now began in earnest our race against the monsoon. i have often been asked since my return, whether we should not have done better if we had started sooner. i think none of us would have cared to have arrived at our upper rongbuk camp a fortnight earlier in the year, nor, having done so, would any good purpose have been served. as it was, the temperature and the coldness of the wind was as much as any of us could keep up with and still keep our good health. this was to be our base camp at a height of 16,500 feet. we made suitable dumps of stores, pitched our mess tents, put all our porters in tents at their own particular places, and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances allowed, strengthening the tents in every way to resist the wind. noel also pitched his developing tent near the small stream that issues from the rongbuk glacier. on our arrival water was hardly available; all the running streams were frozen hard, and we drove the whole of our animals over them. where the glacier stream flowed fastest in the centre, we got sufficient water for drinking purposes.
view at base camp.
the establishment and support of such a large party 51(for we were thirteen europeans and over sixty of what may be termed other ranks) in a country as desolate and as bare as tibet is a difficulty. there is, of course, no fuel to be found, with the exception of a very little scrubby root which, burnt in large quantities, would heat an oven, but which was not good enough or plentiful enough for ordinary cooking purposes.
our first work, beyond the establishment of the base camp, was immediately to send out a reconnaissance party. strutt was put in charge of this, and chose as his assistants norton, longstaff, and morshead. the remainder of the party had to work very hard dividing stores and arranging for the movement up to the different camps we wished to make on the way up the east rongbuk glacier to the north col. it was pretty apparent from major wheeler’s map that our advance up the east rongbuk to the glacier crossed by mr. mallory in 1921, which is below the chang la, would not be a very difficult road. but it was a very considerable question how many camps should be established, and how full provision should be made for each? we were naturally very anxious to save our own porters for the much more strenuous work of establishing our camp at the north col, and perhaps of further camps up the mountain. i had, therefore, on our march up, made every possible endeavour to collect a large number of tibetan coolies in order that they should be employed in moving all the heavy stuff as far up the glacier as possible; in fact, until we came to ground which would not be suitable to them, or, rather, not 52suitable to their clothing. they were perfectly willing to work on any ground which was fairly dry, but their form of foot-covering would certainly not allow of continual work in snow. we had a promise of ninety men.
we further had to make full arrangements for a regular supply of yak-dung, the whole of which, as in fact everything to burn in tibet, is called “shing,” which really means wood; all our fuel, therefore, from now on, will be referred to as “shing.” all tzampa,[3] meat, and grain for the men had to be procured as far down as chobu, tashishong, and even from other villages still further down the dzakar chu; that is to say, very often our supplies were brought up from at least 40 miles distant. we required a pretty continuous flow of everything. it is wonderful how much even seventy men can get through.
3. flour.
the preliminary reconnaissance had fixed an excellent camp as our first stage out. geoffrey bruce and morris, with our own porters went up, and, so as to save tents, built a number of stone shelters and roofed them with spare parts of tents. this camp was immediately provisioned and filled with every kind of supply in large amounts in order to form again a little base from which to move up further. strutt returned with his reconnaissance on may 9, having made a complete plan for our advance and having fixed all our camps up to the flat glacier under the north col. during this period finch had also been very active with his oxygen apparatus, not only in getting it all together, 53but continuing the training of the personnel and in making experiments with the leonard hill apparatus as well. he also gave lectures and demonstrations on the use of our primus stove, with which everybody practised. primus stoves are excellent when they are carefully treated, but are kittle cattle unless everything goes quite as it should, and are apt to blow up.
longstaff suffered considerably on the reconnaissance, and was brought down not too fit. we also had a real set-back—our ninety coolies did not eventuate, only forty-five appearing, and these coolies only worked for about two days, when they said that their food was exhausted and they must go down for more. we took the best guarantee we could for their return by keeping back half their pay. they went for more food, but found it in their houses and stopped there; we never saw them again. however, it is not to be wondered at. if ploughing in the upper valleys is to be done at all, it is to be done in may. they were, therefore, very anxious to get back to their homes. ninety men is a big toll for these valleys to supply, but their behaviour left us rather dispirited. we had to turn every one on to work, and then we had to make every possible exertion to collect further coolies from the different villages. the chongay la who came with us, and who understood our needs, was frantic, but said he could do nothing. however, we persuaded him to do something, at any rate, and further offered very high prices to all the men who had come. he certainly played up and did his very best. men came up 54in driblets, or rather men, women, and children came, as every one in this country can carry loads, and they seem to be quite unaffected by sleeping out under rocks at 16,000 or 17,000 feet.
for the whole time we remained at the rongbuk base camp the equipping and supply of our first and second camps up the east rongbuk was mostly carried out by local coolies, and the supply of these was very difficult to assure. we never knew whether we should have three or four men working, or thirty; they came up for different periods, so that we would often have a dozen men coming down and four or five going up, and in order to keep their complete confidence, they were received and paid personally by myself or the transport officers. by degrees their confidence was restored, and a very fair stream of porters arrived. not only that, but many of the men’s own relations came over from sola-khombu, which is a great sherpa settlement at the head of the dudh kosi valley in nepal. to reach us they had to cross the ngangba la, sometimes called the khombu la, which is 19,000 feet in height. often the men’s relations came and were willing to carry a load or two and then go off again. the mothers often brought their children, even of less than a year old, who did not apparently suffer. it is evidently a case of the survival of the fittest.
camp ii. at sunset.
we had brought also large stores of rice, sugar, tea, and wheat grain, both for the use of the officers of the expedition and of the porters, for fear we should run short of grain, and 55this proved a great stand-by. the very rough tzampa of tibet is often upsetting even to those most accustomed to it. it was found to be an excellent policy to feed our porters on the good grain when they came down to the base camp, and to use the tzampa, which is cooked and ready for eating, at the upper camps. meat also had to be bought low down, sheep killed low down in the valleys, and brought up for the use of the officers and men, and often fresh yak meat for the porters. the gurkhas got the fresh mutton. dried meat was brought up in large quantities for the porters, and proved of the greatest use.
on the return, having received a full report from the reconnaissance party, we tackled in earnest the establishment of the different camps.
camp iii, which was under the north col, was first established in full. this was to be our advance base of operations; and mallory and somervell established themselves there, their business being to make the road to the north col while the rest of the expedition was being pushed up to join them. on may 13, mallory, somervell, and one coolie, together with a tent, reached the north col and planted the tent there.
this must be described as the beginning of the great offensive of may, 1922. owing to the lack of coolies, all our officers and men had been working at the highest possible speed, pushing forward the necessary stores, camp equipage, and fuel to camps i and ii, and from thence moving on to camp iii, gurkhas being planted at each stage, whose 56business it was to take the convoys to and fro. finally, camps i, ii, and iii were each provided with an independent cook.
the duties of the cook at camp iii were the duties of an ordinary cook in camp; those of the cooks at camps i and ii were to provide all officers passing through or staying there with meals as they were required, and right well all these three men carried out their duties. the distance from the base camp to the advance base at camp iii was fairly evenly divided, camp i being at about three hours’ journey for a laden animal at a height of 17,800 feet; camp ii a further four hours up the glaciers at a height of 19,800 feet, and directly below the lesser peak which terminates the northern ridge of everest; camp iii on moraine at the edge of the open glacier below the chang la, at a height of 21,000 feet, about four hours again beyond camp ii.
as our supply of tibetan coolies improved, and as the main bulk of the necessary supplies was put into camp iii, and the oxygen and its complete outfit had been deposited in this camp, the hard work of supplying rations and fuel to camps i and ii was entirely in the hands of the local tibetans. from camp ii to camp iii one encounters real mountaineering conditions, as crevassed glaciers have to be crossed, requiring in places considerable care. the road from the base camp to camp ii, rough enough in all conscience, was such as could very easily be negotiated by mountain people.
on may 14, strutt, morshead, and norton left to join 57the advance party at camp iii. the weather was even worse than before, the wind blowing a perfect hurricane during the daytime, and the thermometer sinking to zero even in the base camp. i asked the chongay la why it should be that as summer was approaching the weather should be continuously worse. he accounted for this without any difficulty. he said in the middle of the month, each month, in fact, at the rongbuk monastery there were special services held. these services invariably irritated the demons on the mountains, and they attempted to put a stop to them by roaring more than usually loud. as soon as the services stopped, these winds would stop too. the services stopped on may 17, and the chongay la said we could expect better weather on that date.
on may 16 the last of the oxygen, with finch, left for the upper camps, and it is a curious thing that about that time the weather did slightly improve. on may 20, i received a letter from strutt telling me of the establishment of the camp on the north col; he himself also accompanied the party that reached the north col. here they made a very considerable encampment, and put in it such light stores and cooking apparatus as would be available for parties stopping there and attacking the mountain from that spot. it is very curious how on this expedition the standard of what we expected from all our members went up. it was looked upon as a foregone conclusion that any member of the party could walk with comfort to the north col (23,000 feet). it is quite right, no doubt, that the standard 58should have been set so high; but it is a little amazing, when one comes to think, that only on one occasion before has a night been spent as high as 23,000 feet, and that on very, very few occasions has this height been even attained. strutt was quite by way of looking upon himself as a worn-out old gentleman because he felt tired at 23,000 feet. no doubt that is the standard we should set for ourselves; but even 23,000 feet is a tremendous undertaking, and no one at any time or at any age of life need be anything but pleased with himself if he can get there.
the party established at camp iii made little expeditions to the lhakpa la and ra-piu-la, and obtained a fine view of makalu and the northern face of everest; but the views so obtained also gave them a sight of the approaching monsoon, and this made every one very nervous about the length of time there was left to us for our actual attack on the mountain. it was this very point, including also the evidence of rough and uncertain weather which had been experienced round the mountain itself, that decided strutt to allow four members to make an attempt on the mountain without oxygen. certain defects had been found in the oxygen apparatus, and finch was employed in rectifying these difficulties, and at the same time he was not quite ready to proceed further. geoffrey bruce was also working with him at camp iii, and made great progress in the use of the oxygen. they also roped in as their assistant the gurkha tejbir, having for him a special r?le.
it is not for me to describe in detail the great attempt 59on the mountain made by the party consisting of mallory, somervell, morshead, and norton, but i must point out quite clearly that as a tour de force alone it stands, in my opinion, by itself. it was the most terrific exertion, carried out during unfavourable weather and in the face of that dreadful west wind. not only did they reach the prodigious height of 26,985 feet without the assistance of oxygen, but they passed a night at 25,000 feet.
i think it is pretty clear from their accounts that any further expedition must be clothed in windproof suitings, and these of the lightest, when attacking everest, or probably any other great mountain in this particular part of the world. morshead, who suffered far more than any of the others from the cold, did not employ his windproof suiting in the early part of the climb, and i believe by this omission he very greatly decreased his vitality, and it was probably this decrease which was the reason of his terrible frostbites.
it was a tremendous effort, unparalleled in the history of mountain exploration, but it gave immense confidence to all that the mountain was not unconquerable. if on the first occasion such a gigantic height could be reached, we were pretty certain that later, with the experience so gained, and with the weather in the climbers’ favour instead of the horrible conditions under which this climb was undertaken, the mountain would in time yield to assault.
the following day, notwithstanding their fatigue, they determined to get down to camp i. they certainly were a sight on arrival; i have never seen such a crowd of swollen 60and blistered and weary mountaineers before, but they were all naturally tremendously elated with their performance. strutt came down with them, and quite rightly too; he had been a very long time living above 21,000 feet, and this in itself is a great strain. i thoroughly endorse his judgment in making this great attempt without oxygen. at first sight it would seem that it was not wise to send so many of the best climbers at once on to the mountain before the oxygen apparatus was ready, but he felt (and i consider he was quite right) that as the weather was so bad and the monsoon was evidently arriving before its time, and as at the moment the oxygen apparatus was in such a doubtful condition, it was far better to make an attempt than possibly to fail in making any attempt at all.
mount everest from camp iii.
during the time that the great attempt on the mountain without oxygen was being made, finch was employed in getting the oxygen apparatus into order. it had suffered in a good many ways, and the method of inhaling the oxygen appeared to be deficient, the face-masks, in fact, causing a feeling of suffocation and not allowing a sufficiency of ordinary air to be inhaled. finch had a very difficult time getting all this apparatus into order in this very high camp. it would have been difficult anywhere, but up here in the great cold and the great height it was infinitely more troublesome. as soon as the apparatus was in working order, they made numerous training walks up on to the passes, looking down into the heart of the kharta valley, from where they were able to see the southern faces of the himalaya and to 61know the way in which the clouds were pushing up from the south.
they had also instructed, to a certain extent, the gurkha tejbir bura in the use of oxygen, as they intended him to help them in their advance on the mountain.
about the time the other party left for the base camp, finch and geoffrey bruce set off for the camp on the chang la, camp iv, taking with them twelve laden coolies to carry their outfit. i will not attempt to describe their subsequent mountaineering operations in detail, as these must be left to finch’s narrative in a subsequent chapter, but there are a great many points to which attention might be drawn. first, although geoffrey bruce is thoroughly accustomed to work on the hillside, he had never before this big attempt, and before the few practice walks that he had with finch, attempted a snow mountain in his life; the nearest thing he had been to it was following game in kashmir. it was, therefore, for him a very great test. the same also applies to the gurkha; although he is a born mountain man and has hardly been off the hillside the whole of his life, up to the time of the climb he knew nothing about snow and ice as understood by a swiss mountaineer. however, they had a first-rate leader, and his trust in them proved anything but ill-placed.
owing to a terrific gale, they had to spend two nights at 25,500 feet. they were all short of food, and no doubt greatly exhausted, and i think they would have been perfectly justified, after two nights spent at this tremendous 62altitude, if they had given up their attempt and returned, but they had too much grit for that. here should have come in the use of tejbir if he had been quite himself. he was given extra oxygen to carry, and their intention was that, after proceeding as far as the ridge, he should be sent back to their camp to wait their descent. however, tejbir was completely played out when he had reached 26,000 feet.
the party continued until they reached a point which has been found to work out at 27,235 feet. here geoffrey had an accident to his oxygen apparatus, and, far from becoming immediately unconscious (as we had been warned would be the case before we left england if climbers were suddenly deprived of their artificial oxygen supply), he was able to attach himself to finch’s instrument while finch was repairing the damaged apparatus. slightly higher than this point they were completely exhausted, and had to beat a retreat, the whole party finally descending to the north col, where food was found ready for them, and by the evening got down to camp iii itself—a great performance, considering the altitude and that the descent was over 6,000 feet. i think it is pretty certain that tejbir’s breakdown was largely due to his not having a windproof suit. this biting west wind goes through wool as if it was paper, and he was exposed to it for a great period of time, and no doubt it very largely sapped his vitality.
one result of this last attempt is that it increases our hopes, almost to the point of certainty, that, with luck and good weather, and when the oxygen apparatus has been 63further improved, the summit of everest will be attained.
all the time the porters were working from our base camp and up there was great competition between them, and also considerable betting as to who would do the hardest work—the true tibetan-born porters or the sherpas from the south. it was rather amusing to see the superior airs which the sherpas invariably gave themselves in travelling through tibet. they considered tibetans undoubtedly j?ngli,[4] and treated them very much from the point of view that a clever londoner does the simplest form of yokel when he appears in london. at any rate, they backed themselves heavily to beat the tibetans. it was a pretty good race, but finally they came out well on top; in fact, i think all but one who reached 25,000 feet and over were sherpas. paul, the interpreter, and gyaljen, had a great bet also about the officers, paul favouring finch and gyaljen mallory. as a matter of fact, there was quite a little book made among all the followers with regard to who would go highest among the officers. i did not even belong to the “also rans” between them. oxygen was looked upon as a matter of no particular importance, and i believe paul made gyaljen pay up, as he had won with finch against mallory.
4. wild.
on may 27 we welcomed the arrival of john macdonald with a further supply of money, as, owing to the large calls of our enormous transport, we had been afraid of running short. this was very cheering to us indeed, and also a very 64great help, for, besides the money, mr. macdonald brought with him two or three servants very well accustomed to travel in tibet and knowing all the people of the country. these we were able to use as special messengers, and we sent off immediately by them an account of the climbs that had occurred. the second of them was unfortunately delayed by illness, and this accounted for the slight delay in letting the world know of our great second “oxygen” climb. the first messenger rode through in ten days from rongbuk to phari, and by so doing almost caught up the previous letters which had been despatched through the dzongpens. arrangements are, after all, not so bad in tibet. when one considers that tibetans themselves have no understanding or care for time, the promptness with which the different communications were sent through was rather wonderful. there were, on occasions, no doubt, hitches, but, generally speaking, the postal arrangements worked very well.
the weather had become more and more threatening, but we could not bring ourselves absolutely to give up for this year the attempts on everest; at the same time, the casualties were heavy. our medical members had all got to work and had tested thoroughly each member of the expedition that had been employed. it was evidently absolutely necessary that morshead should return as quickly as possible into hospital in india, and there were also several other members who were suffering from their hard work. longstaff had “shot his bolt” as far as this year’s work was concerned, and it was also most important that morshead 65should have a doctor with him. strutt, too, was very much overdone, and it was time for him to return. norton was strained and tired, and geoffrey’s toes, though not so bad as morshead’s, required that he should quickly go down to a warmer climate. we therefore made up two convoys, which were to start together from the base camp. longstaff, strutt, and morshead to go with the sardar gyaljen direct to darjeeling, travelling via khamba dzong, and from khamba dzong directly south to lachen and gangtok and darjeeling by the shorter and quicker route. this would bring them quite a week sooner to darjeeling than the route by which we entered tibet. it was most important that morshead should be got back as quickly as possible; in fact, we were all very nervous about his condition, and we were afraid that it might be necessary for some operation to be carried out actually on the march.
it had always been our idea that as soon as we had finished with our summer attack on everest, the whole expedition should go into the kharta valley, where colonel howard-bury in 1921 made his camps, and there recover from our labours. the kharta valley is far lower than any other district in this part of tibet, lying between 11,000 and 12,000 feet above sea-level; there are also many comforts which do not exist in other parts. there is good cultivation, trees and grass to a certain extent, and even some vegetables are obtainable. it is altogether a charming spot—very charming compared with any other country we were likely to see. the road was very high for sick men, as 66it led over the doya la, which is only 3 feet under 17,000 feet, but having once got there, they would be in comfort compared with the rongbuk glacier.
having decided on sending off this large convoy of invalids and semi-invalids, we then began to organise our third attempt on everest, but so doubtful was the weather that the party was organised for two complete purposes. it was fully provided with porters, far more than would in the ordinary way be necessary for an attempt on the mountain itself, considering that the camps were all fully provisioned. we had brought every single man off the glacier after the last attempt in order to give them all a complete rest. every one had now had a long rest, with the exception of finch, who had only had five days. he, however, was very keen to join the party.
the second r?le of this party was to evacuate as many camps as possible, according to the condition of the weather, and it was carefully explained to them that if in their opinion the weather was such as to preclude an attempt on the mountain, they were to use the greatest possible care and run no undue risks. it was organised as follows: the climbing party to consist of finch, mallory, and somervell; the backing-up party, crawford and wakefield, to remain at camp iii; and morris, in whose charge the whole of the transport arrangements were, was to take charge of the evacuation of camps either after the attempt had been made, or if no attempt was made, immediately. such was the condition of the weather that i had no very great hope 67that even the chang la camp could be evacuated, but it was most necessary to recover all stores left at the great dep?t at camp iii. this was of the utmost importance, as not only was the oxygen apparatus there, but also a great number of surplus stores—stores which we should be in need of. we had, of course, rationed these camps with a view to staying there probably a fortnight longer, but this year the monsoon had evidently advanced at least ten days earlier than usual. that, however, we could not foresee, nor could we foresee the very great severity of the 1922 monsoon of the eastern himalaya. this we only heard about on our return to india later on. it was a curious thing that the rongbuk lama had sent up to congratulate the porters, and ourselves also, on having come back safely from the earlier attempts, but he warned the porters to leave the mountain alone, as he had had a vision of an accident.
on june 3 the great convoy set off and spent the night at camp i. on june 4 we were rather overwhelmed to see finch staggering into camp. he was very much overdone, and had by no means recovered from his terrific exertions on the mountain. it was quite evident that he was finished for this year, and he was lucky to be just in time to join the detachment returning to india direct. it was a very great loss to the party. not only would he have been of special assistance as the oxygen expert, but his experience and knowledge of snow and ice under the conditions then prevailing would have been of the greatest advantage to the party.
68the weather now had completely broken. it was snowing hard; even at our base camp we had 2 inches of snow; the whole of the mountains were a complete smother of snow. notwithstanding this, and, under the conditions, quite rightly, the convoy pushed on to camp iii. on arrival at camp iii the weather cleared. the wind temporarily went round to the west, and one perfect day of rest and sunshine was enjoyed.
morris all this time was on the line of communication. he had the whole of the service of evacuation to arrange, and was laying out his convoys of tibetan coolies and others with that point of view in his mind. it was lucky he did so. the great foe, generally speaking, on everest during the dry period is the horrible west wind, but now the monsoon had to all intents and purposes arrived. the west wind now was our one and only friend. if it would again blow for a short period, the mountain would probably return temporarily to a fairly safe condition. the south wind is a warm and wet, though fairly strong, current, but the result of even a short visit from it absolutely ruins the mountain-side. however, at camp iii they enjoyed one full day of sunshine, followed by a very low temperature (12° below zero) the following night, and it was considered, owing both to the strength of the sun and to the fact that the west wind had temporarily got the better of the south wind, that the mountain would in all probability be safely solidified so as to render an attempt justifiable. therefore on the morning of june 7 a start was made to 69reach the north col, with the object of spending a night there and making an assault on the mountain the following day. it was also proposed to carry up as much oxygen as possible to the greatest height they could get the porters to go, and from that point only to use the remaining oxygen to make a push over the summit. i think this was a thoroughly sound proposition. they were all acclimatised, and it seems to me that it is probably better, especially if there is any chance of a shortage of oxygen, to use one’s acclimatisation to go as high as one can without undue fatigue, and from thence on to use the oxygen. no doubt it would be possible and of advantage, if the oxygen apparatus should ever be improved, to use it for the whole of an ascent, say, from 20,000 feet or so, but against that comes the chance that, in case of any cessation of the oxygen supply, the danger would be very much greater.
the caravan consisted of mallory, somervell, and crawford, who was going with them as far as the north col to assist them and to relieve them of the hard labour of remaking the path up to that point. mallory will relate further on how at about one o’clock, when about half the journey had been completed, the snow suddenly cracked across and gave way, and the whole caravan was swept down the hillside, and seven porters killed.
on return to camp iii, a porter was despatched to take the news down to the base camp, and arrived that same night at about nine o’clock, having travelled at full speed—really a wonderful performance. there was nothing to be 70done—that was quite evident—and all i could do was to await the return of the party for a full account, sending news at the same time to morris to evacuate the camps at the greatest possible speed. mallory arrived by himself, very tired, and naturally very upset, on thursday, the 8th. again was shown what a terrible enemy the great himalaya is. risks and conditions which would appear justifiable in the alps can never be taken in the himalaya. so great is the scale that far greater time must be allowed for the restoration of safe conditions. when once the condition of a mountain is spoiled, the greater size requires more time for its readjustment. the odds against one are much greater in the himalaya than in the smaller ranges. its sun is hotter; its storms are worse; the distances are greater; everything is on an exaggerated scale.
mallory was followed next morning by wakefield, crawford, and somervell, who brought down with them a certain amount of the lighter equipment. morris was all this time working to salvage as much as he possibly could from the different camps. we had a large number of tibetans pushed up as far as camp ii, and as many of our own porters as were available (not very many, i am sorry to say, by now) working with morris in the evacuation of camp iii. in this work the cooks and orderlies also joined.
it was perfectly evident by now that the monsoon had set in in full force. on his return, morris gave me a very vivid description of how, even during the one day that he stayed up after the others had left at camp iii, although 71the weather was fairly fine, the whole face of the mountain sides began to change; how under the influence of the soft south wind the mountains seemed to melt and disintegrate. not only that, but even the great teeth formed by the pressure of the collateral glaciers, probably great séracs that spring out like the teeth of a huge saw on the glacier, and which seemed solid enough to last for all time, were visibly crumbling up, and some of them were even toppling over. the great trough of black ice up the centre of the glacier which strutt has described had turned into a rushing torrent—and all this in an incredibly short period of time. snow also fell at intervals, and it was quite apparent that when the monsoon settled down the whole of camp iii would be under a great blanket of fresh snow. under these conditions a good deal of stuff, especially the supplies of grain, tzampa, and so on, for our porters, had to be abandoned. as for camps iv, v, and vi, there was naturally no chance of rescuing anything from them. thus was occasioned a fairly large loss of outfit; nor was there any possibility that any of it could have stood under any conditions more than a month’s exposure to the weather. there was a considerable loss in the oxygen apparatus, but morris managed to bring down three full outfits in more or less dilapidated condition.
on morris’s return to the base camp, the party was completed. one of the difficulties in having so large an outfit as ours was the difficulty of obtaining transport when necessary. therefore, as soon as we saw signs of the monsoon, 72it was necessary to make arrangements for our return, as at least fifteen days were required to collect the still large number of animals required for our moving. these animals have to be searched for all down the dzakar chu, collected, and brought up; nor when once collected could they be kept waiting for very long, as the supply of fodder in the upper valley was absolutely nil—fodder did not exist. when we sent off the previous party they travelled as lightly as possible, but even then the small number of animals which was required for their transport had not been obtained with any great ease. fortunately, john macdonald was with us and was free, and it was owing to his help (for he speaks tibetan as well as nepali, and is thoroughly accustomed to deal with the people) that the two parties of strutt and norton were able to proceed with such little delay. it had required a full fifteen days to collect enough animals to move the main body. i had arranged for a latitude of one or two days, which meant that they should have spare food up to that extent, but beyond that it would be quite impossible, naturally, to make provision. of course, as one of our secondary objects we had hoped, if our party had not been exhausted, to have explored the west rongbuk and the great glens on the western faces of everest. and besides this most interesting piece of exploration, of which really not very much more than glimpses were obtained during 1921, there is the prodigious and fascinating group of cho uyo and gyachang kang to be explored.
73
watching the dancers, rongbuk monastery.
as i before pointed out, of course, not only was our major work and the whole object of the expedition the tackling of the great mountain, but also it was a race against the weather, so we could let nothing interfere with our main object. it was quite clear now, as we were situated, that an exploration of the west rongbuk was entirely beyond consideration. not only was the whole party fairly played out, but to get up enthusiasm in a new direction after what we had gone through was pretty nearly out of the question. somervell, the absolutely untireable, had very strong yearnings in that direction, but it would have been nothing more than a scramble in the dark if he had gone. the weather was broken and was getting worse and worse every day. snow fell occasionally even at our camp. further up everything was getting smothered. everest, when we had glimpses of it, was a smother of snow from head to foot, and no one who saw it in these days could ever imagine that it was a rock peak.
i am afraid also that most of us had only one real idea at the time, and that was to get out of the rongbuk valley. however, during our wait for the transport the annual fête of the rongbuk monastery occurred. there was a great pilgrimage to the monastery to receive the blessing of the lama and to witness the annual dances. most of our party went down to see dances, and noel especially to cinematograph the whole ceremony, dances as well as religious ceremonies. i have not done justice up to this point to noel’s work. he was quite indefatigable from the start, and had 74lost no opportunity during our march up, not only of taking many pictures of the country and expedition, both with his ordinary camera and with his cinema camera, but of studying tibetan life as well. he had in the rongbuk valley pitched his developing tents near the only available clear water at the moment, and had there been untiring in developing his cinema photographs. he had made two expeditions to the head of the east rongbuk glacier, and had even taken his cameras and his cinema outfit on to the north col itself where he remained for no less than four days—a most remarkable tour de force. on the last occasion he had accompanied the evacuation party, and had been actually taking pictures of the start of the last attempt to get to the north col and to climb everest. of course, his performances with the camera are entirely unprecedented. the amount of work he carried out was prodigious, and the enthusiasm he displayed under the most trying conditions of wind and weather was quite wonderful. we now feel that we can produce a real representation of our life and of life in tibet in a manner in which it has never hitherto been brought before people’s eyes, and this gives a reality to the whole expedition which i hope will make all those who are interested in mountain exploration understand the wonderful performances and the great difficulties under which the climbing members of this expedition and the transport officers laboured.
after the news of the accident had been received, we immediately got in touch with the great lama of rongbuk, 75who was intensely sympathetic and kind over the whole matter. it is very strange to have to deal with these curious people; they are an extraordinary mixture of superstition and nice feelings. buddhist services were held in the monasteries for the men who had been lost and for the families; and all the porters, and especially the relations of the men who were killed, were received and specially blessed by the rongbuk lama himself. all the nepalese tribes who live high up in the mountains, and also the sherpa bhotias, have a belief that when a man slips on the mountains and is killed, or when he slips on a cliff above a river and falls into it and is drowned, that this is a sacrifice to god, and especially to the god of the actual mountain or river. they further believe that anyone whosoever who happens to be on the same cliff or on the same mountain at the same place, exactly at the same time of year, on the same date and at the same hour, will also immediately slip and be killed.
i also received during our return a very kind letter from the maharajah of nepal condoling with us on the loss of our porters. he writes as follows:—
“personally, and as a member of the royal geographical society, i share with you the grief that must have resulted from the frustration of the keen hope entertained by you and the party. my heartiest sympathies go to you and to the families of the seven men who lost their lives in the attempt. this puts in my mind the curious belief that persistently prevails with the people here, and which i 76came to learn so long ago in the time of our mutual friend, colonel manners smith, when the question of giving permission for the project of climbing the king of heights through nepal was brought by you and discussed in a council of bharadars. it is to the effect that the height is the abode of the god and goddess shiva and parvati, and any attempt to invade the privacy of it would be a sacrilege fraught with disastrous consequences to this hindu country and its people, and this belief or superstition, as one may choose to call it, is so firm and strong that people attribute the present tragic occurrence to the divine wrath which on no occasion they would draw on their heads by their actions.”
this, i must point out, is, of course, the southern and hindu people’s tradition, and did not in the same way affect all the porters whom we employed, as they were buddhists by faith. the whole of our people, however, took the view common to both and dismissed their troubles very rapidly and very lightly, holding simply that the men’s time had come, and so there was no more to be said about it. if their time had not come, they would not have died. it had come, and they had died and that was all. what need to say any more? as a matter of fact, this philosophic way of looking on everything also allowed them to say that they were perfectly ready to come back for the next attempt, because if it was written that they should die on everest, they should die on everest; if it was written that they would not die on everest, they would not, and that was all there was to be said in the matter.
