White Limbo: The Classic Story Of The First Australian Climb Of Everest

by Hall, Lincoln

  Today’s modern world is epitomised by technological excess. Entertainment comes from electric toys; dental hygiene from toothbrushes whose bristle length and flexibility are determined by computers; telephones answer themselves with pre-recorded messages then lapse into muzak; petrol bowsers turn themselves off at pre-selected quantities; fast food is made by machines to chemical formulae, packed by machines, dispensed by machines and eaten by people whose tastes have become mechanical. Behind the cities loom suburban hills, their summit lookouts serviced by cable-cars. Most people in our society will never experience the adventure that still exists in places other than King’s Cross and, for a privileged few, in space rides to the moon. This is our world. Its benefits are enormous but so are its dangers. The dangers are those of existing for personal security and comfort, of remaining unaware of other sides to life. We worry whether our clothes and cars and emotions and opinions match the current fashion. We allow these things to assume more importance in our minds than the magic of being alive. Meanwhile most people on earth manage to live full lives with only the simplest of trappings. Living the city life it is easy to forget that humanity is not the centre of the universe.

  Beyond the suburbs the bush begins. Our lifestyle does no more than acknowledge the existence of wild places. For most, the bush is seen as the distance between two towns, or as a place for a picnic, or to drive through for a change of air. Yet the stillness of green forest smells of life so much more than the noise and haste of concrete jungles. Mountains radiate a sense of timelessness. They are harsher than the forests, less malleable to the whims of industry. In the high mountains there is no question of values. Humans are simply insignificant. In the wilderness we can feel that something larger than us exists, and it is detached from our petty ambitions and frustrations, independent of our complex society. Reality “is”, although we cannot describe it with words or photographs or mathematics. The need to seek out this essence has driven people from the comforts of civilised life to the remotest mountains and widest oceans. The struggle for the right to live is the ultimate challenge of life. People in our society are fortunate to be able to choose that challenge, when so much of the world faces the fight to live every day.

  Nature’s forces are beyond human control. To visit the mountains people must go on nature’s terms. Climbers must use their judgment to survive the threats of weather, avalanches and hidden crevasses. The skill of climbing is to work between these dangers and one’s own limitations. The satisfaction comes not only from achievement but also from the intensity of the activity. One becomes totally involved, totally committed, totally alive.

  There have long been people in Western society who have felt the need to live life at this level. Some have become soldiers, sailors or bandits, and others mountaineers. Mountaineering is the most recent addition to this list as it is essentially a pastime of the wealthy, or at least, of wealthy cultures. Mountain climbing became an organised and socially acceptable activity in the middle of the last century when British and European scientists claimed research and exploration as reasons for their climbs amongst the Alps of Europe. International rivalry began to exert an influence. Mountains were climbed by difficult routes even though easier ways to the summit could be found. Achievement rather than pursuit of knowledge was acknowledged as the reason for such climbs. This style of climbing became respectable when the climbs were seen to enhance national prestige.

  The earliest expeditions to the Himalaya and Karakoram took place at the beginning of this century. Increasing human knowledge of the earth was the professed aim. Many found satisfaction in filling in blanks on the map, but I am sure few would deny that the joys of the experience were personally just as worthwhile. It was only when Mt Everest became the objective of the expeditions that the emphasis changed from geographical and anthropological exploration to a search for the limits of human endurance. No one knew whether people could survive the incredibly harsh environment of the highest mountain on earth. Such a challenge had to be met.

  Interest in an expedition to Mt Everest began to gather in the early years of this century amongst British explorers and mountaineers. At that time India provided the only feasible access to the mountain so the British, because of their control of India, regarded Mt Everest as their province. Political difficulties did exist—Everest was not actually in India. Though only one hundred kilometres north through Nepal, the mountain was closed from that direction. The Nepalese kingdom was forbidden territory to foreigners, so access had to be gained through Tibet. The Indian government (then British) had political reasons for not wanting expeditions to visit Tibet, which meant that for many years all plans were stillborn. The First World War changed the political situation, as did the withdrawal of the Chinese garrison from Tibet. Negotiations began afresh and in 1921 an expedition left Darjeeling in India to make a reconnaissance of the mountain. George Mallory, a member of the party, wrote these first impressions: “There is no complication for the eye. The highest of the world’s mountains, it seems, had to make but a single gesture of magnificence to the Lord of all, vast in unchallenged and isolated supremacy.”

  Encouraged by the success of the reconnaissance in finding a suitable approach route and in assessing the climbing conditions, the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society organised another expedition in 1922. It was the first full-scale attempt to climb the mountain. The route taken was the North-East Ridge, the way pioneered by the 1921 party. The team consisted of thirteen British climbers, sixteen Sherpas from Nepal to act as high-altitude porters, and Tibetan porters and yaks to transport the supplies to the base camp on Tibet’s Rongbuk Glacier. Months were devoted to establishing and stocking camps, gradually pushing the route higher up the mountain. Mallory, Somervell and Norton were able to climb to 26 800 feet (8160 metres) above sea-level before admitting defeat. No man had climbed above 7300 metres before this expedition so the climbers were unprepared for the debilitating effects of high altitude. There was no understanding of the mechanisms of acclimatisation whereby one’s body gradually adjusts to the absence of oxygen. They attempted to cope with anoxia by using cylinders of compressed oxygen, but there was debate amongst the members as to whether the weight of the cumbersome apparatus offset its usefulness.

  During the next expedition in 1924, Norton and Somervell were able to climb to 8300 metres without the aid of artificial oxygen. Norton pushed on to 8440 metres where he turned back with the summit only four hundred metres above him. Three days later Mallory, veteran of the two previous Everest expeditions, and Irvine, took oxygen sets with them when they left for the summit. They climbed away from their sole companion at the top camp into thickening mist and were never seen again. The story of the courage of that attempt and the loneliness of their unknown grave has become a legend. Public imagination was captured by the thought that their deaths were for no other reason than, as Mallory had explained, “Because it is there”.

  It was not until 1933 that the British mounted the next expedition. Wyn Harris and Wager, then Smythe a few days later, were able to climb to the same height as Norton had reached in 1924. The mountaineers remained convinced that Everest could be climbed with the right combination of preparation, fitness and weather. Back in Britain opinion was not as optimistic. The public questioned the appropriateness of large and expensive expeditions to Tibet during the Great Depression, a period of extreme hardship at home.

  At the time public attention was focussed on Everest—natural enough as the expeditions were sponsored by newspapers—even though the climbs were unsuccessful. Neglected by the press were the climbs undertaken by two of Britain’s most respected and competent mountaineers. The trips organised by Bill Tilman and Eric Shipton and their companions may have seemed small fry compared to the Everest expeditions but their objectives were anything but small. Most importantly, several of their climbs were successful. Shipton, who had been a member of the 1933 expedition, was chosen to lead an Everest reconnaissance in 1935 to re-examine
strategy and to assess conditions during the monsoon season. All previous attempts had taken place during the pre-monsoon season. Shipton was given the chance to prove the potential of small, lightweight and therefore inexpensive expeditions. His team consisted of Tilman and five others. Rather than take a huge supply train of yaks for the approach, they lived from the land, saving their few luxuries for high in the mountains. Shipton thought the best way to test the condition of the monsoon snow was to climb upon it, and the best way to choose the most suitable route up Mt Everest was to view the mountain from the summits of smaller satellite peaks. It was the perfect excuse for a climbing spree. Consequently the expedition climbed twenty-six peaks from 6000 to 7000 metres. These ascents were made despite the poor climbing conditions of the monsoon. The snow was deep and unstable above 7000 metres, and snow fell virtually every afternoon.

  The 1935 trip was a prelude to another summit attempt in 1936. Shipton and Tilman had hoped that their reconnaissance would convince the organising committee that small expeditions spelt the way to success. The committee interpreted the success differently, and reasoned that if a small expedition could achieve so much then a large expedition could bulldoze its way to the top. That attitude set the style for the 1936 expedition, even though Shipton and Smythe (another small team advocate) were members. As it turned out the weather in Tibet in 1936 was exceptionally bad, preventing progress above the North Col.

  A lightweight team led by Tilman attempted the mountain in 1938 only to fall prey to equally bad weather. The climbers were able to establish Camp VII at 8200 metres and had the weather been good it is likely that they would have demonstrated conclusively that Everest was climbable by a small expedition. As it was, the conquest of Everest had to wait another fifteen years.

  During the years that the mountain remained untouched, momentous changes took place back in the human world. Some of those changes had direct bearing on the history of Mt Everest. The first was the independence and partitioning of India, which meant that Britain lost its commanding geographical advantage. This was further weakened in 1950 by the opening of Nepal’s borders to foreigners and the invasion of Tibet by Chinese forces, leading to those frontiers being firmly closed.

  The British were granted permission by the Nepalese authorities to make a reconnaissance of Everest’s southern approaches in 1951. Shipton led a team of six which included the New Zealander, Edmund Hillary. Hopes of a feasible route were confirmed when a way was found through the dangerous icefall on the Khumbu Glacier. From there it seemed possible to climb to the South Col and thence (hopefully) to the summit. Shipton’s assessment that the icefall would be the most dangerous part of any climb made from the south has proved to be accurate. To date over a dozen people have been killed there, more than half of them Sherpas carrying supplies for higher camps.

  It was a shock to the British Himalayan Committee when, in 1952, permission to climb Everest was given to a Swiss group. Discussions were held with the Swiss in the hope of organising a joint expedition, but instead it was agreed that the British would attempt the mountain in 1953.

  The Swiss Foundation of Alpine Research planned a pre-monsoon expedition and, if that failed, another attempt during the post-monsoon season. The Swiss had to cope with the psychological factor of breaking completely new ground where the dangers ahead were totally unknown. Of the British route in Tibet only the last three hundred metres to the summit remained unclimbed. The Swiss faced 2000 metres of untouched mountain. Given this, and the infrequent but severe storms that plagued the expedition, Lambert and Tenzing Norgay did well to break the altitude record and climb within 250 vertical metres of the summit before retreating exhausted. They returned in autumn (post-monsoon) but bad weather prevented them from climbing above the South Col (7986 metres).

  Meanwhile the British had expended the energy of their impatience on an attempted ascent of Cho Oyu, an 8000-metre peak west of Everest on the Tibetan border. The expedition, led by Shipton, failed to reach the summit, although its members climbed high on the mountain.

  Shipton was in favour of taking a small experienced team to Everest in 1953. The Himalayan Committee was more concerned with success than with the style of the climb. It believed a large expedition had more chance of success, so it was a large venture which it began to organise. It was assumed by all mountaineers in Britain that Shipton with his proven experience and obvious talent would be the leader. He had been selected for that position when it was presumed by the British that they would be given permission for 1953. As they no longer held a monopoly on the mountain the British Himalayan Committee decided that the 1953 expedition must be the successful one. It would be several years before the Nepalese allowed Britain another chance if it failed this time. While the Committee did not question Shipton’s ability, it did doubt his capacity to lead successfully a large expedition of the style that was being planned. The result of a great deal of behind-the-scenes intrigue, while the expedition was being organised, was that Shipton was ousted from leadership and replaced by John Hunt. More accurately, Shipton was asked to accept such absurd conditions and qualifications to his leadership that he was forced to challenge them with his resignation from the position. This was exactly what the Committee had been playing for; his resignation was graciously but firmly accepted.

  Through no fault of his own, the furtive politicking that led to John Hunt’s appointment as leader put him under enormous pressure to live up to Shipton’s reputation. It was an unenviable position and a very difficult one for a man who had never visited Everest. However, he was a competent and determined organiser, and by 1953 he had made sure that the British Expedition was in the strongest possible position. The team was proven in ability and determined to succeed. Wartime research had led to improved equipment and a better understanding of physiological needs in extremely harsh conditions. The Swiss had come very close to success in 1952. Everyone knew that the mountain was climbable. It remained for the British to use the momentum of this conviction to carry them to the summit.

  That was exactly what they did, though of course a great deal of hard work and co-operation was called for as well. On 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa stood on the earth’s highest point. It was a great personal triumph for Tenzing Norgay, having come so close to success the preceding year. A few days before, Bourdillion and Evans, who made the first attempt to reach the summit from the top camp on the South Col, had turned back exhausted from the South Summit. When Hillary and Tenzing made their successful bid it took two and a half hours to climb from the South Summit to the main peak. The size of the expedition and the logistical build-up which Hunt had planned allowed for a third summit team to be in position at the South Col if Hillary and Tenzing failed. As it was, they escorted the victorious pair down the mountain.

  The ramifications of the first ascent of Everest were numerous. British nationalism was given a firm boost, even though neither of the two summiteers were British nationals. The successful formula for Himalayan climbing had been shown to be a large elaborate expedition which used oxygen apparatus, organised and administered along the lines of a military operation. Had Shipton led a successful expedition the consequences for Himalayan mountaineering would have been different. It is only in recent years that small lightweight expeditions have become popular. The world’s major peaks have been climbed and most of them by several different routes. The barrier of the unknown has been broken. Today the challenge of mountaineering is maintained by attempting difficult or unclimbed faces or ridges, or by attempting large or difficult peaks with a small team. With a small group of climbers the backup resources are not there, so the commitment to each other and to the climb is necessarily greater. The problems encountered are much more those of the mountain than ones of the logistics of establishing a hierarchy amongst the many group members. Shipton and Tilman preferred small expeditions because, though the chances of success were fewer, they felt the rewards to be immeasurably greater.

  As
the highest mountain in the world Everest has always been in the forefront of mountaineering developments. The South Col route was climbed again in 1954 by a strong Swiss team which also made the first ascent of the adjacent peak of Lhotse (literally South Peak). In 1960 the Chinese managed to climb the North-East Ridge by the route the British had attempted so many times. Their expedition was thoroughly planned and determined to succeed. During their summit bid night fell with the climbers still a considerable distance from their goal. They climbed the rest of the way in darkness, crawling the last section because their oxygen sets had run out. They arrived at the summit at four o’clock in the morning. Caution did not play a big role in the final ascent.

  The next dramatic development was in 1963 when members of an American expedition climbed Everest’s West Ridge and descended the South Col route. Ten years later a Japanese team became the first to climb the mountain in the post-monsoon season by repeating the original route. By this stage the mountain had been climbed by several Sherpas. The first non-Sherpa Nepali to climb Everest was Sambhu Tamang who was a member of the 1972 Italian expedition. He still holds the record of being the youngest person to have climbed Everest. When he stood on the summit he was only eighteen years old.

  In the twenty years after the first ascent, Everest had been climbed several times and by three different routes. In every case the expeditions were large in the traditional style. The culmination of this era came in 1975 with the first ascent of the South-West Face by a very strong British team led by Chris Bonington. Bonington had led an attempt in 1972, one of several expeditions from different countries to fail on this intimidating face. The successful climb in 1975 was a showpiece of large-scale expedition strategy, relying as much on precise planning of supply and equipment movements (meaning tactful delegation of load-carrying and climbing roles) as on the climbing abilities of the members.