party. Odell is in charge of the gas, but
Irvine has done the principal engineering work on the appara-
tus—what was provided was full of leaks and faults and he
has practically invented a new instrument, using up only
a few of the old parts and cutting out much that was useless
and likely to cause trouble ; so Irvine will come with me.
He will be an extraordinarily stout companion, very capable
with the gas and with cooking apparatus.
Norton, if he is fit enough, will go with Somervell, or,
if he seems clearly a better goer at the moment, Hazard.
Beetham is counted out for the moment, though he’s getting
fitter. Odell and Geoffrey Bruce will have the important
task of fixing Camp V at 25,500.
The whole difficulty of fitting people in so that they
take a part in the assault according to their desire or ambition
is so great that I can’t feel distressed about the part that
falls to me. The gasless party has the better adventure,
and as it has always been my pet plan to climb the mountain
gasless with two camps above the Chang La it is naturally
a bit disappointing that I shall be with the other party.
Still, the conquest of the mountain is the great thing, and
the whole plan is mine and my part will be a sufficiently
interesting one and will give me, perhaps, the best chance
of all of getting to the top. It is almost unthinkable with
this plan that I shan’t get to the top ; I can’t see myself
coming down defeated. And I have very good hopes that
the gasless party will get up ; I want all four of us to get
there, and I believe it can be done. We shall be starting
by moonlight if the morning is calm and should have
the mountain climbed if we’re lucky before the wind is
dangerous.
This evening four of us have been testing the oxygen
apparatus, and comparing the new arrangements with the
MALLORY'S LETTERS 223
old. Irvine has managed to save weight, 4 or 5 lb., besides
making a much more certain as well as more convenient
instrument. I was glad to find I could easily carry it up the
hill even without using the gas, and better, of course, with
it. On steep ground where one has to climb more or less the
load is a great handicap, and at this elevation a man is better
without it. The weight is about 30 lb., or rather less. There
is nothing in front of one’s body to hinder climbing, and the
general impression I have is that it is a perfectly manageable
load. My plan will be to carry as little as possible, go fast
and rush the summit. Finch and Bruce tried carrying too
many cylinders.
I’m still very fit and happy. Tibet is giving us many
beautiful moments. With these abnormal weather condi-
tions it is much warmer than in 22 and the whole journey
is more comfortable. It is nice having one’s own pony—
mine is a nice beast to ride, but he's not in good condition,
and to-day has had a nasty attack of colic ; however, he’ll
have a long holiday to come soon and I hope he’ll fatten
up and arrive fit and well in Darjeeling, where I shall
sell him.
Only four marches, starting to-morrow morning, to the
Rongbuk Monastery We’re getting very near now. On
May 3 four of us will leave the Base Camp and begin the
upward trek, and on May 17, or thereabouts, we should
reach the summit. I’m eager for the great events to
begin.
Now I must say good night to you and turn into my
cosy sleeping-bag, where I shall have a clean nose sheet
to-night, one of the two you made to fix with patent fasteners.
Considering how much grease my face requires and gets, that
device has been very useful.
The telegram announcing our success, if we succeed, will
precede this letter, I suppose : but it will mention no names.
How you will hope that I was one of the conquerors And
I don’t think you will be disappointed.
224 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
VIII
RONGBUK BASE CAMP,
April 30, 1924.
We’ve had unexpected notice of a home-bound mail
to-morrow and I’ve no letter ready. We arrived here only
yesterday, and I have been very busy ever since, the reason
for this is in part that we have arranged for our army of
Tibetan coolies to carry our loads up the glacier to No. II
Camp : 150 have actually gone up to-day; consequently
We have had a great rush getting our loads ready to go up.
My special concern has been with the high-climbing stores
and provisions for high camps. Yesterday morning as the
animals arrived here I got hold of the boxes I wanted—most
of which I knew by sight—from among the feet of the donkeys
and yaks and had them carried to a place apart. So I was
able to get ready thirty loads, apart from food stores, yesterday
afternoon. Later Norton and I had a long powwow about
the whole of our plan as affects the porters. It is a very
complicated business to arrange the carrying to the high
camps while considering what the porters have been doing
and where, during the previous ten days, so as to have sufficient
regard to their acclimatization and fitness. Further, one has
to consider the fitting up of Camp III, which will still be
going on after we have begun the carrying to TV ; the accom-
modation at the various camps; and, finally, the escorting
of porters from III upwards. However, I have made a plan
for the porters which fits in with that previously made for
climbers, and though a plan of this kind must necessarily
be complicated it allows for a certain margin, and even a
bad day or two won’t upset our apple-cart. Irvine and I
with Beetham and Hazard start from here on May 3, and
after resting a day at Camp III the last two will establish
Camp IV while Irvine and I have a canter up to about 23,000,
up the east ridge of Changtse, partly to get a better look at
camping-sites on the mountain and partly to have a trial
run and give me some idea of what to expect from Irvine.
Beetham and Hazard, two days later, will escort the first lot
MALLORY'S LETTERS 225
of loads to IV; Odell and Geoffrey Bruce the second, estab-
lishing Camp V on the following day; Norton and Somervell,
and lastly Irvine and self follow ; Irvine and I will get two
or three days down at Camp I meanwhile. s
The Rongbuk Valley greeted us with most unpleasant
weather. The day before yesterday and the following night,
when we were encamped outside the Rongbuk Monastery,
a bitterly cold wind blew, the sky was cloudy, and finally we
woke to find a snowstorm going on. Yesterday was worse, with
light snow falling most of the day. However, to-day has
been sunny after a windy night and the conditions on Everest
have gradually improved until we were Saying to-night that
it would have been a pleasant evening for the mountain.
It is curious that though quite a considerable amount of
Snow has fallen during these last few days and the lower slopes
are well covered, the upper parts of Everest appear scarcely
affected—that is a phenomenon we observed often enough in
1922, and notably on the day when we made the first attempt.
I shall be busy with details of personal equipment amongst
other things these next two days. But I also hope there’ll be
a mail from you and time to send letters and think of you at
home, and perhaps write you another letter, though the
Lord knows when the next mail will go away from here.
We continue to be a very pleasant party—Beetham has
had a truly marvellous recovery, but I can’t quite believe
in his being really strong yet, though he makes a parade of
energy and cheerfulness, and I’m a little doubtful about his
being one of the first starters.
Sorry to write so poor and hurried a letter. I’m very
fit—perhaps not just so absolutely a strong goer as in ’21,
but good enough, I believe—and anyway I can think of no one
in this crowd stronger, and we’re a much more even crowd
than in '22, a really strong lot, Norton and I are agreed.
It would be difficult to say of any one of the eight that he
is likely to go farther or less far than the rest. I’m glad the
first blow lies with me. We're not going to be easily stopped
with an organization behind us this time.
Q
226 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
IX
May 11.
Now I must give you a brief record of the days that
have passed since leaving the Base Camp. It has been a
Very trying time, with everything against us. The porters
have seemed from the first short of acclimatization and up
against it.
May 3. Irvine, Odell, Hazard and self to Camp I. Half
the porters lagged badly. Having added a good deal of
stuff on their own account to what we had given them to
carry they had big loads.
May 4. I decided to leave five loads not urgently required
at Camp I and have five men to carry all the porters’ blankets,
etc. The result was good and the men must have gone
well. Irvine and I had gone ahead and reached Camp II
at about 12.30 ; we had hardly finished a leisurely tiffin
when the first porters arrived. Camp II looked extraordin-
arily uninviting, although already inhabited by an N.C.O.
and two others in charge of the stores (150 loads or so) which
had already been carried up by Tibetans. A low irregular
wall surrounded a rough compound, which I was informed
was the place for the Sahibs' tents, and another already
covered by the fly of a Whymper tent was the home of an
N.C.O. The Sahibs' compound was soon put sufficiently
in order; two Whymper tents were pitched there for the four
of us, while a wonderful brown tent of Noel's was pitched
for him. No tents were provided here for porters: the
intention was to build comfortable huts or “Sangars,” as
we call them, using the Whymper flys for roofs, but no
sangars had yet been built, and accommodation for twenty-
three men is not so easily provided in this way. However,
I soon saw that the ground would allow us to economize
walls, and Irvine and I with three or four men began build-
ing an oblong sangar, the breadth only about 7 feet ; other
men joined in after resting. It is an extraordinary thing
to watch the conversion of men from listlessness to Some
spirit of enterprise; a very little thing will turn the scale :
MALLORY'S LETTERS 227
on this occasion the moving of a huge stone to form one corner
started the men's interest, and later we sang ! And so these
rather tired children were persuaded to do something for
their comfort ; without persuasion they would have done
nothing to make life tolerable. Towards 3 p.m. Odell and
I (Irvine seemed tired after prodigious building efforts)
went to reconnoitre next day’s march over the glacier. We
began by going along the stones of the true left bank, the
way of 1922, but the going was very bad, much more broken
than before. To our left on the glacier we could see the
stones of a moraine appearing among the great ice pinnacles.
We gained this by some amusing climbing, retraced our
steps a little way along it towards Camp II, and then on
the far side reached a hump from which the whole glacier
could be seen rising to the south ; from a point quite near
us it was obvious there could be no serious obstacle, and
that point we saw could be gained in a simple way ; it only
remained therefore to make a good connection with Camp II.
We followed easily down the moraine, which is a stony trough
between high fantastic ice pillars and a beautiful place,
and just as we were nearing camp found a simple way through
the pinnacles, so in an hour and a half the first most difficult
part of the way from II to III had been established.
May 4 to 5. An appalling night, very cold, considerable
Snowfall and a violent wind.
May 5. Result : signs of life in camp very late. The
first audible one in camps up to and including II is the blow-
ing of yak-dung fire with Tibetan bellows.
The men were an extraordinarily long time getting their
food this morning. The N.C.O. seemed unable to get a
move on, and generally speaking an Oriental inertia was in
the air. It was with difficulty in fact that the men could
be got out of their tents, and then we had further difficulty
about loads; one man, a regular old soldier, having possessed
himself of a conveniently light load, refused to take a heavier
one I wanted taken instead. I had to make a great show
of threatening him with my fist in his face before he would
228 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
comply, and so with much difficulty about it and about
what should be left behind in the way of coolie rations and
blankets and cooking-pots, and the degree of illness of those
reported sick, we didn’t get fairly away until 11 a.m.
Now, making a new track is always a long affair compared
to following an old one, and on this occasion snow had fallen
in the night. The glacier which had looked innocent enough
the evening before was far from innocent now. The wind
had blown the higher surfaces clear. The days, I suppose,
had been too clear for melting and these surfaces were hard,
Smooth, rounded ice, almost as hard as glass and with never
a trace of roughness, and between the projecting lumps lay
the new powdery snow. The result of the conditions was
much expenditure of labour either in making steps in the
snow or cutting them in ice, and we reached a place known
as “The Trough,” a broken trough in the ice, 50 feet deep
and about one-third of the way up, knowing we should have
all that we could do to reach Camp III. We followed along
in the trough some way, a lovely warm place, and then
came out of it into the open glacier where the wind was
blowing up the snow maliciously. The wind luckily was
at our backs until we rounded the corner of the North Peak,
and then we caught it blowing straight at us from the North
Col. As the porters were now nearly exhausted and feeling
the altitude badly our progress was a bitter experience. I
was acting as lone horse, finding the best way, and conse-
quently arrived first in camp. It was a queer sensation,
reviving memories of that scene with the dud oxygen
cylinders piled against the cairn which was built to com-
memorate the seven porters killed two years ago. The whole
place had changed less than I could have believed possible,
seeing that the glacier is everywhere beneath the stones.
My boots were frozen hard on my feet, and I knew we could
do nothing now to make a comfortable camp. I showed
the porters where to pitch their tents at 6.30 p.m., got hold
of a rucksack containing four Unna cookers, dished out
three and Meta for their cooking to the porters and one
MALLORY'S LETTERS 229
to our own cook; then we pitched our own two Meade
tents with doors facing about a yard apart for sociability.
The porters seemed to me very much done up, and con-
sidering how cold it was even at 6 p.m. I was a good deal
depressed by the situation. Personally I got warm easily
enough. Our wonderful Kami produced some sort of a hot
meal, and I lay comfortably in my sleeping-bag. The one
thing I could think of for the porters was the high-altitude
sleeping-sacks (intended for Camp IV and upwards), now
at Camp II, which I had not ordered to come on next day
with the second party of porters (two parties A and B each
of twenty had been formed for these purposes, and B were
a day behind us). The only plan was to make an early
start next morning and get to Camp II in time to forestall
the departure of B party. I remember making this resolve
in the middle of the night and getting up to pull my boots
inside the tent from under the door. I put them inside
the outer covering of my flea-bag and near the middle of
my body—but of course they remained frozen hard and I
had a tussle to get them on in the morning. Luckily the
sun strikes our tents early—6.30 a.m. or a little later at
Camp III, and I was able to get off about 7. I left directions
that half the men, or as many less as possible, should come
one-quarter of the way down and meet the men coming
up so as to get the most important load to Camp III.
I guessed that B party, after a cold night, would not
start before 9 a.m., and as I was anxious if possible to find a
better way over the glacier I wasted some time in investiga-
tions and made an unsatisfactory new route, so that it was
after 8.30 when I emerged from the trough, and a little farther
on I saw B party coming up. It was too late to turn them
back. I found some of them had resolved they would not
be able to get to Camp III and go back to Camp II the same
day and consequently increased their loads with blankets,
etc., determining to sleep at Camp III. This was the last
thing I wanted. My chief idea at the moment was to get
useful work out of B party without risking their moral or
230 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
condition as I saw we were risking that of A. So after
dispatching a note to Noel at III conducted B party slowly
up the glacier. After making a convenient dump and sending
down B party I got back to Camp III early in the afternoon,
Somewhat done and going very slowly from want of food
at the last. In camp nothing doing. All porters said to
be sick and none fit to carry a load. Irvine and Odell
volunteered to go down to the dump and get one or two
things specially wanted, e.g. Primus stoves, which was
done. The sun had left the camp some time before they
returned. A very little wall-building was done this day,
notably round the N.C.O.'s tent, otherwise nothing to improve
matters. The temperature at 5 p.m. (we hadn’t thermom-
eters the previous night) was observed to be 2° F.—30° of
frost an hour before sunset ; under these conditions it is
only during the Sunny, windless hours that anything to
speak of can be done ; this day there were such hours, but
I gather that Sahibs as well as porters were suffering from
altitude lassitude.
May 7. The night had been very cold—214°, i.e. 53°
of frost. Personally I slept beautifully warmly and yet
was not well in the morning. Odell and Irvine also seemed
distinctly unfit. I decided to send Hazard down with some
of A party to meet at the dump and bring up some of B
party (it had been arranged that some of this party should
come up again). Investigation again showed that no porters
were fit to carry loads; several were too unwell to be kept
up at III. They had to be more or less pulled from their
tents. An hour and a half must have been taken in getting
their meal of tsampa, which they must clearly have before
going down ; and much time too in digging out the sicker
men who tried to hide away in their tents—one of them,
who was absolutely without a spark of life to help himself,
had swollen feet and we had to pull on his boots without
his socks; he was almost incapable of walking ; I supported
him with my arm for some distance and then told off a porter
to do that ; eventually roped in three parties in charge of
MALLORY'S LETTERS 231
the N.C.O. I sent them off by themselves from the dump,
where shortly afterwards I met Hazard. Four men of B
had gone on to Camp III, but not to sleep. Three others
whom we now proceeded to rope up and help with their
loads alone consented to stay there. A second day there-
fore passed with only seven more loads got to Camp III,
and nothing done to establish the camp in a more comfortable
manner, unless it counted that this third night each of the
six men would have a high-altitude sleeping-Sack ; and
meanwhile the moral of A party had gone to blazes. It
was clear to me that the moral of porters must be established
if possible at once by bringing B party up and giving them
a day’s rest to make camp.
May 8. I made another early start and reached Camp
II at 9 a.m., and here met Norton and Somervell. By Some
mental aberration I had thought they would only reach
Camp II on this day—they had proceeded according to
programme and come to Camp II on the 7th. We discussed
plans largely while I ate breakfast, in the mild, sheltered,
Sunny alfresco of Camp TT (by comparison). Norton agreed
with my ideas and dispatched all remaining B party to Camp
III with Somervell, to pick up their loads at the dump and
carry them on. A had been filled up the previous night with
hot food and were now lying in the sun looking more like
men ; the only question was whether in future to establish
the correct standard and make them carry all the way to
Camp TTI and back as was always done in 1922. I was
strongly opposed to this idea; the best way of re-establishing
their moral, I thought, would be to give them a job well within
their powers and, if they improved as I hoped, they might
well carry loads the three-quarter journey to the dump on
three successive days—while B could ferry the last quarter
Once or twice on the two of the days when they would not
be engaged in making camp. This was agreed to more
particularly by Geoffrey Bruce, who really runs the porters
altogether and who had now come up from Camp I.
A day of great relief this with the responsibility shared
232 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
or handed over ; and much lying in the sun and untroubled
sleep at Camp II. -
May 9. I intended going ahead of the party to see how
things were moving at Camp III, for this day the camp was
to be made wonderful. Seven men with special loads, fresh
heroes from the Base, were to go through to Camp III; the
A men to return from the dump to Camp II. As it turned
out I escorted the first batch who were going through to
Camp III. The conditions when we emerged from the
trough were anything but pleasant ; under a grey sky a
violent wind was blowing up the Snow ; at moments the
black dots below me on the glacier, all except the nearest,
were completely lost to view. The men were much inclined
to put down their loads before reaching the dump and a
good deal of driving had to be done. Eventually after wait-
ing some time at the dump I joined Norton and Geoff. and
we escorted the last three loads for Camp III the last bit of
the way. On such a day I did not expect Camp III to be
more congenial than it had been. However, it was some-
thing to be greeted by the cheery noise of the Roarer Cooker :
the R.C. is one of the great inventions of the Expedition ;
we have two in point of fact, one with a vertical, and One
with a horizontal flame—a sort of Super-Primus stove.
Irvine and Odell had evidently been doing some useful work.
It had been a triumph getting the R.C. to Camp III—it
is an extravagant load weighing over 40 lb. and it now proved
to be even more extravagant of fuel than had been antici-
pated; moreover, its burning was somewhat intermittent,
and as the cook, even after instruction, was still both fright-
ened and incompetent when this formidable stove was not
functioning quite sweetly and well, a Sahib had often to be
called in to help. Nevertheless the R.C. succeeded in cooking
food for the troops, and however costly in paraffin oil that
meal may have been it made the one great difference between
Camp III as A party experienced it and Camp III now.
Otherwise on this day, set apart for the edification and
beatification of this camp, the single thing that had been
MALLORY'S LETTERS 233
done was the erection of one Meade tent to accommodate
two more sahibs (only two more because Hazard came down
this day). And no blame to anyone ; B party was much as
A party had been—in a state of Oriental inertia ; it is unfair,
perhaps, to our porters to class them with Orientals in general,
but they have this Oriental quality that after a certain stage
of physical discomfort or mental depression has been reached
they simply curl up. Our porters were just curled up inside
their tents. And it must be admitted that the Sahibs Were
most of the time in their tents—no other place being tolerable.
Personally I felt that the task of going round tents and seeing
how the men were getting on and giving orders about the
arrangements of the camp now naturally fell to Geoffrey
Bruce, whose “pigeon” it is to deal with the porters. And
so presently in my old place, with Somervell now as a com-
panion instead of Hazard, I made myself comfortable, i.e.
I took off my boots and knickers, put on my footless stockings,
knitted for me by my wife for the last Expedition and covering
the whole of my legs, a pair of grey flannel bags and two pairs
of warm socks, besides my cloth-sided shoes, and certain
garments too for warming the upper parts, a comparatively
simple matter. The final resort in these conditions of course
is to put one’s legs into a sleeping-Sack. Howard and I
lay warmly enough, and presently I proposed a game of
picquette and we played cards for some time until Norton
and Geoff. came to pay us a visit and discuss the situation.
Someone a little later tied back the flaps of the two tents
facing each other so that after Norton and Geoff. had retired
to their tent the other four of us were inhabiting, as it were,
One room, and hopefully talked of the genius of Kami and
the Roarer Cooker and supposed that a hot evening meal
might sometime come our way. Meanwhile I produced The
Spirit of Man and began reading one thing and another.
Howard reminded me that I was reproducing on the same
spot a scene which had occurred two years ago when he and
I lay in a tent together. We all agreed that Kubla Khan
was a good sort of poem. Irvine was rather poetry shy,
234 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
but seemed to be favourably impressed by the Epitaph to
Gray's Elegy. Odell was much inclined to be interested
and liked the last lines of Prometheus Unbound. Somervell,
who knows quite a lot of English literature, had never read
a poem of Emily Brontë's, and was happily introduced.—And
Suddenly hot soup arrived.
The following night was one of the most disagreeable I
remember. The wind came in tremendous gusts and, in
spite of precautions to keep it out, the fresh snow drifted in ;
if one’s head were not under the bedclothes one’s face was
cooled by the fine cold powder, and in the morning I found
2 inches of Snow all along my side of the tent. It was
impossible to guess how much snow had fallen during the night
when one first looked out. The only certain thing was the
vile appearance of things at present. In a calm interval one
could take stock of a camp now covered in Snow—and then
would come the violent wind and all would be covered in
the spindrift. Presently Norton and Geoff. came into our
tent for a powwow. Geoff., speaking from the porters’ point
of view, was in favour of beating a retreat. We were all
agreed that we must not risk destroying the moral of the
porters, and also that for two or three days no progress could
be made towards the North Col. But it seemed to me that,
in the normal course of events, the weather should now
re-establish itself and might even be sufficiently calm to get
something done that afternoon, and that for the porters the
best thing of all would be to weather the storm up at Camp III.
In any case it would be early enough to decide for a retreat
next day. These arguments commended themselves to
Norton and so it was agreed. Meanwhile one of the most
serious features of the situation was the consumption of
fuel. A box of meta, and none could say how much paraffin
(not much, however), had been burnt at Camp II; here at
Camp III no water had yet appeared, and snow must be
melted for every one at every meal—a box of meta had to
be consumed here too, and Primus stoves had been used
before the Roarer made its appearance yesterday. Good-
MALLORY'S LETTERS 235
ness knows how much oil it has used. It was clear that the
first economy must be in the number of Sahibs (6) at Camp
III. We planned that Somervell, Norton and Odell should
have the first whack at the North Col, and Irvine and I
finish the good work next day—Irvine and I therefore must
go down first. On the way down Irvine suffered very much
and I somewhat from the complaint known as glacier lassitude
—a mysterious complaint, but I am pretty certain in his
case that the sun and the dazzling light reflected from the
new snow had something to do with the trouble.
A peaceful time at Camp II with Beetham and Noel.
May 11. The weather hazy and unsettled looking. I
dispatched fifteen loads up to the dump and arranged for
the evacuation of two sick men, of whom one had badly
frostbitten feet, apparently a Lepcha, unfit for this game,
and the other was Sanglu, Kellas’s old servant, who had
been attached to Noel this Expedition and last, a most
valuable man, who seemed exceedingly ill with bronchitis.
The parties had been gone half an hour before we were
aroused by a shout and learned that a porter had broken
his leg on the glacier. We quickly gathered ourselves into
a competent help party, and had barely started out when a
man turned up with a note from Norton to tell me, as I
half expected, that he had decided to evacuate Camp III
for the present and retire all ranks to the Base Camp. The
wounded man turned out to be nearer at hand than, and
not so badly wounded (a bone broken in the region of the
knee) as I feared.
This same evening Beetham, Noel, Irvine and I were
back at the Base Camp, the rest coming in next day.
Well, that is the bare story of the reverse so far as it
goes. I’m convinced that Norton has been perfectly right.
We pushed things far enough. Everything depends on the
porters and we must contrive to bring them to the starting
point, i.e. Camp III, at the top of their form. I expect
we were working all the time in 22 with a smaller margin
than we knew—it certainly amazed me that the whole bando-
236 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
bast, so far as porters were concerned, worked so smoothly.
Anyway this time the conditions at Camp III were much
more severe, and not only were temperatures lower but
the wind was more continuous and more violent. I expect
that these porters will do as well in the end as last time's.
Personally I felt that I was going through a real hard time
in a way I never did in ’22. Meanwhile our retreat has
meant a big waste of time. We have waited down here for
the weather—at last it looks more settled and we are on
the point of starting up again. But the day for the summit
is put off from the 17th to the 28th, and the great question
is, Will the monsoon give time 7
X
May 27.
It has been a bad time altogether. I look back on tre-
mendous effort and exhaustion and dismal looking out of
a tent door into a world of snow and vanishing hopes—and
yet, and yet, and yet there have been a good many things
to set on the other side. The party has played up wonder-
fully. The first visit to the North Col was a triumph for
the old gang. Norton and I did the job, and the cutting
of course was all my part—So far as one can enjoy climbing
above Camp III I enjoyed the conquest of the ice wall and
crack, the crux of the route, and the making steps too in
the steep final 200 feet. Odell did very useful work leading
the way on from the camp to the Col; I was practically
bust to the world and couldn’t have led that half-hour though
I still had enough mind to direct him. We made a very
bad business of the descent. It suddenly occurred to me
that we ought to see what the old way down was like. Norton
and I were ahead unroped and Odell behind in charge of
a porter who had carried up a light load. We got only
ground where a practised man can just get along without
crampon (which we hadn’t with us), chipping occasional
MALLORY'S LETTERS 237
steps in very hard snow or ice. I was all right ahead, but
Norton had a nasty slip and then the porter, whose knot
didn’t hold, so that he went down some way and was badly
shaken. Meanwhile I, below, finding the best way down,
had walked into an obvious crevasse; by Some miscalcula-
tion I had thought I had prodded the Snow with which it
was choked and where I hoped we could walk instead of
cutting steps at the side of it—all the result of mere exhaustion,
no doubt. But the snow gave way and in I went with the
Snow tumbling all round me, down, luckily, only about 10
feet before I fetched up half blind and breathless to find
myself most precariously supported only by my ice axe
Somehow caught across the crevasse and still held in my right
hand—and below was a very unpleasant black hole. I had
some nasty moments before I got comfortably wedged and
began to yell for help up through the round hole I had come
through where the blue sky showed—this because I was
afraid my operations to extricate myself would bring down
a lot more Snow and perhaps precipitate me into the bargain.
However, I soon grew tired of shouting—they hadn’t seen
me from above—and bringing the Snow down a little at a
time I made a hole out towards the side (the crevasse ran
down a slope) after some climbing, and extricated myself
—but was then on the wrong side of the crevasse, so that
eventually I had to cut across a nasty slope of very hard
ice and farther down some mixed unpleasant snow before
I was out of the wood. The others were down by a better
line ten minutes before me. That cutting against time at
the end after such a day just about brought me to my limit.
So much for that day.
My one personal trouble has been a cough. It started a
day or two before leaving the Base Camp but I thought nothing
of it. In the high camp it has been the devil. Even after
the day’s exercise I have described I couldn’t sleep, but
was distressed with bursts of coughing fit to tear one's guts
—and a headache and misery altogether; besides which of
course it has a very bad effect on one’s going on the mountain.
238 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Somervell also has a cough, which started a little later than
mine, and he has not been at his physical best.
The following day when the first loads were got up to
Camp TV in a snowstorm Somervell and Irvine must have
made a very fine effort hauling loads up the chimney.
[Unfortunately on the next day four porters were left
on the North Col.] -
Poor old Norton was very hard hit altogether, hating
the thought of such a bad muddle and himself not really
fit to start out next day—nor were any of us for that matter,
and it looked 10 to 1 against our getting up with all that
Snow about, let alone getting a party down. I led from
the camp to a point some little distance above the flat glacier
—the Snow wasn’t so very bad as there had been no time
for it to get sticky, still that part with some small delays
took us three hours; then Somervell took us up to where
Geoff. and Odell had dumped their loads the day before and
shortly afterwards Norton took the lead ; luckily we found
the Snow better as we proceeded. Norton alone had crampons,
and was able to take us up to the big crevasse without step-
cutting. Here we had half an hour's halt, and about 1.30
I went on again for the steep 200 feet and so to the point
where the big crevasse joins the corridor. From here there
were two doubtful stretches. Norton led up the first, while
the two of us made good at the corner of the crevasse—he
found the snow quite good. And Somervell led across the
final slope (following Hazard’s just discernible tracks).
Norton and I had an anxious time belaying, and it began
to be cold too as the sun had left us. Somervell made a
very good show getting the men off—but I won’t repeat
my report. Time was pretty short as it was 4.30 when they
began to come back, using Somervell's rope as a hand-rail.
Naturally the chimney took some time. It was just dark
when we got back to camp.
Norton has been quite right to bring us down for rest.
It is no use sending men up the mountain unfit. The physique
of the whole party has gone down Sadly. The only chance
“IA vºlt i OL LSVT º H.J.

MALLORY'S LETTERS 239
now is to get fit and go for a simpler, quicker plan. The only
plump fit man is Geoffrey Bruce. Norton has made me
responsible for choosing the parties of attack, himself first
choosing me into the first party if I like. But I’m quite
doubtful if I shall be fit enough. But again I wonder if
the monsoon will give us a chance. I don’t want to get
caught, but our three-day scheme from the Chang La will
give the monsoon a good chance. We shall be going up
again the day after to-morrow. Six days to the top from
this camp !
PART III
OBSERVATIONS
SECTION I
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES
By MAJOR R. W. G. HINGSTON, I.M.S.
The primary object of the Mount Everest Expedition
was to reach the highest summit on the earth. Everything
else was subordinate to this. Elaborate scientific investiga-
tions were impossible, and anything involving complicated
apparatus was altogether out of the question. We had
to content ourselves with simple experiments and with the
records of the experiences of individual climbers. These,
nevertheless, may prove of interest. They will give us some
idea of the physiological difficulties involved in an ascent
to SO great a height.
Alterations in Breathing.—The most obvious of these is
the difficulty in breathing. Owing to the gradual nature of
our ascent this shortness of respiration was scarcely notice-
able below 10,000 feet. It was definitely apparent above
14,000 feet, and above 19,000 feet the slightest exertion
made breathing laboured and severe. When the body was
at rest, even at extreme altitudes, the rate of breathing was
apparently normal and as comfortable as at Sea-level. But
the very slightest exertion, such as the tying of a bootlace,
the opening of a ration-box, the getting into a sleeping-bag,
was associated with marked respiratory distress. The diffi-
culties of the ascent were thus enormously increased. The
breathing was quicker rather than deeper, but it was necessary
to stop at frequent intervals and take a series of long deep
breaths. This very quickly brought relief and made one
ready for a further advance. Norton told me that, when he
found himself dropping behind, his only chance of catching
243
244 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
up the party was by taking a number of these deep long
breaths. Somervell gives a record of his breathing at 27,000
feet. At that altitude he had to take seven, eight, or ten
complete respirations for every single step forward. And
even at that slow rate of progress he had to rest for a minute
or two every 20 or 30 yards. At 28,000 feet Norton, in an
hour's climb, ascended only about 80 feet. This was the
highest point reached without the aid of oxygen. The
strain at that altitude was certainly intense, but when we
remember that the supply of oxygen is only about one-
third of that available at sea-level, we are surprised that
men can make these strenuous efforts, and still more that
they can remain in comparative comfort when they sit down
to rest.
The alteration in the rhythm of the breathing—commonly
known as Cheyne-Stokes respiration—was frequently noticed
during the Expedition. I heard one member of the party
breathing in this way as low as 12,000 feet. Though as a
rule it seldom occurs when awake, yet at the Base Camp
I was conscious of this type of breathing before passing off
to sleep. Illness at high altitudes markedly increases it.
It was most pronounced in one member when suffering from
fever at 15,000 feet, and still more so in a Gurkha when
dying of cerebral haemorrhage at 18,000 feet. The rapid
breathing of cold dry air produces some important secondary
effects. It causes inflammation of the respiratory passages.
Every member suffered from sore throat, from hoarseness,
or from loss of voice. Most had irritating coughs, but with
little expectoration. Some of the porters developed severe
bronchitis; one had a profusely ulcerated throat, another
persistently coughed up blood. Dr. Kellas was of opinion
that the breathing was less laboured in a high wind. He
thought that the wind might have the effect of packing the
air into the lungs, also that it swept away the exhaled air
and thus prevented it from being inhaled by the next breath.
Our experiences did not agree with his. Mount Everest
is noted for its heavy winds. They caused considerable
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 245
obstruction to the breathing. A moderate breeze had a
freshening effect, but a strong wind impeded progress, and
there was a feeling of suffocation when facing powerful gusts.
I made some experiments on the respiration. The power
of holding the breath is a simple test to which pilots are
submitted in the Royal Air Force. The following table
shows the diminution in this power at successive altitudes
in the ascent. The first column is the most complete. Where
at sea-level the breath was held for 64 seconds, at 21,000 feet
it was held for only 14 seconds.
Altitude in feet. Time breath held (in secs.).
R.W.EI. E.O.S. B.B. G.B. E.F.N. G.L.M. J.W.H. A.C.I. T.H.S. N.E.O.
Sea-level . . 64 — 120 — — — 90 120 — —
7,000 . . . 40 40 60 40 40 50 42 80 60 55
14,300 . . 39 32 35 32 37 40 *- 4.7 48 -
16,500 . . 20 23 35 20 31 -*- 23 30 41 28
21,000 . . 14 17 — 20 — — 17 *- *- :-
Another test used amongst airmen is the measurement
of the expiratory force. This consists in blowing a column
of mercury up a graduated glass tube. The height reached
by the mercury is read off, and this gives a measure of the
expiratory force. If the expiratory force is much below
the average it suggests that the airman will be incapable
of sustained effort. The following table gives the results
of our experiments. It suggests that with increasing altitude
the expiratory force tends to improve. Look again at the
first column. At sea-level the expiratory force was 110
mm. Hg. ; at 21,000 feet it was 150 mm. Hg. The third,
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth columns also show
that an improvement has occurred.
Altitude in feet. Expiratory force in mm. of Hg.
R.W.H. E.O.S., B.B. G.B. E.F.N. G.L.M. J.F.H. A.C.I. T.H.S. N.E.O.
Sea-level . . 110 — — — — — — — — —
7,000 . . . 110 120 140 160 110 110 130 160 120 IIO
14,300 . . 110 90 160 190 120 120 — 160 120 —
16,500 . . 140 130 210 200 170 — 120 170 120 100
21,000 . . 150 120 — 210 — — 150 — — —
I did not anticipate this improvement in the expiratory
force. But the test has little to do with the function of
246 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
respiration. It is more an indication of physical fitness
and muscular strength. And this tends to improve during
an ascent, when the progress is slow enough to be accompanied
with acclimatization and before the wasting of high altitudes
becomes marked. The march across Tibet made us tougher
and harder. Hence the expiratory force improved. Mosso
came to a similar conclusion in the Alps. He made his men
perform exercises with dumb-bells, and was surprised to find
that they did much more work at a height of 4,560 metres
than when they performed the same exercises at Turin.
Circulation.—I pass to the changes in the circulation.
Blueness of the face and lips, lividity of the nails, coldness
of the extremities were the indications noticed of the impaired
circulation at altitudes above 19,000 feet. Three of the
members experienced giddiness. One noticed that it was
immediately relieved by taking a deep breath. Once the
extremities become cold at these high altitudes there is a
great difficulty in regaining warmth, even in the interior of
a sleeping-bag. The pulse is not markedly accelerated while
at rest, but increases rapidly on the slightest exertion.
Norton's normal pulse is 40, and it was only 60 when he was '
resting at 27,600 feet. An intermittent pulse may develop "
at high altitudes. In one instance after crossing a pass of .
only 14,000 feet the pulse missed four beats every minute
without causing any particular symptoms or distress. This
irregularity of the pulse seems to be a common feature.
Mosso states that, when on Monte Rosa, he noticed that
nearly all the members of his party showed some signs of
irregularity of the heart. Haemorrhages at high altitudes
have often been described, from the gums, the lips, the
conjunctivae, the nose. Nothing of the kind occurred amongst
the members of our Expedition.
The following table shows the changes in the pulse of
one individual at successive altitudes above sea-level. The
first column gives the pulse rate when the person is at rest.
There is no change except at the highest altitude, 21,000
feet. The second column shows the change that occurs
i.
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 247
when the person is made to stand up. There is an increase
in the pulse rate somewhat in proportion to the altitude of
the experiment. Column 3 shows the change after regulated
exercise. The exercise consisted in standing alternately on
a chair and on the ground five times in 15 seconds. Again
there is a marked increase in the pulse rate, and this increase
is greater the greater the altitude. The last column gives
the time in seconds that the pulse takes to return to normal.
PULSE RATE OF ONE INDIVIDUAL. *:::==
Pulse rate Time in secs.
Pulse rate Pulse rate per minute, of return of
Altitude in feet. per minute, per minute, after regu- pulse to
sitting. standing. lated exercise. normal.
Sea-level . . . 72 72 84 20
7,000 . . . . 72 84 96 15
14,300 . . . . 72 84 108 40
16,500 . . . . 72 96 120 20
21,000 . . . . 108 120 144 20
-s:
The blood pressure was taken with a sphygmomanometer
in the manner adopted by the Royal Air Force. The follow-
ing is a table of results. There seems to be no change in the
blood pressure definitely associated with increase in height.
BLOOD PRESSURE AT SUCCESSIVE ALTITUDES.

R.W.EI. F.O.S. B.E. G.B. E.F.N. J.W.H. G.L.M. A.C.I. T.H.S. N.E.O.
Altitude in feet. o, º ap ta
#|#|#|#| #|#|#|#| #|#|#|#|#|#|#|#| #|#|#|#
Sea-level . . . 120 801 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — | —
7,000 . . . . [130 90|125 90|150: 110||130 90 140 80120 100 120 85.130 100 110 85 100 80
14,300 . . . . 135; 95|l 15, 80 145 85||130 º 90 — | – |120 90 130 100 130| 90 — | —
16,500 . . . 146|| 104. 128 90 140}102 128 º 96||126 94 122 78 140 110 120 82 125| 95
21,000 . . . . 138||118; 100 sº--mº 90 — — |100 80 — — | — — — — — —
A well-known change that takes place during an ascent
to high altitudes is the increase in the number of red corpuscles
per unit volume of blood. The conditions on Mount Everest
were too rough for these delicate determinations. But further
248 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
west, on the Pamir plateau, I had previously made a series
of blood counts up to 18,203 feet. The following table
shows the results.
- Altitude. Corpuscles per Cu.
Date. Feet. IOIL).
April 10. 700 4,480,000
May 12 . 4,390 5,240,000
May 21 . 8,000 6,040,000
May 28 . 10,000 6,624,000
May 30 . 11,960 6,760,000
June 1 . 12,400 6,800,000
June 21. 13,300 7,525,000
June;23 © 15,600 7,840,000
June, 26. 16,907 7,640,000
July 27 . 18,203 8,320,000
There has been an increase in the number of red corpuscles
from 4,480,000 at 700 feet to 8,320,000 at 18,203 feet.
Another point of interest is that the people who live on the
Central Asian plateau have a higher blood count than those
at sea-level. The average blood count of the Sarikoli is
7,596,000, of the Kirghiz 7,920,000. The blood count of
the European is about 5,000,000, but, on making an ascent
to the Tibetan plateau, the corpuscles in his blood rapidly
increase until they reach the number normal to the people
who live permanently at those heights.
It is a matter of discussion amongst physiologists to what
extent this increase in red blood corpuscles explains the
adaptation to increasing heights. Professor Boycott has
made an heroic suggestion. He points out that the capacity
to increase red corpuscles can be increased as a result of
practice. Moreover, this practice can be given by bleeding.
“If you take an animal and take away one-third of its red
corpuscles it will replace them in about twenty days; if
you do it again in the same animal, it will grow the same
number of red corpuscles at the end of six, Seven or eight
days; and again you can still further accelerate the process.”
Presumably it would be similar with respect to man. That
being the case, Professor Boycott suggests that the best
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 249
preparation for the next expedition would be to have the
party repeatedly bled.
Muscular Power.—Airmen describe great muscular weak-
ness when flying at considerable altitudes. Even working
a camera-shutter calls for enormous effort. We did not
notice such pronounced effects, probably because our ascent
was slow. But if inhalation is inadequate the legs soon
become tired. It is not the tiredness of a prolonged walk,
but more a heaviness and a lassitude which quickly disappears
with a short rest.
The endurance test employed by the Royal Air Force
is said to indicate the stability of the medullary centres and
the capacity of the individual to resist fatigue. The test
consists in blowing a column of mercury to a height of 40
mm., and noting how long the person is able to sustain it
at that height. The pulse is counted in periods of five
seconds during the performance of the test. The following
table gives the result of this test. Every column shows a
diminution in the powers of endurance at each successive
height. Take, for example, the first column. At sea-level
the subject could sustain the mercury for 45 seconds : at
21,000 feet for only 15 seconds.
ENDURANCE TEST.
Altitude in feet. Time in Secs. Hg maintained at 40 mm.
R.W.EI. E.O.S. B.B. G.B. E.F.N. G.L.M. J.W.H. A.C.I. T.H.S. N.E.O.
Sea-level . . 45 — — — — — — — — —
7,000 . . 35 30 60 50 20 60 35 45 50 50
14,300 . . 30 30 25 40 25 35 -- 45 25 wº-
16,500 . . 23 23 23 15 23 * I7 25 22 20
21,000 . . 15 15 — 15 — — 10 *- -*s -
The pulse rate was taken during the above test. Some
of the results are given below. The first figure in each
Series shows the normal rate of the pulse during the 5 seconds
before the test begins. This figure is separated from the
following figures by a stroke. These following figures give
the pulse rate during each successive period of 5 seconds
throughout the performance of the test. Take, for example,
the first line of figures in the first column, 6/7.8.9.9.8.7.
250 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
The 6 is the pulse rate during the 5 seconds immediately
before the test. The 7 is the pulse rate during the first 5
Seconds of the test. The remaining figures, 8.9.9.8.7, are
the pulse rates during the successive periods of 5 seconds
until the test ends. In this way we obtain the character
of the pulse while the person is undergoing continuous strain.
PULSE RATE IN SECONDS DURING ENDURANCE TEST.
Altitude
in feet. E.O.S. B.B. G.B. A.C.I.
7,000 . 6/7.8.9.9.8.7. 6/6.7.9.9.9.7.6.6.6.5. 5/6.6.8.6.5.4.5.5.5. 8/9.11.10.8.7.6.6.6.6.
14,300 . 6/6.7.7.7.7.7. 6/7.8.8.6.5. 5/7.7.7.6.8.6.5.5. 8/9.9.11.10.9.9.9.9.8
16,500 . 6/7.7.8.7, 6/9.9.9.3. 6/7.8.9. 8/11.10.9.7.6.
21,000 . 8/10.8.6. * 9/10.10.6.
The chief points of interest in this experiment is the marked
slowing of the pulse that takes place when the capacity of
endurance is beginning to tell. At the commencement of
the test the pulse first increases, but after a lapse of 15 to
20 seconds it begins definitely to slow up. This slowing of
the pulse is more marked at the higher altitudes. There
is an extreme case in the lowest line of figures of column two.
The 6/9.9.9.3 indicates that on the commencement of the
experiment the pulse immediately rushed up from 6 to 9
beats in the first 5 seconds, and after a lapse of 15 seconds
suddenly fell back from 9 to 3. This occurred at 16,500
feet. In the Royal Air Force instructions for the performance
of this test it is stated that “in case of marked physical
inefficiency a characteristic response is for the pulse to jump
up to a very quick rate during the second or third period
of 5 seconds and then to fall away in rate to normal, or even
below normal.” Thus it appears from this test that the
cardiomotor mechanism of the vigorous man at a height
of 16,000 feet closely resembles that of the physically ineffi-
cient person at Sea-level.
Special Senses.—Changes in the function of the special
senses have occasionally been noticed by mountaineers.
They describe an impairment of vision, a diminution in hear-
ing, alterations in the taste and smell. Most of our party
noticed nothing in this respect, but two members were
particularly emphatic in their loss of the sense of taste.
（Lºlº II, 10 SN1 vºid ， HAL NI I lºvo "Ivoidae）. v

PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 251
One said that “taste was distinctly affected,” that “things
seemed to have less taste, though there was no change in
the character of the flavour.” He was unable to taste
onions at 19,000 feet. Another found food “ distinctly
tasteless.” At 19,000 feet he could eat a slab of peppermint
without strongly appreciating the flavour. Their sense of
taste returned on descending to the Base Camp at 16,500
feet.
Pain.—The only kind of pain which we could attribute
to high altitude was the occasional occurrence of a slight
headache. Most of the members never experienced it, but
some of us noticed it on first reaching the plateau, though,
after a few days’ acclimatization, it completely disappeared.
It usually commenced at the back of the neck, spread into
a general mild headache, and disappeared after an hour's
rest. Exercise, and particularly Stooping, increased it.
Lying down quickly brought relief. Our porters also suffered
from headache. Many of them asked for headache tablets
the first time we passed over into Tibet. Even the inhabi-
tants of the plateau are not immune. It is common to see
patches of plaster on their temples and black pigment smeared
on their cheeks. These are remedies which they use to
alleviate the headache caused by the altitude and wind.
Gastro-intestimal Symptoms.-LOSS of appetite is a serious
consequence of residence at great heights. Probably it is
the cause of much of the wasting that occurs. There is
much individual variation in this respect. Some of the
climbers maintained that there was no loss of appetite. I
found some dislike for food even at the Base Camp, though
this disappeared on acclimatization. Bruce thought that his
appetite was unimpaired up to 21,000 feet. At 23,000 feet
he found a disinclination for meat, though he still had an
appetite for cereals and sweets. At 25,000 feet he lost all
appetite for Solid food, but could still take coffee, and to a
less degree Soup. Somervell at 27,000 feet found an absolute
distaste for Solids, though he enjoyed liquids and sweets and
fruit. The general opinion seemed to be that sweet things
252 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
were the most palatable and meat the least palatable above
19,000 feet. There was no suggestion of nausea or vomiting
even at the highest altitudes reached.
Diarrhoea is not uncommon. It is usually of a transient
nature and may be associated with much bile. Occasionally
it may be more persistent, and refuse to yield to any treat-
ment until a descent is made to moderate heights. Thirst
is a far more important factor. It may be excessive at the
end of a hard day, and, owing to the practical difficulties
in obtaining water, may cause exhaustion of the climbers
and failure of the climb. How best to relieve thirst at the
high camps is a most important practical point. The craving
for drink is not the result of perspiration, but of the loss
of moisture in the respiratory passages from the excessive
inhalation of cold dry air. This desiccation of the body at
extreme altitudes may result in a great scantiness of urine.
One of the climbers at 21,000 feet did not micturate for
16 to 18 hours ; another on his descent from 28,000 feet
did not do so for 24 hours. -
Mental Effects.--High altitudes affect the operations of
the mind. One member was confident of a dulling of the
will power, a diminution in the strength of purpose, with
less and less desire to reach the summit the farther he made
the ascent. Somervell describes a lack of observance at and
above 25,000 feet. Bruce records an enfeeblement of memory.
He found an effort in recalling previous events. Above
23,000 feet his ideas became increasingly inaccurate. It
was necessary for him to record them immediately as other-
wise they would become forgotten or distorted. I think
every one experienced some mental lassitude. Though the
mind was clear, yet there was a disinclination for effort.
It was far more pleasant to sit about than to do a job of
work that required thought. We did not notice any peevish-
ness or petulance, though I suspect that high altitudes would
cause unsociability in a party less perfectly harmonious than
ours. Though mental work is a burden at high altitudes,
yet with an effort it can be done. One physiologist has said
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 253
that sustained mental work is out of the question at anything
over 10,000 feet. We certainly could not agree with this.
Those who have read Norton’s despatches to The Times,
especially one dictated at Camp III, when he was burdened
with anxiety and partially blind, will admit that this effort
from 21,000 feet was not a bad intellectual performance.
The main effect of altitude is a mental laziness which deter-
mination can overcome.
I made some mental tests on the members of the party.
These tests were very simple. The first was a multiplication
test. It consisted in multiplying the figures 123456789 by
7. The second was a division test, and consisted in dividing
the same series of figures by 9. A record was made at
successive altitudes of the time taken to do these sums.
Probably these tests were far too simple. By an effort of
concentration they could be easily done, and thus the effect
of altitude was not properly shown. I give the results for
what they are worth. They show no definite deterioration
of mental activity. It will not please the members of the
next expedition to hear that more complicated and worrying
tests are required.
MULTIPLICATION TEST. SHOWING TIME IN SEcoRDs For CoMPLETION OF SUM.
Altitude in feet.
IR.W.H. B.B. E.F.N. G.L.M. T.H.S. E.O.S. G.B. J.W.H. A.O.I. N.E.O.
0 . . . . 20 — — — — — — — — —
7,000 . . . 25 25 27 13 40 43 40 35 25 80
14,300 . . 25 24 19 15 28 43 25 — 28 —
16,500 . . 18 23 28 17 40 35 35 55 35 30
21,000 . . 17 — — — — 35 27 40 — —
DIVISION TEST. SHowING TIME IN SECONDS FOR COMPLETION OF SUM.
Altitude in feet.
R.W.H. B.B. E.F.N. G.L.M. T.H.S. E.O.S. G.B. J.W.H. A.C.I. N.E.O.
0 . . 30 — — — — — — — — —
7,000 . . . 20 20 30 10 25 55 15 35 15 45
14,300 . . 28 20 13 23 20 45 17 – 17 —
16,500 . . 13 27 23 17 40 38 23 43 20 50
21,000 . . 15 — — — — 40 13 59 — —
The knee-jerks were examined at successive altitudes.
In no case did they seem in any way affected by the height.
Three of the party developed mild tremors: one a tremor of
254 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
the eyelids at 14,000 feet, two a fine tremor of the fingers
at 21,000 feet. This was an indication of nervous strain.
It was a common sign of exhaustion and anxiety amongst
those serving in the Great War.
Sleep.–To my mind insomnia was an unpleasant feature.
But there were others who suffered from no lack of sleep
except when they happened to be cold. Bruce on two
nights slept for more than ten hours at 21,000 feet. He
had a fair, but somewhat broken, night at 23,000 feet. He
had about two hours' sleep at the beginning of the night,
then a long period of sleeplessness, then a few more hours'
sleep in the morning when at 25,000 feet. He always slept
with his head raised, having learned the trick on the previous
expedition. Somervell slept well at 25,000 feet and had two
good spells of sleep at 27,000 feet. Norton, however, takes
the record. He slept well and had an excellent night at 27,000
feet. A point about high-altitude sleeplessness is the fact
that it is not associated with restlessness, nor does it cause
weariness the next day. One lies awake, but does not
toss about, nor is the sleep accompanied with irritable
dreams.
Glacier Lassitude.—A distinct feature in the Mount Everest
region is the very pronounced glacier lassitude which develops
over tracts of ice. This was most marked on the Rongbuk
Glacier, especially when passing through a trough in the ice
at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. The trough was a remark-
able feature, being girt on either side with walls of ice in
many places hewn into fantastic pinnacles and ornamented
with pyramidal spires. In this trough there was a peculiar
sapping of energy, a weakness of the legs, and a disinclination
to move. It was not a breathlessness due to exertion, but a
loss of muscular power. There was a feeling of prostration.
One seemed to drag oneself along, instead of going with the
usual strength. A profuse Sweating was not uncommon.
It was something like the oppression experienced when
marching through a hot moist jungle in the rains. The
lassitude appeared immediately after stepping on to the
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 255
glacier; it was as quickly relieved on again reaching rock
or moraine. It was most noticeable in the absence of wind
and in the middle of the day when the Sun was strong. It
was absent late at evening and in the early morning, and
was less marked on cloudy days.
The cause of this lassitude is easily explained. The con-
ditions for its development are a sheet of ice, a hot sun and
a still air. The sun melts the superficial layer of the ice.
The lowest stratum of the atmosphere becomes Saturated
with moisture, but does not rise owing to its being chilled
by contact with the ice. Thus, when on the glacier, one
is in a saturated atmosphere, and this, in conjunction
with the high altitude, is sufficient to cause the unpleasant
effects.
We did not notice that other atmospheric conditions had
any special influence on these high-altitude symptoms. This
was different from my experiences in the Western Himalaya.
There, on two occasions, our party climbed the same peak
to a height of 18,203 feet. During the first ascent the sky
was clear, the air was free from moisture and our disability
was slight. On the second occasion the conditions were
different. The sky was dark, stormy weather was imminent,
and the atmosphere felt heavy and damp. Our distress
on this second occasion was acute. Every few paces found
us gasping for breath, and we had repeatedly to make short
halts. The same explanation applies to this as in the case
of the glacier lassitude. On the second ascent the atmosphere
was laden with moisture. The free evaporation of perspiration
was checked, and, as a consequence, the high-altitude symp-
toms were increased.
Individual Variation.—The experiences of the party, as
already detailed, indicate considerable individual variation
with respect to oxygen want. It was obvious that some of
us breathed more laboriously than others. One suffered
from headache, another did not ; one lost the sense of taste,
another observed no such change ; one was sleepless at com-
paratively low altitudes, another slept well at the highest
256 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
camps. One member seemed particularly resistant to the
lassitude that occurs over snow and ice. All were agreed
that the Sherpa porters suffered, on an average, less than
Europeans. Their power of carrying loads was extraordinary.
They went with loads as fast as did the climbers without
loads. It was not that they were muscularly more powerful
than we. Probably their actual strength was less. It was
their capacity to carry that was so much greater. This
must be due to their permanent habitations being at altitudes
of 12,000 to 14,000 feet, and to the fact that they habitually
carry loads over passes of 16,000 and 18,000 feet.
Oaxygen.—To what extent does the breathing of oxygen
alleviate the symptoms already described ? Theoretically
we should expect an enormous benefit. We know of its
great value in balloon ascents which could not be made to
extreme altitudes unless oxygen was breathed. But our
evidence on the subject is most unsatisfactory. The two
climbers who could have told us most about it have perished
on the mountain. Bruce used oxygen on his ascent to the
North Col, that is between 21,000 and 23,000 feet. He noticed
scarcely any benefit. Odell used it at the same altitude and
considered that it gave no relief. Later he used it between
25,000 and 27,000 feet. There the oxygen seemed to relieve
the breathing and diminish the tiredness of the legs. He
thinks it may have helped to keep up the temperature. Its
use produced an uncomfortable drying of the throat which
necessitated frequent Swallowing and expectoration. He
abandoned the oxygen at 27,000 feet and descended easily
without it. It is remarkable how little benefit was obtained
from the oxygen compared with the experiences of the previous
Expedition.
Acclimatization.—I pass to the problem of acclimatization.
When we compare a rapid with a gradual ascent we see how
powerful is this factor of adaptation to increasing heights.
Haldane describes the condition of visitors after a rapid
ascent of Pike's Peak to a height of only 14,100 feet : “Many
persons walked or rode up during the night to see the sunrise,
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 257
especially on Sunday morning, and the Scene in the restaurant
and on the platform outside can only be likened to that on
the deck or in the cabin of a cross-Channel steamer during
rough weather.” Now the altitude at which this scene took
place was about the same as that of the Tibetan plateau.
But our ascent to the plateau was gradual, and, therefore,
accompanied by acclimatization. As a consequence we
felt scarcely any distress. We were quite comfortable at a
height where, if our ascent had been rapidly made, we should
have been like the nauseated visitors on Pike's Peak.
But the contrast is more marked if we compare our
progress with an air ascent. In the year 1875 Tissandier and
his two companions made their famous ascent in a balloon
from Paris. They were provided with oxygen, but were unable
to make use of it. Tissandier fainted at 26,500 feet, and when
he recovered consciousness the balloon was descending and
his companions were dead. The balloon had reached an
altitude of 27,950 feet. This was a rapid ascent with no
acclimatization. The result was death between 26,000 and
28,000 feet even when sitting quietly in a balloon. Compare
this with a gradual attack on Mount Everest. Climbers
without oxygen have ascended the mountain to 28,000 feet,
Somewhere about the same height where death occurred in
the balloon. Yet at that altitude they were capable of
strenuous effort; they showed no indication of fainting;
they could sleep well at a slightly lower elevation, and were
comparatively comfortable so long as they were at rest.
The difference in the two ascents is due to acclimatization,
without which any attempt to reach the summit of Mount
Everest would be altogether out of the question. The fact
is that balloon ascents and experiments in air chambers are
not at all comparable to the conditions of a prolonged climb.
A special point which the Expedition of last year taught
us is that persons who have once experienced high altitudes
will acclimatize very much more rapidly than those entering
them for the first time. Those of our party who had been on
two Expeditions were unanimous in the view that they suffered
S
:
258 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
less on the second than on the first occasion. One said that
his mind was much more active than it was in 1922, another
that he reached Camp III with much less difficulty, another
that he had not to breathe deeply at night as he found necessary
On the previous Expedition. Also it was obvious that the
new members of the party were distinctly more affected than
the old. This is a point of practical importance. It means
that, other things being equal, old hands will acclimatize
more rapidly and be in a fitter state to climb the mountain
than will be a party of fresh recruits. Even aviators have
noticed the same thing. Although their ascents are so quick
and short, yet they say that they get accustomed to the
height. The body seems, as it were, to become trained by
One experience, and, therefore, to make the necessary adjust-
ments more easily on reaching high altitudes a second time.
In this connection we may recall those bleeding experi-
ments already referred to in this chapter. The capacity
of the animals to restore their red corpuscles became more
rapid each time they were bled. Their powers of adaptation
improved by experience. Their bodies, as a result of repeated
deprivation, became trained to increased production. In
acclimatization we seem to have an analogous result. The
climber, after long deprivation of oxygen, can adapt himself
more rapidly on his next ascent.
To what height can acclimatization continue 2 There
seems to be no doubt of a steady improvement at 19,000
feet. Shebbeare spent over a month at that altitude in
Camp II. At first he found the ascent to Camp III very
laborious, but at the end of a month could do it with ease, and
on the last day did it in the record time of 1 hour 55 minutes.
Odell remained for ten days at 23,000 feet, and Said that
he certainly felt better as a result of this. Somervell believed
that acclimatization took place at 24,000 feet. But we must
remember that while acclimatization is in progress there
may be physical deterioration at the same time. Though
the body is becoming more accustomed to the altitude, yet
simultaneously it is losing both in weight and strength.
PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES 259
Dr. Kellas puts the important question : “Is it possible to
become sufficiently acclimatized to altitudes of 24,000 feet
to 26,000 feet to enable one to climb to over 29,000 feet 2 °
I think that most of our party would reply in the affirmative.
Two of them have already reached 28,000 feet aided by no
other power beyond their own natural capacities for acclima-
tization.
After-effects.-A note as to the after-effects consequent
on residence at the high camps. The climbers were examined
before we left the mountain. All of them showed signs of
dilatation of the heart; in two it was decidedly marked.
All were debilitated. All had wasted considerably, probably
as much as 1% to 2 stone. The porters too had lost much
weight. Barcroft observed the same effect on his expedition
to Peru. Loss of weight occurred in all the members of his
party, the most marked being a decline from 155 to 131 lb.
in twenty-seven days.
Those of the Expedition who had been badly frostbitten
required treatment for weeks after we had left the mountain.
Frostbite showed itself in two varieties: the moist form with
large blisters full of fluid, and the dry gangrenous type.
Snow-blindness also may need after-treatment. A point of
interest was that Norton developed a severe attack of blindness
when at high altitudes, though in the absence of snow. At
28,000 feet he was on bare rock. He thought it unnecessary
to use his snow-glasses, and on the next day he was completely
blind. The Sun’s rays in this thin air can cause a most acute
attack of conjunctivitis even when reflected from bare dark
rock.
Thus life on the mountain causes physical deterioration.
Improvement followed on our return to the Base Camp with
increase in appetite and better sleep. Finally we descended
into the Rongshar Valley, where, at the pleasant altitude of
10,000 feet, all were quickly restored to health.
Conclusion.—A last word on the possibility of reaching
the summit. In the year 1916, at an afternoon meeting
of the Royal Geographical Society, Dr. Kellas showed an
260 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
interesting dissociation curve of Oxy-haemoglobin in blood.
On this curve he plotted the heights of some well-known
mountains. From it he drew the following deductions.
“The curve,” he said, “is very suggestive. It shows that
the strain on the climber is nearly negligible up to 10,000
feet, and at about 15,000 feet becomes appreciable, but one
must pass above 20,000 feet before the steepening of the
curve indicates that the mountaineer will have to adapt him-
Self carefully to his aerial environment. At 23,000 feet the
curve is getting much steeper, and the climber will obviously
be put on his mettle above 25,000 feet, for the curve then
attains its steepest. Every 1,000 feet still higher must
mean considerably increased difficulty, and the climber near
the summit of Mount Everest will probably be on his last
reserves in the way of acclimatization and strength.” This
deduction was made before the first assault on Mount Everest,
and I think that we can now safely say that our practical
experiences bear it out.
I think that climbers will reach the Summit of Mount
Everest even without the help of oxygen. Though the
physiological difficulties are undoubtedly severe, yet they
can be overcome. But the condition of the weather must
be more favourable than last year. The climbers must be
in perfect health and in first-rate training; they must be
men of exceptional powers of endurance and their capacity
for acclimatization must be complete.
SECTION II
NATURAL HISTORY
By MAJOR R. W. G. HINGSTON, I.M.S.
The collections brought back by the Mount Everest
Expedition amount to over 10,000 specimens of animals and
500 specimens of plants. This material is now in the hands
of specialists, and a detailed report on it will appear later
in suitable scientific publications. All that I can attempt
to do here is to touch briefly on some general observations,
and, omitting as far as possible technical detail, to give a picture
of animal existence at high altitudes on the plateau of Tibet.
Protective Coloration at High Altitudes
The plateau of Tibet is a great desert at a height of about
14,000 feet. It is a broken desert, a Sahara elevated and
crumpled into mountains, with characteristic features of
its own. How forcibly do these physical features impress
us ! The vast empty spaces, the brown barren hills, the
tracts of loose and crumbling sand, the cloudless skies, the
penetrating light, the wide extremes of temperature, the
scanty rainfall, the dry air, the fierce winds, the low thorny
and monotonous vegetation: these are the most impressive
features in this cold and elevated tract. -
Our first acquaintance with the life of this plateau reveals
One conspicuous fact. The majority of the animals are
protectively coloured, as a rule some shade of buff or brown
So as to resemble the plateau soil. Protective coloration
is characteristic of deserts, and well known to occur in all
low-lying wastes. It is interesting, therefore, to observe the
261
262 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
same natural principle in this desert elevated to so great
a height. On every side we meet with examples. Mammals,
birds, reptiles, insects, allillustrate howimportant is protective
coloration in the general scheme of high-altitude life.
I will mention some of the more striking illustrations.
The mouse-hares (Ochotona curzoniae) are common mammals
of Tibet. They live in communities on the open plateau,
establishing themselves usually on grassy patches, where
they hibernate in burrows throughout the winter, and in
Summer come forth to collect food. They are delightful
little creatures, about the size of a guinea-pig. Near Phari
they live in immense colonies. The plain is there literally
studded with their tunnels. On warm days they are busy
and active, chewing at the grass, rooting in the soil, often
peeping inquisitively from the entrance to their burrows, or
scampering from hole to hole. We are attracted by their
example of harmonization, the pale grey colour of their fur
blending well with the upland soil. This adaptation of colour
must protect them from enemies, especially from the powerful
birds of prey which circle over their exposed haunts. If we
drop from the plateau into the main range, into those deep
gorges stuffed with vegetation that lead to Sikkim and
Nepal, we there find another kind of mouse-hare (Ochotona
Sikimaria). This is a darker coloured species, clothed in
black and rusty hair. It lives on mountain slopes, in more
gloomy surroundings, hiding as a rule beneath rocks and
stones. Its coat is thus adapted to its special haunts, being
conspicuously darker in colour than that of the pale species
on the plateau of Tibet.
The marmots supply another example of harmonization.
We met with them in only a few places, usually near the
summits of bare passes where they used to sit erect near the
entrance to their burrows and utter loud whistling notes.
Their colour blends well with these desolate surroundings,
appearing as a kind of brownish yellow inconspicuous against
the rock behind. The Tibetan hare is still another instance.
This animal likes to haunt the stony mountains, especially
NATURAL HISTORY 263
those heaps of broken rock which have accumulated at the
foot of the hills. It finds suitable hiding-places amongst the
boulders, but in addition is so coloured that when it sits
still it is lost to view amongst the broken stones.
Some of the larger mammals are protectively coloured.
We frequently saw gazelle on the open plateau and noticed
how their coats used to blend with the soil. It was the same
with the wild sheep that haunted our Base Camp. Though
of large size, yet they were comparatively inconspicuous
against the hillsides. Our attention was sometimes first
drawn to the herd by the clatter of falling stones which the
animals displaced as they fed on the moraines.
The birds provide numerous examples of harmonization.
Mountain-finches are common high-altitude birds. We met
with five kinds on our journey across the plateau. There
was Blandford’s mountain-finch, a fulvous-coloured bird,
often seen near villages and in cultivated fields. Adams'
mountain-finch was another species, a brown bird with a
pretty white wing-patch. It used to visit our Everest Base
Camp, and, when we left, was establishing its nest in a moraine.
One commonly met with was the red-necked mountain-finch.
This species also is brown in colour, with a white chin, a
black moustache and a broad white band over the eye. It
was a constant companion of the mouse-hares, living with
them on the most friendly terms. Not unlike it was Mandelli’s
finch, though a bird of local distribution and thinly scattered.
Occasionally we saw it entering the burrows of mouse-hares,
at the bottom of which it undoubtedly breeds. Brandt’s
mountain-finch is somewhat different. It is darker in colour,
especially in winter when the edges of the feathers get worn
away. We saw it usually near villages and in cultivated
fields. It was one of the most constant visitors of our Base
Camp and used to like to haunt the high stony passes up to
17,000 feet. These five mountain-finches are fairly well
protected by their plumage. They are dull, inconspicuous
birds, coloured some shade of brown or fulvous and thus
adapted to a life on these open plains.
264 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Larks are amongst the commonest birds of the plateau.
There was the Tibetan skylark, a bird almost identical with
our species at home. We frequently met with it in the
vicinity of villages, in cultivated fields or pasture areas, or
following the plough in search of food. Sometimes we heard
it singing high in the air after the manner of our English
bird. The short-toed lark was still more common. It nested
freely at these elevations, up to a height of 15,000 feet.
Another kind was the large-billed calandra lark, a powerful,
noisy bird which utters a loud call-note when in flight. It
specially likes the marshy areas, where it hides its nest in
an elevated tuft situated in the midst of the swamp. Like
the finches, these larks frequent open places, and all are
dull, sombre-coloured species which blend with their high-
altitude haunts.
The Tibetan Snow-cock is a good example of harmonization.
It is a large, powerfully built, red-legged partridge, ascending
to high altitudes and feeding on the grass up to about 17,000
feet. Flocks used to congregate near the Rongbuk Glacier,
searching the moraines or the high cliffs, and from the Base
Camp we often heard their whistling notes ringing loudly
across the gorge. These snow-cock blend well with the
barren hills and are not easily seen amongst boulders and
Crags.
The Tibetan sand-grouse is another protectively coloured
bird. It lives on the open Stony plateau, where its pale
fawn plumage blends with the ground. These sand-grouse
congregate in considerable flocks. When in flight, they are
noisy and conspicuous, showing their pale underparts and
dark patches on their wings. But these colours disappear
when the flock alights. Their wings fold so as to hide the
black patches on the feathers, their pale underparts are
concealed beneath them, and the birds look just like Scattered
Stones.
The wall-creeper supplies an illustration from the cliffs.
We met with it on the slaty hill of Shekar, also on the preci-
pices above our Base Camp at a height of 18,000 feet. It
NATURAL HISTORY 265
creeps about on these high-altitude rocks searching for
insects and spiders in the clefts. The plumage of its back
is ashy grey, which blends well with the similarly coloured
rocks. But the moment it takes to flight it becomes imme-
diately conspicuous. Brilliant patches of crimson appear
on its wings, also bright spots of white. Our attention is
attracted to this flash of colour; then unexpectedly the
bird alights, the crimson colour vanishes, the white spots
disappear, and the bird again harmonizes with the hill.
In the bed of the torrents we find another example. This
is the ibis-bill, a high-altitude wader which lives on the layer
of water-worn boulders strewn along the floor of the gorge.
The colour of the ibis-bill is grey to ashy, very like that of
the water-worn stones. On its breast, however, is a conspicu-
ous gorget, but this the bird manages to conceal by its habit
of crouching low. When alarmed, it remains stationary in
the midst of the boulders, lowers its body so as to hide the
colours on its breast, and is lost to view amongst the rounded
stones. Its chicks are protected in the same way. The
parent utters a loud cry to warn them of danger, and, on
hearing it, they hide in the torrent bed.
The powerful birds of the plateau are not protectively
coloured. They are well able to defend themselves and
thus have no need of a special colour scheme. The raven is
common around Tibetan villages, the steppe eagle soars over
the colonies of mouse-hares, the kite comes down to take
garbage from camps. These birds can have few if any serious
enemies, and they are conspicuous from afar. So are the red-
billed and yellow-billed choughs. Though these are less
powerful birds, yet they are strong and pugnacious ; also
they keep together in flocks and seem well able to take care
of themselves. Certain of the little birds are decidedly
conspicuous, and in some cases we see the obvious reason
why they do not require a protective scheme. The tree-
Sparrows and accentors may be quoted as examples. Their
markings clearly do not serve to conceal them, but these
birds keep near villages and amongst piles of stones where
266 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
they can easily escape from birds of prey. It is those species
which live on the open plateau that particularly require the
protective scheme.
It has been said that the protectively coloured birds of
the desert are made conspicuous by the shadows which they
cast on the ground. The dark shadow patch attracts notice
and is liable to direct attention to the bird. This may be
SO on an even desert where the sand is a smooth unbroken
sheet. But it is not the case in these upland deserts. Here
there are objects of every kind, stones and clods and dry
tufts of grass. All these cast shadows when the sun is low.
Consequently there is nothing specially attractive about the
shadow cast by a bird.
Against what enemies have the small birds of the plateau
to contend ? I have frequently noted eagles circling round
the hills. Buzzards investigate the mouse-hare communities.
I have seen a falcon attacked by choughs. Probably the
kestrels capture small birds, since they were fairly common
on the plateau in April when scarcely an insect of any kind
could be found.
The lizards of the plateau are protectively coloured.
They belong to the species Phrynocephalus Theobaldi. Small
and active, they tunnel in the soil, constructing for them-
selves permanent habitations which open on the surface by
a slit-like hole. On congenial days they come out from these
burrows and sun themselves on the warm Sand. Though
all belong to the same species, yet these lizards vary much
in coloration. Some are pale grey, others Spotted with
brown and yellow, still others with these markings arranged
in bands. They all, however, blend well with the plateau
and are thus protected from raptorial birds. A point of
interest about these high-altitude lizards is the conspicuous
colour of their under surface, which of course is Ordinarily
hidden from view. For this surface is almost pure white,
but in the middle of the belly is a black patch, and there
is a black mark near the end of the tail. We find the same
peculiarity in certain lizards of the Sahara. It seems in some
NATURAL HISTORY 267
way related to desert conditions. But what is its purpose
we are unable to explain.
The high-altitude spiders provide numerous examples of
creatures coloured so as to resemble their haunts. Lycosids
live near the Tibetan streams where they run over the sand
and hide beneath stones. Their general colour is a pale
brown marked with a delicate mottling and Speckling that
harmonizes with the underlying sand. At higher altitudes
on the moraines are other kinds which ascend to 17,000 feet.
These are grey and brown like the particles of rock, an
adaptation which may aid them in the capture of prey, but
is probably of more service as a protection against Wasps
which pursue them at these desolate heights.
The moths of the highest altitudes are protectively
coloured. These are little species resembling our Amarta.
They haunted the moraines around our Base Camp, and even
camps on the Rongbuk Glacier up to 18,000 feet. Seen
from beneath they are very conspicuous, with black and
white bands on the under surface of the wings. But this
surface is concealed when the moth comes to rest by the
pressing of its wings close against the stone. Only the
upper surface is exposed to view, and this is mottled with
delicate grey which blends with the granite rock.
We find a striking instance of protective colouring in
the case of the grasshoppers. Unfortunately they cannot
be properly identified since, owing to the early season of the
year, those we found were mostly in the larval state. Let
us compare these larvae with their selected haunts. One
kind, the Central Asian migratory locust, was coloured a
rich green, and we found it in patches of green grass at an
altitude of 15,000 feet. Another kind, belonging to a new
genus, was a resident of greater heights. In size it was minute,
being immature and wingless, and it lived amongst boulders
and decomposing grit on the moraines at 17,000 feet. Its
Scheme of colour was grey and black with delicate transverse
bands across its thighs. This made it difficult to detect in
its surroundings, since the pattern of colour closely resembled
268 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
that of the granite flakes. At lower altitudes on the wind-
Swept Sand we met with still another kind. This little
Species was brown in colour with markings of blue and rusty
red. It harmonized well with its special haunts, for the
Sand was speckled with red and blue granules carried down
from the neighbouring hills. A fourth kind was found on
the water-worn pebbles along the bank of the Chiblung
Chu. These pebbles were smooth and flat and composed
mainly of bluish slate. The grasshopper that lived on
them was the same shade of colour, a pale uniform slaty
blue that harmonized well with the water-worn stones.
Thus we see how important is protective coloration in
the struggle for existence at these great heights. It is in
the vast and open tracts, the deserts, the Snows, the elevated
wastes, that we see this principle most lavishly illustrated.
The reason for protection of this kind is clear. In the wilder-
ness hiding-places are seldom available. There are no trees,
no scrub, no profusion of grass in which the animals can
conceal themselves when enemies approach. To avoid
destruction they must seek evasion of some sort. Their
only chance is to resemble their natural surroundings and
escape by being passed unseen.
Adaptation of Cold and Wind
It is interesting to observe how the animals at high
altitudes adapt themselves to cold and wind. In winter
the cold on the plateau is severe : at all times the range of
temperature is considerable, often 50° in the twenty-four
hours. We took temperatures at the Base Camp throughout
the month of May. On the 27th there was a daily range
of 53° F. ; on the 31st of 58° F. Tibet is notorious for its
fierce winds. Near the Base Camp they had made their
mark on the rocks. Deep grooves had been cut into the
granite boulders. Their windward surface was so eroded
that it looked like coral, while the leeward surface was
· 1 №v HT：n Wo H.O.

NATURAL HISTORY 269
ordinarily smooth. And this was all due to the persistent
wind which poured through this narrow gorge. The animals
which live on the surface soil must necessarily experience
great extremes of temperature. Here are some records from
the Base Camp taken on May 20 at a height of 16,500 feet :
Maximum in Minimum in Daily Range of
24 Hours. 24 Hours. Temperature.
Temperature of Sand . 96 2 94
Temperature of Air . 55 11 44
It is probable that animals living on the sand, such as beetles,
grasshoppers, spiders and others, will often have to endure
a daily range of temperature of as much as 100° F.
Many mammals at these high altitudes have thicker coats
of hair, obviously to serve as a protection against cold.
We see in this the herds of domesticated goats, delightful
little animals, dwarfed in size, and provided with a thick
hairy coat which hangs down like a kilt around their legs.
Some of the Tibetan dogs are particularly well clothed, but
I have seen better examples farther west on the upland
plateau of the Pamir. They possess not only a coat of hair,
but sometimes in addition a covering of wool. In spring
this gives them a ragged appearance when large patches of
the winter wool still cling to their hairy coats. Near Gautsa,
at a height of 12,000 feet, I saw a herd of pigs in company
with yaks. They seemed out of place at these elevations,
and were covered in thick rusty-coloured hair quite different
from the half-naked animals of the plains. The Tibetan
hare has a dense coat, and it used to ascend as high as our
Base Camp, to the moraines at 17,000 feet.
But the Ordinary yak provides the best example. It is
provided with a double garment. Next its skin is a layer
of wool. Over this is a hairy coat which hangs down like
a skirt from its huge body, especially around its legs. Its
neck carries a strong mane, and behind it is provided with
a bush, tail. This large tail is a most conspicuous feature.
Its value at first sight is not very obvious, but becomes
apparent when we see the animals grazing on a slope. For
270 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
yaks, when feeding, turn their hind quarters to the wind.
In this way they make use of their enormous tails, which
Sometimes reach almost to the ground. The tail supplies
the animal with a kind of windscreen, while the hair from the
belly that hangs around the legs increases the efficiency of
this shield. The arrangement of the hair after the fashion
of a skirt is probably of use when the animal is lying down.
For the legs are then partially drawn up into the covering
which may help to keep them warm.
The Smaller mammals of the plateau are of the shelter-
Seeking kind. The Tibetan hare lives amongst broken rock.
On the Pamir plateau it is said to have burrows of its own.
The marmot, the vole and the mouse-hare all tunnel deep
into the soil. The lizards also construct their own dens, of
which the entrance is often sheltered by a tuft or stone.
The Tibetan wind commences to blow usually at about
10 a.m. At these altitudes the sun quickly warms the
plateau. On a still morning, after a few hours of sunshine,
the sand becomes warm to the touch. The low-lying air
begins to shimmer : from the plateau visible currents ascend
which spread into a pale mirage. This rapid heating of the
plateau accounts for the strong winds. The warm air rises,
and in order to fill the deficiency cold air pours down from
the Snowy range, often with tremendous force.
The birds that live on the open plateau are very discom-
fited by these diurnal gales. The mountain-finches, the
ground-choughs, the larks and others seek shelter behind
any available obstacle. For this reason we frequently find
flocks of little birds collected on the leeward side of villages
or behind chortens and stone walls. Many birds creep into
more sheltered nooks. Tree-sparrows often hide in the
holes of houses, choughs get under the lee of rocks, rose-
finches nestle beneath ledges and stones. Those birds that
live in company with mouse-hares roost in these animals’
dens. The wind is injurious to their soft plumage. One
of the most striking things about a collection from the plateau
is the manner in which the feathers are dilapidated and worn.
NATURAL HISTORY 271
It is interesting to note how all the birds face the wind
when it blows at its full strength. This is essential for the
little kinds that live on the open plains. If they stand across
it they may be lifted off their feet. The larger birds also
have to face the wind. Flocks of choughs like to feed on
grassy areas, where they scatter about in individual pairs.
As they probe the soil in these open tracts they all stand
with their heads to the wind. The raven is a regular village
scavenger. There it finds every kind of refuse, and we see
it persistently facing the wind as it stalks about in Search
of food. Wind helps many birds in their aerial evolutions,
and this is particularly noticeable in Tibet. The choughs
ascend in clamorous flocks, floating and circling, rising higher
and higher with only an occasional beat of the wing. It is
wind that permits of these effortless movements. When the
air is still they have to flap their wings. The lammergeier
makes some use of it when breaking its food. It finds bones
near villages, carries them aloft, then drops them until
they Smash to pieces on the ground. It employs the wind
to aid its ascent, and, as it comes down on the broken frag-
ments, it always heads the breeze. There are two common
hovering birds of the plateau. We may often see the kestrel
hanging stationary in the air watching for prey on the open
plain. The Tibetan tern is a hoverer that makes its poise
over a lake into which it plunges to seize a fish. The wind
is a great help to these hovering evolutions. They demand
considerable muscular effort, particularly at an altitude
where the rarefied atmosphere possesses only half its support-
ing power.
It is necessary for the birds of these windswept altitudes
to find sheltered places in which to nest. We met with
many examples on our march across the plateau. The
choughs nest in holes on earthen cliffs up to 15,000 feet.
The hoopoes seek the same kind of sheltered places. The
tree-sparrows build in the village walls. We found the nest
of the ground-chough at the bottom of a tunnel over 4 feet
in depth ; and the mountain-finches, as already mentioned,
272 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
nest in mouse-hare burrows, where they are secure from both
enemies and wind. The magpie builds an enormous nest,
a much thicker and more bulky structure than that of our
English bird. Those birds that build on the ground seek
Out Suitable shelters. We found the shore-lark nesting
behind a ridge of earth, the calandra lark in a tussock of
grass, the short-toed lark in the lee of a vetch. This last
bird in one instance showed an interesting modification.
It had placed its nest under the shelter of a vetch, while
at the opposite side it had built a little barrier, a low wall
of pebbles about an inch in width, no doubt a protection
against wind and Sand.
The habits of certain Tibetan butterflies help them in
their struggle with the strong wind. The species of Par-
massius exemplify this. They are characteristic of these
barren altitudes. We found them on the moraines in the
vicinity of our Base Camp. They are insects of comparatively
feeble flight and are easily carried along by a gale. Yet
they love to haunt the wildest places, especially the passes
up to 17,000 feet where the winds sweep furiously across the
range. They escape being blown away by their peculiarities
in habit. They are unwilling to fly except when the air is
still. Moreover, when disturbed, they make only short
flights, and when they settle they like to get into sheltered
nooks. Their resting attitude is particularly advantageous.
The moment they alight they spread their wings, then press
them down close and tight to the ground so as to offer the
least resistance to the air. Furthermore their wings are
stiff and rigid and not likely to be torn when being battered
by the wind. In this respect they are quite different from
the more fragile butterflies that inhabit the valleys of the
main range.
The swallowtail (Papilio machaon) and the tortoiseshell
(Vanessa cashmirensis) were two other butterflies that ascended
to our Base Camp at 16,500 feet. These kinds did not possess
the habits of the Parmassius. But they happen to be strong
and vigorous fliers, sufficiently swift and powerful on the
NATURAL HISTORY 273
wing to contend with the high-altitude winds. How different
is this Papilio from the common forms of Sikkim, which,
though larger and incomparably more beautiful in colour,
yet float about high up in the gorges at the mercy of every
breeze.
Certain moths at high altitudes behave like the Parnassius
in their efforts to contend with the wind. There was a kind
like an Anarta on the Rongbuk Glacier fully exposed to the
Everest blast. Its haunts were the boulders that carpeted
the ice, and it used to visit the highest alpine flowers. When
the wind was strong it kept down amongst the rocks, shuffling
between the boulders and fluttering through the crevices,
instead of boldly taking to flight. When on the wing it
was active in all its movements, making rapid skips from
place to place, but seldom flying for more than a few yards
without throwing itself again to the ground. Its resting
attitude was like that of the Parnassius: wings outstretched
and flattened against the rock so as to offer the least
resistance to the wind.
A few diptera used to haunt the same high elevation up
to 17,000 feet. In their actions they resembled the high-
altitude moths. They liked keeping in amongst stones and
rocks. When disturbed, they made only quick short flights,
their actions being more like the leaps of a grasshopper than
the ordinary movements of a fly. There was one kind, a
Tachinid, which used to live amongst boulders along the
banks of the plateau streams. It had a black hairy body,
a spined abdomen, and fragile speckled wings. Now, this
little fly seemed almost incapable of flight, so reluctant was
it to take to the air in a wind. Its habit was to seek shelter
beneath water-worn boulders, and, when these were upturned,
it could be taken in the fingers, preferring capture to the risk
of flight. Another kind, belonging to the genus Gonia, used
to inhabit thorny Scrub. It came out on Sunny mornings
when the air was calm. But its flights were short, only a
few feet, as though it feared to trust itself to any distance
in the air. When disturbed, it tried hard to remain within
T
274 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the scrub, flitting about from twig to twig, or coming to
rest on the sand underneath. Thus it managed to evade
the Wind, partly by reason of its short flights and partly by
keeping within the shelter of the thorn.
Hunting-wasps are common at high altitudes in Tibet.
We found them in the tempestuous Rongbuk Valley, where
they searched for spiders on the moraines. They work only
in calm and sunshine. When the wind begins to blow they
get down amongst the boulders, and, like the flies, they
move in sudden leaps which prevent their being swept away.
Humble bees also ascend to high altitudes. I saw one at a
height of 21,000 feet. But these are strong insects of power-
ful flight, and pass boldly from flower to flower independent
of any ordinary wind.
The Pseudabris beetles provide an interesting example
of a method by which insects escape the wind. These beetles
are conspicuous and brilliantly coloured with transverse
bands of black and red. In places they congregate in great
numbers, clustering on the vetches, also on the irises, where
they feed on the young shoots and flowers. It is interesting
to watch them when the wind blows hard. All the beetles
let go their hold on the vegetation and throw themselves
to the plateau soil. There they lie, all apparently dead.
Each beetle is on its side, its head bent sharply at right
angles to its body, its antennae turned down underneath it,
its legs collected into a cluster of tags. They all lie motion-
less in this attitude of death, like a crowd of little corpses
strewn over the ground. When the wind lessens we see them
all revive. They run about the soil, return to the vegetation
and resume their feeding on the vetch. We can stimulate
this behaviour by blowing at them with the breath. They
fall to the ground as in an ordinary wind, where, of course,
they are far less exposed to danger, lying as if dead amongst
the stones.
Thus we observe that the animals of high altitudes con-
tend with the elements in many different ways. Some grow
denser coats, others seek sheltered places, there is a great
NATURAL HISTORY 275
tendency to burrow in the soil. Certain butterflies and
moths flatten themselves on the ground ; many insects make
only quick short flights; certain flies keep in amongst stones
and bushes; certain beetles throw themselves for Safety to
the ground.
Scarcity of Food at High Altitudes
Animals at high altitudes find considerable difficulty in
contending with the scarcity of food. The domestic animals
struggle hard for existence. It is wonderful to see a herd of
yaks grazing on a hillside. The hill is brown and to all
appearances barren. It shows not a trace of any green
thing. Yet all the animals have their heads to the ground.
They find a blade of grass in one spot ; then, wandering on
a yard or two, they happen to meet with another blade. In
this way they gather a few mouthfuls, and manage to find
sufficient food to maintain life during early spring. In
summer, of course, they are better supplied. Grass shoots
up during the quick short season. The yaks fatten, and the
traveller is made aware of their improved condition by their
capacity to carry loads. But in winter their struggle must
be very acute. When Snow is on the ground they dig through
it to the vegetation. The Tibetans told me that they scraped
up roots. I have seen them eating the fresh dung of a pony
which happened to be better fed than themselves. The
sheep find it difficult to maintain existence, especially in the
early winter months when grass is beginning to appear.
They have to work hard for each single mouthful. With
their fore feet they dig into the soil, shuffle aside the super-
ficial sand in order to get at the individual blades. The
ponies may have to act in the same manner. When food
was scarce, I have seen them cutting up the ground with their
hoofs in order to get at the buried roots. Also they some-
times Wade into the icy lakes, where they feed on the water-
Weed that grows up from underneath. The mules and
276 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
donkeys will at times eat quantities of yak-dung, which does
not seem to do them any special harm. But it is the mouse-
hares that show the best example of husbandry. They
store up quantities of seeds in their burrows to serve them
as a winter supply of food.
Change of Habit in Tibet
The peculiar environment of the Tibetan plateau has
caused some of the high-altitude birds to change their custom-
ary habits of life. This is mainly due to the scarcity of
Vegetation. Tibet, as we have seen, is a broken desert. In
winter the hills are utterly barren ; in summer they support
only a sparse growth. Such vegetation as exists has a desert
appearance. We note the absence of trees, the thorniness
of the plants, the short active season in which flowers rapidly
bloom and as rapidly die away. Certainly in some spots
up to a height of 14,000 feet we find occasional willows.
But they are few and stunted, and, as a rule, are carefully
tended by the people, who protect them within stone walls.
In such surroundings those birds which usually live in
vegetation must of necessity find other haunts. Some of
them have become exclusively village birds. Thus the tree
Sparrow has come to haunt human habitations. It is a
common resident of every village, where it feeds in the streets
and nests in the walls. The accentors also are village birds.
On the plateau we met with two species, the robin accentor
and the brown accentor. As a rule accentors frequent
bushes and hedges. But on the plateau such haunts are
seldom available. Hence these birds have come to occupy
villages and to live near stone bridges and walls. The mag-
pie is another good example. The Tibetan species is the
same as our English bird which frequents trees and woods
and cultivated fields. But the magpie of Tibet keeps mainly
to houses. A colony had established itself near the village
of Pangle. The birds lived on the roofs like jackdaws or
NATURAL HISTORY 277
house-crows, and used to ascend the precipitous cliffs which
they shared with pigeons and choughs. This change of habit
shows how pliable is animal instinct when necessity makes
demand.
Certain birds in Tibet have lost their sense of fear. This
is due to the absence of persecution. For the Buddhist
religion forbids the taking of life, and this is strictly observed
in Tibet. Thus many of the animals have become remark-
ably tame. The ruddy sheldrake and the bar-headed goose
are in India amongst the most timid of birds, yet in Tibet
they swim about the ponds near the villages almost as fear-
lessly as in a London park. Many birds haunt the Tibetan
forts, especially ravens, lammergeiers, pigeons, and choughs.
Of these the blue hill-pigeons (Columba rupestris) are remark-
ably tame. They enter villages freely, and used to feed in
our Base Camp like the pigeons in a city street. But it is
the wild sheep or burhel which provide the best example.
Their timidity is known to every sportsman; wild sheep of
all kinds are most difficult to approach. Yet in these barren
altitudes they are remarkably tame. Herds used frequently
to visit our Base Camp, feeding on the tussocks of dried grass
that peeped out from amongst the stones. Sometimes they
came within twenty yards of our tents, even when people
were moving about in camp. Higher up on the mountain
was a hermit’s cell, and we were told that the sheep used to
visit this Sanctuary, where they took food out of the hermit’s
hands. Again we see how adaptable is animal instinct to
the changes in surrounding life.
Plateau Communities
A delightful feature in the life of the plateau is the manner
in which certain birds and mammals live together in friendly
Company. This is most marked in the mouse-hare
community. These little animals are markedly gregarious.
Numbers collect in a common society and construct their
278 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
tunnels on the same expanse of plain. With them associ-
ate different kinds of birds. Blandford’s mountain-finch,
Adams' mountain-finch, Mandelli's mountain-finch, the
red-necked mountain-finch, Elwes' horned lark and the
ground chough are the species most usually seen. All blend
in colour with the plateau: as a rule they live in exposed
places, the whole forming an instructive example of protec-
tively coloured mammals and birds. The members of this
family are remarkably tame, the birds living freely amongst
the mouse-hares, finding fragments of food in the vicinity
of their holes. Twenty or thirty mouse-hares may peer
forth from their tunnels with mountain-finches hopping
tamely around. The mouse-hares seem to take no notice
of the finches: we never see a sign of any conflict ; there is
a perfect amity between the mammals and birds.
What is the object of this friendly association ? I
think it is all to the advantage of the birds, being a help to
them in obtaining food. For these birds are seed-eating
species. At these altitudes food is often scarce, but there
are special attractions near the mouse-hares’ holes. For
these animals possess an instinctive forethought. The stress
of conditions has driven them to husbandry. In summer
they garner a supply of seeds; these they store in the bottom
of their burrows, and devour them during the winter months.
But where storage takes place there must certainly be some
refuse. Little seeds will lie about in the vicinity of the
burrows, and it is these waste fragments that attract the
birds. It is probable that the birds also pillage the mouse-
hares, for we frequently observed them entering the holes.
At greater altitudes, on the almost barren mountains,
there is another community, a very simple one, but interest-
ing because it occurs at so great a height. This is an associa-
tion of choughs and wild sheep. The chough sits on the
wild sheep's back, where it searches for insects in the animal’s
hair. The sheep seems pleased with the bird’s attention
and stands still while being explored. Thus engaged, they
remain in one another's company and move slowly along the
NATURAL HISTORY 279
mountain slope. I have seen them on the cliffs above the
Rongbuk Monastery as high as 17,000 feet. These wild
sheep are amongst the mammals that reach the greatest
altitudes, and choughs are probably the highest inhabitants
of the earth. It is interesting to see these hardy creatures
living such a sociable and friendly life.
Hibernation,
The summer at high altitudes is of short duration.
Animal activity is therefore brief, lasting probably only
about five months. In winter the cold is very severe, and
most of the animals which cannot leave these elevations
hibernate until spring returns. The mouse-hares sleep in
the bottom of their burrows; so do the lizards in their narrow
holes. When we reached the plateau early in April we found
it almost destitute of animal life; there was not even an
insect to be seen. Yet when we searched under the stones
and dug into the superficial soil we found that in reality
there was plenty of life. But every kind of creature was in a
somnolent state. The ants were asleep in their subterranean
galleries; under stones were beetles stiff and motionless, so
torpid that they could scarcely move. We found centi-
pedes rolled into motionless coils, spiders lying dormant in
the interior of snail shells, caterpillars motionless and rigid,
earwigs in a sluggish state with their antennae thrust back
along their sides. Insects were found in a state of hiberna-
tion up to a height of 18,000 feet. Many passed the winter
in the larval stage. The ground beetles seemed habitually
to hibernate in pairs. It was as if Nature had arranged their
winter sleep in such a way that, when Summer arrived, males
and females should awake in suitable couples and be ready
immediately to propagate their kind. In the galleries of
the ants were eggs and larvae, delicate forms of insect life
to survive in this frozen soil. We sometimes exposed num-
bers of dead insects, regular cemeteries underneath stones.
280 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
It seemed as if many must have gone into hibernation and
died in the severe cold.
A few experiments will prove the value of hibernation
to the animals. On May 22 I made an artificial burrow at
an altitude of 16,500 feet. The burrow was like the kind in
which the mouse-hares hibernate. The following were the
temperatures in the interior of this burrow 1 foot beneath
the soil:
Temperature of Temperature of
Hour of Day. Burrow. Air.
8 a.m. . . . . . . . + 33° F. + 34°F.
Midday . . . . . . -- 33° F. + 48° F.
4 p.m. . . . . . . -- 33° F. + 42°F.
9 p.m. . . . . . . . + 33° F. –– 29°F.
Thus from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. the burrow remained at a uniform
temperature. During the same period the temperature of
the air varied through 19°F. Thus the mouse-hares by
hibernation gain great advantage. They escape extremes
of temperature and find uniform conditions. And in winter
they must gain it even still more when the soil is covered
with Snow.
The conditions under a stone are also favourable for
hibernation. On May 21 I took a temperature record at
17,000 feet.
Beneath Stone. Of Air.
Maximum Temp. in 24 Hours . . 39°F. 56° F.
Minimum Temp. in 24 Hours . . 279 F. I2° F.
This shows a variation underneath a stone of 12°F. in twenty-
four hours. During the same period the temperature of the
air varied through 44° F.
The following is a record at the same altitude 2 inches
beneath the Soil :
- Two inches beneath Of Air.
Soil.
Maximum Temp. in 24 Hours . . 34°F. 59° F.
Minimum Temp. in 24 Hours . . 279 F. 23° F.
It shows that at 2 inches beneath the surface the tempera-
ture varied through only 7° F., while that of the air during
NATURAL HISTORY 281
the same period ranged through 36°F. Thus the smaller
creatures likewise gain advantage by getting into the soil or
underneath stones. The ants, the beetles, the caterpillars,
the spiders find more uniform conditions for their winter
sleep.
There were signs of animation towards the end of May
at altitudes of 17,000 feet. Above the Base Camp on May 27
I found the first gentian in flower on the moraine; on the
same day a tortoiseshell butterfly appeared ; a few pale
coloured moths began to skip about the debris; some imma-
ture grasshoppers were active on the stones and larvae in the
thawing pools. The beetles were definitely awakening, and
came Out Occasionally from their retreats beneath the stones.
Spiders are amongst the first to shake off this sleep ; we may
often see them crawling on the moist earth at the very edge
of the retreating snows.
Altitudes to which Animals Ascend
In the struggle for existence at great altitudes many
animals are driven to extreme heights. It indicates how
powerful is the vital force of this planet, how relentless is
Nature in her efforts to populate every habitable corner of
the earth. Let us consider the different groups of animals
and the highest altitudes at which we found them.
First with respect to man. He struggles to exist wher-
ever the earth provides the barest sustenance for life. The
Tibetans plough the soil up to 15,000 feet, at which height
they can glean a Scanty harvest. Here men live in small
stone villages, dirty, Scanty, wind-swept habitations, almost
the highest on the earth's surface. There is a monastery
in the Rongbuk Valley at an altitude of 16,000 feet. Above
the monastery is a dilapidated nunnery, and still higher at
17,000 feet is a cell in the mountain where a hermit has
imprisoned himself for a term of years.
Certain mammals reach considerable elevations. Herds
282 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of burhel ascend to 17,000 feet. They work along the hill-
sides, displacing the boulders. At first sight there seems
little to attract them at these altitudes; but even on these
moraines there is a trace of vegetation, and the sheep here
and there find a tuft of grass peeping out from amongst the
stones. A few other mammals compete with the sheep in
the altitudes to which they ascend. We saw marmots near
the summit of the Pusi La, at 16,500 feet. The Tibetan
hare came as high as 17,000 feet, where it lived amongst the
boulders close to our Base Camp. One day a little mouse-
hare was seen in this camp sheltering underneath a stone.
At 20,000 feet, in Camp II, Shebbeare noted tracks of a small
mammal in the soft snow close to our tents. These had
probably been made by a mouse-hare. At this altitude
there was not a trace of vegetation, nothing on which a grass-
eating mammal could exist. We think it likely that the
animal was carried up in baggage rather than that it lived
permanently at this height.
Birds in their migrations reach considerable altitudes;
probably some of the smallest species cross the highest
ranges on the earth. But there are many which populate this
high-altitude plateau. They are true residents of these inhos-
pitable regions: not like the migrants, mere travellers through
the heights. On the plateau we noted fifty-six different
kinds of birds at altitudes upwards of 14,000 feet. Mountain-
finches were persistent visitors of our Base Camp. So was
the brown accentor, more occasionally the wall-creeper, also
ravens, lammergeiers, hill-pigeons, and choughs. Adams'
mountain-finch and Guldenstadt’s redstart nested at these
heights. Many marsh-birds ascend as high as marshes exist.
The bar-headed goose and the ruddy sheldrake collect in
flocks on the Tibetan plateau at an altitude of 14,000 feet.
The brown-headed gull and the Tibetan tern occupy the lakes
and streams. The lesser sand-plover explores the brink of
the rivers, and I have flushed snipe from an upland swamp
at a height of 15,000 feet. It is the same with the birds of
the torrents: they too send representatives as high as streams
NATURAL HISTORY 283
exist. The dipper goes as high as 16,000 feet, sometimes
reaching the junction of the glacier with the stream. Gulden-
stadt’s redstart ascends even farther ; as a rule it is accus-
tomed to cling closely to the torrents, but I have seen it as
high as 18,000 feet on the ice near the foot of Everest.
Certain birds, in spite of wind and cold, followed up our
camps to considerable heights. Camp I was inhabited by
ravens and hill-pigeons, and the magnificent lammergeier
used to soar above it at a height of over 20,000 feet. Camp
II was a less attractive spot, and its only visitors were pigeons
and choughs. Camp III was at 21,000 feet. There I saw
choughs and a jungle-crow, also a rose-finch which seemed
as if migrating across the range. Choughs were the only
visitors to Camp IV at a height of 23,000 feet. But this is
by no means their limit of altitude. Somervell saw choughs
around the summit of Kharta Phu at 23,640 feet, and these
same birds followed the climbers in their ascent to the
immense altitude of 27,000 feet. There has hitherto been
no record of living creatures from anything approaching
such a height as this.
The fact is that animals will ascend the flanks of the
mountains so far as their accustomed food supply is obtain-
able. We have already seen that this is the case with man,
the Tibetans constructing their villages as high as they can till
the soil. Animals are not deterred by physical inclemencies.
They will brave the cold wind and the rarefied atmosphere
provided that a suitable supply of food can be secured.
This is the reason why the mammals reach the farthest
limits of the vegetation, why the marsh birds ascend to the
highest marshes, why the torrent birds reach the junction
of torrents with glaciers. Were a camp established on the
Summit of Everest there is little doubt that it would be
regularly visited by choughs.
Although reptiles and batrachians are susceptible to
cold, yet examples of these groups occur on the plateau. I
have already mentioned the lizard, Phrynocephalus, common
at 14,000 feet. A few were seen on the Tinki La at 15,000
284 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
feet. The pools and marshes up to 15,000 feet contain
frogs of the species Rana pleskei. We found no trace of the
rare toad, Cophophryne alticola, taken on the plateau during
the previous Expedition. Nor did I see any sign of snakes
at these altitudes. In all likelihood their ascent is prevented
by cold, for Snakes have been observed at the hot springs in
other parts of Tibet.
Beetles ascend to considerable altitudes. Those of the
genus Ascelosodi's are found under almost every stone in
Tibet. In winter they lie stiff and torpid, but in spring
they awaken and explore the soil. Click beetles were found
at 15,000 feet sheltering underneath stones. Dung beetles
are numerous after the break of the monsoon. In every
pad of dung up to 16,000 feet, and beneath the carcass of
every dead animal, we are certain to find examples of this
group. Cockchafers were noticed at 15,000 feet. At night
they came buzzing heavily through the air and often tumbled
helplessly into the pools. Blue vetches clothe the plateau
at 15,000 feet. In these we met with different kinds of lady-
birds, one a bright red seven-spotted species like the kind
so common on the Indian plains.
Colonies of ants are established in the soil up to 15,000
feet. They seem affected by the altitude and cold, being
mere sluggish and impoverished communes quite different
from the active ravagers of the plains. Bees and wasps
ascend the mountains to a greater height than might have
been believed. At 15,000 feet are noisy colonies of
Anthophora. They make tunnels in the soil or in mud walls
round which they gather in an active Swarm. Humble bees
are conspicuous on the open plateau. They occasionally
visit the alpine flowers as high as 18,000 feet. I saw one
near Camp III at 21,000 feet, far above the line of permanent
snow. A rare little wasp occurs at 16,000 feet which is wont
to work in clay. It attaches to the rocks a dome-shaped
habitation which it fills with paralysed grubs. I found three
kinds of hunting-wasps in the vicinity of the Base Camp as
high as 17,000 feet. Their plan is to dig a tunnel in the soil
NATURAL HISTORY 285
and incarcerate their victims at the bottom of the shaft.
Eor them life is a concentrated energy, since their work is
confined to sunny days, when they bustle about with
enthusiasm and zeal.
butterflies ascend far up the mountains, where they are
continually swept about by the wind. On the passes up to
17,000 feet we are certain to find different species of Apollo.
One day I saw a tortoiseshell at 21,000 feet carried by the
wind over Camp III. Companions of the butterflies, and
ascending to the same altitudes, are certain day-flying moths.
They follow up the alpine flowers to the farthest limit of the
vegetation; and one of them, like the tortoiseshell butterfly,
was seen swept by the wind to 21,000 feet.
It is strange to think that certain kinds of grasshoppers
reach the highest limit of vegetable life. On the plateau
they live in grass and on sand ; but we found others at higher
altitudes, immature forms of a new genus, that frequent the
almost desolate moraines as high as 18,000 feet.
There are Diptera that ascend to equal elevations.
Tachinids were common at the edge of a torrent at 17,000
feet. Robber flies (Asilidae) were seen at a similar height
capturing small bees. Delicate Diptera resembling mos-
quitoes shelter under stones alongside the pools at 14,500
feet.
We met with different kinds of Hemiptera or bugs.
Aphids were numerous at 15,000 feet, where they collected
round the stems of the vetches and attracted colonies of
ants. Another larger kind was found near the Rongbuk
Glacier at a height of 16,500 feet.
Life exists in the streams and pools spread out over the
plateau of Tibet. It is surprising to observe the numbers of
fish, and one wonders how they can obtain food. In marshy
places we are likely to find water-beetles crawling over the
soft mud. At Lingka I dug them from beneath the ice at
14,500 feet. In the pools we find water-boatmen hovering
beneath the surface, or shrimp-like crustaceans skipping
about ; or at the bottom we may notice the larvae of caddis-
286 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
flies enclosed in their cases of weeds. In some places on the
plateau there are hot springs which flow away in warm streams.
We found one at a height of 15,000 feet teeming with pond
life. I searched the high torrents near Camp III. Early in
June they commence to thaw and go racing down the
mountain under bridges of snow. But I could find no trace
of any kind of life in these streams at 21,000 feet.
We found fragile Neuroptera at considerable altitudes.
There were dragonflies in the marshes at 15,000 feet, slender
Agrionids vividly adorned in black and turquoise blue.
The pools and streams at 17,000 feet contained the larvae of
stone-flies, numbers of which sheltered underneath stones.
At high altitudes spiders are a conspicuous feature.
Those that construct circular snares ascend to 15,000 feet.
They lay their traps in the plateau gorse or any suitable kind
of thorny scrub. The hunting kinds ascend to far greater
altitudes, being common on the moraines near the site of our
Base Camp. Solifugids occur up to 15,000 feet. They are
Smaller than those found in low-altitude deserts, but possess
the same wandering habits by night. At great heights on
the passes and moraines we meet with other unattractive
kinds. Centipedes exist at 15,000 feet, and at 16,000 feet
ticks shelter beneath stones.
Different kinds of molluscs live on the plateau. We
found land shells under boulders at 14,600 feet. Some of
the marshes teem with water shells, both univalves and
bivalves being common up to 15,000 feet. We found no
earthworms on the elevated plateau, but they occur up to
12,000 feet in the gorges of the main range. We found slugs
in the Rongshar Valley at 16,000 feet ; and in the icy streams
at the same altitude numbers of little black planarians used
to congregate beneath the stones.
Thus we see that many varied forms of life ascend the
mountains to considerable heights. On Mount Everest we
found traces of animal existence far above the last vegetable
growth. The highest growing plant was seen near Camp I
at 18,000 feet. Yet animals possessed permanent habita-
NATURAL HISTORY 287
tions as high as 22,000 feet. At this altitude we found little
- Attid spiders, immature, minute, black in colour. They lived
amongst rocky debris, lurking in fissures and hiding beneath
stones. I cannot think on what they feed at such a height
where nothing exists but bare rock and ice. Other creatures
may occasionally reach this altitude, such as bees, butter-
flies and moths. But these are only casual visitors carried
by winds from their ordinary course. It seems to be the
natural home of these spiders, which are therefore the
highest permanent inhabitants of the earth.
We gain some impression of the struggle for existence
from the manner in which animals Secure a livelihood on
tracts of snow and ice. Different kinds, as we have seen,
force their way far above the line of permanent Snow. At
lower altitudes the ice supports animal existence. We
found an interesting fauna on the Rongbuk Glacier at an
altitude of 17,000 feet. The surface of this glacier was
deeply fissured and in places covered with broken rock. It
seemed at first sight utterly barren, yet some grass grew
amongst the rocky fragments and patches of lichen appeared
on the stones. Some animals lived even in this desolation.
One day I saw wild sheep resting on the glacier surrounded
by pinnacles of ice and stones. Certain birds used to frequent
the icy tract. The snow-cock came down to it from the sides
of the gorges. I saw Guldenstadt’s redstart alighting on
its pinnacles. Temminck’s stint, while migrating through
the gorge, halted near one of its icy pools. A tortoiseshell
butterfly was sometimes seen on the glacier at 17,000 feet.
A number of protectively coloured moths used to live on its
surface moraine. Beetles and hunting-spiders found a
shelter on it. It was the home of some minute flies.
Between the pinnacles of ice were pools of water in which
certain little animals managed to exist. These pools were
beautifully blue in colour, and so cold that, after sweeping
them with a net, the gauze remained frozen into a rigid bag.
Yet in them we found the larvae of both may-flies and stone-
flies ; in the debris at the brink were minute Hemiptera,
288 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and fragile Chironomids, delicate as mosquitoes, skated on
the surface of the water.
These scattered notes tell us something of the struggle
for life, how animals at high altitudes manage to compete
with the cold, the wind, the scarcity of food. They indicate
how intense is that vital force which compels existence at
great elevations in one of the most inhospitable regions of
the earth.
SECTION III
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY
By N. E. OTDELL
I. GEOLOGY
In April, 1922, Dr. Heron read to the Royal Geographical
Society an admirable paper * on the geological results of
the first Expedition, that he accompanied as official geologist.
That paper gave an outline of his strenuous activities in the
area lying to the north of Mount Everest, and his work was,
as he himself has said, “virtually a continuation to the
westward of Sir Henry Hayden’s pioneer investigations
during the Tibet Expedition of 1903–4.” Heron’s work
was largely concerned with the sedimentary rocks that
comprise the area to the north of the great belt of crystalline
rocks developed along the main axis of the Himalaya. Time
did not permit of his making more than brief flying visits,
so to speak, to the crystalline Zone, and he had hoped, on
the next expedition, to study the crystalline area in detail.
However in 1922, and again in 1924, political objections
were raised to his accompanying the parties, and so the
opportunity of much valuable work on the great problems of
the uplift of the Himalayas, in a region hitherto inaccessible,
had to be sacrificed to the tender feelings of the imagina-
tive Tibetans. It is said that the Tibetans consider the
hammering and chipping of rocks as detrimental to the
equilibrium of the Spiritual and Material Worlds, since this
little practice of geologists liberates devils from the former
into the latter. Also they are said to consider the collecting
of specimens as only undertaken for economic purposes,
* G.J., Vol. LIX, No. 6.
289 U
290 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and therefore Dr. Heron's specimens taken from the country
must necessarily have been loads of rubies, garnets, or other
precious stones, or even gold. In spite of their Buddhistic
principles, however, the Tibetans appear to turn a blind eye
to the wholesale slaughter involved in the collection this
year of over 10,000 specimens by our ardent Natural
Historian
Consequently when I arrived at Darjeeling to join the
last Expedition and it was incorrectly reported in the news-
papers that the geologist to the Expedition had arrived, the
Political Agent of Sikkim, Major Bailey, who has the Tibetan’s
cause So much at heart, at once wrote to General Bruce
demanding an explanation, since assurance had been given
that no official geologist would accompany the Expedition.
The explanation of course was simple: though a geologist
by profession, I was merely a member of the climbing party
and oxygen officer, although as a matter of fact the General
did go as far as giving me the dubious appellation of “oil-
man.” But it could hardly be expected that a geologist,
however occupied with the numerous other duties apper-
taining to the Expedition, would keep his eyes closed to all
the features of the landscape for the five months during
which the Expedition lasted. And it is the results of those
observations and a few of the conclusions drawn therefrom
that I propose to describe. The paucity of the results I
am only too well aware of, but preoccupation with the oxygen
apparatus for use on the mountain, which necessitated
continual work on it during the whole of the outward journey,
as well as the time spent in the attempts on the Summit,
and all that this primary object of the Expedition involved,
quite prevented my carrying out anything like the amount
of detailed work I had hoped to do.
GEOLOGY
The Metamorphic Complea.—I propose at the outset to
skip over any observations I may have to record on the
younger sedimentary rocks, of which the vast elevated plateau
'n H.O. :) Nin Hovae) woº1， o Nv>\ 0 N n Hovae)

GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 291
of Tibet is predominantly formed. I have scarcely anything
to add to the work of Sir Henry Hayden and Dr. Heron on
these formations. My observations are principally confined
to the crystalline and metamorphic zone of the main chain
of the Himalayas, and their associated rocks, and may be
considered as supplementary to those made by Dr. Heron,
more especially up to the northern border of the crystallines.
I was able to penetrate well into this zone in two localities
in particular, namely (1) that in the neighbourhood of Mount
Everest itself, and (2) that of the Rongshar and Gaurisankar
about 40 miles to the west. But in neither case had I the
opportunity of extending my investigations very far laterally,
that is to say, east and west of these southward lines.
(1) The Everest Region.—In trekking southward from the
town of Shekar Dzong en route to Everest the crystalline
rocks first make their appearance in the valley of the DZakar
Chu at the point where the Gyachung Chu comes in from
the west. The path to Rongbuk leads along on the true
right bank of the DZakar Chu, and apart from an interesting
occurrence above the Chobu Monastery recorded by Heron,
one first strikes the main mass of the crystallines at the
above river junction in a great cliff overlooking it on the
eastern side. It is composed of dark horizontally banded
biotite gneiss alternating with bands of light granite, though
in the upper part of the cliff the latter is represented by
pegmatite, and the whole appears to represent a large-scale
example of lit-par-lit injection. The section showed a pre-
dominance of gneiss towards the top of the cliff. The gneiss
itself shows an alternation of biotitic and felspathic bands,
and this strongly foliated type is essentially non-porphyritic.
The important question of the relation of this crystalline
mass to the limestones that rest on it near the summit of the
bluff will be dealt with later.
As one proceeds up the wide valley of the upper Dzakar
Chu past the village of Rongbuk this same strikingly banded
Series continues on either side, often forming steep cliffs,
especially on the east side of the valley, with inevitable
292 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
talus slopes at their foot. Near Za-Rongbuk is a section
close to the path showing clearly the biotite gneiss invaded
and cut clean across by bands of pegmatite, indicating the
younger age of the latter.
A far-flung head tributary of the Dzakar Chu enters the
main Valley from the east not far from the snout of the
Rongbuk Glacier, and here in the gorge it has excavated I
found a most interesting section through the banded gneiss
and its associated rocks. Persisting in its horizontality for
the most part, the former was again seen to be intimately
mixed up with the light granite, which invaded it both along
the planes of foliation and also right across them. This
granite was pinkish in colour, contained tourmaline and
garnet, and being poor in white mica frequently graded off
into pegmatite. The biotite gneiss also was here notably
garnetiferous. Isolated lenticles of the pegmatite within
the gneiss were sometimes apparent, and that the whole had
been reduced to a state of fluxion at some time in its history
was evidenced by veinlets of the biotitic rock running off
into the pegmatite. The gneiss on the whole had only local
contortions, but at one point in the gorge a fault block had
been turned through 90°. Higher up in the gorge occurred
a very coarse porphyritic granite or pegmatite with large
phenocrysts of muscovite and tourmaline, often 2 or 3 inches
across. Resting on the latter was a large mass of hard green
variegated limestone, thoroughly crystalline, containing much
epidote where the pegmatite had invaded it. The relation
of these limestones to the overlying gneisses was unfortunately
obscured by slopes of scree. In this gorge, which I tentatively
dubbed the “Hermit’s Gorge ’’ owing to the existence of
a lama’s retreat near its entrance, I was also interested to
find pebbles of grey limestone, evidently washed down from
the parent bed (Permo Trias) away to the east, but time did
not admit of my ascertaining this.
Another locality that was examined in some detail was
the steep face overlooking and to the north of Camp I by
the snout of the East Rongbuk Glacier. Here was again
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 293
found thoroughly metamorphosed and crystalline limestone
resting on the schorl granite, which sent off apophyses into
it. Above the limestone, which had perhaps an apparent
thickness of about 100 feet, was the banded biotite gneiss
associated with other metamorphic rocks appearing con-
formable upon the limestone, and looking more than ever
like a bedded sedimentary series.
The same succession extends southward to the head of
the East Rongbuk Glacier, giving the impression of a practi-
cally undisturbed stratified series. Near Camp III an
exposure at the end of the eastern spur of Changtse showed
the same metamorphic series, though without the limestone,
garnetiferous biotite Schist being predominant and the whole
mass permeated with pegmatite. Southward across the
névé basin of the East Rongbuk Glacier the series appears
to continue in the lower part of the north-east ridge of Mount
Everest itself, and the marked junction it makes with the
Overlying banded biotite gneiss is nowhere better seen perhaps
than from Camp III, though bad weather and snow-covered
rocks prevented my examining this junction in detail. A
noted fault and anticlinal flexure of the beds is also seen from
here.
The rocks of the North Col vary from dark, very fine-
grained biotite gneisses to hornblende and tourmaline rocks,
dipping northward at 29° to 30°. As one proceeds up the
north ridge of Everest the rocks change from the more
silicious varieties found below to others decidedly calcareous
in composition. At about 24,000 feet there was some slight
evidence of an unconformable junction between the silicious
and calcareous facies, but owing to the rolling of the beds
and the general dip outwards (i.e. north) of approximately
30°, the gradient of the ridge itself being here about 35°–40°,
together with the extensive screes, it was impossible to deter-
mine this precisely. It is of course this particular character-
istic of the north face of Everest, namely, the outward sloping
overlapping slabs with their numerous “reversed scarp "
faces, that makes the ascent so awkward, though not strictly
294 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
difficult. The rocks moreover are not on the whole rotten
since they have been considerably indurated.
I do not propose here to describe in detail all the petro-
graphical types met with in the upper part of Everest, suffice
it to say that they consist predominantly of dark calc gneisses,
light limestones, and sandstones. Specimens brought back
in 1922 by the high-climbing parties and examined by Dr.
Heron, were diagnosed by him to be calc-silicate rocks for
the most part, but unfortunately he was led badly astray in
regard to one important zone. I refer to the light brown
band of rock that extends so prominently from the north-
east shoulder right along into the base of the final pyramid.
Geologists should be the last people to depreciate assistance
rendered by amateurs. Nevertheless the latter are apt to
lead one astray in such matters as the exact localities at which
material has been collected, and especially in regard to the
predominance, or fortuitous occurrence, of any specimens
collected. The party that reached the above light band of
rock in 1922 brought back a specimen from it that Heron
examined and found to be a schorl muscovite granite. I
reached this belt of rock myself last year and found it to be un-
doubtedly formed of calcareous sandstone, which incidentally
is at times micaceous. Now the whole metamorphic Series
of which Everest is composed is intruded by the light schorl
granite and pegmatite, which breaks across the bedded rocks
in conspicuous dykes and veins here and there, having come
up through the subjacent biotite gneiss. This intrusive
granitoid rock is very insignificant in amount relatively to
the sediments, and occurs quite fortuitously. The simple
explanation of the anomalous find of 1922 is that if it were
definitely made at this light belt of rock at over 27,000 feet
it was plucked from a chance occurrence of the granitoid
rock within the sandstone. Consequently, I fear, the view
expressed by Dr. Heron that this supposed sill of hard granite
is the main factor in preserving the prominent north-east
shoulder, as well presumably as the main peak, is no longer
valid. The final pyramid of the mountain is composed of
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 295
a dark quartzose biotitic calc schist, very fine-grained and
compact, which extends also some distance along the north-
east shoulder as a cap rock to the above-mentioned Sandstone,
and this may in some degree be contributory to the pre-emin-
ence of Everest. But, in my opinion, other and more cogent
factors, causes predominantly tectonic, must be sought for
a full explanation of this pre-eminence. The extra height
of the final pyramid, however, would appear to be due to
a fault of small throw bounding its eastern side, the line
of which marks the pronounced couloir that was reached by
Norton on the occasion of his record ascent.
Looking from high up on the north face of Everest, I
had the opportunity in intervals of good weather—which
when I was there were all too infrequent—to observe the
continuation of the Everest sedimentary series northward
in the North Peak (Changtse). The upper part of the latter
is obviously composed of the Everest calcareous series, resting
on the bedded biotite gneiss, profusely veined with the
light pegmatites. The junction of the two series is most
marked, owing to the colour difference, and is straight and
regular. This is vividly shown in Somervell’s wonderful
photograph taken from 28,000 feet, where one is looking
down the dip slope of the series. The true nature of this
important junction it is difficult to tell, but it has the appear-
ance of being a disconformable one, though one is apt to
be deceived by the foliation as well as by the irregular veins
and sills of pegmatite, which however are mostly confined
to the dark gneiss below. The further extent of the upper
calcareous series is seen in the upper parts of the higher
peaks, such as Khartaphu to the north-east and probably
Gyachung Kang to the north-west, but the lower peaks are
mostly of the lower biotite series, the prominence of many,
no doubt, being partly due to their being fortified by the
intrusive granites and pegmatites.
The marked extension almost horizontally of the
west ridge of Everest itself is due similarly to its being
composed of the more resistant biotite gneisses, the softer
296 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
overlying calcareous rocks having been here eroded
away.
In the region of the West Rongbuk Glacier, which was
visited by Hazard for the purposes of extending the topo-
graphical Survey, I understand there are representatives
of most of the afore-mentioned metamorphic rocks, and
these are in their expected positions relatively to one
another.
(2) The Rongshar Region.—The Kyetrak Glacier, which
flows northward between the lofty Cho Uyo and Cho Rapzang,
occupies a valley which in its lower part is bordered by cliffs
of the same series of banded biotite gneisses as exist in the
Rongbuk Valley. Beneath these I found at several places
the same metamorphosed sediments, in particular limestone,
as obtained below the banded gneisses of the Rongbuk.
These series were all well veined with pegmatites. In the
neighbourhood of the Pusi La, that leads over into the
Rongshar Valley at an altitude of just over 17,000 feet, I
found unmistakable representatives of the upper Everest
calc gneisses. These I first identified in the northern spurs
of Pt. 18620', which is a northern outlier of Cho Rapzang,
and saw that they also extended all along the top of the range
bordering the west side of the Kyetrak Glacier, both north
and south of the Pusi La. I also found cliffs of limestone
and calc-gneiss well over on the southern side of the pass.
These were succeeded below, as was to be expected, by the
banded biotite-gneiss series. In dropping down the upper
part of the Rongshar, my notes record a gradual change from
the horizontally banded and foliated gneiss of the northern
side of the range to the much more knotted and contorted
gneiss that extended throughout the lower parts of the
gorge. This latter gneiss was recognizable of course as the
typical Himalayan “Augen Gneiss’ that forms the core
of the whole extent of the range, and which has been SO
often described from numerous localities. It is almost
unnecessary for me to repeat here that its truly intrusive
character was long ago proved by the late Lieut.-Gen. C. A.
GEOILOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 297
McMahon.* Both in texture and structure the contrast
between this augen gneiss and the intensely foliated biotite
gneiss could hardly be greater, though I cannot here go
into the essential points of difference. The junction and
relationship of the two in the upper Rongshar I was unable
to determine with any precision, either owing to inaccessibility
or the obstruction of talus and moraine, but it would certainly
appear that the augen variety were the younger and intrusive
facies. I might mention that Heron, from what he saw in
the Kharta Valley and elsewhere, was obliged to leave the
question of relationship undetermined. In the lower Rongshar
the general dip of the augen gneiss appeared to be from 25°
to 30° North, and this persisted right into Nepalese territory.
Near TaSang, and lower down at Chupar, appeared Schists,
and other metamorphic rocks, including limestones—one
more link, can we say, in the chain of evidence for an ancient
Sedimentary series, that may represent, as Hayden and others
have supposed, a distant “in-lier ‘’ of one or other of the
Archean systems of the Indian Peninsula. Throughout the
Rongshar region was again seen the typical Schorl granite and
its associated pegmatite, cutting across everything and
exhibiting in places such extreme fluidity that parts of the
gneiss into which it had been intruded were floated off during
its injection.
Prof. Garwood, during his classic journey with Dr. Fresh-
field round Kanchenjunga, f was not able to find definite
evidence that the pegmatites of that region were younger
in age than the Himalayan gneiss, but thought that the
former might be apophyses of the gneiss. In the Rongshar,
to the West, at any rate, the relation is unmistakable, that
the pegmatites are the younger, though probably not by
very much, since at places broad bands of pegmatite lie
“bedded" almost horizontally with the augen gneiss, and
give the appearance of having been rolled out with the
* Records, Geol. Surv. of India, Vol. XV (1882), p. 44; Vol. XVI
(1883), p. 129; and Geological Magazine, Dec. III, Vol. 4 (1887), p. 215.
f Garwood in Round Kanchenjunga, D. W. Freshfield, p. 292.
298 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
gneiss during movements subsequent to the latest intrusions.
As to the structure of Gaurisankar itself I was never able
to see it sufficiently clear of cloud or snow to be able to make
out the nature of its upper part, but its lower rocks appeared
to be of typical Himalayan Ortho-gneiss much fortified with
pegmatite dykes.
Permo-Trias Limestones.—Before attempting to base any
conclusions upon the similar metamorphic suites of rocks
of the two districts visited and described above, I propose
to deal briefly with the series of limestones that Dr. Heron
found running along the Southern border of the vast extent
of Jurassic shales of the Tibetan plateau, and which are
wedged in at places between these folded shales and the
metamorphic rocks of the crystalline complex. These were
found by Heron to be a uniform assemblage of unfossiliferous
limestones with shaley partings, allfossils having been destroyed
and now appearing supposedly as streaks of crystalline
calcite. But in one locality a prolific fossil fauna of Productus
and Spirifer was found indicating a probable Upper Permian
age for the limestones. The Jurassic shales appeared to be
lying conformably on these limestones. Now Hayden was
of opinion, from his researches in the country to the east,
that the Jurassic shales represent the upper part only of that
system and are the equivalents of the Spiti shales, and that
the lower (Lias) beds, as evidenced around Phari in particular,
consist of various slates, quartzites, and limestones, the
lowest of all being a brachiopod limestone, whose fauna
indicated either Liassic or possibly Rhaetic age.
Professor Garwood found an interesting crinoid limestone
in Lhonak on the northern border of Sikkim, which in spite
of earlier faunistic difficulties Hayden has shown to be very
probably Jurassic : these difficulties, incidentally, were on
account of its apparent equivalence to the crinoidal limestone
found by Sir Joseph Hooker on the north-eastern border
of Sikkim, and thought by him to contain nummulites and
be therefore Tertiary in age.
But Hayden has shown the fallacy of this and the extreme
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 299
probability of its also being Jurassic, and in particular Liassic.
All these fossiliferous limestones along the northern border
of Sikkim appear therefore to be coeval, and it is not until
we get into the region of the Dzakar Chu to the west, where
Heron found his Permian or Lower Trias limestone in a
corresponding position with regard to the crystalline rocks,
that difficulties of correlation arise. Briefly, it would appear
that if the Upper Jurassic (Spiti) shales are resting upon the
productus limestone then a large series of rocks, referred by
Hayden to the Oolite and Lias stages, has been cut out,
although Heron at this point says the shales seem to rest
normally on the limestones. The point is of interest since
to the west of the Dzakar Chu, and extending much farther
west beyond the Lamna La, I found a large series of lime-
stones overlapping on to the crystallines to the South and
brought up against the shales on the northern side. These
hard dark grey limestones, weathering reddish brown, were
quite unfossiliferous and seamed throughout with calcite.
Owing to their lithological resemblance and position, I took
them at once to be the westward extension along the strike
of Heron's Permo-Trias series, though in this locality he had
mapped the occurrence of Jurassic only. Looking east
across the Dzakar Chu one could make out by colour contrast
their certain continuation into the area actually mapped as
Permo-Trias. Now associated with these limestones near
the Lamna La I found ferruginous quartzite, conglomerate,
and the ever-ubiquitous shales, and it would seem that the
association of these zones with the limestone would place
the series on a par with Hayden’s succession for the Jurassic
in the Kampa and Phari regions, or at any rate with a good
part of that succession. Certain beds of the succession at
Lamna La Seem to be missing, but there is considerable
evidence of strike faulting which would explain this. While
the limestone series here is so completely barren of fauna
and calcitized and cannot be compared with the highly
fossiliferous beds near Kampa, yet the character of the
former may be entirely due to its proximity to the hard
300 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
crystalline rocks and its alteration brought about by pressure
against them, if not also by their igneous intrusives. At the
same time it is equally possible that the same strike faulting
and probable overthrusting, along the line of the Dzakar
Chu and Lamna La, may have cut out some of the limestone
and other zones of the Lower Jurassic, and have caused the
Permo-Trias limestone, continued westward beyond the
Lamna La, to be thrown against the Upper Jurassic shales.
On two occasions, once by a flooded river and another time
by a feeble pony, I was prevented from reaching Heron’s
type areas of the Permo-Trias limestone and so comparing
their stratigraphical relationship and character with those
of the limestones I found east and west of the Lamna La.
But whether this limestone be referred to the Permo-
Trias or the Jurassic system, I noticed that it appeared to
be strikingly unconformable to the banded biotite gneisses
of the Metamorphic Complex on to which it transgressed.
At the top of the cliff overlooking the confluence of the
DZakar Chu and the Gyachung Chu, mentioned earlier, it
was seen that the limestone seemed to transgress the bedded
biotite gneiss, but the flooded state of the river unfortunately
prevented my crossing to it and ascertaining the true nature
of the junction. It is quite possible, on the other hand,
considering the overfolded character of the sedimentary
beds to the north, that this is really the faulted junction of a
thrust plane.
Conclusions regarding Stratigraphy of Everest and Rongshar
Regions.—Some attempt will now be made to synthesize the
information gleaned from the above localities and construct
a stratigraphical picture of the whole region.
For many years controversy had raged around the true
origin of the Himalayan Gneiss, the “Central Gneiss’ as
it was once called, as to whether it were an intrusive igneous
rock, or whether it represented an extreme stage in the
metamorphism of ancient sediments, whether, in other words,
it were an “ortho-gneiss' or a “para-gneiss' respectively.
Reference has earlier been made to General McMahon’s work
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 301
in proving that it, or at any rate a large part of it, represents
an ortho-gneiss. Mr. R. D. Oldham has shown that it may
be almost impossible to distinguish even microscopically
the gneiss that was once a sediment from that truly an
intrusive granite, and that field relations must be the chief
factor in determination.
When I first reached the Everest region I took the banded
biotite gneisses, so prevalent there, as unquestionably intru-
sive in character. It seemed to be only one more example
of the great lateral extent to which intrusive rocks can travel
in sills of nearly constant thickness. It seemed possible
though that this might have been emphasized subsequently
by overthrusting and rolling out of the beds upon one another
as suggested by Heron. But my investigations, brief and
incomplete as they were, have brought me more to the view
that this particular series of banded biotite gneisses repre-
sents in actuality a highly metamorphosed series of sediments
probably argillaceous and arenaceous in general character.
Disregarding their strikingly bedded appearance, which is
mainly due to the wholesale injection of pegmatite along
foliation planes, their regular position between the upper
and the lower calcareous series, throughout the Everest and
Rongshar regions, and the absence of any evidence of apophy-
Ses running off into these series, seem to indicate with a fair
amount of probability that they are of sedimentary origin.
The difference between this biotitic felspathic gneiss, often
garnetiferous, and the augen gneiss of the deeper core of
the range has already been remarked. I could find no
occurrence of the latter in the Rongbuk district, nor indeed
on the northern side of the main range.
As to the upper calcareous series that forms the calc-
gneisses and calc-schists of Everest, and also those of Kyetrak,
they would appear to be the natural outlying extensions to
the South of the so-called Permo-Trias limestone series, and
their metamorphosed condition due to their being in the
Zone of maximum stress. If the upper calcareous series
and the bedded gneissose series be definitely proved by future
302 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Work in the region to be stages of a single sedimentary series,
or separate ones not far removed in time, it may be possible,
and their position suggests it, to link them up with Hayden’s
Dothak (Lilang) series of Phari, which has comparable
lithological zones, though less metamorphosed.
The lower calcareous series, completely recrystallized to
marbles, slates, Schists, etc., that is only found beneath the
bedded gneiss, would appear by its position and advanced
state of alteration to be a much older series. Those exposures
on the Tibetan side may conceivably be referred to Hayden’s
Khongbu Series of undoubted Pre-Jurassic and probably
very much older Purana age, found also near Phari; while
the lithologically similar assemblages found deep down in
the Rongshar may be analogous to the Mallet’s Daling Series
of Sikkim or the Baxa Series of Southern Bhutan. But
these are only suggestions, and much further work must be
done before such correlations can be safely made.
I must mention that in my reading of the structure of
this region I have endeavoured to avoid the invocation of
elaborate movements or even of extensive overthrusting.
Overfolding and complicated dislocations without doubt
there are in the area of the younger and more yielding
Tibetan sediments, but on the northern borders of the main
range the more compact and indurated rocks are strikingly
free from much appearance of lateral thrust. I sought in
vain for real evidence of an overthrust, and only at the
junction of the Liassic (or Permo-Trias) limestone with the
banded gneisses in the Dzakar Chu, already cited, was I able
to recognize such a possibility. The complicated nappes
and decken movements of the Alps do not appear to have
afflicted the Eastern Himalaya—at any rate as yet, and it is
better I think to postulate rational, rather than irrational,
quantities to elucidate problems on first acquaintance with
a region.
But if evidence of lateral thrusting is meagre, it is not
at all the case with vertical movements. On all hands
throughout the small portion of the Tibetan side of the
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 303
Central Himalaya I traversed there is plain evidence of
great vertical uplift. Chomulhari raises its head nearly
9,000 feet abruptly from the Tibetan plain. Almost more
impressive still is the great gneissose wall of Kanchenjhao
and Chomoyumo in the north of Sikkim rising vertically
out of the sediments of the Kampa plain. Many observers
have of course seen ample signs of special elevatory forces,
other than mere folding or intrusion alone, to give such
prominence to this great sector of the Earth’s crust, and it
seems more than probable that the Supremacy of Everest
itself, since we now know it to be in greater part of soluble
calcareous rocks, must be largely due to vertical uplift in
the past that may be continuing at the present time. It is
not outside the bounds of possibility that the next climbing
party may have a few more feet to go to reach the top !
The Kampa System and Jurassic Shales.—As mentioned
earlier I have very little to say in regard to the rocks of the
Tibetan plateau, which date roughly from Jurassic to Eocene.
The hurried outward and return journeys prevented more
than passing observations, and these were mostly confirmatory
of Heron’s much more detailed work. The absence of the
latter in India (I had only the opportunity of seeing him for
half an hour in Edinburgh before he returned from leave
last autumn), and our consequent inability to compare notes,
may detract somewhat from the value of the following short
remarks on the above rocks, and modification may later be
necessary.
On the return journey via Tingri I made an abortive
attempt to reach the Permo-Trias area to the north and
north-east of the sacred Lapche Kang Range. The pony
that carried me paid far too much attention for my liking
to her foal that accompanied us, and too little to the business
in hand, and always tried to bite me whenever I suggested
that we must be getting along; and indeed she was so far
uninterested in the local geology as to once run right away,
and I only caught her after a long chase by the dangling
reins tripping her In consequence I eventually only reached
304 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
the neighbourhood of Kura at the south-western extremity
of the vast Tingri plain. Coming from Sharto, south-south-
West of Tingri, one skirted along the spur to the west that
submerges itself at Shar in the alluvium of the plain. This
seemed to be formed of dark sandy limestone weathering
reddish, and it had a very slight northern dip. The hill
against which Kura stood was of the same sandy limestone,
dipping north, and forming with another outcrop across the
valley, dipping south by west at 65°, an isoclinal anticline.
No fossils could be found, but the writer knows of no arenaceous
limestone of this character except within the Kampa System.
Farther South-west along the ridge, against this limestone
anticline was faulted an anticline of dark shales with the
steep limb to the north, and then followed a rusty limestone
the beds of which curved round to vertical, where they in
turn were faulted against the steep limb of the shales. Sub-
Sequent folds revealed successively white calcareous sandstone,
dark calcite-veined limestone and reddish quartzite, that
seemed to abut against the crystalline metamorphies without
the intervention, as far as could be seen, of the Jurassic shales.
The above sequence of folds could be roughly traced across
the valley to the east in the shoulder running north to Shar
as already mentioned. Now the hill behind Kura, as well as
much of the rising ground beyond to the west, has been
mapped in 1921 as alluvium, and this without doubt is a
mistake. More important is the mapping of the Sandy lime-
stone at Shar as Jurassic, when it would appear, unless
Heron found fossil evidence to the contrary, that this repre-
sents one of the typically similar limestones of the Kampa
System. It would certainly seem that in these folded rocks
at Shar and at Kura, as well as farther west, we have at least
some representatives of the Kampa Series. The ill represen-
tation of the Jurassic shales, if the above shale beds are in
fact these at all, may be explained by the close folding and
evident reverse faulting that has cut out no doubt a con-
siderable proportion of known zones. The prevailing pressure
from the north would seem here to have brought the Kampa
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 305
beds right up against the Metamorphies, or otherwise regarded
to have entrapped synclinally a Kampa out-lier within the
older folded Jurassic rocks.
Lapche Kang (Munkri) Range and Gyankar Range.—The
above-described locality, south-west of Tingri Dzong, is of
considerable interest on account of its being at the north-
eastern extremity of the great Lapche Kang Range, which,
like the similar and parallel Gyankar Range 80 miles to the
east, raises its jagged crest in a direction roughly transverse to
that of the general trend of the Himalayan ranges. To the
writer the existence and strike of these two ranges is highly
significant, and they appear to have had a marked effect
upon the river systems of the country, particularly in the
case of the Gyankar Range. The latter was investigated
by Dr. Heron in 1921, more especially in regard to the
remarkable gorges through which the Yaru Chu and Arun
make their way. The Gyankar and Lapche Kang Ranges
are evidently not due to a transverse system of folding, but
to intrusions of granitic rock along these lines. Their relation
to the geological structure and drainage of the region, apart
from the direction they take across the strike of the main
ranges, suggests that they have undoubtedly arisen subse-
quent to the latter. This assumption at any rate would
help to explain the extraordinary deflection of the Yaru Chu
east of Nyönne Ri and Sanghar Ri, which possibly had its
continuity with the lower Arun interrupted by the range
rising faster than the river could keep open its channel across
this area, the formation in consequence of a lake, and final
Outlet through the Rongme Gorge, to the north—a similar
chain of processes that I believe Mr. C. C. Fox * has suggested
for the remarkable lower gorge at Yö Ri. Dr. Heron has
mentioned that at Yö Ri the river plunges into a gorge of
hard gneiss, but I should like to have the actual formation
here confirmed. If, as I suppose, both these ranges mark
intrusions late in the scheme of events, then it is of interest
to know whether they are not of the later granitoid rocks,
* G.J., Vol. LIX, No. 6, p. 433.
X
306 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
i.e. the schorl granite, or the two-mica granite of the Northern
Range that Heron found in a good many localities, or even,
With some slight possibility, the hornblende granite that
Hayden mapped in the neighbourhood of the Tsangpo. The
concentration of intrusions of the two-mica granite in the
Northern Range, particularly on the prolongation northward
of the two lines of ranges, rather suggests that the latter
may be genetically connected with them. Heron’s reference
to the rock at Yö Ri being gneissose may be on account of
local foliation at the time of its intrusion.
II. GLACIOLOGY
The Everest Massif has all the characteristics of a mountain
region in an advanced state of glacial erosion and corrosion,
whether we attribute the greater cause to the mechanical
action of glaciers or to frost action. The long “through ‘’
glaciers, whose heads and tributaries have eaten their way
back into the innermost recesses of the mountains to form
innumerable cirques and corries, delimited by sinuous ridges
and steep arêtes, all point to a state of nearly mature glacial
denudation. But though the present length of the glaciers
on the northern side of the range is considerable—the Rongbuk
Glacier is about 11 miles—yet it is nothing compared with
their former extent. On all hands it is evident that the
glaciers of this region are shrinking back into the recesses
where they have their birth. And this does not appear
to be seasonal variation alone, but in common with SO many
other glaciated regions of the world at the present time, a
secular movement in a retrograde direction.
Take, for example, the valley of the DZakar Chu. This
long U-shaped valley bears all the signs, even in its lower
parts, of having been sculptured directly and indirectly by
glacial action, and banks of moraine attest to its former
occupation by ice. In its upper parts above the Base Camp
are conspicuous three systems of moraine shelves extending
along the valley sides one above the other. They are
especially noticeable on the west side, though the uppermost
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 307
shelf at the foot of the crags is discontinuous owing to its
being broken across at places by drainage from the corries.
These morainic terraces far above the level of the present
lateral moraines of the Rongbuk Glacier can be said to
correspond to periods of stagnation in the gradual retreat
of the once enormously vaster glacier, since the maximum
ice flood of the Glacial Cycle. That the Rongbuk Glacier
has halted at times in its retreat is also borne Out in an
interesting way by the large mounds of terminal moraine
that it has dumped at intervals in the bed of the valley, the
greater segregations being separated by areas relatively clear
and level. Our Base Camp was situated on One such collection
of mounds, and for nearly three-quarters of a mile ahead of
this was an even plain, levelled no doubt to Some extent by
the outwash from the glacier, right up to the present moraine-
covered snout. Other evidence of progressive retreat is to be
found at the termination of the East Rongbuk Glacier, which
has shrunk back nearly a mile from its former confluence
with the main Rongbuk Glacier.
Evidence of three separate periods of glacial extension
has been discovered by Oldham in Kashmir, and similar
Oscillations have been observed by Huntingdon in the Pangong
valley of Ladak, but it would be altogether premature at
this juncture to suggest correlation between these and the
movements of the Everest glaciers so far to the east.
Conditions at the North Col.-In the mind of the writer
a particular and somewhat peculiar local case of this whole-
Sale waning of glaciation is to be seen at the North Col:
between the peak of Everest and Changtse. Here is a col
at 23,000 feet piled up in the most impressive and weirdest
way with gigantic blocks of ice—their sides clean cut for
the most part, seeming to be the disrupted fragments of a
much greater mass of ice that once capped the col. The
eastern slopes of the col, up which lay our regular route,
consisted of hard névé at an average angle of about 35°,
broken at intervals by Schrunds and ice facets. The western
face towards the West Rongbuk Glacier is mostly of steep
308 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
ice-slopes. Now in this high country with such evident
signs on all sides of slight precipitation, and probably increas-
ingly so, it is extremely difficult to see how the present
snowfall is sufficient to give this enormous accumulation of
ice on the eastern side and maintain it constant in such
Vast amount and in such a position. And if that were so, it
seems incompatible indeed with the occurrence of the great
disrupted blocks of well-consolidated névé on the top of
the col, which under normal conditions of annual precipitation
would be speedily submerged and formed into a regular
and continuous cornice. Colonel Norton, on the other hand,
considers that the present snowfall, concentrated on con-
Vergent lines into the funnel that the North Col forms, is
probably sufficient to explain the amount of the ice present,
though he admits the difficulty in this view of explaining the
well-consolidated cut-up blocks at the top. In my opinion
this great ice mass in all probability represents the lingering
remains of a once greater amount that may have been more
uninterruptedly continuous with the East Rongbuk Glacier
when the latter at an earlier period filled its basin to a higher
level: in other words it may be described as a relic of the
past—a mass of “fossil névé.”
Motion of the Glaciers.-The northern side of the Great
Himalaya is a region that exists in, and is subjected to, a
set of physical conditions unique probably in the world, and
the effects of these conditions on its glaciers are correspond-
ingly great. Low mean annual temperature, extreme dryness,
great altitude, together with a tropical sun, must be expected
to produce marked results, quite different from other effects
in glaciated regions of more temperate climate and of other
latitudes. In many of the phenomena I was reminded of
the Arctic, the glaciers of Spitzbergen in certain respects
exhibiting comparable features. Owing to low mean tem-
perature the ice of these Everest glaciers must be propor-
tionately low in temperature, and this will mean that it
has a correspondingly higher degree of rigidity or viscosity,
whatever may be our views as to the ultimate structure of
GEOILOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 309
glacier ice in general and its mode of flow. Mostly the ice
is of a very coarse texture, the granules being on the whole
about the size of walnuts, a condition in which they simulate
arctic glaciers more than they do alpine. On account of the
rigidity of the ice the motion of the glaciers will be slow.
Somervell and I endeavoured to estimate the rate of flow
of the East Rongbuk Glacier by the motion of one of the
pinnacles well out in the ice stream. In 10 days we found
it had only moved about 2.5 feet, equivalent to 3 inches per
day. Such observations as have been made on the motion
of Himalayan glaciers on the southern side and at the north-
western end of the range have given a diurnal motion of
3 to 5 inches at the side, and 8 to 12 inches in the middle.*
Though our observation was an isolated one in the lower
part of the glacier and but roughly undertaken, it seems
to indicate a relatively slow rate of movement for these
glaciers, such as would be expected. But though the velocity
be low it must not be supposed that the erosion of their beds
by the glaciers will be correspondingly less, for the extra
rigidity of the ice will hold stones in the base of the glaciers
with increased firmness and abrade the bottom with greater
force. The gigantic moraines of these Everest glaciers are
evidence enough of the destruction wrought mechanically
by the motion of the glaciers, apart from that brought about
by the agency of frost action.
Length and Minimum. Altitude of Glaciers.-The present
lengths of the glaciers of the Everest region compare fairly
favourably with those of other parts of the Himalaya, and
are only notably exceeded by the immense “longitudinal”
ice streams of the Karakorum. The Rongbuk Glacier system
has a greatest length of about 12 miles and the snout is at an
altitude of nearly 16,500 feet; while the Kyetrak Glacier
is nearly 11 miles in length and descends to about 15,400
feet. These are the two principal mapped glaciers on the
northern side of the main axis, and typify the “transverse ’’
glacier, that is one flowing down a valley at right angles
* D. N. Wadia, The Geology of India, p. 15.
310 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
to the range. Elsewhere in the Himalaya the latter never
attain the size of the longitudinal type, which occupy troughs
between the ranges. The only mapped representative of
the longitudinal variety is the Kangshung Glacier on the
northern side of the Makalu Group, which has an approximate
length of 12 miles and whose snout is at 14,600 feet above
sea-level. As an eastward-flowing glacier it is comparable
to the Zemu Glacier of the Kanchenjunga Group, which, how-
ever, has a length of 16 miles and descends to 13,900 feet.
That none of these figures for the minimum altitude reached
by the glaciers is as low as those of the north-western end
of the range is probably chiefly on account of the lower
latitude, though other factors of local situation, supply,
and gradient, must always be taken into account. The
glaciers of Kumaon and Lahoul have a lower limit of 12,000
feet, while those of Kashmir descend to about 8,000 feet
in some cases.*
Wastage Effects.-In spite of the low mean annual tem-
perature from which this region suffers, its situation in such
a low latitude (Everest is 28° N.) causes it to experience the
effects of a very hot sun. On the North Col, at 23,000 feet,
on more than one occasion when I took temperatures at
midday, the air temperature was 29° F., whilst the sun
temperature at the same time was 105°. In such a degree
of heat with a high-pitched sun the melting effects on the
glaciers and snow-fields are immense, though actually the
visible melting is surprisingly little, the high evaporation
under such low atmospheric pressure causing the Solid forms
of water to pass direct into vapour without the intermediate
liquid state. High up on the face of Everest this is strikingly
the case, and a considerable Snowfall will in Spring and
summer have evaporated into thin air in a few hours without
any visible melting. Consequently, and fortunately, “ver-
glas' does not exist. On the glaciers the same condition
holds in less degree, and it is only in their lower parts that
streams of any size develop, and then not in Our experience
* D. N. Wadia, The Geology of India, p. 14.
tºº
*icº

GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 3II
till the end of May. The intense ablation of the glacier
surfaces gives rise, amongst other things, under these con-
ditions to the remarkable ice pinnacles to be shortly described.
And in spite of this ablation, and in contrast to the dirt-strewn
glaciers of the north-western end of the Himalaya, these
in the east and on the north side of the range are relatively
clean. The Kangshung Glacier, however, on the Southern
side of the main axis shows in the photographs taken in 1921
a decidedly dirty surface due to mud or moraine. This
may be owing to the even greater ablation that goes on on
the warmer southern side ; at the time these photographs
were taken the monsoon was actually in progress. On the
other hand it might be suggested that this effect is partly
due to the deposition of dust borne on the prevailing winds
from the plains of India, as has been claimed for the dirty
state of the ice of the north-western glaciers, but since the
prevailing winds at Everest appear to be westerly this can
hardly be maintained. In Spitzbergen, after a period of
great ablation and thaw, I have seen the glaciers appear
quite black, and in that remote region dust deposition cannot
obtain ; on examination the incorporated dirt has proved
to be highly comminuted mud derived from the rocks over
which, or between which, the glaciers pass, which is concen-
trated by the action of thaw and ablation. The state of
the Kangshung Glacier is, nevertheless, most probably
brought about by the greater temperature variation of this
south side, increased frost action, and consequent extra
rock-waste from the surrounding cliffs, and from the south-
east face of Everest in particular, where the inward dip of
the beds lays them open to special attack.
On the East Rongbuk Glacier were some rather beautiful
examples of the so-called “cryoconite holes” or “dust
wells,” in which small particles of morainic material had
melted their way down into the surface of the ice, as is so
often to be seen on arctic glaciers especially. Here, with the
high altitude Sun, the small stones and particles had melted
their way very deeply down, and the well becoming filled
312 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
with water during a warm period it had later crystallized
in a radial manner, and given the effect of round flower-
like forms of clear ice within the surface of the glacier. The
typical honeycombed ice of the arctic was, however, not
noted to any extent.
A striking example of the effects of a tropical sun is the
way in which eastward and westward flowing glaciers
frequently have their southern sides melted back into steep
ice cliffs, a case in point being the tributary to the East
Rongbuk at Camp II, though others on the eastern flank
of the latter were equally affected : this action is aided by
reradiation of heat from rock-walls enclosing the glacier.
An important factor in promoting ablation is the high
wind, and we had no better example of its force than near
the Base Camp. Here reinforced by sand, and impinging
on blocks of granite situated in gaps between moraine heaps,
it was sufficient, blowing through these funnel-like gaps, to
have grooved the blocks on their windward southern faces
to a depth of an inch or more—long incisions across them
independent of their mineral character and cutting across
crystals of felspar and tourmaline alike. The sand-blast
had been sufficiently intensive to have done its work since
these morainic blocks were dropped by the glacier now not
much more than half a mile away.
A melting effect, which, unfortunately, I never had the
opportunity to examine close at hand, is the conspicuous
flutings on many of the peaks, particularly on their northern
faces. The Lingtren Group of peaks at the junction of the
main Rongbuk and West Rongbuk Glaciers are notable
examples of this. Many travellers have no doubt considered
such flutings elsewhere to be merely the result of a scoring
and gouging of the face by falling cornices and avalanches,
and the writer must admit that he had formerly rather
subscribed to this view. But it is evident in numerous
instances that the sharp ridges and arêtes above these fluted
faces do not, nor ever have, supported sufficient Snow or
ice to gouge out by their fall such deep incisions. I could
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 313
only conclude, from rather distant observation, that the
flutings and ribs, which often extend in pronounced degree
right up to the crests which support them, must be caused
by a differential melting effect of the rays of the hot sun
inclined obliquely to the face on which they act ; though here
again melting and consequent fluxion in the Ordinary sense,
owing to the high altitude and quick evaporation, is non-
existent. I am not aware that the phenomenon is known,
at any rate in such pronounced form, outside the Himalayan
range, though it may possibly be seen in other high ranges
of the tropics.
The Trough.--This interesting and possibly unique feature
that provided a natural causeway for nearly 2 miles of the
way up and down the East Rongbuk Glacier between Camps
II and III, will ever be remembered as a fairy scene, of the
greatest beauty and highest artistry, by those privileged to
use it as a highway to the precincts of the throne of the
Great Goddess—Chomolungma. Imagine a corridor up to
50 feet deep and 100 feet wide with steep sides buttressed
and pillared with fretted ice of exquisite tints of blue and
white and green, and paved at intervals with ice-covering
of charming glacial lakelets, out of the surface of which
were growing here and there clusters of ice-pinnacles, them-
selves sculptured into an infinity of forms. It was through
scenery of this description that our way lay—exhilarating
in the extreme, except at the hot hours of the day in late
May and June, when the close stagnant air within the depres-
Sion of the Trough was apt to produce a certain lassitude
and disregard for its remarkable beauty :
The Trough, as a depression running longitudinally
down the East Rongbuk Glacier, may be said to commence
Somewhere about the 20,000 feet contour of Major Wheeler’s
1-inch map, and it continues uninterruptedly as far as the
moraine-strewn lower end of the glacier. On first acquaint-
ance I was at a loss to account for this remarkable feature.
In early May the winter snow was still forming a practically
continuous covering over the upper half of the East Rongbuk
3.14. THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Glacier, and it was in consequence impossible to make any
examination of the nature of the ice in the neighbourhood
of the first pronounced depression. I noticed, however, that
the Snow seemed to be concealing a notable amount of ridging
of the ice near the commencement of the Trough proper.
It was not till later, when the new snow had evaporated
sufficiently to reveal the underlying ice, that it was apparent
that the latter exhibited plain evidence of severe stress.
Here on the prolongation of the line of the Trough was a
beautiful development of Forbes’ “Ribbon or Wein Structure *
—clear blue bands of ice alternating with granular and more
opaque air-filled varieties, the whole running parallel with
the direction of motion of the glacier. It will be remembered
that Forbes, who first described this “ribbon structure ?”
during his classical researches on Alpine glaciers, showed
it clearly to be a structure set up in ice in consequence of
great compression and shear; in fact, it is precisely comparable
to the foliation of rocks under like conditions of stress. With-
out following Forbes in eactenso in his ideas of the true plastic
character of ice and the consequent viscous flow of glaciers,
developed partly around his discovery of the “ribbon
structure,” the writer has from his own observations in the
Alps, Spitzbergen, and the Himalayas seen sufficient evidence
to satisfy him that this banded “ribbon structure” in ice,
usually seen vertically disposed, though by no means always
so, is definitely and chiefly brought about by intense com-
pression, such as at the junction of two convergent ice
streams, and is not to be confused, as Some glacialists have
done, with the bedded structure of glacier ice due to seasonal
ablation and deposition, or concentration of silt in layers
within the ice. -
That the ice above the Trough was undergoing severe
stress was apparent not only from its foliation, but also from
the faults—“flaws º' or “tear-faults *—that had been exten-
sively developed in this area, indicating that the ice was
endeavouring to adjust itself to exterior forces; and where
dislocation did not bring relief a ridging up of the ice was
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 315
prevalent, as referred to above. At the commencement of
the Trough itself the foliation bands seemed to have reached
their greatest development, actual fusion of the ice taking
place from the heat engendered by the compression, accom-
panied by simultaneous evaporation of the fused ice. And
on this line of fused ice the depression of the Trough seemed
to have developed, its walls displaying the banded structure
in decided, though less pronounced, degree, and standing
somewhat in relief above the general surface, on account, no
doubt, of adjustment to stress. Now the distance of the
line of the Trough from the true left side of the glacier is
about 400 yards, and coincident with it seems to be the
medial moraine from the north-east shoulder of Everest,
carried englacially, for patches of moraine appear at intervals
in the bed of the upper part of the Trough. Below the
19,750 feet contour it converges with the moraine coming
from the north spur of Pt. 22,090, and this material largely
carpets the continuation of the depression down the left
centre of the lower glacier. The weathered walls of this
lower part showed marked traces of the longitudinal banding
due to their earlier foliation.
The Trough seems to be a line of special stress between
the two ice streams, the one made up of the tributaries from
the North Col and eastern slopes of Pt. 22,090 of Changtse,
and the other the main mass of the glacier to the east, and
its formation would appear to be due to the compression of
the smaller western ice streams by this main eastern mass,
especially in the narrow constriction between Pt. 22,090 and
the opposite side (western spur of Khartaphu), through which
the whole of the glacier must pass. A glance at the map
will show clearly the bottle-neck character of this outlet
and how at the critical point an extra tributary from the
western slopes of Khartaphu adds its quota of ice to the
already constricted mass. And it is just here that the
conditions of stress above referred to are met with, and
the Trough develops. The constriction appears to set up
forces of compression and shear that along the line of englacial
316 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
moraine from the north-east shoulder reaches its maximum,
the upper layers of ice being fused and the lower layers only
retaining their necessary viscosity or rigidity on account of
their solid morainic content.
It may be objected that if, as postulated above, the ice
is definitely fusing under compression, it should appear in
the liquid state along the line of greatest stress and perhaps
even be present as a stream of water flowing down the Trough.
Actually the latter showed no signs of earlier or later water
erosion, nor was there present in it a stream of water until
late May, and then only in its lower part after its junction
with the moraine from Pt. 22,090 above referred to. On
theoretical grounds, even if partial melting took place
with the development of interstitial or interfoliate water
along the line of greatest compression, such water as was
liberated at the surface would tend to be quickly evaporated
under the prevailing conditions of aridity and low pressure.
Whilst in the light of Mr. C. S. Wright’s researches on antarctic
ice and his conception of ice structure on the line of the
quantum theory (to use his own words “) “the development
of heat by pressure should not bring about melting, but the
resulting energy cause an increase in the number of mobile
(“vapour') molecules which merely have a tendency to
diffuse to points (within each individual crystal) less favoured
in this respect.” And it must be noted that “this diffusion
does not require a free surface for its operation.” In this
view, presumably, the line of the Trough, owing to the
operation of exceptional outside forces, should have an
increased mobility; and it may be this which helps to produce
a drag and cause the system of faultings above its commence-
ment, already referred to.
The Trough therefore in my opinion would appear to be
a permanent feature of the East Rongbuk Glacier: permanent,
that is to say, under the present conditions of glaciation.
That the explanation given above is probably not the whole
story of its origin, I am quite prepared to admit, for though
* G.J., March, 1925, p. 212.
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 317
my conclusions as to its formation were formed on the spot,
they were made somewhat hurriedly in the little time avail-
able. And, moreover, it was more and more impressed upon
one during one’s short stay that the unique glacial conditions
of this region are deserving of years of special study to fully
understand all.
Ice Pinnacles.—Connected with the phenomenon of the
Trough was the perhaps even more striking one of the gigantic
ice pinnacles, that have lent themselves so well to photo-
graphy. They had their best and largest development in
the lower part of the Trough, though their birth was traceable
to the walls of the upper portion. As these walls became
weathered and melted back differentially during the bodily
progress of the Trough down the glacier, buttresses and
spurs make their appearance, and tend eventually in pro-
portion as the processes of ablation and thaw increase in the
lower reaches of the glacier to become detached and stand
in isolated masses. And an important factor, which promotes
undoubtedly their tapering and spired form, is that of the
high-altitude sun of these latitudes, which during the middle
hours of the Summer day can shine down on them from
a position within comparatively few degrees of the zenith
and so produce a nearly equal melting effect on every side.
The slight inclination of the sun to the southward does,
however, produce a marked steepness on all their southern
sides.
In a similar way in different parts of the glaciers was to
be seen the incipience of pinnacles from smaller ice cliffs than
those of the Trough, the process being frequently started by
morainic material (like small glacier-tables) protecting the
ice column beneath them from the steep rays of the sun,
and when the protecting cap fell off, the pinnacle assuming
a sharp conical or pyramidal form. A similar genetic process
can be ascribed to the pinnacles of the main Rongbuk Glacier
and others, the principal necessary conditions being a pre-
liminary splitting of the glacier surface into cliffs of whatever
size and steep Solar rays to act upon them. The phenomenon
3.18 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
of “nieves penitentes,” first described from the Andes, is
undoubtedly equivalent in its genesis to that of these enor-
mously larger pinnacles, conditions of latitude, etc., being
similar ; in fact, typical examples of normal nieves penitentes
were to be seen on the Everest glaciers.
Earth Pillars.-Fine examples of these were to be seen
on the steep slopes of old moraine above the end of the main
Rongbuk Glacier. Some of them were 20 feet or more in
height, although the capping stones, essential especially to
the earlier stages of their growth, were in most cases missing.
Their continuance in spite of this loss is only another indication
of the diminished precipitation of the region.
Polygonal Surface Markings.-I was particularly interested
to come across examples of these frost-jointing forms, since
they are confined almost entirely to the circumpolar regions.
I cannot here go into the question of the mechanism of their
formation, suffice it to say that Mr. J. S. Huxley and the
writer, from investigations in Spitzbergen, have already
described the rôle of frost-action as being the primary genetic
process.” A climate that is fairly dry, and has for a portion
of the year at least a temperature alternating repeatedly
on either side of the freezing-point, is productive of the best
results. Hence the rare occurrence of the phenomenon in
low latitudes, unless other factors such as altitude come in.
The present examples were seen at an altitude of about
17,000 feet on an old upper moraine terrace of the main
Rongbuk Glacier on its eastern side. They were mostly
stone polygons about 4 feet across, with a network of
secondary fissure ploygons within the former. The stone
borders were composed chiefly of slaty material, as is so
frequently the case in the Arctic, and on excavation these
were found to be quite superficial, extending down only
2 or 3 inches into the mud. No “tjaele,” or frozen soil,
could be found beneath. In order to get Some indication
of the forces acting, and if possible to confirm our earlier
views as to these, I displaced some of the stones from the
* G.J., March, 1924.
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 319
borders, but in the short interval of observation—about
a month—no movement was discernible, though much drying
out of the ground had taken place. Besides these compound
“stone-fissure polygons,” there were to be seen systems of
the simple fissure polygons, quite small in size, and with
appearances of relatively recent formation, giving the
impression in this case of desiccation rather than repeated
frost-action.
Former Eatent of Regional Glaciation.—With such clear
evidence in the Everest region of a once greater extent of
the glaciers, let us endeavour now to form a picture of the
state of affairs when the maximum phase of the Glacial
Cycle was operative. Reference has been made to the former
much greater bulk of the Rongbuk Glacier. But I think
without doubt the most amazing cases we saw of the Once
enormously greater expansion of these Tibetan glaciers was
west of the Lamna La, where huge moraines bordered the
valleys debouching from the south on to the plains. And
perhaps the wide valley, in whose upper reaches lies the
Ryetrak Glacier, was most impressive of all in this respect.
Here immense morainic ramparts towered nearly 200 feet
on either side above the wide alluvial valley, and extended
to the Tingri plain, a distance of 15 miles or more from the
present snout of the Kyetrak Glacier. Hence in all prob-
ability the present site of Tingri was once engulfed by ice.
Now throughout our march from Sikkim by way of the
valleys of the Chiblung Chu and Phung Chu was plain evidence
in the systems of terraces along the hillsides of former exten-
sive flooding of these valleys. In so far as I was able to
investigate, these terraces in Scarcely any cases indicated
fluviatile action alone, and there can be no doubt that such
accumulation of material as are to be found on the Linga
Plain, and in particular the typical boulder clay in the gap
West of Kyishong, represent fluvio-glacial, if not direct
glacial deposits. In the hilly tract of country around the
Ruli La, and particularly in a valley north of Dra, were to
be seen terraces and cliffs of boulder clay, in places tunnelled
320 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
out in a curious manner and presumably connoting the
Work of glacial streams during the local wane of the ice.
It is unnecessary to multiply these illustrations. Never-
theless, I must refer to the case of a peculiar find on the
Pusi La at the head of the Rongshar Valley. Here Beetham
brought to me a rounded clay pebble, split on one side and
exposing the whorls of an ammonite cast : a specimen of
indubitable Jurassic origin. As already mentioned the
rocks found in Situ in this district are entirely of the pre-
Jurassic Metamorphic Series, and there are but three possible
explanations of the occurrence of this Jurassic specimen
On the Pusi La. Either it represents an ice-borne erratic
that had been carried something like 20 miles from the
nearest Jurassic outcrops to the north and dropped on this
pass of 17,000 feet under conditions which must imply an
ice flood sufficient to overflow the lowest cols of the present
divide of the main range and reverse the northward flow of
many existing glaciers; or it was carried to the top of the
pass and deposited there by some wily Tibetan in order to
involve the inevitable foreign traveller in scientific difficulties
and Wranglings; or alternatively it was dropped accidentally
(we must hope so in view of the last statement () by Dr.
Heron, when he crossed this same pass in 1921 with Colonel
Howard Bury, on the assumption that an unfortunate hole
in his pocket let slip such a specimen that must have been
collected many miles away in the Jurassic zone ! Personally,
I incline towards the first alternative, though the difficulties
resulting in its adoption are very considerable. I could find
no unequivocal evidence of other erratic material on the
Pusi La, and the rounded character of the surface features
may have been caused by sub-aerial action other than glacial.
Now if we consider, in the light of such morainic evidence
as remains, what the effect on the country of the maximum
phase of the Glacial Cycle must have meant, we must con-
clude that the ice completely blocked most of the valleys,
and in fact that in many instances the ice streams were
linked up on this north side of the main chain. Whether
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 321
during the maximum stage the ice flood were ever sufficient
to form a more or less continuous sheet, of the nature of
what in the Arctic has been called “Highland Ice,” is ques-
tionable ; more morainic or other evidence must be found,
apart from the solitary Pusi La specimen, before such a
thesis can be confidently maintained. But if such were
the case, the range lying to the north and forming the Southern
boundary of the Tsangpo watershed—the Trans-Himalayan
Range *—would have at any rate its passes overrun by the
ice; and under similar conditions one can only assume that
considerable portions of the Tibetan plateau to the north
would be in like manner engulfed. It is difficult to resist
this inference when one considers such a highly elevated
tract as Southern Tibet subjected to the frigid conditions
known to have obtained elsewhere. At the same time the
question must be borne in mind whether during the European
Glacial Epoch the then precipitation was sufficient to accumu-
late the amount of ice suggested above—at any rate in the
plains of Central and Southern Tibet. Dr. Hedin has assured
me that he found no certain evidence from glacial deposits
of an ice sheet as far south as the Trans-Himalayan Ranges.
But for all that one must conceive of a great accumulation
of ice in between the latter and the Great Himalayan Range,
during the Glacial Epoch, for there is no reason to suppose
that the general trend of monsoonic precipitation was much
different then than now ; and if, as the stratigraphical and
structural evidence earlier cited rather suggests, the Great
Range has become progressively elevated since Pleistocene
times, due, possibly, to relief of its ice load or some other
isostatic adjustment, its once less formidable barrier may
have allowed of even greater precipitation on the northern
side than at the present time. But whether regionally this
were the case or not, the local maximum ice mass in the
* This was the name given by Sven Hedin. It is doubtful if Godwin
Austen’s “Ladak Range ’’ is continuous with this, or that its name can
be legitimately, and even tentatively, applied to it, vide Burrard and Hayden,
Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet, Pt. II, p. 92.
Y
322 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Tingri and Kyetrak districts would have to be sufficient
not merely to raise the present surface of the Kyetrak Glacier
by over 1,000 feet—an inconsiderable amount taking into
account the subsequent erosion of its bed—but by such an
amount more as would give a trend to the mass southward
Over the Pusi La and other passes, in order to carry the
Jurassic specimen, and any other similar material, to its
position on the former from the nearest parent outcrops
to the north. Such an ice mass surging over the lower cols
of the Great Range would send its glaciers far down on the
Southern side of it, much below the limits reached by the
present representatives. Although I could find no unmis-
takable evidence in the Rongshar of the presence of a glacier
below 14,000 feet, I feel decidedly that more extensive search
than I was able to make, pent up as one was in what is most
probably a profoundly “overdeepened ’’ gorge, would reveal
at least as low moraines as those found by Prof. Garwood
in the Lachen Valley of Sikkim at 8,790 feet : certainly at
Trintang (12,000 feet) in the Rongshar could be seen a shelf
on the valley side very suggestive of earlier glacier formation.
And in regard to the suggestion that the Tibetan plateau
may at one time have had such an accumulation of ice that
it overflowed the present water parting, Dr. Blanford long
ago showed that there was distinct evidence of such having
occurred at the head of the Lachen Valley, a dictum in which
Professor Garwood was inclined to concur. * Although with-
out further extensive work it may perhaps be premature
to suppose, as the writer has sometimes ventured, that the
great transverse gorges of the Himalayan axis may have
been largely due to the work of glaciers descending from a
Tibetan Ice Cap, or from a Highland Ice Mass as postulated
above, yet we may consider that when the upper Arun basin
was occupied with the ice it must have held during the Glacial
Epoch this mass and its concomitant moraines must have
had a considerable effect, especially during its Wane, upon
the natural trend of the drainage and very conceivably been
* Round Kanchenjunga, p. 299.
GEOLOGY AND GLACIOLOGY 323
the determining factor in the astounding course taken by
the River Arun at Yö Ri and in its upper reaches of the
Yaru Chu. All these fascinating problems can only be solved
if and when political restrictions cease, and further work
can be done amongst the innermost recesses of this important
and little known portion of the Great Himalayan Chain.
SECTION IV
PHOTOGRAPHY
By BENTLEY BEETEIAM
Although Noel was the official photographer to the
Expedition, his time was so fully taken up with cinema work
that most of the still photography had to be done by other
members of the party. Noel was absolutely indefatigable
in his efforts to record every phase of the daily life and of
the achievements of the Expedition. He was usually off
ahead of the main party in the morning and was the last to
arrive in camp in the evening. At some carefully chosen
view-point en route we would find him waiting for us, with
his elaborate apparatus trained upon the track all ready to
film the long cavalcade as it went by. How successful were
his efforts most of us have already seen in the beauty of the
photography of “The Epic of Everest.”
But “movie ’’ photography, however valuable it may
be, is essentially for the few and they specialists. The bulk
and weight of the equipment would alone prohibit any
expedition allowing ordinary members from indulging in
this branch of the art. Noel's outfit entailed a separate
bandabast of mules and men as well as its own interpreter.
It must not be forgotten, however, that this same bandabast
included in it a dark-room and a general photographic
equipment, which Noel placed unreservedly at the disposal
of all members. Indeed the dark-room was probably used
more by others than by himself, since the cinema film was
all despatched for development to a laboratory specially built
and equipped for the purpose in Darjeeling : Only trial Scraps
being developed in Tibet.
Concerning the rest of us, it may be said at Once that
our photographic outfit was most essentially of the tourist
324
The Times World copyright fºotograph.
N THE WORLD AT WHICH PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE BEEN TAKEN.—28, ooo FEET.
T I
THE HIGHEST POIN

PHOTOGRAPHY 325
description—a battery of nine hand-cameras amongst ten
men . These ranged in size from a spacious post-card down
to the vanishing point in the W.P.K.’s. These latter are
probably ideal for photography high up on the mountains,
where every ounce of weight and every mechanical detail,
bother, or intricacy, are of importance, and it may be men-
tioned that it was with such an instrument that Somervell,
on two successive Expeditions, took his wonderful pictures
above 25,000 feet.
It is then for the ordinary members of a future party
that these brief notes are primarily intended.
Two general methods of procedure are open : (a) to develop
en route as one goes along whenever opportunity offers, and
(b) to send or take everything back to Darjeeling undeveloped.
There are obvious advantages in each method. Probably
the ideal is a combination of the two—develop a few (and
these as far as possible duplicates of others left for after-
treatment) at every convenient halt, and take the rest, the
bulk of the work, back for careful development in a proper
dark-room. Such a plan would give three advantages. It
would provide a constant check on One's exposures, detect
at once any light leakage or other flaw in the instrument,
should such be brought about in transit, while at the same
time it would ensure that the bulk of the negatives were not
needlessly impaired by mechanical damage—abrasions, pin-
holes, dust specks, etc., those banes of future enlargement
and slide-making.
The actinic value of the light we found most difficult to
judge until we were settled down at Base Camp. It may
be worth recording that, generally speaking, we were all
inclined to under-expose in tropical Sikkim and to over-
expose in arctic Tibet. Moreover this was just as notice-
able in the work of those who used an actinometer as in
that of those who didn’t. Another point of interest was
that the time that had to be allowed in time development
was inconsistent with that given in the tables. Even if the
Solution was heated to the standard temperature, the time
required was still about double the normal. Somervell
326 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
believed in a factor of × 4, and often doubled the strength
of his solution.
At first none of us, not even Noel, could get negatives of
character, with any sparkle in them ; our best efforts were
but dull records. Every one was using films, rolled or cut,
but had we been working with glass plates, their imperishable
nature would, at this period, have ensured a permanent trail
being laid by which later parties might have traced our course
across Tibet. Once on the plateau the conditions for the
taking of photographic records are excellent, though hardly
pleasant. For instantaneous work the incessant icy wind is
Only a personal discomfort, it is immaterial to the result,
while the atmosphere is of truly extraordinary clarity. This
very clearness, this lack of “atmosphere,” is a great difficulty
in any attempt to make a pleasing picture of the Tibetan
landscape, until after the advent of the monsoon. Distance
is annihilated ; range succeeds range without a suggestion of
the spaces in between, spaces that are occupied by arid Stony
plains of unwonted uniformity and flatness. It might per-
haps be inferred from this sketch of its landscape that Tibet
is an ugly land. I do not think it is so, but its beauty, its
charm is that of colour rather than of form, and as such is
better portrayed by the painter than by the photographer.
He can alter the perspective to show what he knows to be
there : photography is bound to optical exactitude.
But though on the plateau the conditions obtaining in
spring are with this exception favourable for the actual
taking of the photograph, the after-treatment of the negatives
is often somewhat of a nightmare. By means of keeping
up friendly relations with the cook it is usually possible to
obtain warm water for the actual development fixation,
which may thus be made tolerable enough. I have had
films frozen in their rack within the tank, but this danger, Once
realized, can, of course, easily be guarded against, and it is
only when the negatives are ready to come out of the fixing
bath that the trouble begins. In the general course of events
it will be night when this part of the work is being done, and
the temperature may be very low. A little stream which
PHOTOGRAPHY 327
was still running in the evening may be solid in the morning,
and films left therein to wash overnight will be frozen to the
bottom beneath a block of ice. We were caught this Way
near the Bahman Dopté on the way up. Sometimes the
camp is beside a shallow lake and a hole may easily be broken
in the thin evening's ice, and the racks lowered carefully
so as not to stir up the muddy bottom. They are then in
stagnant water, however, and will require a succession
of movements at intervals to ensure their proper Washing.
A fresh lid of ice forms over the hole after each movement,
and when one has broken this and thrust the arm down into
the icy water to grope about for the racks a few times, one
is, perhaps, inclined to be unduly optimistic about the
rapidity of this washing process. As a matter of fact the
washing was usually done in the developing tanks, coolies
bringing canvas bucketfuls of water from the drinking supply.
This worked quite satisfactorily, though slopping about with
water during a Tibetan night was never popular with either
porters or Sahibs. *
As soon as the negative is washed the real difficulty
presents itself—that of drying it. If it is hung up in the tent,
it promptly freezes, and the drying process ceases. Not
only so, but as the ice crystals form within the film, they
disarrange its particles and no amount of subsequent thawing
or rewashing ever removes the imprint of the iceflowers. I
tried putting the tank of washed films beside me in my
sleeping-bag and hanging them up to dry in the morning as
soon as the sun had warmed the tent above the freezing-point.
But, quite apart from the tank proving a very cold bed-
fellow, it always happened that either the camp had to be
struck before they were dry, or a sudden dust-devil sprang
up in response to the increasing warmth of the day and covered
them with sand. As a last resource we threaded as many as
50–60 on cotton as soon as they were washed and suspended
them in rows in the apex of Noel's double-walled tent. Then
we brought in great glowing trays of smouldering yak-dung
and set these on the floor so that the heat might rise and
circulate about the films and prevent them from freezing.
328 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Besides the heat the fumes and smoke rose also, and we
coughed and blinked and laughed. Noel complained that
he had to sleep in the tent ; we complained that he was the
only man to have a fire in his bedroom. Generally this
method of drying the films worked well, though occasionally,
despite the early heat, a few were found frosted in the
morning.
A good supply of methylated spirit would obviate all
this trouble and Save countless little blemishes. Later, at
Base Camp, we got a bottleful from Hingston’s store, and it
proved a very great boon.
As to camera equipment, nothing of a special character
is really necessary. If only one camera is taken then I sup-
pose it must undoubtedly be of the “hand ” variety, though
I, who learned photography behind a tripod, often longed
for a good old-fashioned field camera with its rigid stand,
focussing screen and dark slides. But it must be admitted
that the occasions when such an instrument would be used
were few and rather specialized, being chiefly in relation to
technical work. Good colour photography would be very
valuable, alike for scenery and for natural history work.
A highly concentrated developing solution like Rodinal
would often be very welcome in preference to powders or
tablets which require to be dissolved. At least one batch
of what would otherwise have been valuable negatives was
ruined through commencing development in the tank before
solution had been fully effected. Time and patience are
both apt to be getting rather short before one is able to attend
to this work while on the march.
For use in an emergency, a little of one of the patent
hypo eliminators would be a comfort, as would a vessel for
carrying a working quantity of acid hypo in solution.
Finally, it must be remembered that all apparatus will be
subjected to very rough usage on Occasions, and one should
be provided with the knowledge and materials necessary to
carry out minor repairs en route—there is no Kodak agency
in Tibet.
SECTION V
ON THE USE OF OXYGEN
By N. E. ODELL
The results of the Second Expedition to Mount Everest
in 1922 went to show that two schools of thought prevailed
from the experiences of the high-climbing parties. The One
maintained that oxygen was not only desirable but neces-
sary if a party were going to reach an altitude much greater
than that made by the climbers who essayed to attain the
summit without its use that year. It went further and said
that “on any further attempt upon Everest oxygen will
form a most important part of the climber's equipment.” “
The other school of thought held that “the chances of climb-
ing the mountain are probably greater if oxygen be not
used,” f since the oxygen prevents the degree of acclimati-
zation in the individual that should be acquired, and in the
event of its failure endangers the party's return. Also “it
were better to prepare for a number of attempts each by a
small but acclimatized party, rather than to stake all on
one or two highly organized endeavours, in which oxygen,
and a large number of coolies, are used.”
In addition there were certain members who adopted a
middle view and said that the case was not proven, and pro-
vided the apparatus could be lightened, and that the organi-
zation would allow of sufficient porters being available to
carry up supplies, benefit would no doubt accrue from its
use : at any rate Oxygen should be available in case of need.
The first school was championed by Finch, who with
G. Bruce reached an altitude of about 27,235 feet, using
Oxygen continuously from a little above 21,000 feet. His
* Tha Assault on Mount Everest, 1922, p. 257. f Ibid., p. 304.
329
330 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
view is that owing to the sapping of one's reserves of strength
at altitudes above that at which true acclimatization takes
place, namely what he adjudges to be between 21,000 and
23,000 feet, it is obligatory to avoid more than a single
camp above the North Col (23,000 feet), and so reduce one's
time at these great heights to a minimum, and to make
from this high camp the final dash to the summit. And
judging by the achievements of the two parties, the one
with Oxygen and the other without it, he thinks that the
former not merely showed that it could be done, but also
would have been successful if it had been favoured by better
weather conditions. But Finch is careful to say that a
necessary part of this programme for the continuous use of
Oxygen would be the carrying up of supplies of oxygen, to
a height about 1,000 feet above that at which he would
propose pitching the highest camp (26,500 feet), by a corps
of porters specially detailed for the work. And this in itself,
as is known from later experience, will be by no means easy
of achievement.
The second School of thought, claiming the merits of the
disuse of oxygen, had for its advocate Somervell, who with
Mallory and Norton reached in 1922 an altitude approxi-
mating to 27,000 feet. Apart from his own great powers
of endurance, and performance on the mountain, Somervell’s
opinion as a physiologist could not be disregarded, and his
studied views touching the important factor of acclimatiza-
tion gave a very special interest to the controversy. And
into this controversy were thrust all the varying and often
opposite views of the many eminent physiologists, whose
evidence was derived from, or their opinion founded on,
either mountain ascents to moderate altitudes, balloonists’
and aviators' ascents, or experiments in laboratory pressure-
chambers.
Consequently the Third Expedition started with opinions
more or less divided as to the efficacy of an artificial supply
of oxygen for the high-climbing parties. The Mount Everest
Committee had however decided, in view of the inconclusive
ON THE USE OF OXYGEN 331
character of the results of 1922, again to equip the Outgoing
expedition. The writer was placed in charge of this oxygen
equipment, though his absence in Persia the winter previous
to the expedition prevented his taking any part in the super-
vision of its preparation at home. It is unnecessary to re-
peat the description of the breathing apparatus sent out,
since in design it is nearly identical with that already fully
described by Mr. Unna in the Alpine Journal, vol. xxxiv,
and by Captain Finch in the Assault on Mount Everest, 1922,
Chapter IX. Certain modifications had nevertheless been
deemed advisable, especially in the cylinder containers,
which were of a new make with increased capacity. But
though economies in weight had been effected in certain
features, the total weight of the new outfit had not been
reduced, which complete with full supply of oxygen amounted
to 32 to 33 lb. During the course of the trek across Tibet
defects were found in the breathing sets, and working under
the greatest difficulties of climate as well as lack of an any-
thing like adequate workshop, Irvine managed to rebuild
the breathing apparatus to a modified design, the saving in
weight involved being about 5 lb. Without his wonderful
mechanical ingenuity we might well have been without a
Serviceable outfit : and serviceable the outfits as re-created
by Irvine undoubtedly were, though it must be admitted
that perhaps not all the party had complete confidence in
them considering the amount of fresh work that we had had
to put in to get over a host of difficulties that ought never
to have occurred.
And now as to our own observations and opinions re-
garding the use of oxygen at extreme altitudes. It is not
my purpose here to discuss more of the controversial physio-
logical aspects of the subject than bear immediately on the
problem of its future use and advisability at extreme moun-
tain altitudes, and the exigencies of space will oblige my
being brief.
From what has been Said earlier it will have been seen
that the attempts on the summit, aided by oxygen, were
332 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
reduced last year to one—the last fatal one, and the merits
of the oxygen in this case we shall never know. It has
been explained also, more especially by Norton, that the
extremely bad weather conditions and the consequent short-
age of available porters had precluded the transportation of
Oxygen supplies sufficiently far up the line to admit of an
Oxygen attempt earlier. This emphatically was the main
reason, though a secondary one, as mentioned above, may
have been that not the entire party had complete faith in
the resurrected apparatus. But if we had had at the outset
the serviceable apparatus we expected, and conditions had
allowed of oxygen supplies being carried to the North Col
at an earlier stage in the proceedings—an event which would
at the same time probably have prevented our proving as
we did what acclimatization could accomplish—then there is
no doubt that oxygen would have been in evidence in earlier
attempts. It must not be thought therefore that as a party
we were prejudiced against Oxygen.
I must mention that as the result of a trial climb with
the apparatus on a hill near Shekar Dzong on the outward
journey, at that early stage I myself began to realize that
oxygen might not do for every one all that had been claimed
for it : Mallory, Irvine and Somervell were with me, and
we all seemed to do as well without it, both climbing on
steepish crag, where of course the bulky apparatus was a
great inconvenience, and on easier ground near the summit
where we went fairly fast. This, it is to be noted, was at
an altitude of only 15,000 feet, and we had had nearly three
weeks already in Tibet to get acclimatized to this particular
altitude.
After our first repulse from Camp III by blizzards, on
our return there Geoffrey Bruce and I used oxygen on an
attempt to reach the North Col under very bad conditions
of snow. On that occasion I was feeling somewhat unfit,
but thought that the oxygen would give the necessary brac-
ing needed: instead it gave so little effect and the apparatus
proved such an irksome load that I was glad to hand the
ON THE USE OF OXYGEN 333
outfit over to a porter to carry. Bruce could similarly derive
no benefit from it, and this was the more remarkable since
he had used it to such apparent advantage when accom-
panying Finch in 1922. At this time we had been living
at altitudes up to and over 21,000 feet for nearly three weeks,
with visits to 22,000 to 23,000 feet, and so must necessarily
have undergone a considerable degree of acclimatization.
Later in the campaign, when I was in charge of Camp TV
on the North Col and lived there for eleven days, not sleep-
ing below 23,000 feet save once, I had the truth, as well as
the value, of acclimatization fully brought home to me. It
is unnecessary to reiterate the details of my climbs from this
camp to over 27,000 feet, except to mention again that on
my second ascent to that altitude I used oxygen from Camp
V at 25,000 feet, but at rather over 26,000 feet I felt I was
deriving so little benefit from it that I turned it off and did
not use the gas again. I had been using a relatively small
quantity only, rather more than 1 litre per minute, but
before switching it off I gave myself a full 2 litres or more
per minute,” and really the only advantage I seemed to
gain from it, was a more or less imagined slight relief of
fatigue in my legs. But when I had reached Camp VI and
dumped the apparatus, and set off again on my search for
the missing party, I felt able to progress altogether better
than when I had been breathing oxygen, a contributory factor
to this being, no doubt, that I was without the bulk and
awkwardness of the apparatus. On the descent of the moun-
tain I was so far unaffected by the altitude as to be able
to go from Camp VI to V in about one hour, and from the
latter to Camp IV in about thirty minutes, partly glissading
near the North Col.
I only venture to give these results and figures to show
how real is the capacity for acclimatization to these extreme
altitudes, and there seems no reason at all to suppose that
* Prof. Dreyer, of Oxford, had suggested a supply of 2.4 litres per
minute for the highest parts of the mountain : A.J., xxxiv, No. 224, p
242.
334 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
this important physiological capability, other things being
equal, should not be possible at an altitude equivalent to
that of the top of Mount Everest, and perhaps considerably
more. I say other things being equal, though realizing this
is scarcely likely at any time to be the case, temperature
especially altering for the worse, that is of course decreasing,
as one gets higher ; in addition chemical changes and re-
actions of the blood become more acute. But our evidence
has shown us emphatically that one can live and feel fit for
an indefinite period at 23,000 feet, and an altitude below
this can no longer be considered, as Finch has maintained,”
the upper level of true acclimatization. Somervell considers
that acclimatization may take place at 24,000feet, but in
the present state of our knowledge I think no upper limit
can be given. If this acclimatization is as real as we seem
to have found it to be, then the advantage of carrying a
heavy and bulky supply of oxygen is very dubious. It is
important to remember in Finch’s case that he has accus-
tomed himself during his Alpine career to carry very heavy
loads, and this alone must be very contributory to his ability
to be at ease with a heavy oxygen apparatus. But the
main point, without doubt, is that he derived the benefit
he did from the oxygen on account of his not being accli-
matized. He and Geoffrey Bruce had come straight up
from the Base Camp and been but five days at Camp III
before starting their high climb.
It is very evident, I think, that no adequate degree of
acclimatization for the ascent of the mountain can be acquired
unless the climber has the opportunity of living for not less
than the bare minimum (for most people) of a week at the
highest possible camp, and of making excursions higher on
the mountain prior to the main attack. This “acclimatiza-
tion camp º' cannot be higher than the North Col, owing to
the exposure and lack of all shelter, even if a suitable spot
could be found above on the mountain. The disadvantage
* He considers this critical, altitude to be somewhere between 21,000
and 23,000 feet. The Assault, p. 257.
ON THE USE OF OXYGEN 335
of the North Col is the fact that the camp here must be
pitched on Snow, though under all but the worst conditions
this need not rule it out. Camp III has the advantage of
being on rock and of being accessible in almost any weather.
But our experiences on this last expedition showed us that
if this latter camp is to be rendered habitable without detri-
ment to the personnel under as severe conditions again,
then something more weatherproof than the tents we had
will be necessary. It might be possible to have a light hut,
that could be carried up in handy sections and quickly
erected on the spot, as suggested by Captain Noel. If as
many of the party as possible could be housed at such a
camp, and at the North Col as well if conditions permitted,
then with the necessary excursions higher for the purpose
of carrying stores and establishing camps, such a degree of
acclimatization would be acquired in two or three weeks’
time as would fit physiologically a much larger proportion
of climbers for reaching the top.
It is not a question of whether or not the top of the
mountain can be reached without oxygen, but what, con-
sidering all the circumstances of the case, is the way most
likely to succeed, and which is to the greatest extent within
the powers of the average climber. In our opinion the
individual’s inherent capacity for acclimatization is likely to
Serve him better than doubtful adventitious aids. From the
point of high Himalayan mountaineering generally it is
certainly desirable in the interests of economy that the
private explorer or mountaineer should know that his ex-
peditions need not be burdened with the additional expense
of oxygen apparatus, even though he aspire to attain the
highest summits: he must merely so lay his plans that
his party may acclimatize itself to as high an altitude as
possible before making its ultimate attempts. But for
any future expedition that will go out to make sure of
the world's highest summit this consideration of economy
in the matter of equipment, such as oxygen, should not
count. Nor should the authority responsible pay too much
336 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
heed to the dictates of those physiologists who would like
to make the climbers subjects of experimentation in the
ultimate reactionary effects of the human system to an ex-
ceptional environment. In the interests of science as well
as mountaineering it were better that separate parties were
sent out to attain these distinct objects Moreover, should
any attempt be made to carry out the threat of our ardent,
though ever jocular, Medical Officer of the last expedition
to extend his experiments to “more complicated and worry-
ing tests,” then it were far preferable that he should recruit
and conduct his own selected squad of patient subjects
through their tortures, than amuse himself by adding to the
already adequate troubles of the climbers that of a feeling
that they must exert, if not well-nigh contort, themselves to
attain some standard of “physiological respectability,” with-
out which they dare not set foot on Everest Fortunately
the performances of some poor humans at great altitudes
were better than the artificial tests indicated they ought to
be And in this connection it must not be forgotten that
any data for physiological capability derived from experi-
ments in laboratory pressure-chambers or elsewhere are un-
reliable when applied to the mountaineer, since they leave
out entirely the important factor of acclimatization : in
other words, the individual’s adaptation to his environment
in relation to time.
In spite of our findings of last year, and although I main-
tain that acclimatization to an altitude of not more than
23,000 feet would enable an average suitable individual to
reach 29,000 feet unaided, yet in the present state of our
knowledge I am not prepared to say that a future expedi-
tion to Everest may dispense with oxygen entirely. What
I wish to emphasize is that the oxygen outfits used hereto-
fore are much too heavy, and their weight quite obviates
any advantage that might be derived from them. This
weight was chiefly on account of the large amount of gas
carried, sufficient for nearly twelve hours. We are now
having designed an entirely new and lightened apparatus,
ON THE USE OF OXYGEN 337
that with a less, though, in the light of our later experience,
quite adequate, supply of gas will, we hope, be not more
than about 11 to 12 lb. in weight. If members of a future
party are prevented for some reason or other from acquiring
the requisite degree of acclimatization, which it should be
their purpose to attain, such a lightened form of apparatus
would be available, if only for the final dash from some
high camp to the Summit, or alternatively merely as an
emergency measure, if found beneficial.
It is true that we are really not yet in a position to judge
as to whether oxygen is the best stimulant for use at high
altitudes. In use we found it had a drying and irritating
effect upon the throat . It might be mentioned that Captain
Spelterini, from his vast and varied balloon experience at
high altitudes, maintained that oxygen was not desirable,
was liable to upset the functions of the system, and was too
much of a specific. His remedy for debilitation at exaggerated
altitudes was light alcohol in effervescence—champagne | It
might well be thought desirable and preferable that the Medical
Officer’s “experimental squad,” suggested earlier, be experi-
mented upon with the latter versus oxygen, rather than run
risks with the climbers on Everest But in the meanwhile,
until some new evidence is forthcoming as to the real nature
of debilitation at high altitudes, and how properly it should
be met and countered, it were far preferable in my opinion
that the future Everest aspirant should mainly depend on
his own inherent capacity to adapt himself to the conditions
encountered, and thereby keep himself well within his powers,
than resort to any artificial means that in the event of their
failure may be the cause of his collapse.
SECTION VI
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION +
A.—PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION, JOURNEY AND MARCH
By LIEUT.-COLONEL E. F. NORTON, D.S.O.
1. Preliminary.—The leader of the Expedition should have the
last Word in selection of the party—he has to live and work with them.
The plan of campaign should if possible be settled in England before
Sailing. The reason for this is that both the scale of porters’ equip-
ment and the packing of Sahibs' food for high camps largely depend
On the plan. The difficulty is the possible absence—say in India—
of some prominent member of the climbing party whose views must
be consulted. This is only one more reason for starting preparations
many months before the party sails : the views of such a climber can
then be obtained by letter. At the worst the plan can be settled in
Darjeeling before marching ; conditions on the Tibetan plateau in
April are not the most favourable for reconciling conflicting points of
WI6 W.
The president of the Equipment Committee should be a prominent
member of the party, who has been on a previous expedition; he need
not do detailed work himself, but must supervise all departments,
obviate gaps and keep everybody up to time. He should have all
equipment (including Oxygen) completely ready three or four months
before shipment—only thus can everything be properly “vetted'’ and
criticized. For last two Expeditions some of the equipment has
always been very late.
2. Voyage.—On the voyage out I would urge every one to study
either Nepali or Tibetan—or else polish up Hindustani. The import-
ance of every one being able to talk to porters cannot be exaggerated.
A vocabulary of 200 words can easily be acquired in a month, and
this alone will go a long way. I also suggest all climbers learn Morse
signalling for intercommunication at high camps.
3. Darjeeling.—The leader and at least one transport officer should
be in Darjeeling a full month before the Expedition starts. A local
* Notes made by the members of the Expedition during the return journey.
338
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 339
agent is required ; he can advertise the Expedition beforehand and
have a large number of porters, etc., ready for inspection. He may
buy stores of grain, etc., required for porters’ food. He is invaluable
to procure locally the hundred and one minor articles wanted at the
last minute. After the Expedition has started he pays family allot-
ments, and in the event of native personnel being sent home early
for discharge he pays them off.
Railway concessions probably procurable : E.I.R. half-price
personnel and stores. D.H.R. free goods vans Darjeeling to Kalim-
pong Road.
Mr. Stephen has always most generously given free accommodation
at the Mount Everest Hotel, Darjeeling, as well as Grand Hotel,
Calcutta. Write to Deputy-Commissioner, Darjeeling, for permission
to use all Dak bungalows in Sikkim, and to Political Officer, Gang-
tok, for any beyond Jelap La. Mule transport for both advance and
accompanying transport—agents:—
Darjeeling : J. F. Madan & Co.
Ralimpong: R. B. Mintri & Co.
4. On the March.-Comfort is essential if climbers are to start
work really fit. A remarkable improvement can be effected in this
respect by consulting previous experience. It is for consideration
whether it will pay to cut out Phari and the exposed Donka La route,
sending climbers anyhow via Gangtok to Kampa Dzong. The march
across the Tibetan plateau should be very leisurely, both to avoid
fatigue and to give time for acclimatization : halt for a day at least
every three or four days—preferably at transport stages. Conse-
quently a start should be made from Darjeeling timed to reach the
Base Camp by this method not later than May 1.
Every one should have a good pony of his own bought in Darjeeling,
or through Mr. John Macdonald in Yatung. This is expensive com-
pared to hiring, but essen ial to comfort. Discourage climbers from
walking too much on outward march. They must take their own
saddlery, including grooming kit, horse-rug, good nose-bag, clippers,
shoeing putfit, stable head-collar, head-rope, etc. They should also
have a reliable head Syce who can shoe. The condition of the ponies
must be continually watched and all ponies inspected at least once
during May and June, while they are at Tashi Dzom or Chödzong, and
scale of feeding adjusted if necessary.
The mess-tent used in 1924 was invaluable, and exactly what is
required both for march and Base Camp ; Whymper tents ditto—
one per Sahib and one spare. Meade tents are excellent, 23 in 1924
|both are reliable, if expensive.
340 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Were ample. Light Meade tents ditto, 6 ample. Suitable porters’
tents may be got from Cawnpore. Mess-tables should be of 1924
pattern, with a spare set of shorter legs for two of these tables, for
use at Camp III, sitting on boxes. Four Kranzow clockwork lamps
used in 1924 were a complete success. Each member must bring his
own chair—mess should supply two spare.
Water must be boiled in Sikkim. Three Expeditions have now
suffered from dysentery, probably picked up in Sikkim below 7,000
feet. This is Medical Officer's department, but leader should see to
it. In Tibet a pair of mule “pakhals' will often enable good water
to be fetched from a distance. A good pair of mess mules are needed
for taking on mess-tent daily.
As regards Dzongpens, etc., the leader of the Expedition should
take a moderately respectable coat or suit, and so eat no shame when
interviewing Tibetan officials. Presents for these should be carefully
Selected ; hats—not too cheap; scarves are not appreciated ; camp
chairs, etc., are ; as also wrist-watches, good electric torches, thermos
flasks, Snow goggles, etc. In the treatment of Dzongpens and other
Tibetans, anyone who knows the East has not much to learn. The
interpreter will explain etiquette as regards presents, “khaddars,”
etc. It should be remembered that the Expedition are guests in a
friendly country, and a troublesome Dzongpen cannot be treated quite
as cavalierly as, say, an obstructive Tehsildar in India. He is
fifth highest official in Tibet. At the same time it pays to be firm over
prices of transport, etc.; always think of possible subsequent Expedi-
tions, leave a good impression, but do not spoil the market.
Reep good discipline among the porters or they will play hell on the
return journey. Be careful how you send an inferior gang of porters
home in advance for discharge, or they will cause trouble ahead of
you all the way home. Transport drivers cannot be trusted, thiev-
ing has increased a lot : must watch this. Cases of theft, etc., must
be dealt with through the local authorities, not direct. Otherwise
these transport drivers are good fellows, and respond readily to a
cheery word. They are frightfully slow and inefficient, but wonders
can be done by turning on Tibetan-speaking porters to ginger them
up. For specially long marches it will pay to summon “Gyembos”
overnight, and insist on a 7 a.m. start—it can be done. Finally, a
friend at court at Lhasa to whom reports can be made is invaluable
(e.g. General Dzasa Laden La in 1924). On the march there is much
work to be done. Oxygen apparatus keeps one or two men busy
every halt or short march. Practise porters with ice axe and rope.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 341
Except for this keep all ice axes packed—do not distribute them to
porters or they will be broken. Continual checking of stores essential.
Practise Morse signalling, chits to Gurkha N.C.O.'s, etc.; communiqués
to write ; mess secretary generally a busy man.
Dak (post) gave great trouble in 1924. Continually pilfered.
Suggest leaving our own men at Phari, Khamba, Tinki, and Shekar
—only safe way. The Press is very slippery ground. Must be very
careful to have the clearest possible understanding with any paper
which has monopoly before leaving England. Settle number, length
and scope of wires required. Relay runners exclusively for Press
communiqués were used in 1924 and did excellent work. The bando-
bast was run by Mr. John Macdonald. The Times paid £200 for it.
A well-stocked book box is worth a lot. Take a little trouble over
it. Start with a nucleus of 20 real good volumes, compiling the list
with care. Then add the private books of members who can spare
the books they have read. The Expedition should stock soap, tooth-
powder, toothbrushes, a spare sponge or two, writing-paper and
envelopes, stamps, pencils, glue, elastic bands, pins, etc., as people
are always running out.
5. Base Camp.–Should be a happy home for returning climbers
and porters. Study comfort, feeding, sanitation. No necessity for
leader to be there once camp and routine are satisfactorily established,
but there must be one Sahib there always, as the money is too big a
responsibility for anyone else ; dealings with outside world are few,
but may be important. All routine work is done through the Dzong-
pen's agent (see Personnel Notes). Sahib at Base Camp must keep
a careful watch on stores, as this is a period of great leakage. Some
good system should be devised by which one sahib may hand over
to another. Arrange to have whole Expedition blessed by Rongbuk
Lama—preferably en route to the Base Camp. This has a good moral
effect.
6. Tibetan Government Permit.—It is suggested that a clause
should be added in future to the effect that Dzongpens are to make it
their duty to see that postal arrangements run smoothly and
efficiently.
Both in the 1922 and 1924 permits they are told to supply trans-
port at “ current rates.” This appears to be meaningless—there
being no such thing in Tibet. Experience this year has shown that
an average fair rate per riding pony or pack animal (yaks, donkeys,
zoes, etc.) is 4 tankas a day. If some such rate could be definitely
specified in any future permit there would be a great Saving of time,
342 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
and probably money too. Finally, when application is being made
to the Indian Government for the permit, the exact districts in Tibet
through which the Expedition expects to travel should be stated.
This year Tingri was not included (Rongshar being in this district).
The difficulty was, however, got over by obtaining letters of recom-
mendation from the Dzongpen of Shekar.
B.—LOCAL PERSONNEL
EY CAPTAIN J. G. BRUCE
1. Personnel of the Expedition.—This includes Interpreter, Sirdar,
Gurkha Quartermaster, Gurkha N.C.O.'s, cooks, bootmaker, syces,
storeman, mess servants, porters, and locally enlisted coolies.
The selection of these men is of primary importance, since once
Darjeeling is left there will be no chance to change anybody.
Interpreter must be well educated, presentable in appearance, and
above all thoroughly acquainted with the etiquette and customs of
the Tibetan “gentry.” Should in addition be a good all-round man,
accustomed to travel and ready to turn his hand to any job.
Sirdar. Strictly speaking, is the headman of the porters, but
we found it infinitely preferable to deal with the latter direct, or
through the Gurkha N.C.O.'s. A sirdar such as Gyalgen is worth
anything as general utility man, is excellent with transport, can be
relied upon to conduct a party of Sahibs across Tibet on the return
journey, and acts as reserve interpreter when occasion arises.
Gurkha Quartermaster. This year we had nobody who quite filled
the part. It is suggested for any future expedition that a well-
educated and senior Quartermaster-Sergeant from a Gurkha
battalion be employed, who will, from the start, take charge of all
stores. He will not go beyond the Base Camp, and will at any time
be able to give accurate information as to the whereabouts of any
article of stores or equipment. The chief characteristic of the Gurkha
is his absolute honesty, which admirably fits him for this post.
Gurkha N.C.O.'s should be selected more with a view to taking
charge of Camps I, II and III, than as actual climbers. They should
be able to read and write simple Hindustani in Roman characters,
so that climbers may communicate with them by this means if
required. They must be self-reliant, and capable of taking charge
of parties of men unaided.
Cooks. Must be able and willing to function up to Camp III.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 343
Should be Sherpa, Bhotia, or Lepcha—i.e. Tibetan-speaking—other-
wise will have difficulty in getting what they want and in dealing
with local vendors. Four cooks are necessary, one at the Base Camp,
and one at each intermediate camp.
Bootmaker. So far this post has not been satisfactorily filled.
A good practical boot-repairer is what is required : he must know how
to put alpine nails into boats, and be capable of doing sail-maker's
work. Must be fit and strong.
Private servants are not necessary. If brought, must be of one
of the local races. Indian servants will only be a nuisance in Tibet.
Private servants like Shebbeare's Tippoo are worth their weight in
gold, and are a great asset in the mess.
Porters. Their selection forms one of the most difficult problems
the leader of the Expedition has to solve. Our experience goes to
prove that the light, well-proportioned, clean-bred man is the one to
take. All carrying porters should be either Sherpas or Bhotias.
The Civil Surgeon at Darjeeling will always help with medical examin-
ation of all prospective starters. Old hands should only be employed
a second time if their record and conduct on the previous occasion
were Outstandingly good. A few old hands are desirable for obvious
reasons, but should be very carefully chosen. Otherwise new keen
men are infinitely preferable, and are less likely to play the “old
soldier.”
Syces. Mostly drawn from the ranks of the porters. On reaching
the Base Camp all except two or three selected syces remain for work
on the glacier, while the latter take over the ponies and go down to
Some neighbouring village until Operations are over. These selected
Syces should be really good men with horses, as they will have all the
ponies and mules on their hands for six weeks. They should have
a working knowledge of cold shoeing.
Rates of Pay, etc. See the records of this year's Expedition for
exact amounts. An advance of one month’s pay is advisable before
leaving Darjeeling, as many men will want to make provision for
their families. After that it is asking for trouble to give out any
money except the daily ration allowance.
Family Allotments. The agent of the Expedition in Darjeeling
is shown the individuals to whom allotments are to be paid, and the
amounts. The bank is authorized to pay a fixed lump sum to the
agent every month for this purpose. This system of family allot-
ments is very popular and much appreciated by all.
2. Clothing and Equipment.—Tents for travelling across Tibet
344 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
are best obtained from Elgin Mills, Cawnpore. They should be light,
windproof, and easy to pitch. It is unlikely that porters’ tents will
fetch a reasonable price on return to India. They will be black with
smoke (all cooking being done inside the tent), and however well
made are sure to be considerably torn. It is therefore best to get
tents that are calculated to last for just the period of the Expedition
and no more.
Blanket and Sleeping-Sacks. Patterns as supplied this year were
good. Every man in the Expedition should be issued with one blanket
either in Kalimpong or Phari. This goes with him everywhere up to
and including Camp II. A reserve dump of 20 blankets should be
maintained at Camp II. There should be a total of 40 eiderdown
sleeping-bags for use in Camp III and above. Only twenty were
supplied this year, and were not nearly sufficient.
Jerkins, Leather. Of very doubtful value—the main drawback
being that they have no sleeves. A suggested substitute is a Willes-
den canvas smock, which would be windproof and light, and would do
away with the necessity of the upper portion of the high-altitude
overalls as supplied this year.
Jerseys and Shirts. Satisfactory, but there should be one per man
throughout, and 5 per cent. Spare.
Boots. Size 9, 5 pairs; size 8, 10 pairs; size 7, 55 pairs. Sizes
correct, but they should be made on Gurkha last (most important).
Puttees, Breeches, Mufflers. All satisfactory; scale should be as
for jerseys above.
Socks. Army pattern can be obtained in India. Should be on
the scale of 5 per man who carried loads on the glacier. In addition
there should be a reserve of some thicker type of Sock, which can be
worn over the Army socks, at Camp III. These would only be issued
to men going high.
Woollen Gloves as supplied were much too thin, and wore badly.
They should have light leather palms, and be very thick. A large
proportion of spares are necessary.
Windproof Smocks and Trousers (for High Altitude). See Jerkins,
above, 3 trouser portion also necessary, and should be of stout Willesden
Ca, Il Va,S.
Goggles. Pattern good, and 200 pairs correct amount.
Crampons. Only 20 pairs were supplied—not nearly enough (50
pairs required). They must be much stronger, like the climbers’
pattern. The bindings were good, but not enough of them were
Sent Out.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 345
Sheepskin Gloves. Good, but double the number necessary (i.e. 40).
Climbing Boots (High Altitude). Size 7, 10 pairs; size 8, 6 pairs;
size 9, 4 pairs. Boots excellent. These figures should be doubled.
Allow for extra socks.
Cooking Utensils, Mugs, etc., are easily obtained in Darjeeling.
3. Darjeeling to the Base Camp.–For this period the porters
should be divided up as required to look after the Sahibs (2 or 3 each),
as syces, and as a permanent mess squad for pitching and striking the
mess-tent, etc. It is not advisable to give them loads, except light
articles such as cameras, lamps, etc. This is the time to nourish
them and get them into first-class condition before they reach the
Base Camp. The ration allowance of 6 annas per diem should be
enough as far as Rongbuk, but close supervision is necessary to ensure
that the money is spent on good food, and not on inferior liquor.
Occasionally a free extra issue of meat should be made. Daily sick
parade under one of the Gurkha N.C.O.'s is very important, other-
wise men will neglect small ailments which can be put right at once
if nipped in the bud. The officer in charge of the personnel should
visit the men's tents every evening after the march, preferably when
they are feeding. He can then see to the quality of the food, and the
health and comfort of them all at the same time. When opportunity
offers, instruction in the use of alpine rope and ice axe is advisable.
On the march Gurkha N.C.O.'s are best utilized in turn for (a)
going ahead with the mess-tent, and seeing it properly pitched in a
good place ; (b) marching with the money boxes, and handing them over
to the Sahib responsible for them at the other end ; (c) remaining on
the old camp site until all baggage has been loaded up, marching
behind the last animal of the convoy, looking out for looting by
Tibetans on the road, and reporting to one of the transport officers
all correct or otherwise on arrival in the new camp. It is suggested
that riding ponies be hired locally for 50 per cent. N.C.O.'s, 50 per
cent. cooks and servants helping in the mess, and for any sick men.
The Interpreter and Sirdar will probably have their own ponies.
4. Arrival at Base Camp to End of Operations.—From the time
the Expedition reaches Rongbuk the whole personnel should be given
free rations and the ration allowance stopped, until the beginning of
the return journey. All porters are now pooled, irrespective of what
work they have been doing on the march across Tibet, and made up
into parties for work on the glacier and on the mountain. It is most
important that an adequate reserve of really good men should be
formed, and not employed in the initial stages of establishing high
346 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
camps. Then, as was the case this year, if reverses are met with, and
the main portion of the porters become somewhat disheartened, this
fresh and staunch party can be called up, and will in all probability
by their presence restore the moral of the rest.
As regards making Porter N.C.O.'s—the experiment of this year
is well worth repeating, but it will not be advisable to make the
appointments at too early a date. I would suggest that they be made
On arrival at the base, and that, in making up the parties of which
these Porter N.C.O.'s will have to take charge, the latter should be
allowed to say whether they are satisfied with the men detailed to
them or not.
This year Camps I and II were established entirely by local labour
under the supervision of the Gurkha N.C.O.'s. This method is
thoroughly to be recommended, as it saves the climbers and regular
porters from much hard work of a kind that does not improve con-
dition. These local men are obtained through the good offices of
the Shekar Dzongpen. The Dzongpen details a CHONZAY, or steward,
to accompany the Expedition from Shekar and to work with it as a
kind of agent as long as is necessary. On the last few marches to
Rongbuk this Chonzay recruits any able-bodied villagers he can
and pays them from the date they actually join us. The agreement
this year was that they should carry loads up to, but no farther
than, Camp II, find their own food and bedding, and receive 4 tankas
per diem. They seemed to jump at these conditions, with the result
that on arrival at the base we had 151 local coolies ready to start for
Camp I on the next day. In three days both Camp I and Camp II
were fully established, and the coolies dismissed. It was an un-
expectedly rapid performance, which may well be repeated another
time. These local people must, of course, be treated with every
consideration, and now and again be given a good “ blow out ’’
free of charge. Judicious distribution of “bakshish ’’ and a few
cigarettes also helps to keep them going.
The Gurkha N.C.O.'s should now be in permanent charge of Camps I
and II, and a cook sent to each to cater for climbers passing through.
These N.C.O.'s must be made responsible for everything that goes on
in their camps. Their chief duties are : Despatching convoys with
note stating exactly what is in them, receiving convoys from other
camps, and checking loads on arrival; demanding stores and rations
to keep their own camps fully stocked well before any commodity
runs out (unless heavily lectured about this, they will leave it until
too late); seeing to the comfort and welfare of any porters or local
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 347
coolies; personally issuing rations to them ; keeping the camp and
vicinity clean and tidy. It is advisable that climbers should practise
writing messages for these N.C.O.’s (Hindustani or Khaskura in Roman
characters) and seeing whether they are understood on the march across
Tibet and at the Base Camp—later on much may depend on such a
message being correctly interpreted. At Camps III and IV, when-
ever these camps are occupied, there will almost certainly be sahibs
present. At Camp III, at any rate, either a Gurkha or a Porter N.C.O.
should be placed in charge of all porters’ rations and equipment, and
should be changed as seldom as possible. All men sleeping at Camp
III or above should be provided with an eiderdown sleeping-bag.
These bags should be kept in the various camps as camp equipment,
and moved up and down as little as possible. They are on no account
to be looked upon as individual property.
This year it was decided to burn yak-dung (shing) up to and includ-
ing Camp II. Supplies of shing were arranged for through the afore-
mentioned Chonzay. To keep each camp fully supplied with this
commodity is no easy task—this falls to the lot of the sahib in charge
of the Base Camp. At Camp III and above Primus stoves or Meta
come into use. In each party of porters one cook and one under-
study must receive thorough instruction in both these methods of
cooking. When on the move the cook should be given the lightest
load, and both he and the other members of his party must under-
stand that he is responsible for producing their food at the other end.
For this year's Expedition porters’ rations were arranged for as
follows: We brought from Darjeeling and put into the Base Camp
60 maunds “rice, 27 maunds ata, 7 maunds ghoor, 2 maunds dhal, also
chillies, dharria, cloves and tumeric ; 16 lb. tea, cigarettes. A daily
scale was worked out for each camp, and N.C.O.'s instructed to adhere
rigidly to it. The results were very satisfactory. The scale shown
below was calculated for 20 days’ complete occupation of Camps I
to IV by 40 men.
Gur . * tº © 4 oz. × 800 . ſº te 200 lb.
Chamfa and Biscuit . 24 ,, x 800 . tº . 1,200 ,,
Soup . & 4 , , x 800 . * © 200 ,,
Tea, 2 , , x 800 . & * 100 , ,
Salt # , x 800 . e © 25 ,,
Jam tº e † 4 , , x 800 . e e 200 , ,
Milk . § 4 , , x 800 . tº e 200
N.B.-Meat should be procured from the base through the
Chonzay, and sent up the line every four or five days. Meat for
* One maund equals 80 lb.
348 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
higher camps should be cooked in Camp I to economize fuel. Tibetan
butter is much appreciated by the men and can be got with the meat.
Rice may be substituted for chamfa at Camp I, but it is no use sending
it higher on account of its taking so long to cook.
The following is an average table of timings for laden porters under
favourable conditions :
Stage. Up. Down.
Base to I 3 hrs. 1 hr. 45 min.
I to II 4 hrs. } 4} hrs
II to III 3 hrs. 45 min. - &
5. The Return Journey.—There will presumably be some members
of the climbing party who want to get home quickly after the mountain
is finished with. Others will probably recuperate for a short time at
moderate altitudes before beginning the journey home. It is sug-
gested that only those porters who have done really well on the
mountain should be kept with this second party. All the rest should
be sent off to Darjeeling at the first opportunity to be paid off by the
agent there. The Sirdar should accompany this party, and be placed
in charge of the porters, as the Gurkha N.C.O.'s will most probably
be with the Second party. The payment of ration allowance recom-
mences from Rongbuk. On the return journey porters should be
made to carry moderate loads—it tends to keep them out of mischief.
6. Language Difficulties.—These are great, but are by no means
insuperable. Every climber coming to join an Expedition should
make himself acquainted with a stock of useful phrases in either
Hindustani or Nepalese. He should know the name of every man in
the Expedition—it is the first step towards creating an understanding
between the sahibs and the porters. In the high camps it is the
definite duty of one of the climbers to see to the porters’ feeding and
welfare generally. This is most important, for these men are tre-
mendously dependent upon their Sahibs, particularly on the mountain,
and failure to visit their tents and enquire after their well-being will
almost certainly result in loss of moral, and even in their refusing
to go on the next morning. Although on the march across Tibet all
these points are seen to by one special officer, it is very essential that
all climbers should actively interest themselves in the porters from
the start—later the success or otherwise of any climbing party may
hinge upon the manner in which the climbers handle their men.
7. Drink.—Both on the march out and on the homeward journey
drink is the chief vice to guard against. It can be reduced to a
minimum by making no cash payments to the men beyond their
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 349
daily ration allowance of 6 annas, and by punishing really heavily
the first offenders. When these men get drunk they almost invariably
fight with the local inhabitants, and in this way are apt to bring a
bad name to the Expedition.
After the first two Expeditions much was said about the honesty
of the porters and the Tibetans. They are not so honest that they
will not steal or pilfer store boxes, or even Sahibs' kit, if there is a
reasonable chance of not being found out. This year there was a
regrettably large amount of stores and equipment pilfered by our own
porters in the glacier camps. Occasional surprise kit inspections are
the only way to check this disgraceful behaviour, followed by very
heavy punishment for offenders.
C.—NOTES ON OFFICE AND MONEY IN TIBET
By CAPTAIN J. G. BRUCE
One box the size of a suit-case should be sufficient for all stationery.
A few file covers are useful to keep the correspondence on various
subjects separate.
A portable typewriter is almost an essential. Remington &
Co. have very kindly presented each of the previous Expeditions with
a portable machine.
Money is best carried in strong wooden boxes, preferably tin-lined
to keep Treasury notes dry, similar in shape and size to the S.A.
ammunition box. Four to six will be required according to the
amount of hard cash taken. This year we started with Rs. 18,000,
but found it was not enough and had to have another Rs. 5,000 sent
up to Shekarjong by Mr. John Macdonald. For a future Expedition
similar to this year’s Rs.23,000 to Rs.25,000 should be taken from
Darjeeling, mostly notes—about Rs.500 in silver should suffice. The
British Trade Agent at Yatung will arrange for exchanging Tibetan
for Indian money. He should be given a fortnight’s notice. Between
Rs.12,000 and Rs.15,000 worth of Tibetan currency will be required.
Indian currency is accepted in Phari, and limited amounts can be
exchanged by Nepalese traders in Shekar and Tengri. At the Base
Camp Tibetan money is a necessity, and in all out-of-the-way places.
As in India, it is very desirable that all payments should be made by,
or in the presence of, a Sahib. Detailed receipts for amounts paid
to Dzongpens for transport, post, etc., should be obtained on the out-
ward journey in case they try to raise the prices against the Expedition
350 THE FIGHT FOR EVEREST
on the way home. They are also a useful record for future occasions.
On the march the money-boxes and office are best safeguarded
by one or more of the Gurkha N.C.O.'s. In camp they should be
quite safe in a sahib's tent.
D.—MEDICAL NOTES
By MAJOR R. W. G. HINGSTON, I.M.S.
1. Congo Chest.—Eminently suitable and satisfactory. Suggest
the following changes : Omission of one container ergotin, essence
ginger, phenacetin (two in chest). Replace the above by additional
container of pot. chloras., quin. bihydrochlor., ipecac. with squill.
2. Case of Surgical Instruments—Suitable as supplied.
3. In addition to above the following equipment is required :
(1) Tabloid first-aid box
(2) Snow goggles, 3 pairs
(3) Chloroform, 10 oz.
(4) Bandages, assorted, 1 gross
(5) Castor oil, 8 oz.
(6) Magnes. Sulph., 4 lb.
(7) Rubber tubing, 1 yard
(8) Adhesive plaster, assorted, 6 reels
(9) Mustard leaves, 12
(10) Cyanide gauze, 2 lb.
(11) Boric acid, 8 tins
(12) Hot-water bottles, 2
(13) Quin. hydrochlor. gr. 5, 4 bottles (100 tablets in each)
(14) Aspirin gr. 5, 12 bottles (25 tablets in each)
(15) Calomel 1 gr., 4 bottles (25 tablets in each)
(16) Caffeine, 2 bottles (25 tablets in each)
(17) Mercuric potass, iod., 1 bottle (25 tablets)
(18) Tabs. cathartic co., 200
(19) Pil. lead and opium, 200
(20) Tabs. ipecac., 100
(21) Pil. ipecac. and squill, 400
(22) Castor oil, 4 bottles
(23) Kruschen salts, 2 bottles
(24) Surgeons' needles, assorted
(25) Gut ligatures, 1 packet
(26) Silk ligatures, 1 packet
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 351
(27) Plaster of Paris bandages, 6
(28) Cotton wool, 6 rolls, 1 lb. each
(29) Plain lint, 3 rolls, 1 lb. each
(30) Gutta-percha fillings for teeth, 1 small box
(31) Santonian pills 1 gr., 50.
(32) Man carrier, 3
33) Lanoline, 6 pots
4) Waseline, 6 pots
5) Gletshersalbe, 24 tins
6) Oiled silk, 8 oz.
37) Rowntree's eucalyptus jujubes, 3 doz. tins
(38) Tinc. iodine, 6 lb.
(
(3
(3
(3
(
4. The following stores sent out with 1924 Ea'pedition not required :
(1) Sechehaye pomade
(2) Milton
(3) Valentine's meat juice
(4) Dr. Shaw's food
(5) Case of oxygen-administering apparatus
(6) Water-sterilizer tablets
(7) Essence of garlic
(8) Allenbury's diet
(9) Rucksack
(10) Anusan suppositories
5. The following should be taken for possible medical use :
Brand’s essence, 4 tins
Cornflower, 4 tins
Bovril, 6 tins
Essence of chicken, 12 tins
Essence of beef, 12 tins
Brandy, 4 bottles
Champagne, 2 bottles
6. Suitable Equipment for High Camps-This should be collected
and packed in England. The equipment should be packed in separate
boxes marked : “Medical Camp I,” “Medical Camp II,” “Medical
Camp III,” “Medical Camp IV.”
For “Medical Camp I " :
Tabl, sod. salicylas gr. 5, 50
Tabl. Dover's powder gr. 5, 50
Tabl. lead and opium gr. 4, 50
352 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Tabl. quin. hydrochlor. gr. 5, 50
Tabl. aspirin gr. 5, 100
Tabl. pot. chloras gr. 5, 100
Tabl. calomel gr. 2, 25
Tabl. Soda mint, 50
Tabl. ipecac, and squill gr. 4, 50
Tabl. caffeine gr. 5, 50
Eucalyptus jujubes, 4 tins
Tabl. boric acid gr. 10, 100
Bandages assorted, 12
Lint, 8 oz.
Gauze, 8 oz.
Oiled silk, 1 yard
, Plaster, 2", 1 reel
Scissors, 1
Dressing forceps, 1
Scalpel, 1
For “Medical Camp II’’
For “Medical Camp III |A for Camp I.
For “Medical Camp IV’’:
Tabl. Dover's powder gr. 5, 25
Tabl. lead and opium gr. 4, 25
Tabl. quin. hydrochlor. gr. 5, 25
Tabl. aspirin gr. 5, 50
Tabl. calomel gr. 2, 25
Tabl. caffeine gr. 5, 50
Bandages, 6
Lint, 4 oz.
Gauze, 4 oz.
Plaster, 2", 1 reel
7. Notes on the Duties of M.O.—(a) At Darjeeling. Preliminary
inspection of porters. If official M.O. not present, the Civil Surgeon
should be asked to do this. Porters should be vaccinated, and given
suitable treatment for hook-worm.
(b) On the March. M.O. should request Commander of Expedition
to appoint N.C.O. in charge of sick parade. The N.C.O. should collect
all sick porters one hour after arrival of party in camp, and parade
them for inspection by M.O. Sanitation of camps needs little attention
while on the march, since camps are evacuated daily. The quality
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 353
of the water must, however, be carefully watched. Dysentery is the
most dangerous infectious disease likely to be encountered. On no
account should unboiled water be taken by any of the British members
of the party, unless it comes direct from the snow, glacier or spring
without any possibility of contamination. Chemical disinfectants of
water are not so satisfactory as boiling.
(c) At the Base Camp. The M.O. is likely to spend some weeks
at the Base Camp. He may be employed for general administrative
duties there. The sanitation of the Base Camp requires supervision.
This is difficult owing to the presence of Tibetans and of porters who
are unused to disciplinary measures. Latrines must be established,
and steps taken to see that they are used.
(d) During the Climb. The place for the M.O. is Camp III. He
should be there before the climbers are likely to return. Two man-
carriers and suitable medical equipment should be available in camp.
M.O. should be prepared to accompany sick climbers to the Base Camp.
E.—HIGH CAMPS
By T. H. SOMERVELL
1. Positions of Camps.--Camps I and II were both in satisfactory
positions, and none better or more suitable are likely to be found.
In future Expeditions there will probably be someone who was on
the 1922 or 1924 Expeditions; failing that, the camp sites will be
marked, probably, by the remains of walls and “sangars.”
Camp III is rather exposed to wind, which in 1924 rendered us
very uncomfortable. There is a less exposed place half a mile farther
on, almost at the upper limit of the stony moraine on the true left
bank of the East Rongbuk Glacier. But a camp here would be very
far from Camp II, making a very fatiguing journey for loaded men at
this stage ; if Camp III be placed at the higher site, a dump for stores
(in itself an undesirable thing, inviting theft) would seem to be essential
half-way between Camps II and III.
2. Functions and Size of Camps.—No. I is a stopping-place only.
Whymper tents for 4 Sahibs, and Sangars (square shelters of stones
about 3 feet high, that can be roofed in with flies from Whymper tents)
or tents for 20 to 30 porters, should be ample accommodation.
No. II is an important camp for porters while the higher camps
are being equipped. Whymper tents for 4 Sahibs, and sangars or
tents for 40 porters were required in 1924.
AA
354 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
No. III should contain 10 sahibs and 20 to 30 porters. It is the
base of operations for the climbing, and often both sahibs and porters
have to stay there for a few days or weeks. It must, therefore, be
made as comfortable as possible, the sites of tents being well levelled,
and walls protecting from the winds being built if necessary. A mess-
tent should be provided, and the comfort of both sahibs and porters
studied in all possible arrangements: on this will largely depend fitness,
and therefore possibility of success. -
The tents used in 1924 at this camp were Meade tents, of two
sizes : the larger held 2 sahibs, or at a pinch 3 ; the smaller held 3
porters. In 1922, No. III Camp had a supply of water all the time
it was used. In 1924, no water was available until about May 20,
and snow had to be melted. Allow for this possibility in calculating
the allowance of fuel. All cooking at this camp is done with Primus
Stoves.
3. Fuel.—Nos. I and II Camps can be supplied with shing, largely
carried by Tibetan coolies. It should be insisted on that no other
fuel be used at these camps ; Primus or other stoves should therefore
not be issued below Camp III, except in emergency, and unauthorized
use of Meta or liquid fuel should be severely dealt with early.
At No. III Camp, in 1924, only Primus stoves were used, and no
other kind ; if this is done again, no Meta should be allowed to be used,
except in emergency, apart from the small pieces (unnecessary) used
for the starting of Primus stoves.
At No. IV Camp, both Primus and Meta stoves were found to be
desirable.
At Nos. V and VI Camps, Meta fuel alone is used.
TJnna or other cookers for Meta fuel should therefore not be issued
below No. IV Camp ; if the pans from them are issued at No. III,
account should be kept in case they are required for the higher
camps.
4. Bedding.—No definite rules can be given, but as a guide it
may be mentioned that in 1924 the bedding was arranged as
follows :
No. I. Two beds in camp. If more are required they must
accompany Sahibs.
No. II. As No. I.
No. III. All the rest of the bedding should be taken to this
camp during its establishment. Much is required higher
up, and any not so required will increase the comfort of the
camp, a most desirable thing.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 355
No. IV. The beds in 1924 consisted of sleeping-bag, mattress,
valise, and carrying-bag. To lighten loads up the steep
ascent to this camp it is best to take only the absolute essen-
tials. This is a matter of taste, but personally I am for the
sleeping-bag and mattress alone.
Nos. V and VI. To these camps sleeping-bags alone should be
taken, on the scale of two per Sahib. One can then be used
as a mattress, and is always available as an emergency bag
in case plans go wrong and someone extra turns up.
For distribution of porters' sleeping-bags see page 344. One
per man must be taken to Camps V and VI.
5. Ice Aaces.—These should not be unpacked until the Base Camp
be reached, or they will be broken by being used for digging, prizing
up stones, etc. When they are issued, it should be at the rate of one
per porter; they should be issued personally to individual porters,
who will then be more likely to take care of them.
6. Crampons.—These are useful, and in May 1924 were indis-
pensable between Camps II and III, and desirable from III to IV.
They are useless higher. They should be issued personally to porters.
Plenty of spare bindings must be taken. In 1924 many crampons were
broken ; stronger ones are essential, and spares should be taken.
7. Rope.—When a track is once established rope is not always an
essential. On the first journey from Camps II to III and III to IV,
rope must be taken, as there are numerous crevasses. But most of
these are small or obvious, and afterwards the rope may be dispensed
with, but only at the discretion of an experienced sahib. After fresh
Snow the rope should again be used, until a track is again made. In
every ascent from III to IV porters should be roped, unless a really
efficient system of fixed ropes is established. The pitons used in 1922
and 1924 were very satisfactory for this purpose, and in many cases
porters were allowed down from the North Col unescorted, so com-
plete was the system of fixed ropes. (About 700 feet of fixed ropes
were used.)
8. Other High-Altitude Equipment.—Goggles must always be worn
by all ranks, even on stones or rock, above Camp I. One or two
spares should be taken by every party on the glacier.
Hats. Soft hats are sufficient for most people as a protection
against Sunstroke, but anyone who is not sure of himself should wear
a topi.
Grease. Gletschersalbe before, and lanoline after, exposure to the
Sun, are found to give the best results as preventatives of sunburn.
AA*
356 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Beards are desirable for the same purpose, if obtainable, during the
trek across Tibet. Gloves should be worn on the glaciers, or the
hands may get badly blistered by the sun.
Rope Ladder. This was not taken in 1924, but one 70 feet long
had to be made; 120 feet or so of light ladder might be taken. The
steep ice cliffs of the North Col are safer than the avalanchy slopes.
Ladder Bridge (rigid). The one taken in 1924 was not used, and
with luck may be still on the glacier in 1930. It was intended for
the crossing of impassable crevasses on the North Col, but there were
IlOIl62.
9. Scientific Instruments.--Temperature observations to be of
value should be taken simultaneously at various heights. Each camp
should therefore have a set of thermometers, and definite times should
be fixed upon at which anyone who happens to be at any camp should
take observations. Each camp should therefore have a notebook,
kept in a definite place, in which such records are to be made, together
with particulars of all movements of parties to or from the camp,
weather reports, and other observations which may be deemed desir-
able or pleasing to scientists. Such are records of barometer,
katathermometer, etc., badly kept in 1924.
10. Food.—At Camps I, II, and III the food is much the same
as on the march or at the Base Camp, with this exception, that “made ’’
dishes are almost impracticable, and the heating of tinned foods
constitutes the chief part of the cooking that is done. Usually one's
appetite up to Camp III is fairly good, and not very different from what
it is at the Base Camp, though heavy meals are undesirable and
usually unappetising. Food such as meat (fresh) and Scones made
at the base and sent up to the higher camps is always welcome. Of
tinned foods, variety is important, as far as the tins will allow
of it.
Above Camp III, there are two differences:
(1) Cooking, which is done by Sahibs, must be very simple, and
economical in fuel if possible.
(2) Appetite is altered, e.g. meat is not desired except in very small
quantities, though it should be eaten as a duty, even if it
has ceased to be a source of pleasure.
Suitable foods for these highest camps are :
Bully beef, tongue, Sardines.
Pemmican, tea, cocoa, café-au-lait in tins (especially the
last).
Biscuits—mixed, ginger-nuts, Plasmon, and Parmena.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 357
Jam—a variety in Small tins.
Sweets, especially butterscotch and peppermint.
Force and Grape-nuts, spaghetti in tins, cheese.
Crystallized fruits, ginger, and French or Elvas plums.
Apart from these, no varieties of food will be found necessary,
or (for the matter of that) appetising.
In 1924 there were no cooks above Camp III, but it might be
possible to have one at Camp IV, though not higher up than that.
11. Thermos Flasks.-These were not found to be essential at or
below Camp III. Their uses are twofold above this place :
(1) For storing heated drinks at night, when cooking is inevitable,
for use in the early morning when cooking is an avoidable hardship.
(2) For use during the ascent. As a matter of fact, in 1924, the
only flask we took with us was forgotten, while we were climbing.
About 12 large and 8 small flasks are sufficient for all high camps.
THE WORKING OF HIGH CAMPS
Tibetan coolies can be hired to do most of the carrying as far as
Camp II, both of equipment and of provisions; they will also be able,
if a few be kept on throughout the period of climbing, to keep Camps I
and II stocked with shing.
Beyond these camps, the Himalayan members of the Expedition
have to do all the carrying. Loads for Camp III should not be more
than 40 lb. They should be sorted at the base or at Camp II, in order
of priority, and go up in this Order. A list of all stores required above
Camp II must therefore be made, and any deviation from it may have
Serious results.
Porters at Camp II, of which, during the establishment of Camp III,
there should be a large number—say 40—will be able to carry to
Camp III and return to II the same day. They should rest all the
following day, thus carrying on alternate days. Camp II must there-
fore be able to accommodate 40 porters.
Crampons and rope are desirable above Camp II, as already
mentioned. The route from Camp II to Camp III, for a mile or
so, is very intricate, as it involves the passage of complicated
seracs. The first party must therefore be guided by a sahib with
plenty of glacier experience. The route varies considerably from year
to year. There is, however, no difficulty when once the route is
found, and porters may be allowed unescorted on the glacier, at the
discretion of a Sahib.
358 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Above Camp III, conditions are very different. The slope of the
ice and snow leading to the North Col is considerable, and in places
dangerous from avalanche. It is desirable that a party of experienced
Sahibs make the first journey to the North Col, finding the safest
rather than the easiest route, and cutting good steps where necessary;
for the Sherpa porter is not an expert mountaineer, especially on ice or
Snow. The first party should take with them several hundred feet
of rope, and some wooden pitons, fixing the ropes in any place where
difficulty or danger from avalanche is likely to be met. In this
Connection the liability of Himalayan snow to avalanche must be
remembered ; an alpine standard is no use, and caused the loss of 7
lives in 1922.
Once the track is established, porters may possibly be allowed
On it without a Sahib ; in 1922 this was done, while in 1924 Sahibs
accompanied every party going up and most going down. European
judgment must decide these points.
Camp IV was in both years pitched on a snow-ledge about 50
feet below the top of the col, on its eastern side. Parties to equip
this camp should not consist of more than 10 men or so. They can
return to Camp III the same day if desired. The question as to
whether anyone should sleep on the North Col before the actual
climbing Operations begin depends on plans for acclimatization, etc.,
but on no account should porters be allowed to sleep there without
a Sahib. They are very superstitious, and may be badly scared.
Arrangements of Porters above Camp III.-In 1924 the porters
were divided into 3 parties, each of 12 to 15 men, and each
under an N.C.O. selected from their number. Their duties alter-
nated—e.g. of parties V, W, and X, V carried loads from Camp II
to III, W rested at III, X carried from III to TV and return . . . on
the next day V and X rested while W carried loads from III to IV,
and so on, a rest day alternating with a working day in every case.
Some arrangement similar to this is advisable.
The equipment of Camp TV, including as it does all the loads for
Camps V and VI, necessitates the earmarking and supervision of
every single load, whether of equipment or of food, for the three
Camps IV, V, and VI. The loads must go up in their proper
order, and the whole business must be made to fit in with the plans
for the attack on the mountain. Otherwise Some essential for a
high camp may be missing when wanted at Camp IV.
In 1924 the original plan of campaign was found to be impractic-
able owing to bad weather. So a shortened and lightened form had
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 359
to be adopted, a description of which will probably be of service, to-
gether with some of the details of our movements and equipment.
It must be remembered, however, that this plan is not ideal, but was
forced upon us by long delay owing to bad conditions, and represents
an attempt to make the maximum “push ’’ in the minimum time.
Movements of Climbing Party.—Day 1. 2 Sahibs and 8 porters
go to 25,000 or 25,500 feet, and take with them
3 Light Meade tents,
8 Sahibs' sleeping-bags,
4 Porters’ ditto,
Food, cookers, and Meta fuel for 2 days at least.
They pitch 2 of the tents, one for Sahibs, one for porters, and keep 4 of
the porters, sending the remainder back to Camp IV, a journey they will
easily manage unescorted. Enough food is cooked for the evening
meal, and all liquids required for the morrow are heated and put into
thermos flasks.
Day 2. The 2 sahibs and 4 porters, or as many as are fit—at least
3 are required—go on carrying
1 Light Meade tent,
Sahibs' sleeping-bags,
Food, cookers, and Meta fuel for at least 24 hours.
In 1924 the next and highest camp was made at 26,700 feet ; but it
were better if possible to get to 27,200 feet, just under the north-east
shoulder of the mountain, before pitching the tent. As soon as this
is done, all 4 porters should return to Camp IV, which they can do
in about 3 hours; for all this to be done in a day it is of cºurse desirable
that an early start be made. The rate of progress from 25,000 to
27,000 feet is very slow ; 8 hours is not bad time. The Sahibs cook
and eat their food, as at the lower camp, however difficult both
processes may seem, and sleep if they can. An early start must be
made on
Day 3, when it is hoped they will ascend the mountain, and descend
to Camp VI. Arrived there they will be able to see if they have
sufficient energy and time to get to Camp IV. In case these two nights
should have to be spent at Camp VI, the provision of food taken up
on the previous day must be ample to allow for this eventuality.
Movements of the Supporting Party.—In 1922 the first attempt on
Everest was made without support, and much discomfort and risk from
lack of food and drink resulted. In 1924, therefore, it was arranged
that every attempt should be supported by sahibs ready to give help
in emergency, and food and drink on the return of the climbers.
360 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Day 1. The party of 2 sahibs must be at the North Col.
Day 2. They should go to Camp V, with their own food. They
will of course find 4 sleeping-bags and a cooker at Camp V.
They stay the night at Camp V.
Day 3. If this party is merely in support, they should stay at the
level of Camp V, in a place where they have the maximum field of
vision of the mountain. They should look out for any signals, and
in general try to gauge the progress of the climbers above. Their
Subsequent action, whether as escort down to Camp IV, or of pre-
paring a meal in advance at either Camp V or IV, must depend on
circumstances, of course.
If the supporting party is also prepared to attempt the climb in
event of the first party not being successful, they must on Day 3 go
up with a day’s provisions and fuel to Camp VI. In this way they
are an ideal support in case of accident or sickness, as they are more
on the spot than in the alternative case ; if the first party are quite
fit, but unsuccessful, they (Party 1) can probably get to a lower camp,
leaving Party 2 to try to attain the summit on Day 4. Party 2 will
have fortified the other party meanwhile by a meal. In any case
they should have some thermoses ready on Day 3 for the support of
their friends and themselves.
The question as to whether the supporting party should take
porters with them to Camp V depends on whether they think they
can carry their food and fuel. This, besides wraps, is all they will have
to carry.
Signals.-In case of accident, illness, etc., the best signal that
the high party can give as an urgent appeal for assistance is probably
a magnesium flare. This can be obtained made to burn for a minute.
If the supporters see it at Camp VI or anywhere else they understand
that they must at all costs go to the assistance of those above them
at the earliest possible Opportunity.
A telephone between Camps III and IV is ideal; failing that, Morse
signalling with lamps, or flags, at a stated hour or hours each day
(say 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8 p.m.) known to those at both camps, is the
best substitute.
In 1924 a very simple and limited code was devised, signals being
given by means of blankets put out on the snow in certain easily
visible arrangements.
Food at High Camps.-Food for Sahibs has already been dealt with
(Para. 10). Enough should be taken by both or all parties for a possible
extra night. If the first party are well supplied with porters, it were
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 361
probably better that they should take enough food up to both Camps
V and VI to support both parties; the second party will then only
have to carry their warm wraps, and will certainly be able to dispense
with porters.
Food for porters: Chamfa in small amount, reinforced by such
things as meat and vegetable ration, bully beef, jam, cheese, biscuits,
tinned milk : all these latter from the sahibs' food-boxes. Rice is no
good up high ; it cannot be boiled except with great expenditure of fuel.
Fuel at High Camps.—For each camp above Camp III, 5 to 10
packets (50 to 100 tablets) of the round variety of Meta fuel are
sufficient for two whole days for two sahibs. In 1924 we used about
20 tablets at each camp for supper and breakfast. The porters will
want a similar amount at Camp V.
F.—OXYGEN APPARATUS, ETC.
By N. E. ODELL
The main points suggested for future apparatus to enable it to be
used with the maximum advantage and the minimum encumbrance
to the climber are as follows:
Total weight of apparatus must be reduced ; a maximum of 20 lb.,
and preferably 15 lb., if possible. This will necessitate reduction
in the weight of the cylinders as well as that of the instruments,
and possible modification of the breathing apparatus. If reduction
in weight necessitates reduction in size of the cylinders, it may be
possible to make up for this by increasing the charging pressure : the
latter may mean employing an alloy steel of greater tensile strength
than the “Vibrax * steel used in the 1924 cylinders. The weight of
three charged cylinders alone amounted to about 25 lb., giving a
total oxygen content (at 120 atmospheres) of about 1,605 litres. In
the writer's opinion this is a more than ample margin of gas to be
carried at a time, since at a consumption of as much as two litres per
minute—a rate found to be by no means necessary, even at 27,000
feet—that amount would sustain the user for a period of at least 12
hours. If adequate arrangements are made to provide dumps of
reserve cylinders on the mountain, it should not be necessary for each
climber to carry more than two cylinders of the existing capacity.
Not merely are three cylinders of the present dimensions cumbersome,
but their weight in addition seriously interferes with the climber's
balance, even on the comparatively easy rocks of Mount Everest.
362 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
With regard to the breathing apparatus, the many faulty parts
and leaky joints found to exist in every set sent out in 1924 led to our
building up the parts afresh and modifying the system of supporting
them. An attempt was made to do away with the rigid arm support-
ing the instruments, that passed over the left shoulder, since it proved
to be a considerable encumbrance. Instead, the instruments—i.e.
flow-meter alone—was connected up with the rubber tubing con-
veying the gas from the cylinders to the mouthpiece, which passed
under the right arm. It was suspended from the coat in front in a
visible and comfortable position. The pressure gauge was connected
close to the mouths of the cylinders on the back, and the rate of flow
regulated by a needle-valve close beside it, accessible to the right
hand. In this way the total weight was reduced considerably, and
the only hampering of movement was caused by the lower ends of the
cylinders, which were in the way when going down steep rocks facing
outwards. This arrangement avoids a long length of high-pressure
tubing, but the gauge can only be read by someone else at the wearer’s
back, an obvious disadvantage. It was necessarily an improvised
arrangement, but an apparatus designed somewhat on these principles
should have considerable advantage in weight and convenience over
the older and heavier pattern.
But it is earnestly hoped that a far lighter and handier apparatus
may be evolved in the near future, preferably employing oxygen
in the liquid state. If such could be designed in conjunction with a
suitably light power plant for the production of liquid oxygen near
the mountain, the problem of respiration on Everest and other high
summits would seem to be near approaching a solution.
Cookers.—What was known to the 1924 Expedition as the Unna
cooker—manufactured under Mr. Unna’s direction by Messrs. The
META Co., in Switzerland—proved at high altitudes to give the best
results. Its especial advantage was that it could be used with “Meta'
as fuel as well as in conjunction with Primus stoves. But it still
should have two saucepans that nest into One another, instead of the
single one provided. For this arrangement was the chief convenience
in the similar stove of less general utility which was designed by Dr.
Longstaff for this Expedition. Since the heating capacity of a
saucepan is directly proportional to the area of the bottom which is
exposed to the flame, it would be advisable to have the pans of slightly
greater diameter in proportion to their height. Saucepans of rather
larger capacity than three litres could with advantage be provided,
so long as the weight and bulk be not unduly increased ; the total
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 363
weight, with accessories, of the 1924 Unna cookers was about 34 lb.
only. -
The Duralumin stand provided was of special advantage from the
point of view of safety, when the stove was used in the confinement of a
tent, often standing on a sleeping-bag.
About 15 such cookers of the above pattern should be ample.
Primus Stoves.—The large collapsible pattern of these stoves
were found to be most satisfactory, and ample spares and accessories
were provided and were found most necessary. In order to obtain
sufficient pressure on pumping at high altitudes, it is essential that
the clearance space in the pump chamber be reduced to a minimum,
or filled in altogether with a washer on the pump rod. The latter is
probably preferable. There need be little fear of danger from bursting
of the container by excessive pumping, since all containers are tested
to 80 lb. per square inch or more.
The silent type of burner is essential : all others, even those which
were specially designed for high altitudes—of the “roarer’’ pattern—
were found to be quite unreliable.
A dozen of these stoves in all should be sufficient.
Fuel.—The fuel used in 1924 consisted chiefly of 1 part of petrol
to 2 of paraffin. A half-and-half mixture of the two was also tried,
and in Primus stoves was found to give equally satisfactory results;
this was as far as the altitude of the North Col, 23,000 feet.
It is desirable that mixtures of these fuels, purchased in India, be
made up in tins and sealed before the start of the Expedition, the
tins being packed in sealed cases for the high camps. But since paraffin
alone is required for use in lamps during the march across Tibet, it is
preferable that only, say, 75 per cent. of the mixture required be
actually made up beforehand, so that any surplus of paraffin left
Over after the climbing is done may be available for the mess
lamps.
Meta.—This solid fuel was satisfactory in every way, and was used
with very good results in all camps above 23,000 feet, where it was
the only fuel used. No trouble was experienced in igniting it, nor
did it seem to fall off in calorific value in the very dry atmosphere in
which it was used—a possibility cited by the manufacturers. Little
use was made of the small Meta sticks intended for starting Primus
stoves, this being done usually by means of their own liquid fuel.
Issuing of fuel should always be under the supervision of a sahib,
who should have the tins of it in full view of his tent, and should see
that every precaution is taken to husband it.
364 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
G.—TRANSPORT
By E. O. SHEBBEARE
Food Cases.—This year the cases varied slightly in size and shape,
according to their contents, so that each should weigh just 40 lb.
This is convenient and should be repeated in any future expedition.
The contents of each case (with a few exceptions) were all of one
kind. This involved the opening and repacking of numerous cases
at Kalimpong to make up the high-altitude boxes, as well as on the
road to supply the mess. Frequently several cases of the same
commodity were opened because the one originally broached could
not readily be found when wanted. Thus the transport officer had
in his charge a mixture of opened and unopened cases.
Anyone armed with a screwdriver could open any case.
Padlock cotters, by which any case could be locked up, were sup-
plied with every fourth one, but, as was inevitable to avoid hopeless
confusion, all keys were of one pattern. No real security therefore
resulted from this precaution.
I am of the opinion that any scheme involving the opening and
reclosing of cases which are then returned to the general store pile
makes pilfering easy.
The scheme suggested for the future is to have the cases packed
in three different ways in London, namely: (1) Marching cases for the
journeys across Tibet, (2) high-altitude cases, and (3) reserve cases.
In (1) and (2) each case would contain a sufficient ration of all kinds
of food for a given number of “men-days.” In (3) each case would
contain one commodity only as at present to be used to supplement
deficiencies in (1) and (2).
Variety in diet will be achieved by the scheme suggested in the
mess secretaries’ note: that of having A, B, C cases.
“Marching cases '' will be issued to the mess secretary as required.
Each will contain a printed list of its contents from which he can strike
off the stores as expended. In the event of an excess of any kind of
food it can either be put into the expense boxes Or, as one kind is sure
to predominate throughout, given away. The cost of carrying un-
necessary stores is greater than their value. In the event of a defi-
ciency the party can either go without the particular kind of food until
the next case is opened, or the deficiency made up from the “reserve
cases.” This latter course would only be followed on the outward
march in exceptional cases. “Reserve cases * so broached would
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 365
not be kept with the unopened cases, but put under the charge of the
Quartermaster.
The 40-lb. cases will all be strapped together in pairs on the march
by means of one of the several makes of sealing hoop-iron or wire
now on the market. This strapping should be put on lengthways
as well as breadthways. The transport officer will keep a reserve of
strapping and sealing apparatus at hand as it may be necessary to
separate the loads into 40-lb. ones in case of weak transport or difficult
fords.
Transport drivers are accustomed to build sangars out of the
cases during the march. This is, I think, unavoidable in windy
weather. There is no objection to this practice provided only un-
broached cases are used.
Cases should be numbered on all sides, but especially on the
recessed ends as was done on the 1922 Expedition. This was not
done this year, and the omission led to much unnecessary man-handling.
Store-Book.-The store-book supplied by the packers was useful
for finding out in which case a given article could be found, but it
did not work in the other direction, that is as a means of finding out
what a case of given number contained. It was necessary, therefore,
to prepare a serial list in Kalimpong. This should have been done
by the packers as was done in 1922. The serial list is sent as a sample
of what is required, but could be improved upon.
Payment of Transport.—It is customary in Tibet to pay for trans-
port in advance to the Dzongpen through whom it is obtained, and
not to pay the drivers direct. The Dzongpens have, however, on
rare occasions been willing to allow a slightly lower rate in considera-
tion of baksheesh paid to the drivers later, and this system has
worked well.
On the March.-At each stage where transport is changed it is
necessary for the transport officer to remain behind to see that all
loads are cleared and to insist on sufficient animals being produced.
When there is no change of animals it is sufficient if an N.C.O. sees
the last of the transport off. On all marches one N.C.O. goes ahead
with the mess-tent, the remaining N.C.O.'s accompanying the treasure
chest. They should have six or seven porters with them in the event
of any attempt at robbery on the way.
Mules and Ponies.—Unless any other member of the Expedition
better fitted by his knowledge of horsemastership undertakes the care
of the mess mules and Expedition ponies, this work will devolve on the
transport officer,
366 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
Calcutta to Phari.-Although it is probably best for all members
of the Expedition to collect in Darjeeling, nothing beyond what they
actually require for their short stay there should be taken. Every-
thing else—personal baggage and Expedition equipment of all sorts
—should be booked direct from Calcutta to Kalimpong Road station.
All baggage, stores and equipment must now be divided into two
categories : A, the portion that will not be required until Phari or
later; and B, the portion actually wanted on the march from Kalim-
pong to Phari, or Kampa Dzong, if the climbers go via Gangtok and
Lachen.
This is where the contractors mentioned on page 339 come in.
The contractor now takes over from the transport officer (who should
be living in Kalimpong for this part of his work) all equipment, etc.,
in category B, and despatches what he takes over in his own time to
Phari, the latest date by which these consignments must arrive being
fixed in the contract.
Category A, equipment, etc., is collected by the transport officer
in Kalimpong, and is ready to accompany the members of the
Expedition by whatever route they march.
H.—THE MESS
By BENTILEY BEETHAM
Experience in 1924 has shown that stores will be stolen on the
march, in camp, and especially at dumps, whenever opportunity offers
—the Tibetan's good name for honesty is gone. Stores must be safe-
guarded as much as possible. This may be done best by having as
few boxes opened and in use at a time as possible. Once a case is
broached its contents are in danger. -
No doubt in future the special cases for high camps will all be
sent ready packed from London instead of being made up in Tibet ;
this will save an immense amount of case-opening later. It would
also be a great convenience to both the mess secretary and the trans-
port officer if boxes containing a complete supply of food for so many
days were put up in London for use on the march. These should be
numbered A1, A2, A3–B1, B2, B3–C1, C2, C3, etc. The contents
of all A cases would be alike, but different from those in B, C, or D.
They would be used in the order, A1, B1, C1, DI; A2, B2, etc. By
this method constant repetition of the same food (the chief Source of
grousing and lack of appetite in the mess) would be avoided. The
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 367
number of “expense boxes” required by the mess would be greatly
reduced. One would be used for sundries, cooking materials, etc.
Into a second would be emptied the contents of one of the lettered
cases as issued. Two or three others only would be required to hold
a reserve of general foods with which to use up the remnants of the
lettered cases; as even with the nicest calculation it is impossible to
ensure that the various items would be consumed simultaneously.
Water.—Too much attention can hardly be given to this. In
each of the three Expeditions members have suffered from dysentery,
generally contracted before the Tibetan boundary was crossed. Native
cooks are utterly indifferent to the quality of water—the nearest is
that which they use. Unless its source is obviously uncontaminated
it should only be drunk after boiling, as tea, etc. This precaution is
useless if milk is allowed to be made with unboiled water. -
Contrary to Alpine tradition the muddy, turbid water of glacial
streams apparently may be used without irritation to the lining of
the stomach. A “clean ’’ drink is often the most difficult thing for
the mess to provide, and one has a longing, almost a craving, for fresh
water. It is suggested that a future expedition take a couple of
pakhals or collapsible chaghals, and that these be filled whenever a
good spring is passed.
Champagne is certainly not worth its weight : a little whisky or
port may be. A couple of Sparklet syphons would be good. Lemonade
powders, etc., are excellent.
Sugar, Milk, Jam, and Tea.—These are the things which disappear
most rapidly; their consumption should be specially watched.
Candles, Matches, Toilet Paper, Soap (Toilet and Washing). —All
these should be readily accessible in camp.
Potatoes.—Potatoes may be bought from July onwards in Tibet
and obtained from Solah Khombu in Nepal from the middle of May.
They form a very valuable addition to the dietary.
Fresh Supplies.—The buying of eggs, fowls and sheep whenever
Opportunity offers is to be encouraged. In many places where the
killing of animals is prohibited they may be purchased alive—their
Subsequent history is not enquired into.
The cook's method is to kill immediately before cooking. Meat
will keep weeks in Tibet, and is the better for hanging.
Local Wild Products.-In the warm valleys a good cook knows
excellent substitutes for spinach (nettles and other plants); many
fungi, though inferior to the English mushroom, help the stews ;
young bamboo shoots are delicious cooked with cheese.
368 THE FIGHT FOR, EVEREST
t
Light.—The four Kranzow lamps taken in 1924 proved ideal.
Paraffin, however, is a constant source of danger in the cook-house.
The slightest taste may ruin a meal. Paraffiny fingers will taint the
whole canteen. Moreover, unless a strict check is kept on the oil
it is sure to be used for fire-lighting. -
Shing.—The payments for shing (yak-dung) may be represented
as being relatively enormous—as much as 7 maunds (a quarter of a
ton) has been put down for one day's consumption In the latter
part of the 1924 Expedition a fixed rate of 2 rupees a day was allowed
Where shing had to be bought, and though this is obviously excessive,
contentment in the cook-house was thus cheaply purchased. The
strictest honesty in the East demands a hidden commission on every
purchase, the percentage of which is liable to grow at an alarming
rate if not checked. Bow to the inevitable, countenance what you
deem to be reasonable, but prune early with a firm pencil anything
excessive. Do not attempt to argue, simply prune. Fire-stoves
and a large black yak's-hair tent to serve as a kitchen can usually
be hired at the camping ground for about 10 annas; failing this, two
Whymper flies may serve. -
Mess-Tent.—This should be sent off as early as possible before
breakfast every morning, being carried by the mess mules, which are
quite distinct from the general transport. The tables are left. Break-
fast in the open may be chilly in April at 16,000 feet, but comfort is
less required at the beginning of the day than at the end after a long
march. Moreover, the mornings are usually sunny.
Immediately after breakfast the rest of the mess equipment should
be got away, the cook leading on a pony with tiffin complete, so that
a meal may be actually ready on the arrival of the Sahibs. Nothing
is more trying than a long wait for food at the end of a trek. If the
day’s march is long, pocket tiffin will be required en route (best take
it always): suitable provision should be made for this—potted fish
and meats in small tins, ships’ or similar biscuits, chocolate, dried
fruits, etc. Note.—Any one kind of chocolate soon palls; a variety
would cost no more and occupy the same space—plain, nut, milk
nut-milk, Bitro, vanilla, coffee, etc.
Base Camp.–Catering here should be on a generous scale. Cli-
matic conditions are tending to debilitate the climbers ; the mess
should try to counteract this. Parties and individuals coming down
from high altitudes should find every possible comfort at the base.
The best cook should be retained here. While the actual climbing
is in progress nearly all the personnel will be in the various high camps,
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 369
y
and the work at the base will be correspondingly light. The cook's
time may then be most profitably employed in making fresh scones,
sausage-rolls, etc., and in cooking potatoes, supplies of which may be
sent up the line daily, where they are much appreciated, little cooking
other than the warming up of tinned food being possible in the high
camps.
Mess Servants.-Only mess servants should be allowed in the
cook-house—hangers-on are a constant source of leakage.
The cook should present to the mess secretary every night (a) a
list of the stores used during the day, (b) an account of any petty
expenses incurred. For the latter it is convenient to give the cook
an advance of say 50 rupees at a time.
The canteen should be carefully checked some days previous to
arrival at Darjeeling, and again there.
INDEX
Abbottabad, 14
Abruzzi, Duke of the, 9
Acclimatization, 3–4, 29, 32, 48, 53,
121, 137, 177–8, 190, 199, 203,
256–9; see Altitude
Alps and Himalayas, 8–9
Altitude, 2–4, 105, 176, 243 ff., 257;
high altitudes, cooking at, 36, 65,
82, 106, 356; sore throats, 86, II6,
122–3, 244; sleeplessness, 254;
adaptation to by animals, 268, 281 ;
after effects, 259; breathing, 243
Angtarké, porter, 23
Army and Navy Stores, the, 14–15
Arun, river, 44
Baden-Powell, Sir R., 20
Bahman Dopté, pass, 42, 44, 180
Bailey, Major and Mrs., 27
Baltoro glaciers, 9
Base Camp, the, 50–1, 60, 68, 341, 368
Beetham, B. (author of ch. viii of
Part I, and sections iv and vi H of
Part III), 18, 33, 37, 38, 42, etc.,
163
Bhotias, 16, 19, 39, 59; see Porters
Blessing, the, 69, 70–71
Boundary stones, 163–4
Brown, Mr., 15
Bruce, Captain J. G. (author of ch. iii
of Part I, and section vi B and C
of Part III), 19, 31, 34, 40, etc., 163
— General (author of ch. i of Part
I), 1, 13, 26-7, 32, 36, 188–9, 213
Bullock Workmans, the, 9
Cairn, memorial, 150, 154
Camp life, 43
Camps, chaps. iii to vi passim ; 353 ff.
Champetang bungalow, 187
Chiblung, 180, 221; river, 41, 44
Chödzong, village, 49
Chomiomo, mountain, 33, 217
Chomo Lönzo, mountain, 121
Chomulhari, mountain, 26, 31, 214, 216,
303
Cho Rapzang, mountain, 160–1
Cho Uyo, mountain, 48, 127, 161
Chumbi, 23, 183
Chutin, porter, 118
Collie, Dr. J. N., I
Conway, Sir W. M., 9
Crampons, 64, 88, 344, 355
Darjeeling, 7, 13, 15, 19, 188–91, 207
Do-chen, lake, 26
Donka La, 26, 32, 181
Dorjay Pasang, “tiger,” 104
Dzakar Chu (river), valley, 49, 158, 306
Dzong Pen, 31, 340–2
Earth pillars, 318
English, Mr., 192
Everest, Mount, 1, 2, 34, 48, 50, 52 ;
plans of attack on, 35, 41, 45–6, 71,
92, 94, 195–6, 217–22 ; routes to the
top, 111–12, 194–5, 201; geology of,
291 ; glaciology, 306 ff. ; snow on,
51
Filippi, F. de, 9
Food at high altitudes, 198–99, 203,
251, 347, 356, 360, 367; of animals,
275 f.
Preshfield, D. W., 1, 9
Fuel, 60, 347, 353, 357, 361, 363, 368
Gangtok, 27
Gaurisankar, mountain, 163, 168, 170
Gautsa defile, 24; rest house, 29
Ghoom, 15
Glacier lassitude, 76, 254
Glaciers, motion of, 308
Gnatong, 22, 211
Gosainthan, mountain, 48
Graham, Dr., 20, 210
Gurkha N.C.O.'s, 14, 40, 54–5, 58, etc.,
342–7
Gyachung Chu (river), valley, 50
— Kang, glacier, 61; range of moun-
tains, 48, 50, 127, 158, 161
Gyalgen, interpreter, 16, 342
Gyankar, mountains, 33, 120, 128;
geology of, 305
Gyembus, 25, 31
370
INDEX
371
Hari Singh Thapa (surveyor,) 60, 61,
158
Havildar Umar, 60
Hazard, 18, 37–8, 46, 50, etc., 149–50
Hearing, difficulty of, on Mount
Everest, 85, 114, 115
Hibernation, 279–81
Himalaya, the, 8, 48, etc.
Hingston, Major R. W. G. (author of
sections i, ii and vi D in Part III), 7,
17, 25–7, 36, 70, etc., 118, 163, 169
Hlakpa La, 120
Hurke (Gurkha N.C.O), 57
Irvine, A., 19, 37–8, 97, 130, 146—7;
see Mallory
Jelap La, 22, 23, 211
Jikkyop, camp at, 179
Kalimpong, 16, 19–20, 186, 208–10
Kami, cook, 82, 229, 233
Kampa Dzong, 26, 27, 33–5, 41, 181–2,
213
Rancha, cook, 82
Kanchenjunga, 7, 22, 48, 113, 128, 208,
2II
Kapup, 22, 211
Karma, Paul ; see Paul
Kellas, Dr. A. M., 151, 259–60
Khenga, 180
Khombu valley, 161
Riang, 26, 33, 172
Kinchenjhau, mountain, 33
Kyetrak, valley and village, 160–1 ;
glacier, 296–7
Lachen, 27, 41
Lamna La, 160
Lapche Kang range, 305
Lhakpa La, 80
— Tsering, porter, 75, 77–8
Lhasa, 25, 41
Ling Tham, 22
Linga, camp, 41
Lister, Mr., 209
Llakpa Chédé, “tiger,” 18, 27, 101, 108
Lobsang, porter, 69, 96
— Tashi, “tiger,” 105, 107
Lytton, Lady, 189, 191
Macdonald, David, 23
— John, 23, 25, 36, 38–9, 182—3
Makalu, mountain, 34, 48, 49
Mallory, G. H., 5–6, 18, 35, 36–7, 41,
45, 62, 66, 76–80, 87–91, 94–7,
104–5, 115–16, 125 ff., 140–3, 145–6.
(His Letters to Mrs. Mallory, 25
March to 27 May, are printed in
Part II, pp. 207–239)
Manbahadur, 68 ; death, 70, 151
Memo, village, 178
Mess tent, 43, 212, 214–15, 339, 368
Mingma, porter, 47
Monsoon, 73–4, 86–7, 93, 151; see
Weather
Moraines, 160, 319
Morris, Capt. C. J., 16
Moti, cobbler, 16
Namgya, porter, 88, 153
Nanga Parbat, mountain, 7
Nangba La, 59
Narbu Yishé,
108, 153
Natu La, 27, 187, 211
Nema, porter, 125, 127
Nima Tundrup, porter, 118
Noel, Captain, 7, 20, 38, 60, 87, etc.,
158, 183, 324–6
North Arête of Mount Everest, 96, 104
— Col, 73 ff.; route to, 74–5, 194,
200; view from, 120–1; glaciology
of, 307
— Peak of Mount Everest, 74, 127
Norton, Lt.-Col. E. F. (author of chaps.
ii, iv, v, vii and ix of Part I, and
Sections i and vi A of Part III), 2,
3, 7, 14, 16, 26, 35, 38, 45, etc.
“tiger,” 15, 69, 101,
Odell, N. E. (author of ch. vi of Part I
and sections iii, v, and vi F of
Part III), 7, 16–17, 37–8, 45, etc.,
97, 120 ff., 144, 163, etc.
Oxygen, 17, 29, 45, 93–4, 115, 122–3,
126, 136–7, 196–7, 201–3, 222–3,
256; use of 329–37, 361
Pang La, 48
Panglé, 47–8 -
Paper-making, 169–70
372
INDEX
Pau Hunri, mountain, 31, 33,216
Paul, Karma, interpreter, 16, 60, 69,
160, 221
Pedong, village, 20, 208, 210
Phari, 24–5, 181—3
Phu, porter, 88
Phung Chu (river), valley, 42, 44
Pike's Peak, visitors' nausea on, 256–7
Porters, corps of, 18, 47, 57, 58–9, 69,
81, 150, 161, 178, 180, 189–90, 195—6,
201, 224, 235, 340–6, 358; see
Bhotias, Sherpas
— local Tibetan, 51, 54, 56–7, 190,
357
Protective colouring at high altitudes,
261 ff.
Pu, porter, 18, 153
Pusi La, 161, 171, 320
Putties, 14
Rawlinson, Lord, 14
Rheenok, 208
Rongbuk, glacier, 54 ft. ; East Rong-
buk, glacier trough of, 313; ice
pinnacles, 317; Rongbuk, valley,
13, 156; monastery, 50, 190–1 ;
visit to, 70; service in, 157
Rongli Chu, 21, 208
Rongshar Chu (river), valley, 162;
camp in, 163; geology of, 296
Sanghar Ri, 221, 305
Sedongchen, 22, 211
Semchumbi, “tiger,” 101, 107–8
Shamsherpun, Lance Naik, 40, 57, 68 ;
death, 70, 151
Sharto, village, 173
8hashima, 23
Shebbeare, E. O. (author of section vi
G in Part III), 15–16, 31, 39, 41, 54,
72, 144, 163
Shekar, 13, 40, 44–6, 178, 221 ; Dzong
Pen of, 51, 54
Sherpas, 5, 6, 10, 16, 21, 39; see
Porters
Shikar, the, 60
Shiling, 44
Sichu, camp, 160
Signals, 124, 135, 149, 360
Sikkim, 9, 20–1, 209
Siliguri, 15
Solah Khombu, 59, 60, 161, 367
Somervell, T. H. (author of section vi
E in Part III), 2, 16, 18, 37–8, 76,
87, 89–90, 94–5, 99–115, 149, etc.
Stephen, Mr., 192, 339 -
“Supporters,” 97–8, 147, 359
Surveying, 60–1, 149–50
Tamding, porter, 67–8
Tang La, 26
Tashi Dzom, 49, 60
Tazam, 161
Tejbir (Gurkha N.C.O.), 57
Tenchutta, cook, 164
Tibet, 214
Tibetan, plateau, 172, 181, 276; geo-
logy of, 303 ; dances, 23–4 ; don-
keys, 42; fauna, 33, 41, 49, 152,
169, 171, 178–9, 181, 183, 187–8,
261 ff. ; bees, 167; Jungle cat, 210;
Riang, 26, 172; flora, 152, 158,
162—3, 171, 183; government, 25,
34, 41; superstitions, 17, 190–1
“Tigers,” the, 59, 95–6
Tingri, 174
Tinki, 35, 41–2, 181, 219
Tippoo, cook, 168, 343
Transport, 34–5, 42, 54–5, 215 ; see
Shebbeare -
Traza Laden La, general, 24
Tsering, cook, 82
Tsomo-tretung lake, 180
Tuna, 26, 214
Uchung, porter, 88
Unna cookers, 354, 362
Weather, 28, 31, 193, 199–201; see
Monsoon ; Wind
Weatherall, Mr., 16
Wind, 4, 43, 66–7, 96, 105, 194, 268
Wind-proof kit, 103–4; see Weather
Wrangham Hardy, Mr., 19
Yatung, 27, 177–8, 211; football at,
183—4 . -
Younghusband, Sir F., author of Intro-
duction, pp. 1–10
Zoji La, 23
* * -- ***, º* e *） ） * ...*... ~ . ≤ ≤ . . __.*~ ~~~. ：）… ~ x）*_ <！--->， a * №º
! ！! ?
... *
ış
:）?
; , ,
9
*
! / s. * *
* A
%
-{
· & j， ， … ~~~;~~
**
DATE DUE
º)
=---
;
#
- ***-
ſ
~.
#
* > *
* *
;
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
* *****.
*
r' <a v-!
{\!
º U º
: A
** */
8–xis = -->~~~~
-ºs-
#
-- ----£^-^ <--- = -f-----------*----------- -----------------+------ ~~~~ （------~- - - - ----------
*******T****T*T*****TTFR√°√∞∞∞∞ --~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ū-~~~~--~~~~ ..G.， 5.）, №TOETOEFZIJI， y）…T （E.J.， TOEGEZIJI. TŲ. TOELTJ ZŤ Ť Ť Ť Ť Ť LITEITI: JTS，~ …:.，，，.，:.， （*）（ ）（ *）（….… : „… --~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~******
•

- Xº-
… : - pre - ... .s
| || ||
DD NOT REMOVE
0R
MUTILATE CARD
sºzia:-->==-º-º: Pºgsºº
|




• * º - * : * ~ * * * * *
º - *_º & º º º
* † ºn-
* * * * * , º * * - * * - - - ". . . .
* * * * * * * E. * * * º -
* * * * * * & v. * º -
w sº sº * - ºf Y
* * * * *
ºsº.º.º. ººººººº. A ſº º
**º-º-º-º-º.’, rººs'
a º sº a ºn tº r r &
º * : * *
* - sº sº sº sº sº gº º
* * * * * * * * * *
º
* †
** * * * - ... ." . . . [...º.º.º.º.
* * * º - w *.
* * * * * * * * * as as
º'º",
~ Ǻ. W.' " - we
•. Nº 4 * **-*.
.* ºr sº ºr ºf Y . . tº * * * V º f
** * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* º * * *
Fºr y y - * * * * *
- sº ºr a wa ºr ºf , ºr
ºf ºf ºr - ** ** * - - º - - *: º ‘...tº
tº ºr tº º, º ºr ºf 4: ... : :" • * E- * * * * * w" º
**.*.*.*.*. º º,” - - º --> wº * * 3. * º - ºr * *
c T." * * * * * 3" * : * * * * ~ º
* * * * * * * * * * * sº tºº tº ºr vs A: & # .."...ſº, * * *
C º º Tºr tº ºr ºr º -
* tº -
gº
wº
* * * * ~ * * * * * * * * *
tº a t- e A iſ iſ ºr p.
* - F -.' * * * * * * *
º 23 M. º. f*
º
tº º
* :
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * *
S. º. ~. ** * * *
P ºr º º
* * *
* * * v- ºr
* * * * * * * *
* * * *
- * * * * * * * *- :
* * * * * * * * * * ºf ºr
* * * * -
- tº u
º º * **, *. * * * * * * * , is º.º. * * *
º - º *** * * * * * * * * * * * wº- is . . . . P
ºr ºr ºvº. º.º.º.º. ** º *G * * * * ºv.º.º. º. ºº is tº 4,3:...lºw v. -- * * * * -
* * * * * * * * * - 4 º' ºr sº wºº tº ºvººr & Cº. s. Sºº- ºr 4 º f iſ
- - ***** - cº-ºw- "wººl * * * * * * 4*.* º: º a ºr ºr rº, º f * * * * * * . . . . * * *, *, *
gº º' ºr * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * º ** * º - º
* * vº, Flººr sºlº sº
ºws º- tº $ tº wºº tº rºº ºr * * * * * * * * * * * * * tº . ~ * * * º
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *- : *w- tº wº º
º ** ** * * *w * * *
gº tº t , º, as
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
* r * * * * *
*...*.*.* º
** * * -- -" * * * ºr sº
• *, *, * * * vº sº a w - w
º & ºvº º- ºr º º
** * * * * * * * * * * * * sº ºr rººt ºr * * º º
* * * r * * * * * *...* * * * - > * > *: * * *
* ~ * ºr i, ºr w w & **, ºr w \r ºr " " ºr wº * * * * *
.*.*.* * *.*.*.*.*.* * * *- C - - - - - A -- *** r * ºr v is ºr ºn tº ºr r *
''.S.X. º.º.º.º.º. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *... a . r tº * * * * * * * * *
tº tº ºr * * * * * * - ... º. ºº ºr a sº tº gº º º * * * * * r * * * * * *
º * … wrº" vs " - wºº tº * * * * * * * * * º º º
* * * * * * * * * * * ºn ** ** wº-wºº ºw- ºr A. º.º.º. º. º. sº ºf
.*.*.*.*.*.* : * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ~ * * * * * * * Wr º º 4 º' ºs- ºr wº * * ºr tº gº º
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Wº º * * * * * * r * * *
º * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * w * * * * * * * * * * * * * > *.*.*.*- : * * * * * ºf º
º º, º º sº º ºx * * * ** * º : ºº wº sº º º º º * * * * * * * *
tº wº. v.º *...* ºr,” º' ºr wº - .*.*.*.* tº º 3 ºf º * * * * * * * * * * : * ~ * : * ~ * º
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***, ºr ºf 3 ºn, w; ºr tº ºv. & tº vºv ºr v º'e tº ºi tº wºw wº & ºr ºr
* * * * * * * ~ * * * * * **** * * * * * r * ºr * * * * * * * * v- w w & ſº S. º gº ºf r
** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *, * *
ºr ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
& ºr * º * * * * * * * * * * Yo C-
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Sº fºr A. a. º. -
* :
hº
* M: S ºr º º - º
* º - º ** º º - º º - º
* * ~ * ~ * * * * * * * * * * * gº
ºr ** * * * * * - tº º sº. 3 ºr tº y, sº º sº, ºr ºf w =
- * * * * * * - & 3 ºr sº ºw: * * * * * * v- W - S -º- ºr rºw: ºr ºr wº ºr * * * **** * * * *.
* * * * * * *...* * * * * * --- * * * * * * * * ** * * : cº-º-º: ; ; , ºr gº ºr s
r * * * * ** f : * * * * * * * * * * * * * , 7, 12 ºr º ºr * * * * * * - ºr, º f * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * **, * * 4 ºf --> º - **.*, ** * *" *-* r * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
º * ~ * v- ºwe ºr ºr ſº tº r * ºr * * sº tºº tº sº ºw- ºr *w- ºr fºr v. º. º. º. f. t. a. º. º. * * * *
- º - § º > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * tº wº - * * * º ºr * *
- - * ~ * r * * * * 5 º * ~3 is -º- tº gº ºr º- ºr ºf ºn- tº sº wº tº Nº º º * ºf vº" ºr * * * * * * *
- * T- ºr * * * * * * * * * --- * * * * * * * sº tº º y - a ºn v. 4 º' wº - º ºr fºr
ºr * * * * º' tº A * * - tº gº w º 'º º - - º - "...wº º 'º - tº º, ºr sº sº º ºr sº ºr , w sº - -
tº * * * - - - * * * : - ſº º * * * * * * * - º & tº fºr sº
* * * rº-'ºz ºwe wº * * & sº * * * * * * * * * * * 3 * * * * * Nº ſº fºr. S. & º ºr ºr wº
F. : * * * * - • * ºr v-v ºf a 3 r nº vº. º.º.: ---> Hºº-ºº.º.º.º.
wºº ºr * * * * * * * * * * * * º º º ºf tºº ºr
*...*.*.*.*.*.*.* tº sº".
wº e < *
- - * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- ºf tº r * > * * * * * *
* * * * * * * ** vº tº sº.
vºte wºº wº.º.º.º. wº -
* * * *
* *
* * * * *
º * *-* * * º -
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * º *** *
º' ºr *- : * ~ * * *
tº º wº. & - * { º-
º -
º
** v.º.º. 4 ºr ºf wºn wºº
º º, sº º
tº ºr w "...º.º. º. ºr ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ºr sº a
º: “” º 'º - * : * * * * * * * * **, * ºr sº º ºr ºf > * * * * * * * *
º * * * we wº sº e :- sº º: Yºº tºº.º.º.º.º.º.º.º.º.º.º.
8 tº ºr *- : * * ºve º 'º fºr e º v. º
Fº tº Wº º ºr º: * * * * r * * * * * * *
- ºf ºx 3- * 3 º' tº sº ºr vs. tº
sº §§ sº º º * † tº
* * * * º “," " " º
º
º
e
* * ºr ºr sº tº º, ºr ; we .
vº º ºr * * * * > w- tº wº.
º * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*.*.*.*.* * * *
* Sº ºr sº
** * * * * *
tº ºr PA ºz
º º ºt
* * * * *
fº º,
- º
* * * r * ºr & S. 4 º' 1-ºw. i - ºr
* * * *- : * : * ~ * * * *
* * * ~ * ºw ºf ºr
* *
º
º > * * to " ... • *** *
* * * * * * * ~ §º a * * *.
v, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * º -
& §" ºr º ºr *.*.*.*, * * * - -
ºr ºx ºf wºº º ºx tº wº y º sº º * †
* * * * : vº. º
º º
º t * tº
º º º * Q & W º º -
*s * * * - º ºr wº º, ** * * * * *
*...* * * ~ * ~ * * * * * ** * * * * - º - ºr- w" tº tº e- ºr- ºr ºr º'e' tº tº as rºº rºw sº ºw
rºº ºf a sº ºr ºs ºr "rºº - “...sº, wºº ** * * - *.." * * * *...* ºw º º wº Sºº- tº tº t- ºr v ºr ºf rºle
* * * * * • * * * ºw º' tºº ºvº- * * * * * * - tº wº ºf ºf r vs. ºr * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ºf ººººº sº ºf - º ºr e º ºſº wº ** r * * * * * * - & * *.*.*.*.*.* * ** {} ** * * * * * * * * * *.*.*.*.
* * * * * º Fº - S.T. sº º *...*.* - wr ºr * * *
& * Tº tº º *:: * ~ * * * ºf t - w ** * º º * * * * * * * * s"
º *...*.*. º º º * * * * * * * * v- wº
º' º'
º
**
lººº§-
:§
:tº
#C
- º
* * * * * * * * * *
* r * * * * * * :
vº º ºr * * *
* * * * * ~ *
• * * * * *
* * * * *
º
§ - -
sº.º.
Fºº,
- - º - - - - - º
- :* * *.*. * * * - & º - -
º ºg º ºx, tº -
5 º' ºr º ºr * * * * * *
º
as º ººººy" as wº
tº ºsº
***, r* * * * * ºr...ºr ſº * *-
- y” wºº -º- ºr º- fºr sº wº
rºº. rº - * * * *
ºr ºr ºr
* * * * *
* * *p, *, ºr sº
* * * * >
º
º
* * * * * *
* -º ºr * * * * * * *
* * * * * * r * > * *
* * * * * * * * * *
w; sº sº -e ºr *, * * *
* * * * * ºn wº º
ºr se ºf , ºr
* *
*
§
º
º
* -e- ºr tº f *
** ** *w is
-
*
[* tº t
º:* * * wºº. 3: ... ºr tº º ºs
- - - tº t. • *-* * * * * * * * * * * * *.
- 5 º º - ºr * : *, *, * * * * * : * : * r * * º
- º * * - * *
- w” wº v.
* ºf tº
- ºn--
ſ sº * * * tº º
* * * * * *
ſº * f : * : * ~ *
* * * * * ~ *
Sº º in º . . . . .” - * * * * * *
º - * * * * * * * * * ~ * * * * > * * ºr us sa vºws - º
* * w º - • *, * *
* * *- : * r * * * * * * * : * ~ * ~ *, *- : * ~ * * * * * *** *
º v. “ ºr , º v. “. - ----- º - -
- * wº • *-* * * [* * * * ºr -
- 4 - > * > * * * * - - º
ºf . ſº - - - º -, *, *:: ** * * º - -
i º" & * * * *- : * ‘. . . ; -
a ----s - ºr sº tº -
* . . ~ * * -
3 * * * *
º
sº
º:
A wº
ººr
.
º
a ſº
ºn ºf ºs
[]
wº- ºr- sº ºr's ºr ºf ** * * *
* * * * * * * • *-
* * * *
º
A "* * *
* * * * * : *
ºr * * * * :
* : * *
ºA. º.º. ºf
f
w
ºr * *
* * * *.*.*
º, * * * * * * -- cº-ºr- **, * * * * *
* * * : a tº ** ºr * * * * * * , ſº º ºs -
º * ºr “ † : * * º º * * * * º
• * * * * * * * * * * *
* r * * * * * *, *, *.
- - ºr * * * * º -
º - ºr ºr -s: a tº a dº sº
. . . . * * * • tº * * * s **
-, * * * ~ * * * * * * * * * * * - sº sº
r a tº º "I- - - * * * * *
; : * * * -
R º -
*" sº º º
sº -
º - ſº - ' "
- - *.* - º * * *
- º * ... tº º º * "Ps tº ºs º º º ºr sº cº 3 * *-* *
“. . .". "..."; º sº ºr tº ~ * * * tº dº tº Yº: "º *...*
"...", ". . . . . . . .'s * * * * - * *. * * * * * * * * * * * * º L. º ºr ; ," “
- - * ~ *, *, * > - tº ºf pºº --- & ſº- - Q sº. --> - - - - * * -
a w s. sº-> -º- ºr -º * * : * ~ * * * * * * * * - * * * *
- *** - ºº - *O' s sº
* *
º
* * * *
ºr * * * * :
* º-
º
ºr ºr * >
4.- : * * *
* * *
º
• * * *
* * * * * **, *, * *
º - º - * A s •
a sº-º-º: * * * * * * * * * * º º -
& º º ºs e º 'º * * * * * * - *
w t * * * F * * k- tºº sº.º.º. * * * * *- : * * * -
* * : * : * * , º ºf sº ºw º
- º º Aº º -º - * * * * º &" tº tº -
º: sº." - º - º - - .* * * * * * * * *
2. tº pºº sº-º-º- ºf sº “...s.º.º. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
sº ºs- - - sº º
3. * ~! [.
* * * * *
4 * 4s ºr ºrº ºr
* * * * * ****
* * * * * * *: s ∈
Nie º ſº tº sº * &
a re- ºr
, s sº - sº P. s. s. A v * * * *
º tº sº sº Fº - * … wº *** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* - sº is rºº sº-ºw - - - º 4 - > -, - ... * * : * *
:-...- : *- : * ~ *, * -
tº- sº º
* * * - tº 3-
- *.* tº ºr ºf ºr wrº; ºr "
* * * * ~...~ *, *, *.*.*.*.*
ºr sº wº º * 'sº º- ºr
- is ºs S
wº
- “...º.º.
* *- : * ~ * * * *
º ºg -3 I. ºr sº -º, ſº ſº
Sr., ºr A. v ., & 5
&= - a, R
- - - - º, - … . . . . .º.
*—Sºlº, , ºf Tº º * * *
º "", F. . . . º. at a ~ ; , s: e.
* -º- ºr sº º- tº º, ºr ; ; * * t
- , - sº ºt, ºr ivº: Sº i ! : * {4
F. nº sº. sº a .
*…* as tº 4.
* -- ºf: a sº- ºf
* , a º
a -t- tº a
4- -
. . . . .
*::::::
º E.
, ºf rººf.
… . . . .t
… . . . .
... º. § -
º
s' sº v . ." ..º. º.º.
# * * * * : * * * * * * * * *.*.*
sº- . . . ;
• *.*