Evening star., 1936-03-31
BY ERIC E. SHIPTON.

DARJEELING, India by MalD.-
We started to descend from the North
Col on the morning of July 16. At
dawn, for a short half-hour, we were
granted a heavenly prospect over the
unknown ranges of Eastern Nepal.
The valleys were filled with a placid
sea of monsoon cloud, above which,
like stupendous icebergs, lowered the
giant peaks Of Pumori, Gyachung
Kang, Cho Cyu and countless others
beyond, unmeasured and unnamed
each flushed with the warm glow of
the new-risen sun. But the clearing
was short lived, and the clustering
wind confirmed our decision to retreat
Although the weather had been bad,
only a few inches Of new snow had
been deposited on the mountain during
our stay on the North Col, and al
though we tackled the slopes below
with extreme caution they did not
seem to have altered materially since
we had last seen them.
Road Swept Away.
We descended in two parties; Kemp
son and were in front with five Sher-
pas, while Warren was some way be-
hind with the other four. We had not
gone far before we were brought up
short at the brink of sudden cutoff
which stretched for several hundred
yards in either direction.
This indicated that an enormous
avalanche had recently broken away
along the line of our ascending tracks.
In fact, the whole face of the slope
had peeled off to depth of feet.
This was an alarming discovery, and
there followed somewhat heated de-
bate as to whether we should retreat
to the North Col or carry on down.
The others advocated the former
course. But it seemed to me that if,
as we had reason to suppose, the ava
lanche had occurred on the previous
night, its track must indicate tenn
porary line of strength, and it was
not unlikely that another avalanche
would fall Immediately.
If we returned to the North Col we
should later have to face risk which
we had no means of gauging. Any
way. my argument was the simpler to
put into effect, so We crept down with
our hearts in our mouths and reached
the glacier unharmed.
To my mind the incident had con-
siderable significance. AS have said,
very little snow indeed had been de-
posted on the slopes, and this cannot
have had any appreciable effect on
the stability of the old snow. which We
had unanimously agreed to have been
perfectly sound. And yet the ava
lanche had occurred along our ascend
Ing route.
Shows instability.
That merely indicated that we were
not competent to judge the stability
of monsoon snow at these attitudes,
and that to continue operations in
this direction under the present cir
cumstances would be to expose the
whole party to quite unjustihable risk.
Anyway, decided there and then to
have nothing further to do with the
North Col during the monsoon.
Later we were to have substantial
evidence that the monsoon snow does
not either disappear or consolidate at
an altitude higher than $4,000 feet in
the region of Mount Everest until the
re-establishment of the Winter gales.
We were thus able to provide def
mite answer to one of the chief prob
lens which we had come out to solve.
In my opinion, the only time of year
that one can reasonably hope to reach
the summit Of Mount Everest is during
the exceedingly short interval between
the end of the Winter gales and the
arrival Of the monsoon. In 1888 there
was no such interval.
When we returned to the East
Rongbuck Glacier we found that
Spender (who had been making q
stero- -photogrammetric examination of
the northern aspect Of the mountain)
had come up to join us.
He had completed his work on sew
eral stations on both sides of the Main
Rongbuk Glacier and had obtained
sufficient data to enable him to draw
q large-scale map of the North Face
and to calculate with sufficient preci-
sion the altitude of any point on that
face, both of which will be extremely