The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-03
AMERICAN |NS|TS
 EVEREST VENTURE
 DOOMED ID FAIL
Indianian Says English Expedi- ton Cannot Reach Top of the Worlds Highest Point.
 Methods Are Wrong
By Associated Press

Geneva April The ascent of Mir, Everest which is to be undertaken next year by an expedition headed by Sir Francis Younghusband, is impractcaole for many years at least, in the opinion of Henry F. Montagner of Terre Haute, Ind well known mountain climber
 MT Montagnier has made many as- cents in the Himalayas, the Rockies and the European Alps, and has attained the highest attitudes He is now at Cham pery Switzerland His opinion of the difficulty of ascending the highest peak in the world is shared by some other international expert Alpine climbers, but there are others among them who dis agree with him.
 JAUNT IS DOOMED
 'I should have no hesitation in pre- dieting that Everest will certainly not be conquered by the first party that makes the attempt said MT. Montag- ner. Tn my opinion it will take years, each party profiting by the experience acquired by it's predecessors and each gaining 900 or more feet on the pre- vious record
 One thing is certain, and that is that the conquest of the highest peak in the world will be far in the way the most terrific test of endurance human beings
 
 The north or south poles, as far as phy- sical effort and moral courage are con- cerned would be mere child's play com Dc red with the ascent of mountin more than 1000 feet high. Whether 1t IS pos sible for man to attain an altitude or 2o14O feet on the earths surface With out the aid of an airplane is question which to my mind, can only be solved by actual experience The highest aiti- tude yet attained is about 24,600 feet |,
 we know that the number of feet an active climber can ascend per hour dimirishes rapidly with the atf-ude. Thus up to 1G000 feet an average climber can ascend about l,00 feet an hour over easy ground without exhausting himself. Above 23.000 feet the ascenslonai rate falls below 300 feet an hour even for exceptionally strong climbers. What II would be at 27,000 feet no one can say without experience
 LIMIT TO ENDURANCE
 Parties have succeeded in camping at 9 900 feet. Setting out from that a'ti- tude. and assuming that the snow is m good condition, and that the party IS not suffering from mountain sickness, should say that they might succeed III attaining an altitude of 2,6OO in 10 or l- hours hard work. In order to reach the summit of Everest they would prop ahly have to camp at say 2S,OoO, 25Wo l,UD indeed very probable, that at the hlghest camps. they would be suffering from the rarified air and high altitude SUI ndity' which undermines ones nerve ter ribly. to such an extent that turther progress would be impossible.
 Judging by what we know or the diminution of the ascensional rate or strong, climbers above 23,000 feet, 1t wonld seem doubtful whether it w1oulo be impossible to ascend more than lVo or 150 feet an hour above 2TO00 or 2S. 900 feet. And, moreover, these flg- nres are based on the supposltlon that the party meets with no great diffi- culties, such as powdery snow nlgh wind, steep rocks, sickness. etc.
 Dr. Jacot Guillarmo, who has al ready ascended to some of the highest attitudes in the Himalayas, including K-2 or Mount Goodwin Austen, and Kunchinjunga, writes to the Associated Press correspondent from Lausanne that, like MT. Montagnier he does not believe the first expedition will reach the summit of Mount Everest. He says
 ENGLISH CLIMBERS
 There is no doubt we shall arrive on the summit of the world and per haps sooner than we think if one un- certakes the expedition in the right way. The first thing to do is to gather the best collaborators in every country and not to confine the affair to small clan who, although ami mated with the best intentions, may perhaps not have the best means of experience.
 r You ask me if Swiss guides will be employed in the expedition. I do not know. and 1 do not think anybody but the English climbers will be employed, and this is precisely one of the causes of the inferiority in which this ex- petition will start.
 Besides, it will be very interesting 10 know climatic conditions, and espe- cially the state of snow above 1000 meters. because on this last condition depends the entire success of the en- terprise. supposing, of course, that all the experiences obtained in the precedent expeditions In the Hima layas will be put to profit. The preliminary researches will prove this to us But one must not make any illusion. This first expedition will not reach the i+ of