Evening star., 1953-06-25

YESTERDAYS lNSTALLlAENT told how
Maurice Herzes and Louis Locheno
established Comp v, from which ths
final ossouIt on the summit Of Anna.
purno would be mode. Their motive
porters returned TO o comp lower Of
the mountoin and the two climber.
spent night Of terror clone. night
in which the wind nearly blew the
tent away.
altogether. made desperate
attempts to push back the soft
icy stuff which stifled me, but
every movement becmae an act
Of heroism.
My mental powers were
numbed: Thinking was an effort
and we did not exchange a single
word.
What a repellent place 1t was!
To every one who reached it,
Camp v became one of the worst
memories of their lives. We had
only one thought-to get away.
We should have waited for the
first rays Of the sun. but at $3.50
we felt we couldn't stick it any
longer.
Lets co." I muttered. Cant
stay here a minute longer"
Eyes, let's CO." repeated Lach-
email. t.
Unable to Eat. =
Which Of us would have the
energy to make tea? Although
our minds worked slowly we were
quite able to envisage all the
movements that would be neces-
sary-and neither of us could
face up to it. I couldn't be
helped-we would just have to
go without it.
1t was quite hard enough work
to get ourselves and our boots
out of our sleeping bags-and
the boots were frozen stiff so
that we got them on only with
the greatest difficulty.
Every movement made us ter
ribly breathless. We felt as If
we were being stif1ed. Our CATERS
were stiff as a board and I sue
ceeded in lacing mine up: Lacn-
enal couldn't manage his.
mo need for the rope. eh?""
mo need" replied Lachenal
laconically.
A Pair of Socks.
That was two pounds saved. I
pushed a tube of condensed milk,
some nougat and pair of socks
into my sack; one never knew.
the socks might come in useful.
For the time being I stuffed them
with f1rst-aid equipment. The
camera was loaded with a black
and white film; I had a color
film in reserve.
We went outside and put on
our crampons. which we kept on
all day. We wore as many
clothes as possible; our sacks
were very light.
At 6 o'clock we started of. 1t
was brilliantly fine, but also very
cold. Our super lightweight
crampons bit deep into the steep
slopes of ice and hard snow up
which lay the f1rst stage Of our
climb.
Later the slope became slightly
less steep and more uniform
Sometimes the hard crust bore
our weight. but at others we broke
through and sank into soft pow
der snow which made progress
exhausting.
Minds Work Slowly.
We took turns in making the
track and often stopped without
any word having passed between
us. Each Of us lived in a closed
and private world of his own.
was suspicious Of my mental
processes; my mind was working
very slowly and I was perfectly
aware of the low state of my in
telligence. 1t was easiest just to
stick to one thought at a time
safest. too.
The cold was penetrating, for
all our eiderdown clothing we
felt as if we'd nothing on. When
ever we halted. we stamped our
feet hard. Lachenal went as far
as to take of one boot which
was a bit tight; he was in terror
of frostbite.
Il don't want to be like Lam
bert" he said. Raymond Lam
bert, a Geneva guide, had to have
all his toes amputated after an
eventful climb during which he
got his feet frostbitten. While
Lachenal rubbed himself hard, I
looked at the SUBMITS all around
US; already we overtopped them
all except the distant Dhaulagiri.
Fear of Frostbite.
The going was incredibly ex-
hausting, and every step was a
struggle of mind over metter.
We came out into the sunlight,
and by way of marking the oc-
casion made yet another halt.
Lachenal continued to complain
of his feet. II can't feel any,
thing. I think I'm beginning to
get frostbite." And once again he
undid his bcct..