The Assault on Mount Everest, 1922 |
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able acclimatisation Alpine Alps altitude arrived Arun ascent attempt Base Camp began bird boots breathing Camp III carried Chumbi Valley climber climbing party clouds cold Crawford crevasse cylinders Darjeeling descent difficulty doubt Dzong Dzongpen East Rongbuk Glacier exhausted Expedition experience feet felt Finch foot frostbite Geoffrey Bruce ground Gurkhas height high altitudes high camp Himalaya Jelep La journey Kalimpong Khamba Khamba Dzong Kharta Lama loads Longstaff looked Makalu Mallory Monastery monsoon Mont Blanc morning Morshead moun Mount Everest mountain Nepal never night Noel North Col North Ridge North-east shoulder Norton obtained once ourselves oxygen apparatus peaks perhaps Phari Pika pitched porters possible reach the summit rest rocks Rongbuk Monastery rope Shekar Sikkim sleeping-bags slope Somervell soon steep Strutt supply of oxygen Tejbir tent Tibet Tibetan tion Wakefield warm weather whole wind wonderful Yatung
Popular passages
Page 243 - ... to my limbs. We connected up the apparatus in such a way that we could breathe a small quantity of oxygen throughout the night. The result was marvellous. We slept well and warmly. Whenever the tube delivering the gas fell out of Bruce's mouth as he slept, I could see him stir uneasily in the uric, greenish light of the moon as it filtered through the canvas. Then half unconsciously replacing the tube, he would fall once more into a peaceful slumber. There is little doubt that it was the use...
Page 243 - Provoked, perhaps, by my labours outside the tent, a dead, numbing cold was creeping up my limbs — a thing I had only once before felt, and to the seriousness of which I was fully alive. Something had to be done. Like an inspiration came the thought of trying the effect of oxygen. We hauled an apparatus and cylinders into the tent, and, giving it the air of a joke, we took doses all round. Tejbir took his medicine reluctantly, but with relief I saw his face brighten up. The effect on Bruce was...
Page 240 - Sleep was out of the question. We dared not relax our vigilance, for ever and again all our strength was needed to hold the tent down and to keep the flaps of the door, stripped of their fastenings by a gust that had caught us unawares, from being torn open. We fought for our lives...
Page 281 - ... every step, and two hours were taken in traversing the snowfield. At 10.15 am Somervell, I, a porter, and Crawford, roped up in that order, began to work up the steep ice-slope, now covered with snow. It was clear that the three of us without loads must take the lead in turns stamping out the tracks for our porters. These men, after their immense efforts on the first and second attempts, had all volunteered to "go high", as they said once more, and everything must be done to ease the terrible...
Page 244 - The only clouds seemed so far off as to presage no evil, and the breeze, though intensely cold, was bearable. But it soon freshened up, and before we had gone more than a few hundred feet the cold began to have its effect on Tejbir's sturdy constitution, and he showed signs of wavering. . Bruce's eloquent flow of Gurumuki, however, managed to boost him up to an altitude of 26,000 feet. There he collapsed entirely, sinking face downwards on to the rocks and crushing beneath him the delicate instruments...
Page 12 - What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
Page 246 - Since leaving the ridge we had not made much height although we seemed to be getting so near our goal. • Now and then we consulted the aneroid barometer and its readings encouraged us on. 27,000 feet; then we gave up traversing and began to climb diagonally upwards towards a point on the lofty north-east ridge, midway between the shoulder and the summit. Soon afterwards an accident put Bruce's oxygen apparatus out of action. He was some 20 feet below me, but struggled gallantly upwards as I went...
Page 243 - A few minutes after the first deep breath, I felt the tingling sensation of returning life and warmth to my limbs. We connected up the apparatus in such a way that we could breathe a small quantity of oxygen throughout the night. The result was marvellous. We slept well and warmly. Whenever the tube delivering the gas fell out of Bruce's mouth as he slept, I could see him stir uneasily in the uric, greenish light of the moon as it filtered through the canvas.
Page 249 - ... exhaustion. Hearing the voices of the porters on their way up to bring down our kit, we woke him up, telling him to await their arrival and to go down with them. Bruce and I then proceeded on our way, met the ascending porters and passed on, greatly cheered by their bright welcomes and encouraging smiles. But the long descent, coming as it did on the top of a hard day's work, soon began to find out our weakness. We were deplorably tired, and could no longer move ahead with our accustomed vigour....
Page 242 - R was the opportunity for retreat to the safety of the North Col camp. But I wanted to hang on and try our climb on the following day. Very cautiously and tentatively I broached my wish to Bruce, fearful lest the trying experience of the last twenty-four hours had undermined his keenness for further adventure. Once again might I have spared myself all anxiety.