Everest, Mount (China and Nepal); Mount Everest Expedition (1922); Mountaineering expeditions--Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)
About what is usually known as tea-time we sighted the camp. Our
excellent followers had got a few tents up, and I was fortunate enough
myself to find that the porter who was carrying my big coat had already
arrived. Nearly all Indian camp servants who are accustomed to
travelling in the Himalaya are good in a crisis, and, when things get
bad, come to the fore; but on this occasion they surpassed themselves.
It must be understood that, in Tibet, very, very seldom can anything but
dried yak-dung be found to make a fire with. On this occasion the snow
had obliterated everything, and in consequence a fire had to be
otherwise improvised. Some tents had been pitched, a fire had been got
going, and very soon a hot meal and hot tea were forthcoming. The rest
of the party gradually collected, but it was not until well after
nightfall that the whole of the advance transport had managed to arrive.
As a first march it certainly gave the party a very good idea of what
they might have to put up with in Tibet; it was a real good entry into
Tibetan travel. However, nobody was much the worse, and, the weather
having cleared during the night, we had a brilliant sight the following
morning.
On April 9, we made what I think was the hardest march undertaken on the
Expedition. Our path led us over the ridge in its three bifurcations
which runs North from Pawhunri and rapidly rises from our last camp,
each of these ridges being just 17,000 feet, slightly more or less, and
most of the path being at about 16,000 feet of elevation. At any time
early in April great cold would be expected at such a height, but on
this day the wind was blowing right over the Himalaya direct from the
snows across these passes, and howling down the gorges between them. It
was painfully cold, and the wind never abated from morning to night. We
left about seven o’clock in the morning, and it was well after nightfall
again before our transport was collected at our next camp at
Hung-Zung-trak. Longstaff and myself pushed on in search of the camp for
most of the day together, arriving before any of the animals at about
4.30 to five o’clock in the evening, and made our camp at the
above-named place under some overhanging cliffs with fairly good
grazing—such as grazing is in April—and with a stream beneath the camp
from which water could be obtained. We were very shortly followed by our
magnificent Chumbi transport, which had been pushing along at a
tremendous pace the whole day long. I do not know what we should have
done without it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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