Led by Bill Tilman, the 1938 British Mount Everest expedition was a low-key, low-cost expedition which was unlucky in encountering a very early monsoon. The weather conditions defeated the attempts to reach the summit. The North Col was climbed for the first time from the west and an altitude of 27,200 feet (8,300 m) was reached on the North Ridge.
After the failure of the 1936 British Mount Everest expedition, the Mount Everest Committee decided not to make another public appeal for funds even after Tibet had approved an expedition for 1938. The press and public were no longer interested and, at a time of austerity, such things were seen as extravagant. However, The Times was willing to provide a limited budget and this matched the small scale, even austere, type of venture advocated by the leading British climbers of the day, Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman – similar to their 1935 reconnaissance. At a meeting in February 1937 Tilman was appointed leader and Tom Longstaff, who had in years gone by been the climber–doctor on the 1922 Everest expedition provided £3,000 on condition that there would be no advance publicity and that, where possible, the climbers would each pay their own way. [1]
Alongside Tilman and Shipton, Frank Smythe, Noel Odell, Peter Lloyd, Peter Oliver and Charles Warren agreed to participate. Ang Tharkay was sirdar and Tenzing Norgay was one of the Sherpas. [2] Jack Longland was invited but he had to decline because his employers would not grant him leave. [note 1] The team was very strong and were, according to Shipton, "socially harmonious". Tilman considered a party of seven to be unnecessarily large but acquiesced saying "it represents a high margin of safety against casualties". The cost was to be £2,360 compared with £10,000 for the attempt of 1936. [3] Radios were not taken because Tilman regarded them as unnecessary but there was too much pressure on him for him to refuse to take oxygen equipment. As on the 1935 Shipton–Tilman expedition, the provision of food was extremely basic – Tilman included soup and porridge as "goodies". [4]
Arriving in Gangtok, Sikkim on 3 March 1938, the party crossed the Sebu La into Tibet hoping to reach Rongbuk well before the monsoon was expected to break. Because winter was scarcely over it was very cold on the march-in [note 2] and snow was deep but they reached Rongbuk on 6 April – over a week earlier than any other team had achieved – to find Mount Everest blown clear of snow. Forty-five Shepas arrived having come from Solu Khumbu in Nepal via Nangpa La. [5] Taking what had become the traditional approach to the summit up the East Rongbuk Glacier, Camp III was established at the head of the glacier but the temperature was too cold to attempt the climb up to the North Col. Indeed, with the exception of Shipton, all the climbers were suffering from ailments related to the severe cold. Shipton and Smythe, who were being regarded as the pair most likely to be making the summit attempt, had been sent over the 22,000-foot (6,700 m) Lhakpa La to the Kharta valley to recuperate and now the rest of the team joined them there to enjoy a week in springtime conditions in meadows and forests. [6] [5]
When they returned via the Doya La to Rongbuk they found it had been snowing there for a week and the monsoon had broken on 5 May – three weeks earlier than experienced by previous expeditions. They returned to Camp III and on 18 May climbed to the North Col with surprisingly little difficulty. Shipton and Smythe rejoined them after returning over the Lhakpa La. Heavy snow fell in the night and it was not until 24 May that they were able to start to establish Camp IV on the North Col. The conditions there were warm but the snow was deep and they realised they would have to reconcile themselves to attempting the summit during the monsoon. [6]
Tilman made a plan involving splitting the party. Travelling via Rongbuk, the climbers Shipton, Smythe and Lloyd were to move to the main Rongbuk Glacier to attempt the North Col from the west. The others occupied Camp IV on 28 May. Tenzing led up the North Ridge but the snow was so deep, especially towards the summit, that Tilman decided against even trying to establish Camp V. Even more snow forced a retreat to Camp III from where Tilman went around to join the western team. They eventually reached the North Col from the west under dangerous snow conditions although the gradient was not so steep – it was the first time the Col had been reached from this side. On this occasion on the North Ridge they were able to establish Camp VI at 27,200 feet (8,300 m) but beyond that conditions were close to impossible – Shipton and Smythe and then Tilman and Lloyd only managed to climb slightly above the camp. In the end it was decided to withdraw completely by descending to the East Rongbuk Glacier. [7] Tenzing and the Pasang Bhotia had performed exceptionally strongly up to Camp VI but on the North Col Pasang had a stroke which paralysed him on his right hand side and he became delirious. [8] [9] He had to be carried down from the mountain but he went on to make quite a good recovery. [8]
Oliver returned ahead of the others, staying with Norman Odling in Kalimpong. Odling had been hospitable to climbers on previous expeditions but, unknown to Oliver, he also was a Reuters correspondent. He reported the story he had been told. The Times was scooped and the Mount Everest Committee had to repay £850. [10]
The expedition demonstrated that a small party possibly offered as much chance of reaching the summit as a large one. However, it also showed that the monsoon was not a viable time to be making any summit attempt at least from the north or Tibetan side of Everest (the Swiss in 1952 made a second post-moonson attempt). The Sherpas were tremendously improving their climbing technique and for the first time were able to take a leading role, even encouraging the Europeans to continue upward. [11]
A closed-circuit oxygen set was not a success and was "abandoned on account of the sensation of suffocation which developed after a short period of use." However, Lloyd found the open-circuit design was a definite advantage above 26,000 feet (7,900 m), although Shipton was not convinced that Lloyd's performance was significantly better than Tilman's. [11] [12] It was George Finch who had advocated open-circuit apparatus, against the advice of the other "experts" and this knowledge eventually was used in the planning of the successful 1953 expedition (which used both open and closed-circuit sets). [11] [13] [14]
The party returned to a Europe descending towards World War II but with the Mount Everest Committee requesting Tibetan permits for 1941, 1942 and 1943. All this was not to be and after the war the Dalai Lama did not respond to requests and then in 1950 Tibetan borders were firmly closed with the occupation of Tibet by China. So, post-war British Everest attempts would be from Nepal to the south. [15] [16]
Mount Everest(also Mount Sagarmatha or Mount Qomolangma) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.
Raymond Lambert was a Swiss mountaineer who together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached an altitude of 8611 metres of Mount Everest, as part of a Swiss Expedition in May 1952. At the time it was the highest point that a climber had ever reached. There was a second Swiss expedition in autumn 1952, but a party including Lambert and Tenzing was forced to turn back at a slightly lower point. The following year Tenzing returned with Edmund Hillary to reach the summit on 29 May 1953.
Changtse is a mountain situated between the Main Rongbuk and East Rongbuk Glaciers in Tibet Autonomous Region, China, immediately north of Mount Everest. It is connected to Mount Everest via the North Col.
Eric Earle Shipton, CBE, was an English Himalayan mountaineer.
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,849 metres (29,031.7 ft) above sea level. It is situated in the Himalayan range of Solukhumbu district, Nepal.
The 1924 British Mount Everest expedition was—after the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition—the 2nd expedition with the goal of achieving the first ascent of Mount Everest. After two summit attempts in which Edward Norton set a world altitude record of 8,572.8 metres (28,126 ft), the mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine disappeared on the third attempt. Their disappearance has given rise to the long-standing speculation of whether or not the pair might – under a narrow set of assumptions – have reached the summit. Mallory's body was found in 1999 at 8,156 metres (26,760 ft), but the resulting clues did not provide any conclusive evidence as to whether the summit was reached.
The 1922 British Mount Everest expedition was the first mountaineering expedition with the express aim of making the first ascent of Mount Everest. It was also the first expedition that used bottled oxygen while climbing Everest. The attempt was made from the northern side of Everest out of Tibet. At the time, Everest could not be attempted from the south out of Nepal as the country was closed to Western foreigners.
The 1952 Swiss Mount Everest expedition was an attempt to summit Mount Everest. Led by, Edouard Wyss-Dunant, the expedition, which included Tenzing Norgay, reached a height of 8,595 metres (28,199 ft) on the southeast ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record and opening up a new route to Mount Everest and paving the way for further successes by other expeditions. Norgay successfully summited the mountain the following year with Sir Edmund Hillary, the first successful expedition.
The 1933 British Mount Everest expedition was, after the reconnaissance expedition of 1921, and the 1922 and 1924 expeditions, the fourth British expedition to Mount Everest and the third with the intention of making the first ascent.
The 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition set off to explore how it might be possible to get to the vicinity of Mount Everest, to reconnoitre possible routes for ascending the mountain, and – if possible – make the first ascent of the highest mountain in the world. At that time Nepal was closed to foreigners, so any approach had to be from the north, through Tibet. A feasible route was discovered from the east up the Kharta Glacier and then crossing the Lhakpa La pass north east of Everest. It was then necessary to descend to the East Rongbuk Glacier before climbing again to Everest's North Col. However, although the North Col was reached, it was not possible to climb further before the expedition had to withdraw.
The Lho La is a col on the border between Nepal and Tibet north of the Western Cwm, near Mount Everest. It is at the lowest point of the West Ridge of the mountain at a height of 6,006 metres (19,705 ft). It is not exactly a Pass, but a part of Mt. Everest Range. There was once a proposal, which failed, to change its name to Khumbu La.
Major General John Geoffrey Bruce was an officer in the British Indian Army, eventually becoming Deputy Chief of General Staff, who participated in the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition. Bruce, who had never before climbed a mountain, had been appointed as a transport officer, but chance led to him accompanying George Finch on the only summit attempt that used supplemental oxygen. Together they set a new mountaineering world record height of 27,300 ft (8,321 m), only 1,731.7 ft (527.82 m) below the summit of Mount Everest. He also took part in the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, and for a time was slated to make the first summit attempt with George Mallory, before the party was forced to retreat and Mallory subsequently went for the top with Sandy Irvine.
Precipitated by unexpected permission from Tibet, the 1935 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition was planned at short notice as a preliminary to an attempt on the summit of Mount Everest in 1936. After exceptionally rancorous arguments involving the Mount Everest Committee in London, Eric Shipton was appointed leader following his successful trekking expedition to the Nanda Devi region in India in 1934.
Leslie Vickery Bryant, known as Dan Bryant, was a New Zealand school teacher and a mountain climber. He was a member of the 1935 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition, which was a preliminary to the full expedition of 1936 that attempted the summit. However in 1935 Bryant did not acclimatise well to altitude above 23,000 feet (7,000 m), and so was not included in the party for 1936. He was a very accomplished ice climber, and was well-liked on expeditions. These two factors led, indirectly, to his compatriot Edmund Hillary becoming a member of the successful 1953 British Mount Everest expedition.
The 1936 British Mount Everest expedition was a complete failure, and raised questions concerning the planning of such expeditions. This was Hugh Ruttledge's second expedition as leader. Heavy snows and an early monsoon forced their retreat on several occasions, and on the final attempt two climbers narrowly survived an avalanche. This was the first expedition in which climbers were able to carry portable radios.
The Shipton–Tilman Nanda Devi expeditions took place in the 1930s. Nanda Devi is a Himalayan mountain in what was then the Garhwal District in northern India, just west of Nepal, and at one time it was thought to be the highest mountain in the world.
Ang Tharkay was a Nepalese mountain climber and explorer who acted as sherpa and later sirdar for many Himalayan expeditions. He was "beyond question the outstanding sherpa of his era" and he introduced Tenzing Norgay to the world of mountaineering.
After World War II, with Tibet closing its borders and Nepal becoming considerably more open, Mount Everest reconnaissance from Nepal became possible for the first time culminating in the successful ascent of 1953. In 1950 there was a highly informal trek to what was to become Everest Base Camp and photographs were taken of a possible route ahead. Next year the 1951 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition reconnoitred various possible routes to Mount Everest from the south and the only one they considered feasible was the one via the Khumbu Icefall, Western Cwm and South Col. In 1952, while the Swiss were making an attempt on the summit that nearly succeeded; the 1952 British Cho Oyu expedition practised high-altitude Himalayan techniques on Cho Oyu, nearby to the west.
The 1951 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition ran between 27 August 1951 and 21 November 1951 with Eric Shipton as leader.
Edmund Hugh Lewis Wigram was a British obstetrician and a mountaineer who was a member of two of the early British Everest expeditions.
