Everest Is There

To an Alpinist, mountain climbing is the most dangerous and exhilarating sport in the world. To a climber of the towering Himalayas, it is chiefly dangerous. Above the Alpine altitudes, the rarefied atmosphere brings on an overwhelming lassitude and an indifference to danger. Such a fate may well have overcome Britain's George Leigh-Mallory and Andrew C. Irvine, when the swirling mountain mists cut them off from view in 1924 as they struggled up the last 1,000 feet of towering, forbidding Mt. Everest.* Why do men tackle a forbidding mountain? Mallory had his own understated explanation: "Because it's there."

Because Everest was still there last week, and because six British onslaughts on the mountain have ended in death or defeat, a party of Swiss Alpinists took off from Geneva for the long flight to India. Their plan: to conquer Everest from, a new, untried approach.

Silent Spires. The traditional route to Everest is through the arid, treeless plains of Communist-controlled Tibet. The old route leads to the north face of the mountain, where, also in 1924, Britain's Dr. T. H. Somervell and Lieut. Colonel E. F. Norton were a mere 900 ft. from the top, the highest point man has reached--and returned alive.

The new route, through Nepal, leads to the southwest face. It was thoroughly reconnoitered by a British party last summer. Led by veteran Himalayaman Eric Shipton, the Britons climbed to a 20,000-ft. buttress on nearby Pumori for a glimpse of a new route. They found they could see right over the treacherous ice fall to the head of the Western Cwm,t about 2,500-ft. below the South Col* (see diagram). To Shipton it looked as if there was a direct route up to the 25,000-ft. mark on Lhotse, followed by a traverse to the South Col. In a later climb up the silent, towering spires of the ice fall, Shipton's party was thwarted near the top of the ice fall by an avalanche, followed by ominous rumblings and shiftings of the ice.

Sloping Strata. Though the new route appears more hazardous in many ways than the old, it has certain advantages. The climbers will not have to cope with the full force of the prevailing northwesterly gales; the rock strata dip down from south to north, making the south side more suitable for camp sites, and eliminating overhangs; and most important, the climber's morale, which ebbs dramatically at the 27,000-ft. level, will be aided by the full force of the sun's rays, which are quickly blanketed on the north face.

The canny Swiss, advised by Avalanche Expert Andre Roch, plan to take advantage of this previous British reconnaissance. They will also attack the problem with a new, semisecret weapon: an ingenious "third lung," designed at Zurich and perfected by Swiss watchmakers. Contrary to widespread opinion, there is nothing unsporting about using oxygen, though some British mountaineers might consider it "going soft." Heretofore, it has simply been considered impractical or impossible to haul the added burden. The new lightweight (22 Ibs.) Swiss lung, complete with plastic mouthpiece, is worked by the climber's own breath, which releases the precious oxygen.

The actual Swiss assault on Everest is expected to come in May. Avalanche Expert Roch, echoing the aspirations of mountaineers the world over, hopes to climb Everest for other reasons than Mallory's simple "because it's there." Alpinist Roch is also imaginatively challenged by other inaccessible Himalaya buttresses and spires. Says Roch: "The great attraction of the Himalayas lies not only in reaching a summit, but also in the simple contemplation of the wild flanks which probably never can be climbed."

* Named for Sir George Everest (1790-1866), surveyor general of India. Original trigonometric surveys (1852) placed the height at 29,002 ft., a figure still widely accepted. Later computations (1905), still not accurate because of atmospheric refraction complications, place the height at 29,141 ft.

YEN Pronounced koom, meaning a circular bowl carved by glacial erosion; a Welsh word for valley.

* Pronounced call, a mountain pass between peaks; from the Latin collum, neck.

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