Last Chance at Mt. Everest?

One of the last few remaining spots on earth to defy human explorers is the icy tip of Mt. Everest, 29,141 ft. high. Many expeditions have tried to claw their way up it. In 1924 G. L. Mallory and A. C. Irvine, who reached a point above 28,000 ft., may have reached the summit; they disappeared in a mist and were never seen again. All who have tried to climb Mt. Everest have been beaten by the near-stratospheric cold, the almost continual gales, the treacherous, sliding snow and the thin, high air.

Last week still another expedition, led by Oscar R. Houston of New York, returned to New Delhi after making a preliminary pass at the defiant peak. All earlier expeditions had attacked the north slope, which lies in Tibet. Houston's group decided to investigate the unexplored south slope, which lies in friendly and comparatively accessible Nepal. From a distance, the south side of the mountain looked considerably more favorable for climbing. The slope of the strata looked gentler, and there was a promising formation something like huge stairs. Even more important was the fact that the southern side of the mountain gets more sunshine than the northern side, and therefore should not be as cold.

Young Buddha. It took two weeks to reach the Buddhist monastery of Thyang-boche at 13,000 ft. on the approaches of Mt. Everest, where the party stayed as guests of a 16-year-old reincarnation of the Buddha. Mrs. E. S. Cowles of Colorado Springs, the only woman along, was welcomed with the rest and even allowed to witness impressive Lamaistic rituals--a very unusual honor for a woman, but Mrs. Cowles is one of the world's leading alpinists. Perhaps the teen-aged Buddha was too much impressed with her to treat her as a female.

Leaving the rest of the party snug in the monastery, Dr. Charles Houston of Exeter, N.H. (son of Leader Houston) and Major H. W. Tilman, veteran British mountain climber, hired three Sherpa porters to do the heavy toting and set out for the mountain, which towered abruptly above them. They faced a part of Nepal which is wholly unexplored except by natives.*

Snowy Plume. Dr. Houston and Major Tilman camped on a high ridge and climbed to about 19,000 ft. to study the south face of Mt. Everest. Even at this great height (about 3,000 ft. above the summit of Mt. Blanc), they saw tracks of rabbits, mice and snow leopards. There was no snow except in crevices, but above their heads a vast plume of snow whipped off the icy summit, blowing out miles downwind like a gigantic pennant. They made maps and took photographs. Then they rejoined the rest of the party and returned to New Delhi to tell their story to the New York Times.

It was a sad story for Everest climbers. "The south face," said their report, "presented much greater climbing difficulties than the north side. The southern face is precipitous and broken by long and intricate ridges, which would be technically difficult and dangerous. The south face may well be impossible, and we could see no practicable climbing route."

If this pessimistic judgment is correct, Mt. Everest may remain unconquered for a long time. Tibet, which owns the easier northern slope, is in the process of becoming a part of Communist China. It is not likely to welcome U.S. or British alpinists, and Asians have never shown much interest in climbing difficult mountains for the joy of it.

But the saddened mountain climbers remembered and adopted as their own a motto they had seen written in English over a schoolhouse at Dhankuta in remote Nepal. It said inspiringly: "Gather courage--don't be a chickenhearted fellow."

*According to one definition, an "unexplored" territory is one which has not been described by a member of the New York Explorers' Club or of the Royal Geographical Society.

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