The Mount Everest Expedition of 1924 page 2

Irvine would join with the others in chaffing Mallory, who was somewhat of a highbrow, though his figure looked absurdly boyish and graceful for a man of 37.

A quip that was thrown at Mallory one night in camp was that the best thing which the Russians had done was the extermination of the intelligentsia.

Somervell, who had participated in the avalanche, was a doctor whose services were often unexpectedly needed. As on that tragi-comic occasion when he was suddenly called to attend one of the porters who had broken his leg through falling on the ice with a load on his back. This man had been Somervell's servant as they passed through Tibet, during which time the doctor had lost some articles of clothing. While setting the leg, Somervell made a discovery - the whereabouts of his lost underwear!

The porter who fell 200 feet and was dragged out by the legs was another cheerful member of the expedition. Two others, deciding to make sacrifices to the god of luck, consumed too much Tibetan beer at the outset, which led to a furious fight. Afterwards they appeared dreadfully smashed about, and there was much bandaging of heads and sewing up of wounds. Both explained sorrowfully that it was the drink, and not they, who had quarrelled, for they were bosom friends.

A few years before this, a height of 23,000 feet was considered to be the limit to which human beings could climb; but here on Everest the attitude was taken that real climbing did not begin until 23,000 feet had been passed. At 18,000 feet it was found necessary to seek the assistance of natives to help in the porterage from the base camp to the mouth of the East Rongbuk Glacier. Some, who carried a forty-pound load up the ascent from 17,500 feet to 19,800 feet, were women, one of whom bore her two-year-old child on top of her load. From their base camp the expedition watched them with interest, and then consumed a five-course dinner, which included champagne, in celebration of their arrival.

Last time their party had lost seven men killed; they must see to it that there were no tragedies this time. Yet, had they followed the example of the natives, who, after carrying their goods up the mountain, slept in the open at 18,000 feet, without cover or blankets, they would have had casualties at the start.

Two suspicious-looking outfits drew near to the base camp and were ordered off. The villainous-looking owner was a purveyor of Chinese spirit potent enough to have sent the whole expedition reeling down the mountain. But there were graver troubles to be faced. News came that the wind round the peak was terrific, and that the temperature of the mountain was 22 degrees below zero.

As the party struggled up to the spot where the avalanche had struck them, they encountered so many blizzards that they suspected the early arrival of the monsoon, not realising that these were a series of storms unprecedented within the memory of people in these lofty regions. They pressed onwards, finding that in places the mountain had changed.

What in 1922 had been just a snow-slope, traversed by a narrow crevasse, was now a great line of formidable ice-cliffs, for in the intervening two years the lower lip of the crevasse had fallen away for hundreds of feet. The climbers began to meet other difficulties. Mallory was suffering from the high-altitude throat prevalent in these mountains, and Somervell from a touch of the sun. One of the party was threatened with appendicitis trouble, and the doctor began to make preliminary preparations for an operation on the mountainside.

A wiry fellow, one of the most active of the porters, was asked whether he was fit for the climb, to which he scornfully replied, "Didn't I go twice to 25,000 two years ago?" His superiority was destined to have a rude shock.

Avoiding the "scoop" where they had met the avalanche, Mallory, Norton and Odell started to ascend to a new crevasse which stretched crescent-shaped for a quarter of a mile across the face of the slope, and then began the heavy work of cutting the ice and stamping out steps. They now came to a 20O-foot vertical climb up through a chimney in the North Col, whose dangerous sides were smooth blue ice and snow. It led on to a welcome little platform, which was reached after an hour of severe exertions. Thence the route led them along a narrow windy ridge with the yawning crevasse on their right and the sky on their left. Now they had to traverse a concave "scoop," which was the upper part of the route they had followed in 1922 when the crash came. But here they were confronted with the most difficult part of the whole climb - a snow-slope 200 feet high, with the extreme angle on which snow would lie without falling over the edge of a great ice-cliff. This identical snow-slope had been crossed safely two years before and re-crossed again an hour later. But in those sixty minutes the whole blanket of snow on which they had walked secure had suddenly given way and slipped out of sight over the precipice. Their immediate problem was to test that slope and to get safely across it before the fresh snow disappeared into the abyss below.

Mallory had used this route before, and he intended to. continue to do so now; but it would not be without a few exciting adventures. It was agreed that the safest way was an almost vertical ascent of the steepest pitch, then to ease off to the left, and so approach the shelf above, destined to become Camp IV. Norton and Odell held Mallory from below; should the treacherous surface suddenly slip and Mallory be carried past them they could secure him with the help of a big ice pillar against which they leant. But fortunately there was no mishap, and Mallory, in half an hour, had cut an ice ladder up to the shelf above. Arrived there, they found themselves bathed in sunlight; but there was no sign of the old camp which had been left in 1922, the reason being that the whole jumble of cliffs and hummocks was part of a moving and ever-changing glacier. There was just space and no more on this draughty ledge for a row of six-foot-square tents. At no spot in the whole climb did they find levels more than six feet in width. The floors of some of their camps sloped so much that they had to be built up on the outside with loose stones.

Having arrived at Camp IV., the next step was to come down again, for tents and provisions had to be brought up before a night could be spent there. But the trail had been blazed; every step on this slope had been chopped out with an axe and then stamped level, to leave a safe track for the porters.

The view here of that wonderful maze of peaks encircling Everest was savage and wild, though not comparable with the solemn grandeur of Everest itself, now hidden by the rock at their back.

They had established a reasonable route to the Col and thence to the summit, and so they descended in a spirit of elation; in fact, they were so elated that they made a series of slips and tumbles through sheer carelessness.

The self-confident porter, who had followed them up, had been told by Odell to rope himself to the party with a reef knot, which he omitted to do. And when he slipped the rope became loose, and he was only saved from sliding over the precipice by a lucky patch of soft snow. The scoffer's expression was pitiful to behold: the man who had boasted that he had twice done 25,000 feet now looked an abject worm.

Next day the porters pitched the tents up on the narrow shelf. But that day some more of the snow on the shelf below began to slip, and half of the porters had to hurry down, leaving four of their number stranded at Camp IV. As they had lost their load of assorted provisions on the way up, the four marooned men were restricted to a little barley meal for food; furthermore, they were all suffering from frostbite.

The climbers, resting in the lower camps, decided that the porters must be rescued the next day at all costs. There must be no repetition of 1922.

It was a gloomy little conference that planned the rescue, and it was early morning when the treadmill climb began, Mallory led, as before, urging his comrades forward at remarkable speed. When they got within hailing distance, they saw one of the porters leaning anxiously over the shelf. When asked, "Are you fit to walk?" the reply was a sage one: "Which way?" "Down, you fool." And the porter, relieved beyond measure, disappeared inside the tent to tell his comrades that they were going down. The climbers had brought with them a one-man frame with which they would have endeavoured to have carried the poor fellows down, although they had grave doubts of their ability to do so. Later on, when Norton was attacked with snow-blindness, two of his colleagues negotiated him safely downwards from a point some 6,000 feet above where the porters were now perched - an altogether amazing achievement.

The rescuing party had brought with them 200 feet of rope, which Somervell undertook to take to the ledge. His colleagues watched him, not without admiration, as he walked almost upright across that steep traverse, one elbow resting on the snow which was level with his shoulder. The high altitudes were affecting his throat, and he was coughing terribly as he paid out the rope yard by yard as he went. When he was about ten yards or so below the shelf, where the four men eagerly awaited him, Somervell came to the end of his rope. Nevertheless, it was so long that, had he slipped, it would have carried him clean over the cliff before he could have been pulled up by the men holding the other end, anchored to the ice pillar. How were these ten yards between Somervell and the frost-bitten porters to be bridged? The climbers shouted to each other and decided that the men must risk that ten yards alone and negotiate it as best they could. Somervell bade them come towards him, saying he would pass them along the rope to Mallory and the ice rock. It was a paralysing situation, for with men whose hands and feet were unreliable through frostbite, anything might happen. The first two reached Somervell, and one crossed in safety; but when the second was starting it was seen that the other two had done a crazy thing: they had slipped over the shelf together, and had loosened a patch of fresh snow which was carrying them downwards on their backs. Because of the steepness of the slope, they were still almost upright. All the watchers stood for a second paralysed, fearing to see the luckless pair shoot over the blue ice cliff into space. But the cold, followed by the hot sun, had bound the snow to a holding consistency, and the two pulled up after sliding no more than ten yards.

Somervell betrayed the most astounding nonchalance. As the two lay shivering and terrified on the slope, hardly daring to breathe, he calmly passed the second man along the rope, at the same time chaffing the two unfortunates about their incongruous position, with the result that one of them laughed involuntarily.

Somervell now drove his ice-axe into the snow, untied the rope from his own body, and secured it round the handle. His position was almost as dangerous as that of the two men, but he reached down and grasped one of the two porters by the scruff of the neck in his powerful fist and dragged him back to the rope, and then repeated the performance with the other man. All the time Somervell stood firm without a sign of fear; but so unnerved were the poor fellows that they missed the steps on the way back and only saved themselves by clutching at the rope. When they had reached safety they broke down. All were relieved to find two of the other climbers awaiting their arrival with cups of steaming soup.

Something had to be done to put new spirit into the porters. It was fortunate that an application to have the expedition blessed at the Rongbuk Monastery, near the base camp, had now been favourably considered. All the climbers and porters, as they entered the monastery, were served with a Tibetan dish of macaroni and spices, handed round by the young Lamas. Then they were led into the presence of the Holy Lama, who was seated at the altar. As each member of the expedition walked up to him he was touched on the head with a silver prayer wheel held in the priest's left hand. Then the Lama delivered a short address, in which he encouraged all to persevere, assuring them that he was praying for their safety and success. The climbers, observing the reverence in which the porters left the monastery, were grateful to the Holy Lama for his help in putting new heart into the expedition.

And now the party returned to the work of establishing themselves on the lonely ledge from which the porters had been barely rescued. But the task was herculean, and it left the party so thoroughly exhausted that they began to doubt whether any of them had sufficient stamina to drive the assault to a successful conclusion. Always present with them was the fear of the monsoon, whose soft breath might change the slopes to little cataracts of melting ice.

It was now found that only about a dozen - nicknamed "The Tigers" - of the 55 porters attached to the party were capable of doing the journey up to this height, but some of these could be depended upon to go still higher. The monsoon was now probably only six days away, and they must hurry.

A fierce north-west wind was blowing and cutting through clothing which had been subjected to every known device to make it windproof. The porters, following the climbers over a jumble of ice-pillars and crevasses, were almost blown from the steps. Another camp - Camp V. - was at last achieved on the sheltered side of a ridge at a height of about 25,000 feet. But hereabouts, only four of the porters were able to carry on without assistance. The remainder, having tethered two fragile ten-pound tents to an almost precipitous slope, were sent down to the old shelf at Camp IV. The remaining three agreed to stay the night at Camp V., and to continue upwards next day and make a final camp at 27,000 feet.

But when the sun gilded the tops of the peaks on the following day they were not so enthusiastic. It was found that the wind of yesterday had disheartened them, and that some stones falling from the tent above on to theirs had made things worse. They groaned that they had spent an uncomfortable night, and had to be given a lot of coaxing before they would agree to tackle another 2,000 feet.