The photographic outfit has been considerably enlarged, including a cinematograph instrument. The question of supplying oxygen has been most thoroughly gone into. All flyers in aeroplanes at high altitudes find oxygen absolutely necessary. In mountain climbing, however, the almost insuperable difficulty is the weight of the apparatus supplying the oxygen. As far as possible, this weight has been reduced to a minimum. A large number of cylinders, the lightest and smallest obtainable, have been sent out full of compressed oxygen, and it is hoped that they will be capable of being used by the party that will attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. If the climbers are capable of carrying them, and so getting a continuous supply of oxygen during the whole of the climb, there is little doubt that climbing up to 29,000 feet is possible. In aeroplanes considerably higher altitudes have been reached with the help of oxygen. Moreover, there is this fact in favour of the climbers on Mount Everest, they will be acclimatised to altitudes of 20,000 feet, whilst anyone in an aeroplane is not so acclimatised, having risen from sea-level. The climbers will have to accommodate themselves only to an increased height of 9,000 feet, whilst those in an aeroplane have to suffer a diminution in pressure equivalent to 29,000 feet.
Finally, arrangements have been made with the Press for the publication of telegrams and photographs from the Expedition. Full information of the progress of the Expedition will therefore be available for the public, and it will be possible to follow the climbing party, after they leave the base camp, which will be somewhere near Chöbuk, as they ascend the East Rongbuk Glacier to the advanced base under the North col. Afterwards all the preliminary arrangements will be reported, and finally there will be an account of the great attempt to reach the summit.
The Expedition will be starting nearly two months earlier than in 1921. The weather in May and June, before the monsoon breaks in July, apparently is more or less settled, and so the most must be made of it. In 1921 from the end of July till September high climbing was impossible. It is therefore obvious that a determined attempt to climb Mount Everest should be made before the monsoon sets in.
Mount Everest at Sunset
from the 20,000 foot camp, Kharta Valley.
The ascent from the North col, Changa La, 23,000 feet, to the summit of Mount Everest, 29,000 feet, is only 6,000 feet, and the distance to traverse is about 2 miles. As far as can be judged from the numerous photographs of Mount Everest, the climbing is straightforward with no insurmountable difficulties in the form of steep rock precipices. There will be no glaciers overhanging the route which might send
But the final ascent will test the endurance of the climbers to the utmost. Many people have found the last 1,000 feet of Mont Blanc more than they could accomplish. The last 1,000 feet of Mount Everest will only be conquered by men whose physique is perfect, and who are trained and acclimatised to the last possible limit, and who have the determination to struggle on when every fibre of their body is calling out—Hold! enough!
The struggle will be a great one, but it will be worth the while. To do some new thing beyond anything that has been previously accomplished, and not to be dominated by his environment, has made man what he is, and has raised him above the beasts. He always has been seeking new worlds to conquer. He has penetrated into the forbidding ice-worlds at the two poles, and many are the secrets he has wrested from Nature. There remains yet the highest spot on the world's surface. No doubt he will win there also, and in the winning will add one more victory over the guarded secrets of things as they are.