Chapter 10 Chapter 7 The way is found

Now, they will approach Everest from the east.They would go around its outskirts, reach the North Col from the east, and see if there was a more practical way from that side than from the west.But this would require a detour of several miles. On July 25, amidst snow, hail, and high winds, Malory and Bullock dismantled their tents on the Rongbuk Glacier and traveled to Kharta. Kharta is about fifty-five miles from the aforementioned detour. Far, but almost the easterly bearing they needed, this is Howard.The new base established by Belly is located at the entrance of an east-facing canyon, with a direct view of Mount Everest.During the month that Malory and Bullock explored the Rongbuk Glacier, he surveyed the entire area down to the Nepalese border.Mosshead and Wheeler carried out the surveys, Heron conducted the geological studies, and Wollaston conducted the botanical studies and collected natural history specimens.Now, members of the expedition team scattered around will use Qatar as the meeting point; after a month, Rayburn also returned to the team because of his physical recovery to a certain extent. He bravely participated in what he could do and contributed to the expedition team. strength.

Qatar is located at an altitude of only 12,300 feet. The weather is mild and the vegetation is abundant. The local people can grow five grains.So it was a relief for Malory and Bullock to be in a place like this.Although the scenery in the high-altitude area where they worked was spectacular, the harsh and inhospitable environment was not something humans could endure for a long time. Now that we're so used to hearing about people climbing mountains over 20,000 feet, and the climbers themselves rarely suffer from breathlessness or nausea, it's easy to forget that it was all a struggle. Got it.They are beginning to be able to adapt to the high altitude water and soil, but their air is obviously gone.Only a man of fiery spirit like Malory could retain unwavering determination, but it was a cold, stiff determination, not a joyous, passionate disposition.For the time being, high altitude does take away the spirit and sheer joy of climbing.It becomes a chore that you have to force yourself to do.Mountaineering is only fun when the fatigue and discomfort are gone and the splendor of nature is in full view.

A great mountain is a sight to behold, but as climbers struggle to climb up towards the glacier, they come face-to-face only with parts of it.When the snowy peaks were lost in the clouds, what they saw was anything but pleasant: long, bare slopes of debris, or hill after hill of dull, uninteresting hills.While on the glacier, they experienced a strange glacial burnout.They had to sleep on the ground in the small tent that barely accommodated them; one or two days of discomfort might be ignored, but afterward, the cold, the snow, the cramped feeling would start to speak, and the vitality inside them Anger begins to turn into burnout and worry.

Now in Qatar, all that has suddenly disappeared.There are trees, grass, flowers, and barley fields (review note: it should be highland barley).Butterflies and birds fly in the sky.The weather is mild and pleasant, the air is refreshing.Here, the climbers do feel the joy of life again. However, Malory allowed himself only four days in this luxurious comfort; on August 2, he set out again for Mount Everest, attempting to explore its eastern face.He intended to follow Kada Creek up to the glacier from which it originated.But the local guide took him out of the canyon of Kada Creek, through a gap, and down into a parallel canyon to the south.In the end, Kata Valley proved to be the right path, as Malory had predicted, but it was a stroke of luck that he was led into this detour, the Kama Valley, which is probably the most beautiful in the whole Himalayas. The valley, unless it is forbidden to enter, hides a more bizarre beauty than it.

The beauty of Karma Canyon lies in its steep cut from Mount Everest, and the upper part is all embedded in Mount Everest; it also lies in the fact that it goes directly down the huge cliff of Mount Everest. Makalu Peak is 2,000 shorter than Mount Everest. Less than a foot, but more beautiful than Everest; moreover, its dip is so steep that it descends to lush altitudes when the two giant peaks are still within sight.From the green meadows where the cattle grazed, where gentian, primrose, and saxifrage were in bloom, Everest was only fifteen miles away, and Makalu only eight.These lengths refer to the distance between it and the peak; as for it and the outer walls and cliffs of the mountain, it is closer.The third mountain is also within the surrounding range of this valley. It is a satellite of Mount Everest, separated from the main peak by a col.This is the newly discovered South Peak, now called Lhotse, at an altitude of 27,890 feet (8,516 meters).From it to Makalu came a steep snow-covered ridge; it formed a huge wall of gleaming white, but that white was tinged beautifully with the bluish moisture of the air.

Note ①Lhotse: The fourth highest peak in the world, with an elevation of 8516 meters.Editor's note As climbers descend the valley, they are confronted with the dizzying walls of Makalu and Chomolonzo, which cut straight down almost 10,000 feet to the valley floor; Now, fresh snow has whitened the mountain walls.The magnificence of the scenery is perhaps unparalleled in the world. Bumping into this beautiful canyon for the first time is a wonderful experience.The discovery of Malory and Bullock, Howard.Belly and Wollaston continued to explore deeper after about a week; the climbers went up, they went down.When they walked down the Karma Canyon, at its junction with the Arun River Valley, at an altitude of 13,000 feet, just before the Arun River cut out the magnificent canyon of the Himalayas, they entered a densely forested valley. Forests, including juniper, silver fir, sorrel, willow, birch and tall species of rhododendron.This place is only fifteen miles from the base of Everest, just below the cliffs of Makalu.This forest is extremely beautiful.Juniper with a girth of twenty feet grows to a height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet; magnolias, alder, maple, and bamboo appear; Allen River; where the two rivers meet, the elevation is only 7,500 feet.

Just discovering a canyon rich in such varied beauty of mountains, trees and flowers is enough to make this expedition far above the rest.For many years, only a few people will visit this secluded place, but it will also be a great pleasure to know that there is such a treasure hidden behind the Himalayas that people can one day seek it out.Moreover, it is the kind of place that will never be thoroughly understood and played; the deeper you go, the more rare and strange it will be, and it is worth visiting again and again. There is another valley whose mountain scenery may rival the Karma Gorge in grandeur.It is just below the second highest peak, K2, at an altitude of 11,000 feet.It's called the Shaksgam Valley, and it's far beyond the Karakoram Himalayas, even farther than the Karma Canyon; its location is farther north, and it's almost unaffected by the monsoon rains.The air is dry and cold, not warm and mellow.There were no grassy pastures in that valley, no cattle, no gentian and primrose, in short, no combination of the sublime and the lovely.The high mountains with winding ridges on both sides of the canyon are just austere, without the adjustment of soft scenery.

These are probably the two most magnificent canyons in the Himalayas, unless it is very likely that Everest and Makalu have a more remarkable landscape under the mountains on the Nepal side.But since the Shakscan Canyon is located in a more difficult and dangerous environment than the Garma Canyon, even if there are more magnificent canyons than the two, the natural environment is bound to be more dangerous.It would be better to say that the towering mountain challenged the intruders, and they ordered in his heart to get away with the most real fantasy!but the purity and nobility of those sunlit peaks attracted him as a lamp attracts moths.He was willing to risk his life just to see their brilliance.

Malory and Bullock entered the Yosemite land of Garma Canyon, but immediately turned their energies to the task at hand: to find a way from the east side to the North Col, or any other feasible way to lead to the long northern ridge. the road. In order to be able to fully see the east side of Mount Everest, they climbed a mountain from the south side of the Karma Canyon.At first glance, it is indeed majestic.They also saw an icefall above it, and it was not necessary to glance at Malory, so to speak, to be sure that the rocks below the icefall were splashed almost everywhere by it; , It will be too laborious to get up, it will take too much time, and you will not find a convenient platform for camping when you climb to the end.

In short, there is no road to the summit on the east side. Therefore, we had to find another way up to the North Col, and Malory couldn't see such a way from the Karma Canyon.But he could see that there would be some possibility in going up the Kada Canyon he had walked before.So he left this glorious, beautiful gorge, walked into the Kata gorge, followed it up to the top col, Hlakpa La, and indeed found a road that seemed to lead to the North Col.But before he tries to walk over, he will wait until the monsoon rains have passed, so that he has a better chance of not only reaching the North Col, but also possibly walking up to the summit of Everest.This could be the culmination of a season of work, and proper preparation is necessary for this purpose.

After completing this preparatory survey, Malory and Bullock returned to Qatar on August 20 to rest for ten days and regroup the team.Here all members of the expedition, including Rayburn, were now assembled.Wheeler brought an important piece of information; this information firmly affected the entire layout of the expedition.It is said that when Wheeler was doing photogrammetry for the Mount Everest mountain, he discovered a glacier, which is now called the East Rongbuk Glacier; the stream flowing from it is connected to the Rongbuk Glacier, and the junction is about three miles from the end of the Rongbuk Glacier.The part above it is likely from the North Col.From the map now, everything looks very simple, but clarifying the movement lines of those glaciers, mountains, and branches is actually extremely complicated work.Malory had seen the stream when he climbed the Rongbuk Glacier; he was going to get closer and have a look.But the rainy season is coming with a strong momentum, and the timing is quite tight.He has not yet imagined that a small stream coming from the east will originate from the south and slightly east slope of Mount Everest.It should come from the north or northeast, not the south!Anyway, according to Wheeler, it came from the direction of Everest, and may have turned out to be a road leading to the North Col in hindsight.It was a small crack in the armor through which the giant could be shot through with an arrow. Thus, there are two possibilities to explore.You can go from the north to the North Col via the East Rongbuk Glacier, or go up from the east via the Kada Glacier.Both possibilities must now be examined. On a convenient green mesa in the Kata Valley they had established an advance base at an altitude of 17,300 feet; and further up, at an altitude of 20,000 feet, they had established a camp.The hungry Malory was planning not only to climb to the North Col, but also to climb the slopes of Everest and reach near the Northeast Shoulder.His ambitions were even higher than that.why not?Wouldn't it be nice, he thought, to set up a little camp at 26,500 feet above sea level and try to reach the summit from there?It is his longing.He still doesn't understand how terrifying it is to climb the world's highest peak. On the last day of August, he and Bullock were again at their forward base above the Kada Glacier.But they were forced to stay there for nearly three weeks, and the monsoon rain showed no sign of stopping until September 19th.Finally, when the weather finally cleared, the sun seemed powerless to melt the snow again.If you wait any longer, you will not gain anything.Now that the progress has been made, it is better to keep going, although the chance of reaching the summit of Mount Everest is slim. The snow is so deep and the weather has become so cold.However, he decided to continue with the plan until circumstances forced him to give up. His first target was Herapala, the depression at the head of the Kata Glacier.He had looked down from that spot before to what Wheeler now identified to him as the upper reaches of the East Rongbuk Glacier.He intended to walk down the upper basin of this glacier and climb up the North Col from there.But before moving forward, he first had to get some equipment and food reserves and throw them on Herapala. On the morning of September 20th Malory and his companion, Moss Head, set off without incident.They experience the fun of stepping on the snow, which is crisp and hard.They also have great ambitions to go straight to Mount Everest.But walking through the crevasses of the glaciers is hard work; so is treading the snow on higher ground. The snow, now in the form of a fine powder, is a rolling substance.Those who went ahead tried and failed to carve out a solid path for the poor provocateurs.This group of people walked scattered and scattered in all directions.But Malory pushed on and went to the end of Herapala to show that it was within reach.With him as an example first, this small group of people continued to work hard, walked the last section of the hillside, and placed eleven loads of supplies on the peak. Malory was in Herapala again; the weather was clear enough for him to have a good view of the North Col and the slopes of Everest.The sight made him think.The climb up the North Col from that glacial basin is no easy feat.It is a formidable colossal wall, perhaps a thousand feet high; its surface is menacingly broken by those insurmountable cirques; its general angle is no doubt rather steep.In fact, it is a huge overhanging glacier.Malory was optimistic that they would be able to climb it, but that was not something the untrained would do.A group of provocateurs more or less suffering from altitude sickness are tied together on climbing ropes, and only three climbers direct the proposal without thinking about it for a minute. Note ② Ice cirque bergschrund: refers to the relatively large crack located in the upper reaches of the glacier, usually caused by the extrusion of the perennial ice layer.Editor's note Obviously a strong team is necessary; Malory already has a foundation in his heart for climbing Mount Everest, and has also stepped on a path to Herapala, so he goes first with the challenger who has unloaded the burden. Back to camp, Howard.Belly, Wollaston, Rayburn, Bullock and Wheeler, all meet there. It must have been a pleasant camp during the day because, despite its 20,000-foot altitude, it enjoyed a bright, warm sun.The group enjoyed breakfast, lunch and tea in the open space outside the tent.From a smaller hill a few hundred feet above the camp, there is a magnificent view; Howard.Bie Li described it as follows: the vast sea of ​​clouds filling the valley is like a sea of ​​wool, and the most famous mountains protrude from the sea of ​​clouds one by one, like shining pearl islands.A hundred miles to the east is the mighty Kangchenjunga, followed closely by Janu and Chomiomo.Nearby, Makalu, the most majestic, stretches straight out of the crowd; beyond that, there are some giant peaks in Nepal.Within a few miles to the west, Everest itself had been snowed last month, making it sharp and chiseled and extraordinarily white in color.At this point, it is no longer visually dwarfed by the tall ridges radiating from it.Now, it looks handsome and tall. Note ③ Jannu: also known as Kumbhakama, with an elevation of 7710 meters, located in Nepal.Conquered in 1962.Editor's note All this scenery is bathed in brilliant sunlight.It is like a new world, detached from the world of mortals.In this new world, everything is pure and bright. By September 22, the preparations for the trek to Mount Everest were all ready.Rayburn had to be left behind, for the poor man had not quite recovered enough to withstand the ordeals ahead.The other six set out at four o'clock that morning; at that time, the thermometer read twenty-two degrees (minus five and a half degrees Celsius).Accompanying them were twenty-six coolies, divided into four groups, each group suitably tied together by climbing ropes.That was a great improvement in the manpower of mountaineering; among the ranks, there was a sense of horror and throbbing for the approaching final moment of the expedition. The bright moon shines through the world; the tall and snow-covered mountains are almost as clear as they can be seen in daytime, but with a special magical air, as if they were real fairyland.The snow on the glacier was at its best and it was freezing hard, allowing the whole party to make pretty good progress. Day began to break.Straight ahead is Mount Everest.Against the deep sapphire of the western sky in the frosty air, every detail stood out.From its pinnacle the sun sheds its first faint rays; first stirring the white with pink, then gradually turning it orange. In the growing daylight the party climbed up the glacier, led by Malory, and at ten thirty they were on the summit of Herapala, 22,350 feet above sea level; Mount Everest Only two miles away.But the next step is to descend about 1,200 feet (about 365 meters) to a glacial basin below, and from there there is an ice-covered mountain wall to climb up to the North Col.This section of the road stopped the itinerary for the day.So, they had to stop at the top of Herapala.The icy wind is raging, and the blown snow powder seeps everywhere.They found a small hole in the snow a few feet below the summit and pitched camp there.It was the only place to camp, but there was little shelter from the wind; even the small Alpine Meade and Mummery tents were hard to hold up.Over time, the trespassers of these high-altitude forbidden areas began to noticeably struggle to breathe. It was a dire situation.As the sun went down, the temperature dropped to seven degrees (minus 13.9 degrees Celsius) and then dropped to minus two degrees (minus 18.9 degrees Celsius).Li Feng howled outside those flimsy, uncomfortable tents.Nobody got any sleep, except maybe Malory.By morning, everyone has a headache from the lack of air in the tent.Provocateurs become very inflexible. With the sun rising, and some warm adjustments, everyone's headaches disappeared, and their vitality returned to some extent.However, because the wall of ice leading to the North Col was so insurmountable, they decided to let only the alpinists: Malory, Bullock and Wheeler go on with a few provocateurs, and the others back to 10,000 feet. to the camp.