Evening star., 1938-05-06
BY w. H. TILMAN,

MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP
Tibet. May by Courier to Gangtok
and Wireless via London) The 1893
British Mount Everest Expedition, ar
irving safely after an uneventful jour-
ney from Darjeeling and Gangtok, has
established its base camp near the
Snout Of the Rongbuk Glacier. IL
miles from the goal of its adventure.
The seven members of the climbing
party and all our porters are we'll.
For some days to come, in this
weather-beaten hollow. stores will be
mustered and accessibly arranged.
Porters and local workers will be ac-
climatized to their tasks. The climb
ers themselves will undergo another
crucial medical overhaul after their
long march through Sikkim and along
the Bhong- -Chu Valley.
Plans for chain of higher camps
their site. composition and rationing
by fatigue parties-will have to be
discussed and consummated. In the
expedition Of 1888 the mountain was
N'Nlipduhy SSpPOo Will SL SuCll
camps, the farthest at a dizzy height
Of 1880 feet. but an intended seventh
was never achieved. For this year
there shall be no predictions. The
strategy Of approach will form an
essential part of the story still to
be transmitted 1t is safe to foretell
that one point of constant attraction
at the base camp these early days will
be the big mounted telescope trained
upon the sphinx-like silhouette OF
Everest itself. its topmost siIvery pyra-
mid. its ridges and snowfields, lodges
upon its relentless walls already
reached by tagging human feet in
earlier assaults, and the cloudplumes
that rush tauntingly across its upper
activities.
No Illusions About Trials.
My companions N. Z. Odell, F. 8.
Smythe. E. E. Shipton, Capt. P. r.
Oliver. Peter Lloyd and DR.. C. B. M
Warren. are an efficient, tenacious
band, impressively small in number
for. and with no illusions about, the
exacting mountaineering mission
ahead. A prospect Of immortality will
not defect them from realities. Their
past record among the Himalayan
giants has put them in a class apart;
some OF them are veterans even In
regard to Everest. A particular virtue
OF the present expeditionary force is
that its members are an informal and
well-matched group Of friends. It is
equipped. on the one hand, with its
own hard-gained experience on many
sides and. on the other,
with the lessons accumulated from
f1ve earlier ventures on the famous
North Col.
Everest has been described as mans
supreme adventure in the material
world. What is it apart from its
symbolism? Simply the top wave of
an ocean wall of eruptive rock which.
IN q dimly distant epoch, reared it.
self above the tormented continent
and cooled into the colossal serrated
range stretching for $500 miles from
the Karakoram to the Brahmaputra.
1t has been assumed that q succession
OF convulsions. in successive seolosi-
cal periods. added to the height of this
already formidable barrier, while the
cooling and contracting progressed, by
thruSting upward the entire Tibetan
tableland into a vast protuberance
upon the earth's surface. to the greater
glory OF the peaks. The mean height
OF this Tibetan tableland is little in
ferior to that OF its watersheds. The
loftiest Himalayan masses soar in
labyrinthine and almost unbroken
formation above the North Indian
plain and the basin Of the Ganses.
Many Seen Only From Afar.
In this aristocracy, submits of TO-
600 to $4,000 feet are only middle
class. There are dozens greater. Many
have been viewed only from afar.
Nanda Devi, within its unique ring of
sentinels In Kumaon, has already sur
rendered its 25.600 feet to Odell and
myself. Smythe and shipton with
Holdsworth have already planted
their standard on top Of Mount
Kamet's 25.447 feet and have thus
dominated the ranges Of Carnival. The
ice-clad spires Of K2 Goodwin
Austen-2S,250 are still unsullied.
Manga Parbat (26,633). in Karakoram,
and Kangchenjunga (2S,22e). in Six.
kim. have vented their anger on sue
cessive expeditions and 80 far defied
final assault. ~
Mount Everest Is acknowledged lord
OF them all. At best . thing Of aloof
and inconversant beauty, at worst