Letters From Everest

by George Lowe, Huw Lewis-Jones, Jan Morris, Peter Hillary

  They took off their oxygen sets and walked around, Ed photographing and Tenzing pointing out Thyangboche monastery in Nepal and Shekar Dzong away in Tibet. There was a steady breeze but otherwise a perfect and clear day. Ed collected a pocket full of stones (8 or 9) from the top and brought them down – he gave me the first and it’s quite a treasure. He left there a crucifix that a devout R.C. had given to John Hunt for the purpose. Tenzing left a small offering of food – a Buddhist custom.

  Then, with worries about oxygen supply, they hurried down after only a ¼ hour on top. Late that night talk dwindled on. Our fourth night on the South Col was another bloody, windy, cold night.

  30th May we left the Col at 10 a.m. abandoning the tents to be snapped at and worried by the mad wind until like the Swiss camp they were just bare frames and torn fabric. We climbed over the Eperon, took a last look at the sweep of the South Summit and pounded down and down the 4,000 ft of traverse and the fixed ropes and crevasses of the Lhotse Face.

  At VII Charles Wylie was there to receive us with tea and whoops of joy. We went straight on, passed VI and V, and in the afternoon met Tom Stobart near V. He was filming and as I approached him, I gave the ‘thumbs-up’ sign and he went mad. He told us John and everyone were waiting at IV (Advanced Base) and were nearly mad with anxiety and conjecture and had asked him to wave a windproof if we had got up. Here we entered a conspiracy and decided to make no sign, walk up to Camp IV and surprise them with the news. Tom was keen because he wanted to film the ensuing scene.

  We pushed on towards IV and when a quarter mile away and in view of the tents John and nearly everybody began to come up to meet us to see what the news was. We plodded towards them, excited as hell, but not making any sign. John, we could see, had decided we had failed. His shoulders were slumped and he walked wearily and slowly, thinking dismal thoughts. The others were hesitant as to whether to make the effort to meet us and hear the worst. Tom had his movie and was with us saying, “Not yet! Wait a bit, get closer.” Then, when John was perhaps 100 yards away I shoved up my thumb and waved the victory news.

  John stopped and gaped, Mike Westmacott began to run and the others did varying things from cheering to crying. John cried. He ran forward, hugged Ed and Tenzing with tears running down his face. He had put so much work and worry into his efforts that the tension broke him. Tom filmed some rather un-English scenes of emotion. Even later, John was so overcome that he retired to his tent so stirred that he couldn’t talk and Mike, the doctor, gave him sedatives and put him onto oxygen. What a thrill it was for everybody – all talking in the tent. The expedition, after all the trials and work and hope was now a success. The top was reached and everyone was safe and well. We were so glad that a British party had reached the ‘third pole’ after over 30 years of trying. That night we toasted the old Everesters, John, the Sherpas, Eric Shipton and talked far into the night.

  31st May. The first of us moved to Base Camp while the Sherpas began to lift all that was required down to Base ready for the long march home.

  From that day on we went flat. Charles Evans, Ed and I came down on one rope and dreadful tiredness caught us as it did everyone after the tremendous efforts of getting up. The icefall descent was difficult and dangerous and it was nearly dark when we reached Base Camp where for two days we never left our sleeping bags. There, with bloodshot eyes and wasted bodies, we heard the Coronation broadcasts on the radio and then the news of our success on the radio which seemed to buck us up. On Coronation night we toasted the Queen and the Duke with a noggin of rum. The quantity was hardly an egg-cup full each, but such was our depleted state that nearly everyone was made quite drunk and garralous and we passed the evening in singing and merriment.

  Hunt, Hillary, Tenzing, Ang Nima, Gregory and Lowe on 30 May at Camp IV, the day after the summit of Everest had been reached.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Base Camp

  2nd June 1953

  Dear Betty, Mum, Dad and All,

  This will be short as the mail-runner is off tomorrow with all the important despatches and cables.

  Probably at this hour or half day you will hear by radio of our success. Ed and Tenzing reached the summit at 11.30 last Friday 29th May. I was watching them from S. Col and went up to meet them on their descent to camp. It was quite a terrific moment. N.Z. was well to the front – as well as the Lhotse Face work I got onto S. Col where I spent 4 nights and 5 days and carried a 50 lb load to Camp IX at 27,900 ft.

  I hope to tell you in detail of the past ten days as we march out to Katmandu. We reached Base on 31st May and arrived absolutely played out and today – after two days of sleeping and eating we are just perking up.

  Today is a great day – we are all around the wireless listening to the Coronation service. The crown is just being placed and there is quite a hush amongst the boys. The Duke of Edinburgh is the patron of this expedition and has sent telegrams of goodwill and we are excited by the fact that today he will hear the news of our success.

  You can’t imagine how profound this success of ours is going to be. We haven’t realised it properly yet. It hasn’t come without effort and trying.

  Today a cable from Holyoake (acting Prime M.) arrived and we thought it rather a thrill. Thanks to all the family for the very comforting and encouraging cable you sent me – I received it the day I came down when dog-tired but with the knowledge that the trials were over. It was a nice thought.

  The cable from Holyoake: “N.Z. is watching the courage and determination of the Everest expedition with the closest interest and deep admiration. Already your efforts have served to raise still further the high prestige which the 1951 Himalayan expedition gave to N.Z. mountaineers and to yourself. I wish you and your companions every success in your second attempt on the peak. Acting Prime Minister.”

  The day after tomorrow we are setting out for the long trek back to Katmandu. We expect to arrive there about 17th June and expect to be there five or seven days.

  Ed, Tenzing and John (I think) will be flying to England and John has cabled the Himalayan Committee asking if they will authorise the flying to England of the rest of the party. I would like a flip by Comet – which is the service from Delhi (17 hours to London!) But somehow I don’t think the Committee will come over with the money for us ‘lesser mortals’.

  In the mess tent at Base Camp on 2 June, the team heard news of their Everest success over the wireless. Band, Hillary, Evans and Ward are pictured here.

  If we fly I’ll be in England by the end of June – if we sail we’ll be there about the beginning of August.

  I’m looking forward to the trip and visit to England – all the English boys are full of invitations and promise both of us a wonderful time. I’m glad that Ed is going even if it is only for a few weeks. Ed insists that he get home in September for the start of the season. But as yet all these are tentative plans that might not come off.

  I have been very thrilled on receiving letters from the brothers and sisters (Chris and Mabel were the latest) all expressing interest in my doings and as I have said especially for the cable of goodwill before the big effort. Ed, too thanks you for your good wishes.

  As you will have guessed, Ed was the dominant member of the expedition and his final effort was right in keeping with what he had been doing all along. Tenzing was quite pale in comparison. I am not discrediting Tenzing’s wonderful endurance – but he was very second to Ed. It would be a pity if anyone thought Tenzing led Ed up. They were a superb team together.

  More anon during the walk out. Love to all the brothers, sisters and families, to the Watts’, and to all the people who have followed our doings with such close interest, my kindest regards.

  Cheers, George.

  On 2nd June we moved down to Loje, the first green grass, stream and flowers off the Khumbu glacier. It rained – the first rain we had experienced in two months. We had been too high for rain before. The evening was perfect and someone suggested we shoot off the mortar bombs in ho
nour of the Queen. We did this to the astonishment of the Sherpas.

  By now we were recovering our strength and morale and we sang around a roaring brush fire. The Sherpas caught our spirit and the ‘high altitude’ boys began a Sherpa dance which grew and grew until they were all in it around the lanterns singing and stamping their traditional dances.

  The Sherpa dance is rather like a Russian cossack dance and is accompanied by a chant that is rather English Churchish. I wish we had a tape recorder here – it was a most memorable night.

  The 3rd June dawned gloriously, with birds singing around the camp. A new warmth soaked into us. Most of the boys whistled or sang as they packed their gear. They wandered off in twos and threes gassing about rock climbing in Wales or the glory of the view. We were beginning to respond to the healing effects of low altitude and growing things. All the day we paused to notice birds, berries, violets, azaleas, moss on the stream beds, and young leaf on the first trees.

  Charles Evans told us of his silver pig. He had a small silver pig that was sent to Eric Shipton with the story that after the First World War a girl gave it to Somerville as he left on the 1924 Everest show (when Mallory died). Somerville took the pig with him to 28,000 ft on the Tibetan side, took it home to England and gave it back to the little girl. The girl grew and married and gave the silver pig to her son. The little boy sent it to Shipton in 1951 and it accompanied Eric. This year Eric gave it to Charles who took it with him to the South Summit and he gave it to Tenzing on the South Col. Tenzing took it to the top and returned it to Charles – who is now sending it back to the little boy. Lucky boy!

  On the March

  11th June 1953

  The fifth day of the march home. The writing of this when I was dog tired at Base and Loje was a marathon which I could never repeat. Now the trek home is a third done, there are many things to add but I expect I’ll forget them before I can write them down. It’s nearly dusk and the daily rain discourages attempts to write.

  To continue the tale:– From Loje, the place where the Sherpas danced, we walked in one long day to Thyangboche. At the monastery the water-hole had dried up and we went back down the hill to a little village called Mingbo and camped in a field where a tiny creek gave us a supply of water. Mingbo became paradise. The tents sprang up and for three days we dozed, ate, read, talked and were satisfactorily lazy. Nearby were thousands of primulas in bloom which we wandered over to look at. We found a blue poppy and watched the lammergaus (huge eagles) cruising overhead.

  Mingbo is a place of some 8 or 10 houses and consists almost exclusively (according to Tenzing) of ex nuns and lamas who have married. Thyangboche, the monastery, is 20 minutes walk up the hill from the nunnery, and it seems that attachments form and become too strong for their celibate vows and the ‘fallen ones’ take up residence in Mingbo. I don’t wonder at some marriages as the women we saw there were exceedingly attractive. The most striking one had a wonderful Tibetan hat with gold brocaded adornments. She was always bringing gifts of milk, dai and food to Tenzing. We teased him about this and he explained that he had discovered her son in Darjeeling – and seeing him going to the bad there, had brought him back to Mingbo when we trekked in during March. For this she was showing gratitude.

  The day of our return to Thyangboche the abbot promised to have performed for us the devil dances. In the monastery are a whole series of highly painted devil masks and dress after dress of very ornate and costly silk robes which go with the masks.

  Usually the dance ceremonies take all day and with these outfits they dance and depict various incidents, passions and characters which they mime. Several of the dances were done for us, but we failed to get any useful interpretation of what was going on. Tom Stobart and I filmed it in colour, the lighting was bad, but I hope to have something to show you. Tom filmed with one camera from their great open dance quadrangle while I was set up on the balcony that surrounds this and on which the head lama – in full regalia on his throne – sits, with the drums, cymbals and the great long (18 ft) alpine horns and other gadgets that supply music and rhythm. In between dance acts they plied us with Tibetan tea, chapatties and rakshi (rice spirits, which looks and tastes like methylated!)

  As the dance was in progress an aeroplane was roaring over Everest and our way. Unidentified – four engined, fast-moving plane similar to one that flew over Everest in April on 8 days in succession. It was back again the following day and each time disappeared flying north over Tibet.

  After a day in Mingbo, John, Greg and Tom B. left to make a fast trip through to Katmandu in order to facilitate baggage and travel arrangements and fix many official things. The night before they left was the final night on which we would all be together as an expedition. The spirit was marvellous and we had to agree that this had been a splendid expedition. The team-work had been superb and now after all these months everyone were the best of companions and there had not been a single incident of unfriendliness. They are a great bunch of easy going chaps and we congratulated John on his careful choice.

  We, the main party of nine, were delayed a day by the difficulty of raising 100 porters who would carry to Katmandu now that the monsoon had come and the high level routes were to be used.

  We left on 7th June and passed through Namche on the way. Many of our high altitude Sherpas had been paid off and were resident there and they met us and insisted we visit their house and be entertained. We pushed on a few hours later very full of chang, potatoes and eggs – sad in a way to bid the boys farewell. Nearly all our Sherpas were drunk and we didn’t get far – just far enough to shake the influences of Namche – and made our first camp.

  The second day down the Dudh Kosi gorges and climbed to a few houses and camped during a hail storm at Tate. Here, a returning mail-runner met us and we read ‘The Times’ (only ten days old!), ‘The Weekly News’ and three letters from home. The reason for the regular mail-service was a blessing brought by the many newspaper men that penetrated here. Every day during the assault they sent off despatches and bribed the runners great sums if they raced their rivals. Consequently for a two week period more than one runner a day left from Everest carrying despatches and they also carried our mail. Now they are returning home and daily for the last four days we’ve had mail – until today we received ‘The Times’ only 7 days from London.

  Today, too, came a sheaf of congratulatory cables and we are all delighted. The Queen, Philip, Winston Churchill, Swiss Alpine Club, French, British, Canadian and many others, and literally dozens of private ones. I was very pleased that Dad sent the ‘Sunnybank’ one to John Hunt and congratulated the whole team. John is very keen on the ‘whole team’ idea and he will receive this with great pleasure. I will have to thank Betty, the Hill Family, the Mayor – a very nice one – Greater Hastings, Jim Rose and many other thoughtful people. Sid Holland sent a very good one to John – Ed of course has received streams. Altogether, we feel rather pleased with ourselves.

  Today we crossed a 15,000 ft pass – in the mist – and dropped down and down a long ridge to Ringmo. The last part was along a ridge through bush very like N.Z. There were great straight barrelled trees, ferns and lush undergrowth.

  I think a mail-runner is going ahead, so I’ll stop. This will cost something! Love to Mum and Dad and all. Thanks for the cuttings and letters and especially the cables. Am well and enjoying the walk out.

  Regards to all, George.

  Chaubas, On the March

  18th June 1953

  Dear Betty,

  At this moment we are enduring a violent monsoon thunderstorm. The thunder is continuous and the rain torrential. The tent floor is soaking from the running off water and the sport is to write and avoid the drips. I’m sitting like a hen on a pile of gear trying to keep it dry. Da Namgyl is channelling around the tent with an ice axe trying to entice the water away. What fun travelling in the monsoon is! This will bring the leeches out.

  The day after tomorrow we’ll be in Katmandu – Hooray! Hooray
because we’ll be away from this daily rain and amongst good food and drink with real beds, baths and things.

  This 15 day march home has been made a great joy by the daily mail-runners sent to us from Katmandu. The flood of mail has been fantastic – the cables absolutely in undreamed of numbers from many kind people. The good thing is that everybody seems to have caught on to the team spirit idea and everybody in the party has had a wonderful share of personal and party cables. Ed and John of course head the list with me a close second. Everyone has been very kind to think of us all collectively. Yesterday was the heaviest day yet. Ed with 47 letters and 36 cables (he already has 150) and me with 38 letters and 15 cables (I already had 33). It’s terrific what goodwill and pleasure this event has touched off – and we’re glad. I hope to acknowledge as many good wishes as I can, but the postage will shock me!