Climbing Everest By B. Mathur: Seven British Expeditions
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| (1962 Expedition Photo Courtesy) |
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a note about Seven British expeditions in Climbing Everest.
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| (Khumbu Icefall. Photo: Courtesy Mercury Himalayan Expeditions) |
It was said that to “climbing a mountain is to meet
with so many deadly factors but now it is taken as adventure of life and
learning with positive sense”. A time when Everest was uncrowded and
unpolluted, when only three expeditions had succeeded in putting men on its
summit, when attempts at climbing the peak were an undertaking at the very
limits of human endeavor.
Colonel
C.K. Howard-Bury was the first to
lead a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest from Tibetan in
1921.
“The aura of Everest had been around us from the time the
expedition was announced”.
It is also a proud
moment of Indians, where Tenzing Norgay at the
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in Darjeeling in 1954. For both, this
was the third time on Everest. He also writes about Tenzing and Hillary’s story. The controversy over who
was first to step on the summit. And after discussing
about the expedition’s turn on weather and camps to climb.
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| (Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay) |
Headed by
Brigadier-General C.G. Bruce, an authority on the Himalayas, the second
British Expedition in 1922, approaching via the North Col, gained a
height of 26,986 ft on May 21. Six days
later two members, Captain Geoffrey Bruce and George Ingle Finch, reached 27,
300 ft. With the help of oxygen, used
for the first time. Seven porters were,
however, swept away as the monsoon broke suddenly.
Lt.- Colonel E.F.
Norton, leader of the third British expedition in 1924, attained
a new record height of 28,124 ft. Without oxygen on June 4. Across the
Cwm, Camp III (22,900ft) was set up by sherpas Nawang Gombu and Ang Kami.
Four days later, G.L.
Mallory and Andre Irvine equipped themselves with oxygen and left their advance
camp at a height of 26,700 ft. However, they never returned, they were last
seen at just over 20,000 ft. From the time the Dalai Lama forbade expeditions
through the next eight years.
Hugh Ruttledge led the fourth
British expedition in 1933, vis the North Col, and set up a camp at a
height of 27,400 ft. On May 30, two members, P. Wyn Harris and L.R. Wager,
found and ice-axe 65 ft. Below the summit ridge , which perhaps belonged either
to Mallory of Irvine. On June 1st,
Frank Smythe equalled Norton’s record height of 28,124 ft.
In 1934, Captain Mauice
Wilson ventured a one man expedition to Everest, and on May 29 made alone
attempt to climb up the icefall towards the slopes of the North Col, but he
never returned.
The fifth British
expedition in 1935, led by Eric Shipton and including
H.W. Tilman, reached the North Col., but got no further owing to rough
weather. As a member of this expedition,
Tenzing found the body of Captain Wilson at the foot of the icefall, a few
hundred yards above Camp III.
Rutledge returned to
Everest in 1936 to head the sixth British Expedition, but was
beaten back by foul weather.
The seventh and
last British expedition from Tibet in 1938, via the North Col, was as led by Tilman and was once again doomed to
failure. After gaining a height of
27,230 ft. The climbers were forced
retreat by unfavorable weather. And of course The 1951 expedition was a
reconnaissance expedition. It was about finding out new route. It was taken
under Eric Shipton from the Nepalese side. A new route was discovered to the
south col through Khumbu Glacier. It was across the ice fall and over the western
CWN. It was for climbing the Summit up the south East Ridge of Everest.
India’s 1965 Everest Expedition team of 21 climbers, 800 porters and 50
high-altitude sherpas the country’s third attempt in five years. The
spectacular Indian victory in 1965 secured for India a high place in the world
of mountaineering. Indian climbers attained this outstanding success within the
brief space of 12 years. Two national leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. B.C.
Roy, were responsible for encouraging the enthusiasm that swept India following
Tenzing’s 1965 success and creating something permanent. They were the
co-architects of the Himalayan Mountaineer Institute, which has done such a lot
in so short a time to promote this sport.
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(Aloo parathas’ at 26,000
feet Supplies, equipment and
packaging had to break new ground for the 1965 expedition.)
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