Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Saturday 23 February 1952, page 14


NIN E, :GAMBL DEATH TO SE ROOF OF TH DT By SIDNEY RODIN Over the snow-clad slopes of Scotlan cai and twists a 39-year-old civil servant. To his fellow-skiers lhe is one more sportsman enj g hiA

But Campbell Secord, as he slithers through the valleys, will be thinking of the perilous snows and savage winds that are to be his world in the months to come. Soon, with eight other men, he goes east to start final preparations for the conquest of Everest. No man has climbed far beyond 28,000ft. In 1924 Irvine and Mallory reached that height - and disappeared into the mists forever swirling round that last 1,000ft. of formidable black rock. Graves on Everest's jagged face mark the failure of other climbers.

leader of the expedition. He is 44, a diplomat in the Consular Service and is an Everest veteran. He has two children. When he reconnoitred anew new southwest approachto to Everest last year Shipton took with him:

SIIIPTON

Campbell Secord may never get the chance of climbing to the Roof of the World, for not all of the nine will be chosen to brave the wastes where man has never before set foot.

SECORD

The Men FOR three months this year the nine men will train before the final assault next year on Everest's five-and-a-half-mile (29,141ft.) peak. They are: ERIC SHIPTON, of Liss, Hants, TOM BOURDILLON, 27-yearold married rocket research scientist from Aylesbury, Bucks; thirtyyear-old EARLE RIDDIFORD, an unmarried solicitor from New Zealand; and EDMUND HILLARY, a bee farmer. He, too, is unmarried; He, too, comes from New Zealand, A fifth now joins the party: New Zealander GEORGE LOWE, 28year-old schoolmaster, who has climbed elsewhere in the Himalayas. To these leader Shipton had added four of 50 of Britain's best climbers who answered the Alpine club's call for the assault into the unknown: ROBERT EVANS, 31-year-old surgeon at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, who has climbed in the Himalayas. Evans is ready to give up his job to join the Everest expedition. RAYMOND COLLEDGE, 29, rayon salesman, of Max Rd., Coventry. Colledge is single. He has

four times ascended to the it of Mt. Blanc (15,800ft.) wit a guide. ALFRED GREGORY, of a Rd., Blackpool, 38,

managing director of a travel agency. Gregory has scaled the Matterhorn (14.782ft.) and has climbed in France, Italy and Algeria. He was a major in the Black Watch, and has a wife, and young daughter.

(CI tGoR

CAMPBELL SECORD, 39,1 adian-born economist with the Ministry of Fuel in London, rried but no children. He -taineered in the Rockies and e Hiinmalayas. The Training THE team will set out on Jainagar, on the Indian er of Nepal. on a two weeks' h to the base of Cho-Oyu, w h soars 26,750ft. into the Him n world. Cho-Oyu is unexplor It has been chosen to test the s h and toughness of the Everest at great heights. For climbing they will 'ar quilted clothing similar to th sued to our troops wintern in r Korea, but it will be much li r, down replacing the finest 1. Everything must be windpr They will camp at high itudes beneath lightweight ten They will eat lean beef po ded and mixed with molten fat d currants, chocolate, at least a 7 pound of sugar a day-some en need a pound-and drink m ly very sweet cocoa and soluble ffee. They will climb with n on ropes. The Air OJIOST important innovatit in equipment will be ox en masks adapted from R.A.F, t s. Men can live for a short e at 28,000ft., yet some who ve tried to spend more than 24 rs at 25,000ft. have suffered pa sis and permanent injury to the in and nervous system. Oxygen masks were trie on Everest about 30 years ago ut they failed. The Perils BEYOND 20,000ft. climbers perience extreme lassi de. Their brain clouds. They lo the will to go on. "High altitude throat" bri intense pain, caused by the col ry wind parching the throat nd causing a nose infection. The terrible wind near the nmit of Everest, measured by ircraft at 110 miles an hour,c kill by itself.

i W'ITH' $E 'THE WOR LD 'iDA I cairngorms there speeds enj g his spare time in the open. he , it The cold is often too intense With a and dry to allow the snow to become ice at the upper heights. It clings to the rock as powder. It gives the climber no help. Avalanches periodically sweep clown Everest. .. .