Chapter 12 Chapter 9 Prepare again

Now, it's time to really go all out and try to get to the summit.Everest has been clearly seen; the trails have been opened, and perhaps the only viable route to the summit has been discovered.Now, all efforts can be focused on the highest goal of climbing the mountain. New expeditions constructed for this purpose had to be organized.A new entry application has been made to the Tibetan government and has been granted; Howard.Belly and his team have returned home, and preparations for a second expedition are underway at full speed.There was no time to waste, because according to Malory's report, the attempt to climb Mount Everest had to be done before the monsoon rains.The monsoon rains start in early June and obviously climbers must climb during the last two weeks of May and the first week of June.This means the expedition must leave Darjeeling by the end of March.To make this possible, food stores and equipment had to be sent from England in January 1922.But now it was November 1921, and the preparations had to be stepped up.

But the question of who is the leader, of all importance, must be resolved first.Howard.Belly had done so much, and done it so well, it was hard to ask him to step aside.During the first mission, in order to get through the diplomatic preparations required by India and later the expedition's chief affairs officer, such as overcoming sudden and serious transportation problems, arranging supplies, delicate interactions with Tibetans, and planning the entire exploration operation Strategy, etc., he has shown extraordinary shrewdness and sophistication.He must therefore be eagerly looking forward to reaping the final fruits of his efforts, and it would be cruelly frustrating for him to give up this eagerness now.However, to conquer Mount Everest, individuals must continually sacrifice to this common goal.Now, the leader of the second expedition has a super excellent candidate, Howard.Bie Li then upholds the chivalrous demeanor and accepts the arrangement made by the entire adventure business in order to obtain the maximum benefit.

Brigadier General Bruce was unable to take part in the first expedition as he had been commissioned to serve in the Local Self-Defense Forces after his Indian Army service.But now, he's been granted leave of absence.He was too old for a climber.Even at a young age, it was questionable whether he would be able to climb the summit of Everest, because experience has shown that it is the kind of person who is light, lean and doesn't need to carry many muscles to climb it.But no one is better suited to lead the expedition than him. His experience in the Himalayas and his ability to get along with the Himalayan people are unmatched.He had been part of a regiment of Gurkhas, which had been stationed almost entirely in the Himalayas during his service, and the Gurkhas were the inhabitants of Nepal's territory on the Everest side.Bruce has been a member of many Himalayan expeditions since Sir Conway began in 1892.He also devoted himself to the research of mountaineering technology in the Alps, and brought the Gurkhas with him.He knew these mountain people so well and treated them so earnestly that no one but him could make them speak more of what was in their hearts.He gave them all, and they adored him deeply.Because the British climbers would be absolutely dependent on these men to carry the light tents high enough for the final sprint to the summit to be successful, Bruce's influence among them was extraordinary for the expedition the value of.The same personality traits that would make him influential with the simple mountain folk would make him an ideal expedition leader as well.

Note ① Gurkha Gurkha: A militant Hindu race living in India and Nepal.Annotation He is an unearthly blend of child and adult.You never know if you're talking to a child or an adult.Even if he lives to be a hundred years old, he will still be a child; and he, who is still a child at heart, will always be an adult.He was a jovial, boisterous boy, always throbbing with childish playfulness.And he was also a quick, capable adult who tolerated not even the slightest absurdity.It's a remarkable and actually useful combination.He also has a mental strength that does not allow himself to be depressed, and this mental strength is contagious, and the entire team will be nurtured.That's why he's so valued.A team with Bruce is bound to be a team with high spirits, and a team with high spirits will be able to maximize its strengths and achieve the highest achievements.

There are many stories about Bruce, one of which is this: In a certain expedition, there was a dispute in the team about who was bigger than whom, and Bruce said, well, I’m just a coolie, so he bundled a bundle Put your back on your back and move on.This is very similar to the story of another great mountaineer, the Archduke Abruzzi.During an expedition in Alaska, Archduke Abruzzi encountered a situation in which his team members refused to carry heavy loads, so he carried a bundle and walked the entire distance, and the others felt ashamed. It is such a person who is invited to lead the expedition now.The members of the expedition team who actually engaged in mountaineering operations were also selected with his assistance.Fortunately, Malory was called up again, but Bullock had to return to his consulting work, watching the expedition's progress from the comfort of the French port city of Havre.Now that Finch is recovering, the expedition will rely heavily on the experienced mountaineer, who spent most of his youth climbing in Switzerland, winter and summer.His eagerness and determination to conquer Mount Everest were no less than Malory's.The two of them were favored earlier, and the other two climbers invited from the UK were Norton and Somerwell.

Norton, who is a major (now lieutenant colonel) in the army, has been awarded the British Merit Service Medal. He is a well-known figure in the British Mountaineering Association and has a deep knowledge of mountaineering.In addition, he has the added bonus of having previously served in India and undertook several hunting expeditions in the Himalayas.He spoke Hindustani (Hindustani, a native Hindi language) and knew how to deal with the people of India.He is alert, calm, alert and direct, and has the habit of leading and controlling, so he can immediately win the trust of others.His kindness and kindness have increased the trust of others in him.He is indeed a combination of many qualities.As an officer of the Royal Horse Artillery he was noted for his dexterous maneuvering of his guns; he served with distinction during the war; he received a degree from the British Army College and hosted the Indian Army for seven years The biggest event of the year: Kadir Cup (Kadir Cup) wild boar hunting competition.He is a keen bird watcher and an above-average amateur painter.He has a method and mastery of the situation in everything.He prided himself on his punctuality: he was never too early and never late.On a trip to India, he arrived at Victoria Station just over a minute before the train left.He waited for the train to start before he quietly jumped on it, while leisurely continuing his conversation with his friend.He was never in a hurry.Every contingency must have been calculated by him.When the time comes, you can imagine him putting his well-preserved energies to the knife's edge.

Comparable, perhaps even more talented, is Somerwell.He was a professional surgeon, a daring mountain climber, and a talented painter and musician.He grew up living in the Lake District in the North West of England, and has always been in love with the mountains because he has always been associated with them.He has extraordinary determination, perseverance, energy and vitality.But above and beyond all that was his great, strong gentle heart and his ready, open, accessible demeanor that made one feel at ease the moment one met him.He is also a reliable workman who can be entrusted with great responsibilities at any time.He was a strong giant, not in body, but in temperament and with a steady stream of joviality and optimism.His physique is unremarkable.He is certainly not as straight as Norton, nor is he as strong as Bruce.He's not the muscular type.Perhaps softness is its main quality, as his heart is an elastic softness: ready to give in, but also unyielding to come back.

In addition to his many talents, Somerwell was also a writer.Twenty years after the expedition to Mount Everest, when the most magnificent impression has been fully condensed and crystallized, what kind of book he will write, all publishers should pay attention.As a man of science and art, he has a warm humane spirit and strong religious sentiments. When the physical suffering has receded from memory and the spiritual experience of the whole adventure has time to mature in his heart, he should have some Stuff is worth writing about. Malory, Finch, Norton and Somerwell, these are the mountaineers who could be counted on to climb the world's tallest peaks.Then there are Colonel EL Strutt, who also won the British Distinguished Service Medal, Dr. Wakefield, Geoffrey.Captain Geoffrey Bruce, and Mr. CG Crawford, a civil servant in the Indian government.These people are either too old for the super fatigue of climbing the world's highest peak, or they don't have enough mountaineering experience, so they form a support team.

Strutt, who is well trained in the Alps and has the size to climb Everest, would have been the perfect man to climb if the expedition had taken place a few years earlier.On this expedition, when the expedition left Base Camp, Bruce would remain where he was, and Schutter would then be an invaluable second in command to lead the team up. Wakefield, like Somerwell, is from the Lakes District in Northwest England, where he showed extraordinary mountaineering skills in that area when he was young.When the expedition team formed, he was practicing medicine in Canada, but because he wanted to participate in the expedition, he sold his medical equipment and came to join.

Geoffrey.Bruce, General Bruce's cousin, had no formal training in mountaineering.But he had traveled in and out of the Himalayas and belonged to a Gurkha unit.So he might help the expedition deal with the Nepalese and Tibetans, and be on call to go up the mountain with more experienced climbers in a pinch. Croft is a daring rock climbing expert who is deeply interested in the idea of ​​climbing Mount Everest because of his military service in the Indian mountains.His understanding of the local language and the habits of the people will also be of great help to the expedition. And then there's Dr. Longstaff, doctor and naturalist and veteran Himalayan climber; he still holds the world record for climbing the highest mountain.Others have climbed higher than he on the side of the mountain, but no one has climbed a higher peak than Trisue; top.He also discovered a wonderful glacier field in the Karakoram Himalayas; and his extensive experience in the Alps and Himalayas made him invaluable to the expedition in judging conditions.His genial and warm personality is another added value.

This time, the expedition will have an official photographer.Colonel JB Noel made a trip from Sikkim in the direction of Everest in 1913 and has been interested in climbing the mountain ever since.He also had a passion for photography and became an expert in the art, especially in cinematography.He gave up his military post and joined the expedition.Perhaps his main quality is that he is always on call for the needs of the expedition.Noel will need people most where the occasion needs people most, which means that photographers are not necessarily needed.He also possesses strong and indomitable resilience, and is also a mountain lover with no regrets. It was proposed that an eminent painter should go up the mountain with the expedition and paint the wonderful mountain scenery.From base camp, it's true that Everest doesn't look more spectacular than Mont Blanc in many ways.The base camp itself is already very high, and the height of Mount Everest drawn from this camp is no higher than that of Mont Blanc or Mont Rosa② drawn from the very low valley.However, the allure of the world's tallest mountain remains.At the same time, looking up from the Karma Canyon, the scenery presented by Mount Everest and Makalu is not comparable to any mountain scenery in Europe.Dry, bare, and dull as the Tibetan Plateau and its lower slopes are, with the seasonal rains the swirling mist can render the hills and plateaus seem intangible and unreal, as Somerwell discovered in despair, in He couldn't find a blue with enough lightness and intensity on his palette to reproduce the shadow twenty or thirty miles away.In the Jungfrau Mountains, there is clearly room for first-rate painters.The mountains and forests passing through from Sikkim to Tibet have the most magnificent scenery in the world.However, none of the leading painters had the physique required for this journey.So the expedition had to rely on Knoll's photographs and Somerwell's hastily drawn drawings in between climbs to recreate the impression of the majestic mountains. Note ② Mont Rosa: Located on the border between Italy and Switzerland, it belongs to the Alps, with an elevation of 4633 meters.It is a huge glacier, overlying a massif with ten peaks, four of which are listed among the top five peaks in the Alps.Editor's note While all these preparations were in full swing, a burning question was raised: why not use oxygen?Kailas had already started experimenting with oxygen for mountaineering, why not continue the experiment?Since lack of oxygen is a major obstacle to climbing Mount Everest, if oxygen is supplied, climbers may reach the summit in one fell swoop tomorrow. So far, the Everest committee has not thought of providing oxygen for the expedition, because they have always doubted the possibility of carrying oxygen.In fact, there is a question behind this: Is there still a sportsman's spirit to use oxygen to climb mountains?Of course, this objection is easy to refute: inhaling oxygen is no more detrimental to athleticism than sipping a brandy or a cup of beef tea.But there is one fact that cannot be ignored: a person who reaches the summit of Everest without oxygen is considered a higher achievement than someone who does it with oxygen.We don't ask a man who has climbed to the top of a mountain whether he drank tea to pick him up along the way, but if he has used oxygen instead of just a general pick-me-up, we are bound to discount his achievement.Therefore, there has always been a bias in the use of oxygen, and the committee is not immune.They subsequently dropped this prejudice, but it would have been better if they had kept it, since it has been shown that the human body is capable of adjusting itself under unusual conditions without the use of oxygen.Humans are good at adapting to water and soil, and they can climb 28,000 feet, as they just did. However, in 1922, when this second expedition was being prepared, no one knew all that much.At that time, someone climbed to a height of more than 24,600 feet above sea level.Many people in the scientific community speculate that it seems impossible for humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest without external help.And many mountaineers, as well as many new members of the expedition, tended to favor the use of oxygen, among which Finch was the most eye-catching.If you want to make sure you reach the summit in one fell swoop, you need to use oxygen, they say.So when Somerwell made an authoritative and persuasive plea for the use of oxygen, the committee passed without objection. However, the adoption of this issue was rushed, and its wisdom is questionable.Except for one or two people, the entire expedition team has never been too enthusiastic about the use of oxygen.The oxygen equipment was bulky and bulky, and Somerwell himself hadn't used it.And unless backed by confidence, the use of oxygen does not appear to lead to success. One of the ideas most seriously considered by the committee was to have the oxygen-carrying duo spearhead the route for the non-oxygen duo.Equipped with oxygen, it should be easier to reach 26,000, 27,000 feet, or whatever pre-determined altitude;This idea has been practiced, and the result is the opposite of the original expectation every time.Those without oxygen always lead the way. There is such a thing: man depends too much on science and too little on spirit.Everest represents the spirit of adventure, and if one has faith in that spirit, things go better.