3 DECEMBER 1937, Page 32

EVEREST AND KANGCHENJUNGA

)ii ma iayan Campaign. By Paul Bauer. Translated by Sumner Austin. (Basil Blackwell. 8s. 6d.) Everest : The Unfinished Adventure. By Hugh Ruttledge. (Hodder and Stoughton. 25s.) IN the last few years activity in Himalayan exploration has undoubtedly been greater than ever before ; yet one often feels that the literary output of climbers in this region is rather overdone. One sight of " the Snows " and anyone seems able to get into print at once. In these conditions it is the more odd that the one Himalayan venture which really stands comparison with the great adventure stories of the world has had to wait six years for an English translator and publisher.

In Himalayan Campaign Dr. Bauer tells how he and his companions, mostly from Munich, made two valiant attempts on Kangchenjunga, in 1929 and 1931. The route chosen is probably the only practicable way to the most inaccessible of peaks, and it involved months of burrowing in ice and shovelling of snow, and living largely in snow caves. They had to fight for every yard, and for the safety at all stages of themselves and of their native porters. Almost every footstep needed care since the route lay along the crest of a narrow ice- bound ridge. Everything was thought out to the last bootlace, and being post-War Germans they were obliged to save every penny they could on equipment and porters. They demon- ntrated in this way what can be done by a small and inexpensive party, even on a major Himalayan peak. The real greatness of Bauer's expeditions is most evident in their failure, on both occasions. In 1929 a heavy blizzard demanded a desperate retreat down that fearful icy ridge, now covered deep in snow. Each little party had to make its own way in twos and threes ; they were even obliged sometimes -to start avalanches below them to safeguard their descent. In 193r, having overcome the most difficult sections and reached broader and relatively easier slopes, the whole climb had to be abandoned because of one miserable patch of avalanchy snow. The decision to retreat at this point, after the consummate skill of their long struggle below, indicates that they possessed that sense of proportion without which mountaineering becomes merely a poor imitation of war.

The book is inexpensive and perhaps it would be ungracious to press the point that the reproduction of the photographs and map is hardly up to the very high standard in the two original German books. Of the translation there is more reason to complain. Dr. Bauer's German was for the most part admirably clear, but the English is at times muddled and obscure, and comparison with the original frequently reveals that the fault does not lie with Dr. Bauer ; on almost every page, too, the German use of commas creeps irritatingly into the English.

Essentially the narrative is swift and concise, in rather marked contrast with Mr. Ruttledge's Everest: the Unfinished Adventure. Under such a title there might be reasonable hope of a change from the well-worn pattern of the ` official " expedition book. The trouble is that Mr. Ruttledge has practically no story to tell ; which is in no way his fault, for the 1936 party were not able to go higher than the North Col, the starting-point for the high climbing. In the worst weather yet experienced on Everest, clearly no party on earth could have done more.

If only for continuity it was worth publishing something about this phase in the Everest adventure, but a book of half the length would have contained all there was to say, technical appendices and all. As it is the book is padded out with all kinds of tail-chasing pseudo-philosophy, and tired inconclusive argument about food, the ideal composition of a party, wireless and so on. A great deal of it is not new, and some of it has been more lucidly done before by Mr. Ruttledge himself. The final observation in favour of taking elaborate wireless transmission defies comment : " A situation might easily occur in Tibet where it was necessary to invoke the assistance of the Government of India." It would be good to hear views on that sentence from the author of News from Tartary. Mr. Ruttledge is at his best when his anxieties about the expedition are not in question ; when, for instance, he is writing about that remarkable and indispensable creature the Sherpa porter.

The photographs are superb, and it was a happy idea to put them all together at the end of the book and to give such