Scrambling
THERE are eighteen peaks standing above 26,000 feet; all arc in the Himalaya or Karakoram. Until 1950 all attempts to scale these giants had failed. Since then no fewer than eight have been climbed. This remarkable reversal of fortune can be explained by the evolution since the war of light, efficient oxygen apparatus, the use of which has altered completely the problems of living and climbing at great altitudes. But that is not the whole story. There is also the emergence of that curious psychological factor which has appeared again and again in many fields of human endeavour when men have suddenly found the measure of a strange and daunting environment.
Of all these recent successes none was so strik- ing or so unexpected as the climbing of Kang- chenjunga in 1955. Long before the war men had climbed (without oxygen) to within a few hundred feet of the summits of Everest, K2 and Nanga Parbat. It was known that success on these peaks was only a question of time and luck with the weather. But with Kangchenjunga it was a different matter. This mountain was relatively easy to reach; it had been reconnoitred as long ago as 1899; it had been attempted five times; yet only one party had Succeeded in penetrating even its initial defences, and then only after many weeks of the most hazardous and exacting climb- ing ever undertaken in the Himalaya. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it came to be regarded as the most formidable of the great peaks.
The first two attempts, in 1905 and 1920, were made from the Yalung valley on the south-west sector of the mountain. Then, for thirty years, this approach wus neglected That it had been abandoned as a possible line of attack is evident from the fact that the mammoth International Expedition of 1930 did not bother to examine it, though they' passed the entrance of the valley, and though their own chosen line, the north-west face, scarcely yielded even a lodgement on the mountain In 1953 John Kempe and Gilmour Lewis visited the Yalung again, and thought they saw a pos- sible route up the south-west face. The following year they returned for a closer inspection. Their report, though inconclusive, was sufficiently encouraging for the Himalayan Committee to send out a strong reconnaissance in 1955, led by Charles Evans. After more than a week of strenuous effort and difficult climbing the party failed completely to overcome the Lower Ice- fall, which they believed to be the only way of access on to the mountain from that side: Con- sidering the magnitude of their task, such a severe rebuff would have discouraged most men. But there can be few less easily discouraged than Evans, and few whose imperturbability is more readily transmitted to his companions.
A hidden passage was found which led to a plateau above the icefall. From there this 'recon- naissance party' succeeded not only in unravelling the intricacies of the gigantic mountain from above, in finding a route which 'winds like a thread among difficulties and dangers from which it is itself largely free,' but they went on to score the most spectacular mountaineering success ever achieved in the Himalaya.
Evans has been content to write a straight- forward, factual account of this great exploit and to leave the heroics to the imagination of his readers. His story is not one of conquest, of a triumph over Nature, but of a party of friends sharing and savouring to the full the enjoyment of an exquisite experience. The great peak remains 'untrodden' because of a promise made to the Maharajah of Sikkim not to step on to its highest point.
On Climbing, also by Charles Evans, is a mixture of practical advice to beginners and of personal reminiscences selected both to illustrate points of technique and to convey his own approach to the mountains. It is a book both to inspire and to instruct, and anyone wishing to become a mountaineer would be well advised to acquire it.
Give Me the Hills is a climbing autobiography by one of the most experienced women moun- taineers. Mrs. Underhill, who has climbed exten- sively in the Alps and Rockies, was one of the first to make 'manless' ascents of some of the classic Alpine routes. She writes with unaffected ease and humour, which make for pleasant read- ing.
A Picture History of Mountaineering by Ronald Clark is one iaf a series of 'picture his- tories' (Ballet, Motoring, etc.) edited by Edward Hulton. It Is well produced and contains 350 pictures of mountains and mountaineers, illus- trating the progressive phases of the sport from its inception in the eighteenth century until the present day.
ERIC SHIPTON
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