ARNOLDS ENGLISH LITERATURE SERIES
THE EPIC OF MOUNT EVEREST
COLONEL NORTON AT 28,000 FEET.
THE HIGHEST POINT IN THE WORLD AT WHICH PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE BEEN TAKEN.
Copyright
First published, October, 1926
School Edition, 1931
Reprinted 1932, 1933 (twice), 1935, 1938, 1939
Printed in Great Britain by
Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frame and London
PREFACE
The years have gone by and still we know not whether or no Mallory and Irvine reached the summit. But the will to climb Mount Everest is still alive. Only permission is wanting. The Mount Everest Committee is still in being. Immediately the last expedition returnedand at the earliest request of the members themselvespermission was sought from the Tibetan authorities for another expedition to proceed to the mountain. But the Tibetans were alarmed. On each of the three expeditions deaths had occurred. Was not this, sufficient warning-that the gods who dwell on Mount Everest were enangercd? They must not be provoked again. So for the present permission is withheld.
But in this generation or the next, in this century or the following, Mount Everest will be scaled. For Norton and Somervell reached and passed the 28,000 feet mark and proved that, under better conditions, the 29,000 feet mark is attainable.
And the Expedition to Everest have given a great impetus to Himalayan mountaineering. Every year some highly organized expedition goes out from Italy or Germany or England to assail one or other of the supreme peaks of the Himalaya. And more and more is it being recognized that these are no mere notoriety-hunting enterprises but are genuine examples of the spirit of man pitting itself against the material forces of his surroundings and determined to establish his ascendancy. And that is why not only mountaineers but men of all kinds feel a common interest in these efforts and have a sense of exaltation as each higher level is reached.
FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND.
April, 1931.
CHAPTER I
THE IDEA
That Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and 29,002 feet in height, everybody knows. And most people know also that in attempting to climb the mountain two Englishmen lost their lives; that these two, Mallory and Irvine, were last seen going strong for the top; and that the top being only 800 feet away they must have very nearly, perhaps actually, reached it.
How this was done; and how Norton, without oxygen, reached an altitude of 28,100 feet, and his companion, Somervell, scarcely a hundred feet less; how Odell, also without oxygen, twice reached a height of 27,000 feet, and might well have reached the summit itself if more porters had been available; how these feats were made possible by Himalayan porters carrying loads to nearly 27,000 feet; and how all this was done after the Expedition had suffered from a blizzard of exceptional severity and cold as low as 24 below zero at an altitude of 21,000 feet, and, most remarkable of all, after Norton, Somervell and Mallory had been drained of the best part of their resources through having to turn back and rescue four Himalayan porters marooned on a glacier at 23,000 feet; is the story now to be told.
And first as to the idea these men had in their mindsthe idea of climbing Mount Everest.
When we see a hill we are sooner or later driven to try and get to the top of it. We cannot let it stand there for ever without our scrambling up it. Partly this is because we would like to see the view from the top. But more especially is it because the hill presents a challenge to us. We must match ourselves against it and show that we can get to the topshow ourselves and show our neighbours. We like to show ourselves offdisplay our prowess. It is an exertion to get to the top, but we enjoy making it. We are doing something that makes us proud of ourselves and gives us inner satisfaction.
But when we first look at Mount Everest it is a very different proposition. To get to the top of that we never dream. It is right up in the skiesfar beyond human reach. So it seems to us. And hundreds of millions of Indians have through the ages looked up at the great Himalayan peaks and not dared to think of climbing even the minor giants, much less the monarch of them all. They will patiently suffer most terrible hardships in travelling thinly clad from the hot plains of India to some place of pilgrimage by a glacier in the Himalaya. Of sheer suffering they will endure as much as any Everest climber. But even the idea of climbing the great peaks never comes into their heads. Not even to those hardy people who spend their whole lives in the mountains has it come. That they have the physical capacity to get to the top of the very highest is proved by the fact they carried loads to nearly 27,000 feet in 1924. And if they could carry a load to that height presumably they could go unloaded to 29,000 feet. Still the idea of climbing Mount Everest they have never entertained.
How then is it that islanders from the North Sea should have thought of such a thing? Far back we owe the inspiration to the Swiss and Italians. The Alpine peaks are only about half the height of the Himalayan giants. But even they had been looked on with dread and horror till at the end of the eighteenth century the Swiss De Saussure and the Italian Placidus Spescha tackled their highest summits. The climbers groaned and puffed and panted and suffered from headaches and sickness. Still they attained the summit. And once the highest mountain in the Alps had been conquered the lesser peaks also fell. And soon we English were following in De Saussures steps. Through all last century we were engaged in conquering the Alps. And when they were well subdued we turned to higher game. Douglas Freshfield climbed the highest peak in the Caucasus. And Vines and Martin Conway the highest in the Andes. Italians also joined in the struggle. The Duke of the Abruzzi climbed Ruwenzori in East Africa and Mount St. Elias in Alaska.
Ambition grew with success. The Alps, the Caucasus and the Andes had been conquered. And men were already turning their thoughts to the great Himalaya. The brothers Schlagintweit climbed to 22,260 feet on Kamet. Officers of the Survey of India, in the course of their duties, were brought among the great peaks and in their records are statements that J. S. Pocock climbed to 22,000 feet in Garhwal in 1874, and others climbed to considerable heights to determine the position of prominent peaks.
