High In The Thin Cold Air

Citation preview

bv

Sir

fhe

Edniund Hilian' and Desnioiid

Dois:

Story of the Hiniahnaii Expedition

Ledjif

SH^Miund ~forld

Hillar>, ^

Book

Enc>cloi)edi

^ H.I.T.T.C.A.

S6.95

HIGH

THE THIN COLD AIR

IN The

Story of the

Himalayan Expedition Led

Edmund

Hillary, Sponsored by the

by Sir

World Book Encyclopedia

In this supremely exciting story of high ice

and high adventure, the Master of Everest sets out on a two-part mission: (1) to find the Abominable Snowman and (2) to discover how ordinary

men

can survive a winter at dizzying

altitudes.

Although the Himalayan people's

belief in

the existence of the mysterious Yeti, or Snow-

^ase

'

^f

wm V^dabl am

man, is unshakable, Hillary and his companions had great difficulty at first in finding anyone who claimed to have actually seen one. Nevertheless they were able to collect three high-domed scalps and three skins— unwillingly lent by the natives— which were flown out to

S\\\JZX

-

JIABLAM

Hut -^

COL

civilization for expert examination. In addition, they

photographed

a skeletal

leged to be that of a Yeti.

The

hand,

al-

Hillary party

soon decided that they had the answer to the

Snowman riddle. Any idea that man

can easily adjust to

life

and work at high altitudes was disproved by the murderous hardships which faced the expedition, the best equipped of its kind. In spite of the treacherous w^eather, one team

Mount Amadaband then other members of his party were struck down by altitudeinduced illness. The assault on a second peak. Mount Makalu, had to be abandoned only 400 feet from the top. Hillary had wondered whether six months of living at 19,000 feet and above would enable his men to climb Makalu without oxygen— but it became draclimbed the "unclimbable" 1am. But,

first

Hillary,

I

I

Miles

matically clear that prolonged "adjustment" saps vitality

and lowers

2

resistance.

J

In spite of the hardships and dangers they encountered, Hillary longs to return to the

Himalayas and

life

"high in the thin cold

air."

111

EVEREST T

^:74 ./A

:f^

' .

c

z

/^.v/^

MAHALU

/V1AKALLI

-7 -^r.

i ^

COL

c

1^ -^

^

'^ ^^'^

}v^ '^-.y----^^ y^

T.

Approximate area of map I

v

EVEREST

'\MAD4BLAM //

o

.-r^1^^ /:^

BHUTAN t

HIGH IN

THE THIN COLD AIR

i^"*^ y^i

HIGH IN

THE

THIN COLD AIR The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, led by Sir

Edmund

Hillary, sponsored

by World Book Encyclopedia

EDMUND HILLARY and DESMOND DOIG

SIR

DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY,

INC.,

GARDEN

CITY, N.Y., I962

Library of Congress Catalog Card (c)

Number 62-15860

1962 by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation publishers

of

WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America

PREVIOUS BOOKS BY EDMUND HILLARY

HIGH ADVENTURE

EAST OF EVEREST an Account of the New Zealand Alpine Club Himalayan Expedition to the Barun Valley in IQ54 [With George Lowe]

book of exploration [Editor]

boys'

CHALLENGE OF THE UNKNOWTN [EditOf]

CROSSING OF ANTARCTICA

[With

Sir

Vivian Fuchs]

NO LATITUDE FOR ERROR

PREFACE This

is

the story of the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering

Expedition 1960-61.

Desmond

Doig, our press correspondent,

expert linguist, and lover of the Himalayan peoples,

search for the elusive Yeti and of

all v^e

customs, and mythology of the Sherpa people.

how we

built the "Silver

group of

scientists in

it,

Hut"

how we

at

tells of

learned of the I,

the

lives,

in turn, relate

19,000 feet and wintered a

reached the summit of the "un-

climbable" Amadablam, came to grips with the rock and ice precipices of

Mount Makalu's

Khumjung. In the compihng

27,790 feet, and gave a school to

of this story

we have used

material from the

members directly involved in each phase Michael Gill, Norman Hardie, Leigh Ortenburger,

accounts of expedition

—in particular

Tom

Nevison, and Peter Mulgrew.

The expedition could not have been undertaken without full

and generous

financial support of Field Enterprises

the

Educa-

pubHshers of World Book Encyclopedia,

tional

Corporation,

whose

interest in our scientific

work and the

Yeti legend

showed

a spirit of adventure worthy of such an undertaking.

Our primary

objective, the physiological program,

was de-

veloped under the guidance of the British Medical Research Council nel.

who

gave considerable aid with equipment and person-

Dr. L. G. C. E. Pugh, a senior physiologist on their

director of our physiological party.

The U.

S.

staff,

was

program and leader of the wintering Wellcome Trust also sup-

Air Force and the

ported the physiological research.

Many

organizations and individuals helped us to

expedition and for this

we

mount the

are grateful. I feel I should mention

PREFACE

IV tlie

following for substantial aid and for special equipment to be

tested under the severe conditions of the

The National Geographic

Himalayan winter:

Society, for financing the expedition s

glaciological program; the Building Research Station, Gars ton, nr.

Watford, England, the Timber Development Association LimLondon, and J. M. Jones and Sons Ltd., Maidenhead, Eng-

ited,

land,

all

of

whom

tion of our hut;

were concerned with the design and construcof Chicago, and the Food Research

Armour & Co.

Establishment of the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries

and Food, Aberdeen, for freeze-dried foods; the British Petroleum Company for all fuels and for developing and supplying our cooking and heating equipment; Head Ski Co., Inc., for skis; Evans Medical Ltd. for medical supplies; and the Indian Aluminium Co. for donating the building we carried to Khumjung for the school.

Sm Edmund Hillary Expedition Leader

CONTENTS

Preface

iii

Illustrations

IN SEARCH OF by Desmond Doig

Part I

vii

SNOWMEN

1

KATHMANDU

2

TREK

l8

3

FUBS AND FOOTPRINTS

36

4

ONTO THE TOLAM BAU

5^

5

KHUMJUNG

65

6

ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT

7^

7

KHUNJO CHUMBI, WORLD TRAVELER

9^

8

THE SHERPAS

1^5

9

THE YETI STORIES

I16

3

CONTENTS

VI

Part II

by

Sir

OUR LIFE Edmund

IN

THE CLOUDS

Hillary

10

INTO THE MINGBO VALLEY

12Q

11

HIMALAYAN WINTER

153

12

THE "terrible TOOTH" OF AMADABLAM

162

13

ACROSS THE HONGU

1/2

14

TO THE MAKALU COL

IQl

15

THE ASSAULT

204

16

THE DESPERATE DAYS

21$

17

FAREV^ELL TO

KHUMJUNG

226

Roster of the Expedition

239

Glossary

241

Index

243

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece:

The peak

called

Amadablam following page 14

Preparations

end of the road

Porters at the

Monsoon

strikes at

at

Banepa

7000 feet

Bridge near Kathmandu

Helping each other cross stream Typical Sherpa house near Khumbila

A prayer wall inscribed with Buddhist prayer Nepalese houses at 5000 feet

following page 38

Scientific Studies

Recording the

effects of altitude

Dr. Milledge checking Bishop's reactions to bicycle pedaling

Michael Gill and Wally Romanes in the Silver Hut Christmas in the Silver Hut

George Lowe cutting

Hillary's hair

Hillary v^th child outside Risingo Monastery

During the march-in Dr.

Pugh

Hillary and Ortenburger operating radio Glaciological

work

Chmber's jacket equipment Wind speed indicators

Group

of expedition wives

Preliminary tests

Securing physiological recorders

Checking the

effect of Httle

oxygen

ILLUSTRATIONS

Viii

Villages

and

following page 62

Festivals

Pangboche Entering a Nepalese village

Lama

dancing in Thyangboche Monastery

Tibetan shelter at Thami Porters

Lama

Hillary

One

commencing march

in village of

Banepa

dancer s mask

welcomed by Sherpa headman

of the porters in Nepalese village

following page 86

Natives

Sherpas building an airstrip

An aged nun near Thyangboche Sherpa villager Village girl in traditional finery

Head lama of Thyangboche Gumi Dorje and a young porter An Indian fakir visits the Silver Hut Sherpa women while baby-sitting Khunjo Chimibi and family Natives with their crafts

Green Hut

following page 110

Site of the Green Hut The hut's framework The completed shelter

Stages of construction

Milledge at radio in Green Interior

Hut

view

Dr. Lahiri, representative of Indian government

The

Yeti

or "Abominable

Snowman" Search

following page 134

Hillary holding skin of Tibetan Blue Bear Line of Yeti tracks Track compared with pick ax Cast of Yeti footprint Khumjung's Yeti scalp Carving a model of the Khumjung scalp Hillary wearing the scalp The return by heHcopter to Khumjung Yeti Art

Tibetan lama's idea of the Yeti

following page 158

ILLUSTRATIONS

ix

Impression of the Serow Yeti

Tsheringma, consort of Khumbila

Khumbila, god of the Solo drawn by Tibetan

Yeti as

The Beginning

of the

Khumbo

Sherpas

artist

following page 182

Climb

Camp

in Rolwaling Valley Climbing toward the Tashi Lapcha Pass The last slopes near the Makalu Col

Mingbo Glacier Approaching last steep slopes leading Camp III on Makalu, 21,200 feet. Silver

to

Makalu Col

Hut

Construction of Silver

following page 206

Hut

at 19,000 feet

Kathmandu equipment up Mingbo

Transportation of materials in

Mingmatsering carrying Laying out foundations of the hut Assembling outer walls Gill

Glacier

and Romanes preparing a meal

Prefabricated rings placed on hut foundations

Hut and

large tent during winter blizzard

Exterior view, with fluted peak in background

The Ascent

following page 230

Camp II Camp IV and Makalu Col

Ice pinnacle below Pull on rope

A Sherpa porter climbing to

19,000-foot crest of

Amadablam Col

Khumjung School

following page 254

new

Kalden, a Sherpa boy, presenting petition for a

school

Construction of the school

Lamas

at the school-opening ceremony Mountains towering over the school, 13,000 feet Head lama of Thyangboche in priest's cap Tem Dorje and the first fifty school children

The seesaw constructed by Doig

Maps The Ascent of Amadablam The Assault on Mount Makalu

page 165 page 207

PART

I

IN SE.\RCH

OF SXO^\'MEN

KATHMAJNDU The

festival carts roll

through Kathmandu. September the ninth,

the procession of Indrayatra, of virgin gods and goddesses.

An

auspicious time to begin anything.

the valley glows jewellike

It rains, intermittently, so that half

and the other is dark below bruise-blue clouds and rain. The distant snow peaks, "our mountains," are re-

in sunshine veils of

vealed in bright flashes like tilted mirrors. "That's Gauri Shankar,

and that Numbur, Ganesh Himal, Himal Chuli, Langtang"—we thrill to the knowledge that soon we will be among those distant towers of snow, mountains already so familiar they insinuate themselves into our dreams and our

follow pointing fingers and

thinking.

We

smile condescendingly

when

a tourist points out

the 22,000-foot summit of Chobutse and, told

crazy with cameras and telephoto lenses. untruth. "Yes, that's Everest

all right,"

We

we

it is

Everest, goes

even encourage the

say and feel cosy be-

cause of our superior knowledge and the sudden doglike grati-

tude on a miUionaire

tourist's face.

Kathmandu, when we

arrive,

is

feverish with festival. In the

vast holiday confusion our untanned legs, weird outfits,

embr)^o beards,

and

hallmarks of the about-to-be adventmrous,

all

and unaggressive. Even Ed Hillary goes occasionally unrecognized. There is the morning when a tourist in a chmbing outfit comes up to the table where Sir Edmund and

are happily blurred

I breakfast.

"Say,

would you guys

asks, talking directly to

Thinking

we have

wants nothing

less

like to drive

out toward Everest?" he

Ed.

a brash multimillionaire on our hands

than

Sir

Edmund

as

companion

who

for his first

IN

my

and leave policy Ed. Ed, busying himself with an omelet, leaves poHcy to me.

glimpse of Everest, to

concentrate on

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

I

The tourist tries again. "Do you know you can Kathmandu? Tm taking a to share it with me. Have

toast

see Everest from just six miles out of

and thought you guys would like you seen Everest?" Ed begins choking on a wedge of toast. I choke in sympathy.

An

old

Nepah

professor

taxi

either of

met within moments

of arrival assures

me. "You will have good luck— you will probably meet the Yeti. Certainly you must meet my friend. Major Punya Bikram Rana." I do, and Major Rana tells me of a friend of his who is quite a Yeti expert, having seen a Snowman. This friend would like to help us with our plans to capture one, but alas, he's two hundred miles to the northwest at the moment and, "That is quite a formidable distance in this unhurried land." So the major writes the name of his friend in my notebook and also a short introductory note. "You must please help Mr. Doig; he is an old and true friend." I have known the major for only ten minutes, if that, but such is Nepal. Friendliness is second nature to its people; time is often measured by warmth of feehng.

Ours was not the

first expedition concerned with the AbominaSnowman. Others have devoted their entire energies to try prove or demoHsh one of the world's most popular and likely

ble to

a legend that has the remote, high reaches of the Himalayas inhabited by giant anthropoids with human faces, man's cunning, and often man's sense of humor. Our expedition's interest in the Snowman was secondary to high-altitude physiological research and meteorological, radiation, and glaciological studies. On the other hand, we did carry out an extensive search in areas associated with the Snowman legend and over a much longer period of time than any previous expedition had been able to devote to the purpose— and probably, I beheve, with more impartiality. legends,

Objectb^ Our

objective in the

first

part of the expedition

or disprove the existence of Yetis.

To do

this

was

to establish

we would examine

every available clue: legends, accounts of Yeti sightings. Snow-

KATHMANDU relics, Snowman tracks in the snow. We would try to photograph Yetis, using powerful camera lenses and self-operating cameras activated by trip wires. If possible we could record the Yetis' commonly heard call; the high, whistling noise that our expedition Sherpas had apparently heard. Certainly we could observe them through our extremely powerful viewing glasses.

man

Our ambition,

was

Snowman, though none of us knew quite what we would do with the beast if we succeeded in making one prisoner. Hillary had more than once expressed himself opposed to keeping Yetis in I

am

of course,

to captmre a live

certain that

captivity. *1

would be inclined

to let the creatures go after thorough

examination. I think there

peal to a

Yeti,"

he once

is

precious

little

in civilization to ap-

said.

Our Paraphernalia "Capchur" guns were our heavy

artillery,

sporting

rifles

and

shotguns our Hght arms.

Capchur guns are powerful air rifles that fire drug-filled hypodermic syringes over fair distances. They can knock out a muskrat as easily as they can a mule, a squirrel as effectively as a Snowman. But it takes an experienced operator to know exactly what quantity of the drug is required per pound weight of animal.

Once anesthetized by a capchur gun

syringe, animals,

how-

ever ferocious, allow themselves to be captured, examined, med-

and generally tampered with. The government of Nepal has a law forbidding the killing of Snowmen. None of us particularly wanted to shoot one. But we

ically treated,

carried conventional

the Yeti describe

it

rifles

in self-defense as

most accounts of

as being savage in the extreme. Also in our

armory were tear-gas pistols the to repulse sudden animal attack. these were originally designed

size of fountain pens, calculated I

was

interested to discover that

to protect

women

in the two-

legged-wolf-infested jungles of civihzation. Self-operating tripwire cameras must be included among our weapons. If the shy Yeti would not allow us the opportunity to use our Capchur guns on him, we hoped he would at least stumble over our trip Hues and photograph himself.

IN

6 I

was disappointed

among our

to find

no

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

nets, traps, or folding cages

Yeti hunting equipment. Marlin Perkins, our zoologist,

had deliberately excluded these from our essential requirements because he was aware that Sherpas are excellent trappers and was prepared to rely on their methods. On an expedition such as OUTS, where everything had to be carried on the backs of porters, bulk and weight are enormously important considerations. As things turned out, we never felt the need for traps and cages. Wire netting and packing cases made excellent cages for the red pandas, a langur, and a Tibetan fox cub we acquired. If we had captured a Yeti, Sherpa ingenuity would have soon contrived an adequate cage.

We

took along some assorted animal caUs that sounded for

the world like children

Sherpas could do a

s

much

all

trumpets at a Christmas party. Our better job of imitating local animals.

Area of Operations In 1951 the famous mountaineer-explorer, Mr. Eric Shipton, saw and photographed Yeti tracks in the Menlung glacier in northeastern Nepal. The Sherpas of Solu Khumbu, the area directly south of Mount Everest and not far removed from the Menlung, have told of seeing and hearing Yetis ever since they began accompanying Western climbers on expeditions to their own mountains. As a result, the Sherpa country in high northeast Nepal can be considered the most likely Snovnnan country, and three exclusively Snowman expeditions had explored it before

we

Our

did.

expedition, as already explained,

Yetis to consider.

Any

had

interests other

area of operation decided

than

upon must be

suitable for high-altitude physiological research, have a great moimtain (preferably one already climbed with the aid of oxygen) on which to test the effectiveness of long acclimatization, as well as promising a prevalence of

Ed

Snowmen. and Solu Khumbu

Hillary wisely chose the Rolwaling

Mount Makalu,

27,790 feet, the world's fifth highest mountain, climbed briUiantly by the 1955 French expeareas of Nepal.

dition,

using oxygen,

provided the culminating

physiological research.

The research

specially designed huts

on a

itself

test

of

our

was carried out

in

Mount Everest

at

glacier south of

KATHMANDU

7

and 19,000

15,000, 17,500,

feet,

and up

on Makalu

to 26,000 feet

itself.

In convenient proximity to our selected mountain and glacier were the wild, unfrequented valleys of the Rolwahng and Solu Khumbu areas in which the Yeti probably lived and the high snow-covered peaks and passes on which it left its footprints.

Fancy Easily Believed

we

Kathmandu. Outside the hotel musicians by the blast of their own music. Drum and cymbal, horn and drum, drum and flute, and discordant bells. NepaU drums are provocative, compelling things, and it is easy to imagine the hotel servants shedding So here

are in

are being propelled through the street

their discipline with their

between the

Why

tables

and

laundered white to whirl

tourists as the

drums thud

not? Half of the valley population

is

like dervishes

by.

being dragged

through the streets by the Pied Piper music, willy-nilly, flowers behind their ears, giggling, clapping their hands, and singing.

A

youth

tells

me

that angels

crowd the

air,

and gods,

cause even gods love a down-to-earth good time.

It

too, beis

fancy

Magic is always around the comer in the old wooden city of Kathmandu. The gods in a milUon sculptures do imderstandably human things. They are everywhere, on temples and palaces, above doors and windows, and holding up unholy balconies. Painted all-seeing eyes watch every street; every square and fountain has its host of deities and legendary creatures, winged lions guarding temple precincts, angels in attitudes of praise and prayer, ram-headed eagles and dragons with elephants' trunks. Nowhere in the city is one removed from the presence of gods or rehgious fancy. So when festivals weave their powerful spell, the gods hve and gilded Uons stretch and breathe flame. Garudas soar on vermiHon wings. And golden serpents easily believed.

adorning temple roofs

The

chariots roU,

flick

and

in

jeweled tongues.

them

are virgin children representing

recognized as reincarnates and brought up to beheve that they are gods. At puberty they are turned out into the world of ordinary men. Others take their place. What, one deities, children

wonders, happens to a retired god?

They are

beautiful children, petal-fresh with youth

and

digni-

IN SEARCH OF

SNOWMEN

beyond their years with their unnatural upbringing. Tradition paints them hke ballerinas, their almond eyes so exaggerated \vith finely drawn mascara that they appear perpetually surprised. Vermilion and sandalwood paste plastered on their foreheads imparts to them a look of unreality so they may be butterflies or exotic birds enmeshed in the golden finery of their clothes and tremulous headdresses. All the year round they are confined in a temple in the heart of Kathmandu, close by the ancient palace of the first Gurkha kings. Very occasionally it is possible to catch a ghmpse of one peeping from a carved and gilded window, no more. But today they are carried, like the children they are, through the streets and they sit with great pomp and ceremony on the fied

decorated chariots. To the thousands

who

throng the lanes of

Kathmandu and crowd the multi-tiered phnths of the city's numerous temples, these children are gods. As they are drawn through the streets money and rice are showered upon them in offering. Bands play again— did they ever cease? And masked dancers in grotesque mgs of scarlet yak hair prance through the streets like agitated feather dusters.

Cyprus Branch Only

The tainous

ex-pedition

fills

paraphemaha

rooms of the Royal Hotel. Our mounheaped on the hotel tennis courts; our

five is

Sherpas are in boardinghouses in the bazaar. Housed in a whitewashed Rana palace, the hotel has been a temporary home to almost ever\^ expedition to the Nepal Himalayas since

went

it

into business.

Once there were only a dozen rooms so large one felt lonely visited

Kathmandu

had attached

to

retired early the

it

palatial suites

with three bath-

in the bathtubs.

in 1956 I occupied a

room

\\Tien

I

first

in the hotel that

the most popular of the three bathrooms.

first

night but hardly slept. Every

I

now and

again there would be a tap on the door and someone would

clump or tiptoe through the room to my batliroom. One intruder was a heavenly blonde with a foreign accent. I thought to be friendly; after all, it was my room. But she was in a hurry. "No, no," she whispered. "I need zi bog, I need zi bog." She dashed on through.

KATHMANDU Now

9

more prosaic proportions, and rumor (never to be discredited in Kathmandu) has one of the old bathrooms a modern honeymoon suite. The hotel gives climbers a generous reduction on stiff tourist rates and only recently began charging people seriously for their stay. Its founder-owner, Boris Lissenovitch, and his beautiful Danish there are forty-four rooms of

wife, Inger, launch every willing expedition in bouts of alcohol,

good wine, and excellent music. Boris not only is a great character but one of Nepal's greatest monuments. Everyone knows him; he knows everybody, and there is nothing he can't arrange or advise on. A white Russian, he has been artist, ballet dancer, night-club owner, hotel chef, circus hand, soldier, adventiurer, in fact, just about everything that sounds glamorous.

He has a mother-in-law who is all romance and effervescent good humor, five foot in her heels and permed hair, as voluptuous as a temple carving. 'Why do you want to go up those cold mountains, darling?" she asks Hillary. "Doesn't your poor vdfe feel lonely?"

Exposed to each other for the first time, with few exceptions, members of the expedition are reputation-conscious. If any of us want to chase helter-skelter after drums and be enchanted by the magic of Kathmandu en fete we resist temptation. Ed Hillary announces he has seen it aU before and there is work to be done. We take the hint. But we find time to join knots of people outside the hotel that became swarms in the city streets and multitudes in the principal square, and since conscience demands a good excuse, we take our cameras along and begin threatening the stock of expedition film. Two larger-than-life figures adorn a city temple during the days of festival. Made of bamboo and wool, one depicts a wild man of the forest and the other his amply bosomed mate. To the Nepalese they are "Ban Manchhiun." To our Sherpas and to us, for by now we're subscribing to Sherpa mystique, the figures represent Abominable Snowpeople. We photograph them ad nauseam. But mostly we take pictures of the curious who stand endlessly in front of our cameras. A film is to be made of the expedition's activities, and Fred Niles, of Fred A. Niles, Inc.,

Chicago and Hollywood, has flown into Kathmandu to direct early operations and give advice. Fred, one suspects, is of the urgent breed that have telephones by their bathtubs and are

IN SEARCH OF

10

constantly wired for useful sound.

He

SNOWMEN

cuts through the multi-

confusion of festive Kathmandu like an icebreaker through a Uly pond in full bloom and somehow shoots film without a single intruding head, hand, or bicycle. He holds confer-

colored

ences around dining tables the bar

when

it is

a secretary. She

is

open

when

the hotel bar

to business— Cyprus

is

closed and in

brandy

only.

He

has

beautiful.

Obesity and Sports Clothes

had met Sir Edmund Hillary in the Royal Geographic Society in London a couple of months before. The occasion had hardly appeared auspicious for an interview which would decide whether or not I would accompany the expedition. I had come straight off an Air France Caravelle from a Parisian hoUday, full of free champagne and in French sports clothes completely inadequate for the EngUsh weather and the occasion. I weighed something near 220 pounds and found talking and at the same time holding my breath to keep a sagging stomach in reasonable shape difiBcult. Sir Edmund was magnificent. He ignored alcohoHc fumes and obesity in what may have been a I

personal save-a-soul-through-mountaineering campaign. After a brief fifteen minutes in the presence

ing in the tearoom while Sir

The good woman offered I

am

me

Edmund

and another thought

ser\dng tea noticed

my

a cup with the assurance that

certain she did not

there was a vacancy for

she considered

me

it

me

fifteen wait-

over, I

was

state of nerves

would be

on.

and

all right.

know what I was there for. Perhaps some obscure job in the building and

a candidate.

Sm Edmund Kathmandu is a robot with an unruly mane but one of the most casual, immediately Hkable persons I have met. He knows character instinctively and is never in a hurry to impose the force of his own, which is considerable. On the contrary, he is sympathetic in the extreme to other people's Hillary in

still

and peccadilloes in the way Orientals are, so that I beHeve his Himalavan adventures have collected the dust of the

foibles

KATHMAXDU

11

acceptance and understanding that are the substance of Sherpa Nepal. Or perhaps I'm being too romantically Oriental myself

and the secret

of Hillar\-'s

rugged good nature

is

that he's an

incurable indi\idualist so certain of himself that he can afford its nature and its objectives this Himalayan expedition with which Ed has been con-

to

be sure of others. Because of

is

the

first

cerned that includes "art}' serious mountaineers. its

t\-pes"

(

a Hillan.- definition

Ed despairs He lea\-es our

If

at

this

>

e\-il

among neces-

overfed frames and he does not show it. decadent minds to the 120-mile walk from Kathmandu to our 12,000-foot base camp in the Rohvaling \'alley. He even pampers

sit}\

us in

Kathmandu

\\i.th

the

gigantic

so that the

mountaineers amon^ us help him

task of sorting through

the thirty tons of

expedition stores and equipment while the rest of us, the uninitiated, sort out oiu

own

difficult

and bath

salts

for

foot sprays

affairs— whether to sacrifice

cans of beer, and custom-built

boots for the expedition clodhoppers, for example, or take the

and die under tlie load. Does one e\-er know what a load is one is under it? And has walked \Wth it a mile, five miles, eight, fifteen? Does one suspect that elegant hiking shorts bought with a wife or girl friend in a moment of distant and deep-freeze heroism are not quite designed \Wth an Eastern sun and Xepalese leeches in mind? But a well-filled rucksack and highly colored shorts look good at the start of adventure and the tourists and one's ego, at least, are taken in.

lot

like until

Mv

immediate companion in innocence is John Dienhart crew-cut and ghb, and representing our sponsors, the World Book Encyclopedia, Chicago, John had shopped in New York and gone skiing in tiie .\rgentine in preparation for Thirt)-- eight,

the expedition. His personal kit could equip a small expedition, and it looks as colorful as a Fifth Avenue shop window. He has

and tranquilizers, foot freezers and foot warmers, denand perfumed face cleaners, tissues, ointments, aids for the fainthearted, Bermuda shorts, the lot. He had reluctantly left liis gav social whirl behind in Cliicago but soon discovered part\"-giving U. S. Go\-emment workers in Kathmandu. One inpep

pills

tal fioss

sisted

on giving us a send-off celebration the night before the

IN

12 great trek, and John and

and

friends

I

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

had reason

to

remember

their excessive hospitality during the

Gloria's

heavy-headed,

foot-blistering miles of the next day's march.

"Oh I

hell,

Des. This

is

the

first

day

of a

nine-month expedition.

don't dig this jazz," John kept saying, as v^e dragged our-

selves

up

hills

and skidded painfully downi

v^hy did

I

course. It

had been partly his

get involved in

all this?"

others.

He knew

"Why,

oh,

well enough, of

idea.

As the Public Relations Director of the World Book Encyclowas to make it clear that his encyclopedia was a participant in history-making events of current interest. He felt that the other reference works were merely reporters of events after the fact, and "pretty dull" ones pedia, his over-all pubhcity objective

at that.

After meeting Hillary in Chicago he sold his

management on

sponsoring the expedition, and he was along on the Yeti hunt to handle radio and press communications. John felt he was in pretty good shape after winters skiing and summers spent racing star-class sailboats.

He

repeatedly cussed this rash decision dur-

few tortuous days of the trek. In the arty group with John and myself are Marlin

ing the

first

director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago,

thor of animal books, over

haired good looks that Dr. Larry

fifty,

sells

TV

Perkins,

personaHty, au-

suave and with the kind of gray-

expensive shirts in advertising, and

Swan and Bhanu Bannerjee. MarHn has left a bride of him and appears to be keeping his mind off

a few days behind

romance by studiously photographing anything and everything of interest and nosing out local animals. Dr. Larry Swan, who describes himself as a "Himalayanist," interested in everything

from gnats to giant pandas and the threatened disappearance of the true Nepalese lizard, was bom in India and schooled in Darjeeling. He speaks Hindustani well and has that plump cheerfulness and breezy manner that makes friends of anyone and everyone, instantly. Larry has discovered creatures where hoteliers swear they don't exist and has us all insect conscious before we set foot in the wilds. His idea of the Yeti is decidedly apelike. In fact, Larry is all set to capture a rare mountain gorilla provided, of course, that our luck holds and Yetis have not become extinct during the last few years. Bhanu Bannerjee, a BengaU and the only Indian member of our Yeti hunting team, joined the expedition at the last min-

KATHMANDU

13

ute as a general aide largely to supervise the business of communication. A distinctly low-altitude tyn^e (his home town in

Bengal is thirty feet above sea level), Bhanu had some Himalayan experience when he accompanied me on a trek through Bhutan in 1959. His family were understandably apprehensive when Bhanu, whose initial job with the expedition required him to go as far only as Kathmandu, wrote and informed his parents that he was off to climb to at least 19,000 feet and hunt Yetis at that. Few BengaU youths of twenty-three get involved in adventin:e of this land, so Bhanu's father can be s}TTipathized with when he writes and begs me to keep an eye on his son who "as a Bengali is unaccustomed to such high regions and beasts like the Snowman." As iVe confessed, John, Larry, Marlin, Bhanu, and I are the arty types whose endurance and capabilities will be judged somewhere along the tortuous trail ahead of us. The strong backbone of the expedition is made up of old Hillary associates like the bearded George Lowe and Norman Hardie, conqueror of Kanchenjunga; Peter Mulgrew and Wally Romanes, who have been vdth Sir Edmund in the Antarctic; Mike Gill and Pat Barcham, successful young New Zealand climbers; Dr. Tom Nevison, an American space physiologist who has been on a Karakoram expedition; Barry Bishop, American glaciologist and climber; tlie "doctors" (our scientists); and the high-altitude Sherpas, by no means least. Norman Hardie is something of a legend, having just emerged as the author of a book on Sherpas; besides, it is no mean person who battles up a peak like Kanchenjunga, the world's third liighest mountain and long considered impossible, and then in respect of local sentiment leaves the last few tantalizing feet unsealed. Norman and his companion did, and the gods of Sikkim remain appeased as a result. To Norman has fallen the task of recruiting our Sherpas and our army of NepaH cooHes, and it is to his credit that we leave Kathmandu with "the strongest team of Sherpas ever"— Ed Hillary's estimation. George Lowe has accompanied Hillary on numerous ex-peditions, to Makalu and Cho Oyu, and to the Antarctic, and his contribution to Sir Edmund's success on Everest has been acknowledged as indispensable. I beheve George's strength as a mountaineer is in his sparse frame— he could pass as an ascetic or a famine victim— his clockwork stride, abundant good humor,

IN

14

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

and his capability of going to sleep anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Hardly would we come to rest during a day's scrambUng before George would disappear under an umbrella and set his beard twitching in sleep. This feat he could accomphsh standing up, sitting, or lying down, and as a result his nervous system was at peace with the world while the rest of ours shredded and twanged. George is a schoolmaster— almost perpetually on long leave for adventure— in Repton PubUc School, England. My first impression of Peter Mulgrew is of a Disney character, rejuvenated Father Christmas sans beard and belly. This may a have to do with the scarlet cap he seems always to wear and the fact that as keeper of the stores he is perpetually dispensing largesse. Brimful of natin-al good humor, Peter has the poHsh of quarterdeck wit, being a subHeutenant in the Royal New Zealand Navy, "a dirty British sailor, that's me." Peter was later to pay a high price for his courage and determination on Makalu, a price I have heard many people question or dismiss as unnecessary. If ever I needed to understand what causes men to climb high mountains, Peter Mulgrew's gallant struggle below the summit of Makalu is half the answer. The other is the experience of walking behind Hillary, watching his huge feet in relation to the distant wedge of Mount Everest, and trying to insinuate myself into his thinking as he looked upon *1iis" mountain, the peak so utterly remote and unassailable, that once was under his size 12 boots.

Radiation and Spiritual

On

Habmony

the hotel tennis court and in two of the hotel rooms prep-

and equipment are being sorted and reduced to sixty-pound loads, the weight, no matter in what shape it comes, a NepaH porter can conveniently carry. There are the gleaming sections of the Silver Hut, like anti-tank devices, curved and metalHc, each designed as a porter load. I find it impossible to beheve that these vnll be forged into a gale-proof, electrically Ht, snugly warm laboratory on some 20,000-foot spur in which our scientists will brave out a Himalayan winter. We are fitted for boots and crampons and overboots like punctured elephant's feet. We try to scrounge the extra woolen aration keeps long hours. Crates of stores

2. Some of our 500 porters and 500 loads at the end of the road at Banepa. From here on, all transport is on foot.

A monsoon strikes a camp at 7000 on the way to the Rolwaling Valley. 3.

feet,

4.

(right)

One

of the

more sub-

stantial bridges within four days'

march

of

Kathmandu.

5.

(below)

After heavy rain this stream became a turbulent flood. We heavy Westerners established ourselves in

midstream and helped our

lighter porters to cross.

:'^

6.

A

typical Sherpa house.

Khumjung.

The mountain

in

background

is

Khumbila, the sacred peak of

7.

(topj

Hum.

8.

a Mane

wall (prayer wall) inscribed with the Buddliist prayer

(bottom) Nepalese houses of the better type— these are

at

5000

Om feet.

Mane Padme

KATHMANDU shirt,

I5

wriggle into full-length imderwear,

make airy—we hope

new ice axes, and pore over maps. At the British Embassy, where we leave a visitors' book that reads like a guide to moun-

prof essional—passes with

There are our names in

parties.

home of the Ameriwoman who has spiritual

taineering in the central Himalayas; in the

can ambassador, where

I sit

next to a

"You must try to believe, going barefooted helps, the earth's radiation, you know. Have you ever felt you are experiencing something familiar, as for the second time? That has ," And at the to do with radiation and spiritual harmony. Indian ambassador's residence, where we eat oflE silver plates and by candleHght and discover our hosts to be the most deHghtful of people. Mr. and Mrs. Hariswar Dayal have spent many years in the Himalayas and have journeyed to Lhasa where they met the Dalai Lama. Their official residence is hung with a set of beautiful Tibetan scroU paintings, and Mrs. Dayal explains that there is only one other set like it in existence. She promises to visit us at our Base Camp. *1 want to go high, really high. I experiences.

.

.

love high mountains."

We have

our blood taken for examination;

we

are given

little

containers of multicolored vitamin piUs for the long trek

and we have

in,

briefings.

There will be two parties, one to hunt the Yeti in the Rolwaling Valley and the other to find a site for and erect the vmiter laboratories at 18,000 feet and 20,000 feet on the Everest region. Hillary vdll lead the Yeti himters, Norman Hardie the hut builders. I vdU go Yeti hunting, and I note with some satisfaction that our party will reach Base

Camp

in twelve days.

Norman

wiU stagger along for eighteen, maybe more, before settling somewhere near Thyangboche, the monastery village wdthin ten miles of Everest. The few of our scientists already arrived wiU accompany Hardie. Others still in England v^ join us when the Yeti hunt is done and the unpredictable Himalayan Hardie's

winter begins to lay siege to our laboratory huts.

we and Ed

Slowly

get to

know each

other. I

want

to

know about

the

me to Wally, who apparently is a professional housebuilder when not being a fine mountaineer. He has the enviable quality for remaining unruffled under the most trying conditions, a quaUty that was to

huts

sends

WaUy Romanes

the expert.

is

be fuUy appreciated on Makalu when everything seemed to be going wrong all at once. Such men as Wally, Mike Gill, and Pat

IN

l6

Barcham and say

are

among

httle. If

Ed

life's

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

unsung heroes who work a great deal

Hillary did not assure one that they were

all

they were apt to pass quietly as expedition mules who worked like frenzy and never complained. In our first Base Camp Mike GiU almost died of pneumonia, in our

brilliant climbers

mess tent, with all of us sitting about and jabbering. But apart from thinking that he looked pretty spent, none of us knew how seriously ill Mike was. Certainly he never fussed. On the contrary, only a fortnight after recovering he was climbing strongly and had his eyes firmly on an impossible 19,000-foot rock tower above the camp. It was Tom Nevisons association with rockets and flying chimpanzees that captured the imagination so that the press and merely curious attached to him Uke sucker fish to a whale and left the rest of us alone. Tom, who was a captain in the United States Air Force, had brought an American flag along with him and he unfurled it with ceremony above his tent every night. Dienhart and I appeared regularly at the tent, peered through the flap, and inquired whether this was the place to vote. In time the flag disappeared.

Turquoise Earrings and Climbing Boots EarHer than usual one morning we are pried from our beds to meet our Sherpas. They are hned up on the hotel tennis court, a gay, ragged lot who look anything but the tough and heroic characters they have

become known

to be.

Most

of

them wear

the clothing of previous expeditions: scarlet Japanese fron cotton, turquoise blue

silk,

saf-

EngHsh nylon, multicolored wool.

Gold pendant earrings and occasional plaits of well-greased hair among heavily padded jackets, woolen trousers, and boots. There are even a few striped pajama suits that are startling. And necklaces. But the smiles are uniform, sponlook incongruous

taneous, infectious.

We

are introduced

first

to

Dawa

archal figure of indeterminate age

Tenzing, our sirdar, a patri-

who

exudes personality and

an occasion, and we make ourselves equal to it by remembering the discarded niceties of Victorian good manners. We are to learn that every occasion alcohoHc fumes. This obviously

is

I

KATHMANDU with old D.T.

17 is

a special one, even

when

excessive drinldng has

Dawa Tenzing is and attempting mandarin whiskers. With a fine record of mountaineering— he was with General Bruce on Everest and has been on some great mountain every year since 1952— Dawa is on the verge of retirement, possibly into a lamasery. The old man is deeply devout and has already given two of his daughters to a nimnery and most of his property to the great monastery at Thyangboche. Described by temporarily unseated his enormous reserve.

old-school Sherpa, with plaited hair

the 1952 Swiss Everest Expedition as the "King of Sherpas,"

Dawa Tenzing would do

better as a dictator. As benign as he is he can be something of a terror when his authority is even remotely questioned, and I have seen many a hard-boiled Sherpa become jelly before the wrath of the old sirdar. Dawa

wise,

has

known

tragedy. In 1958

when he and

his eldest son

were

with separate expeditions, he on Everest, his son on Jugal Himal, rumor had his wife believe that both husband and son had been killed in an avalanche. Quite overcome with grief, she

walked down to the river below her village and hurled herself in. It was Dawa who had to bear with double tragedy. When he returned to Khumjung he heard that his son had in truth perished in an avalanche. And his wife was dead. Dawa Tenzing's deputy and stepson and leader of our Yetihunting Sherpas is Urkien, who has an engaging habit of widening his eyes when he laughs, and he laughs often. Urkien is tougher than the proverbial horse and a very experienced climber. But he has one unfortunate failing, an incapacitating temper that almost got the expedition into serious trouble before it was properly launched. The fiery local brew called chang is generally fuel to his rage. But Urkien is a lovable, intelligent person when he's sober, and I've enjoyed his company, discussing things Uke reUgion^^and reincarnation and the need for Sherpa education, by the hour.

Three other Sherpas imprint themselves on my memory: Pasang Tenzing, my personal Sherpa, who has a toothy smile and the figure and agility of a ballet dancer; Aila, a lanky longhaired individual with protruding teeth detailed to John Dienhart, and Nima Dorje, our cook, who looks as young and as smart as an army recruit. Nima apparently is alive by sheer good chance. On expedition with the Swiss to Dhaulagiri, he had

IN

l8

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

down an ice slope when he and had been caught in an avalanche. In his own words, "The snow came boom, boom, boom, like a herd of yaks stampeding. We went down head over heels, sideways, spinning, roUing, and the snow was exploding and showering all about us. I was quite bhnd with the snow in my eyes and so dazed I thought I was dead. Then we stopped. Our rope had got wedged over a rock. Four of us, all Sherpas, were partly buried in snow; one was hanging over a precipice, but all seemed unhurt. There was a sahib and he was deeply buried plummeted three thousand

feet

four others on the one rope

but ahve; he kept shouting. Slowly snow, but the sahib could not move.

we freed ourselves from the He was next on the rope to

me, and I was fearful because he did not move and delayed us. Snow kept avalanching onto us and there was danger of a large shde sweeping us away again over the precipice. Should I cut the rope?" Fortunately both sahib and Sherpas survived the ordeal,

and Nima went on

He was

then nineteen.

to reach the

smnmit

of Dhaulagiri.

John Dienhart is rather horrified by Aila's looks. "Oh hell, Ed, must I have him? I mean, he looks Idnda savage, and those teeth: get a load of those ivories." Unable to remember Aila's name, John has hit upon a musical giromick, "Aila Paris in the Springtime." I would have given a great deal to Aila

had

to say about

carry for his sahib

know what

John and the jazzy dispensary he had to

when the

trek began.

2 TREK Peter

Mulgrew was

in hospital

with dysentery; half a dozen

others were not feeling too good. Bhanu Bannerjee was chasing packing material in Patna. He and Peter would follow us later. Something was discovered wrong with the cameras, and it was

f

TREK

19

feared that they might have to be rushed back to the States. Essential stores

were

in the coldhearted grip of the Indian Cus-

personally found reducing my needs for loads of sixty pounds each impossible. two months to ten But we moved. Somehow the days of confused activity in Kathmandu blossomed into a mobile, even efficient, machine. There came a dawn when uniformed hotel servants called us early with the last tray of morning tea we were to see. Our Sherpas took our packs even as we packed them. Some of us

toms in Calcutta.

managed

I

breakfast— others

spent

their

time

being

photo-

graphed, heroically, adventurously, and saying good-by, innocent of the blood, blisters, and tears ahead, in a uniform better

than anything since one's days with Boy Scouts and buoyed up

with that most inflatable of

all

personal elations, self-importance.

Someone had brought beer along; the cans were stood Hke on a jeep hood, and we swigged it down with mist still lying on the lawns and day still behind the eastern wall of the skittles

valley.

Transport took us through the streets of Kathmandu, gaping,

bemused, vaguely interested, along a rough but beautiful track to Bhatgaon, one of Kathmandu Valley's ancient capitals. In a square piously looked ple were beating a

At Bhatgaon

dog

down upon by to death.

we met

several temples

Apparently

it

some peo-

was mad.

our porters, a uniform gray of unrecog-

saw our baggage shouldered, felt good, were rephotographed, and took transport again, for Banepa, our first day's halt. In fairness let me say that some expedition members

nizable people,

Banepa, a hot, dusty eight miles. We who rode got there faster and v^th less effort, but the deeply gouged road, if such it can be called, gave our jeep and we who rode it such

walked

hell

to

about our Hvers, knees, and wrists that

we

suffered

no pangs

of conscience.

Banepa

is

the last big village in the

Kathmandu

Valley. It

is

and pimctua typical NepaH town: ancient, rusty-brown, ated with gilt-roofed temples. Its unexpected Seventh-day Adventist hospital, raised and cared for by Dr. Stanley Sturges of tiled,

Santa Rosa, California, delayed our break with civilization for a few hours. spent the evening with Dr. and Mrs. Sturges,

We

on settees, our feet on a carpet, and muncliing from our last refrigerator.

sitting fruit

cliilled

IN

SEARCH OF SNOWMEN

FmsT Day Out

We

walked out of Banepa with a swing. The morning was perfect, full of cool shadows and racing sunlight after rain. We had eaten well and the country was only gently undulating. John and I were behind the porters so our pace was slow, almost negligible. If this was to be the extent of our daily exertion the months ahead would be a picnic. How quickly were we disillusioned. After cHmbing to a low pass we found ourselves above a valley that was miles across— the far side so far that villages were like clusters of sequins in the fabric of forests and fields. We were to make our camp that night by a river, and obviously it was the one below us and far enough at that. "No," said Urkien, who was now driving the porters to greater speed, "tonight's camp is beyond that ridge there, in the clouds." He pointed into the distance. "We may have our tea break by this river." Murder. This was impossible. It was unjust. And of course it was a joke. But Urkien had hurried on, driving the porters before him, and John, Marhn, Larry, and I were left on the pass, wondering why the heU we were there at all. "Hope to hell we get back," said Larry, making a swipe at a yellow butterfly v^th one of his nets. "Here, would you Hke to catch things for me, bugs, beetles, spiders, butterflies, anything interesting?" I accepted a net from Larry and we stumbled on dovni the track. Fortunately the mist closed in and we couldn't see our distant goal any longer. Psychologically it helped; our feet were now our pedometers, and mine registered capacity long before we reached the river and our lunch. I was so weary I sat on a nest of red ants and didn't budge until they swarmed aU over me. George, lucky fellow, was asleep. The rest of that first day was agony. It never seemed to end; the track would go on forever, always around one more bend, and another and another, and the sun burst on us when we were at our most weary, so that we sweated and got miserably thirsty and there was no water to drink. We somehow survived the afternoon and were still walking in the evening. A waterfall saved us. We stripped and stood under it until energy returned to our bodies. Then we staggered on until there at last was the river and our camping site, our tents already up and the smoke

TR'i«

21

frc^ our campfires trapped in a grove of trees. It was late and sucHenly dark. "Not a bad day/' said Ed when he came in— he

h4^ started hours

#-

after us.

"Tomorrow is a real bugger."

VED AND Blistered

was quite like that memorable first. We grew and we bored. We let the stubble develop on our got blilfcrs chint and became blase about our appearances. Even though

IP

other day

we

subconsciously resisted it— cursing the sun, the rain, the ups,

the

dawns—we

fell for

the magic of Nepal, on the second, and

The vastness: looking suddenly for miles through windows in the mist. The silence: hearing a Jackal cry on another mountain, and in the night waking to the third, and the umpteenth day.

feel the vibration of the stars.

on the limbs of mountains,

And

trees

beauty: of terraced

fields

wearing orchids, flowers, and

prayer flags beside cairns of stones. In a hilltop village a marriage party straddled the track,

men on one

side,

women on

of singimg duel, as

if

the other.

They engaged

in a sort

the success of the marriage depended on

Our passing did not

added to it. A fe># verses of song were hastily ad-Ubbed: "The bottom of the hor» and he who rides it are the same size. Tonight the wiB have blisters on his seat. The horse will have a broken Ail% Aiii." John Dienhart and Marlin Perkins had taken to^)rses for a day (picked up at a nearby village and sent back at 0e first river), John suffering a wrenched knee and it.

interrupt the ceremony, rather

Marlin pailful bHsters.

On and 0i luA

through forests and across bare wind-swept ridges,

and sm*prised villages, across torrents spanned b^ a single log and across rivers on chain bridges fashioned hf local blacksmiths and chance. We toiled up slopes we normally ould ignore, lungs bursting and souls despairing, and down slq^es we normally would leave to avalanches and the insane. Al^ys there was beauty to take our flagging minds off the weary •iisiness of endlessly walking, and the pains and frustrations of e 140

kalu,

Que, Pasang, 58 Queen, the. See Elizabeth, Queen

66-67

shelters, Sherpa,

Rolwaling area,

Romanes, Wally,

Puranas, Hindu, 119

Ramayana

94

carving, Sherpa, 111

30,

of,

90 157-

58 Scalps,

81-83;

Yeti,

examined,

Heuvelmans on, 102; I'angKhumjung, 74-77; boche, 7^77; borrowed by 100-3;

expedition, findings

85-89;

concerning,

scientffie

130-31

INDEX

252 Scavengers, village, 109 Schoolhouse, dedication ceremony for,

235-36

Scree, definition of, 70

Serow, scalp

of,

Stupa, Buddhist, 29, 63, 73 Sturges, Dr. Stanley, 19

Shar, 105

of, 94.

world

Suckhng, infant, Sherpa customs

derivation

Sun, power of in Himalayas, 154-

Buddhist

concerning, 110

95

Sherpas, the,

105-15;

of, 105; early history of, 7;

Sherpa belief in, 55-56, 115 Standard of living, Sherpa, 107-8

Spirits,

Stretcher, use of, 223

81-82

Mahendra Bikram, 93

Shar-li-pa-pho,

leopards, 80

Snowman, Abominable. See Yeti Solu Khumbu, 6, 7, 31, 56-57, 65, 72, 79, 111

Schrieber, Capt., 161, 175, 179 Selenarctos thibetanus, loo-i

Shah,

Snow

economy,

106-

language,

108;

105; origin of, 105; as trap-

6,

91-92, 191;

50,

and photograph

lists,

disappearance

of,

180-81

Swan, Dr. Larry,

pers, 6; tribes of, 105, 106

Shigatse, zoological garden at, 120

Shipton, Eric,

55 Supply

12, 46, 47, 55 Swiss Technical Assistance, aid to

Sherpas, 110-11

of Yeti track,

129-30 Sightings of Yetis, 29, 32; denial of,

131

Sikkim, Yeti legends

in,

116-17,

118 Siku,

and Makalu

Silver Hut, of,

assault,

181-82;

144-46;

Tashi, Nima, 88

218

constructicHi

dismantling

Takargo, 46 Tamserku (mountain), 71, 83, 162 Tashi Lapcha, 57, 69-71, 72 Tashi Lapcha Pass, 62, 68

of,

Tate, 138

Tawache,

142, 162

Tea, Tibetan, 72, 91, 110 58, 81-82

228-29 Simigaon, 26

Temba, Ang, 37-38,

Singh, N. M., 176

Tenzing,

Dawa

(sirdar),

Singha Durbar, King's Banquet

89, 138, 182, 203;

at, 172-73 Sing Thorn, 100

of

Siri,

Sita,

Thyangboche monastery, and discovery of sacred

112;

Will, 191-92

writings,

legend concerning, 119

party

Skins, Yeti, 131

Slaughter, animal, Sherpas' avoid-

ance

of,

109

Sleeping equipment, Sherpa, 70 Sleeping pills, use of, 205

Slick-Johnson expedition, and search for Yeti, 130

Smoke, Sherpa beHef concerning, 110

16-17,

on building

of,

230-32;

farewell

229-30; at festival,

150-53 Tenzing, Pangboche, and Makalu assault,

218

17; and assault on Makalu, 215-18; eyesight of, 66 Tenzing, Pember, 137; and ascent of Amadablam, 164-71; and assault on Makalu, 215-18; at

Tenzing, Pasang,

INDEX

253

Camp

Universe, Sherpa conception

IV, 200

Tenzing, Sen, 91-92 Tesi Lapcha, 168 Tests,

physiological,

results

of,

182 Tests,

high-altitude,

scientific

158-61

Thakpa, 106

100-1,

118

Ursus arctos pruinosus, 100 Arctos Pruinosus Blyth,

Thap, 109 Thelma, 31, 117, 118 Tho, 106

IJrsus

119-20 Ursus Lagonyarius of Trejevalski, 121

Thorn, 100

Thulshig Rimpoche, as reincarnate lama, 72-73

Thunka, 232 Thyangboche,

15;

base

Mani

139

at,

Gompa

building

tery),

Vallois, Prof., 101

Villages, Sherpa, 108

Thyangboche and

ascent, 148-49; and Makalu rescue party, 219; and Yeti scalp, 89 Ursus arctos isabellinus,

Thakpa Tho, 106 Thami, 72, 140 Thami Valley, 140

of,

94 U-ri-gya-lhymbu, 94 Urkien, 17; at Camp IV (Makalu Col), 199; and Lhotse Shar

(

of,

Rimdu

monas112-13;

festival,

Ward, Dr. Michael P., 154, 193; and ascent of Amadablam, 164-71; and assault on Ma-

149-53; as source of Yeti leg-

kalu,

ends, 79-80

delirium

Tilman, on "mountaineers foot,"

198-200,

203-9;

201,

216-25; regard-

of,

ing Yeti tracks, 129, 130

Water system, Kathmandu, 173

168

Timber Development Association, and Silver Hut, 144-45 Tingba, 79

glacier, 62,

West, Dr. John, 154, 189-90, 193, 201; and assault on Makalu, 2045.; 222-25

Tingba-jay, 79 Tingri, 56, 106

Tolam Bau

Weaving, Sherpa, 111

70

Torma, 99 Tracks, Yeti. See Footprints, Yeti

Wilson, lost on Everest, 56 Winch, use of, 140, 143 Wives, travelers' tales concerning, 93; visit

WoH,

Trade, Sherpa, 107-8

Mingbo

base, 172

Tibetan, 130

Tree-climbing sloth bear, 100-1

Tremo,

123.

See also

Dremo

Yaks, as measure of prestige, 110

Treta, age of, 119

"Yak's saddle," 71

Tribes, Sherpa, 105

Yak's

Tsampa, 90-91, 156, 229 Tshering, Lakhpa, 59, 60-61

Yeti, arm,

tail,

Sherpa use 105;

118-25;

bears

breeds

Tshering, Mei, 99 Tshering, Nima, 58

attitude toward,

Tulmos, 110

skeletal,

curse

of,

of,

91

as, of,

100-1,

30-32;

83-85; expedition's

yy,

131;

4-6;

hand,

footprints.

INDEX

254 47-51. 9i-92> 13^31; scalps,

bout,

81-83, 85-^9, 100-3, 130-31;

Dremo.

Sherpas' belief

in,

115, 131-

Yetini,

76,

116-25.

See

abo

33

32; sightings of, 29, 32, 131; sldns,

36-40,

131;

stories

a-

Zolungs, 110

F^

83.

A

fifteen-year-old Sherpa boy, Kalden, presenting a petition with the

a school he established in Khumjung. Kalden school himself in Kathmandu, training to become a teacher. sixty children asking that

names is

now

of at

84. Putting on the roof of the

Khumjung

85.

Some

ceremony.

School.

of the

lama band

at the school-opening

86. Great

Khumjung

mountain walls tower above the School, which is itself at 13,000

feet.

87.

The head lama

of

Thyangboche

in priest's cap taking part in the

opening ceremony.

r^0>

88 Mr. Tern Doric and the first this seesaw for the children and and a swing.

Khumjung School. 89. Doig constructed popular. Later on we had two seesaws immensely was

fifty it

children at

'

-.i,'"''!!

-^-^^

Mingbo

Tangbdfhe

%'jk

ase

PUMA-

^^ABLAM-'

^

mp AMA-

AIR

STRIP

Hut ^^ COL

Thyangboche

Qreew

Khumjiim

Namdne Bamr

.i^,i

-/^-i

r--^. Miles 2

3

A EVERE5T yLHOTSE -

,.

-^^

1.

LHOTSESHAR

1 MOFFETT STUDIO

SIR EDMUND HILLARY is a Knight Commander of the British Empire, conqueror of Everest,

and transnavigator

oi

the Antarctic. James

New

York Times Magaonce described him as "a virtuoso, deeply and constantly embroiled in his art." Sir Edmund is a charming speaker and writer, a man in continuing quest of information and adventure. At present he and his handsome family are living in Chicago, working with the expedition's sponsors, World Book Encyclopedia. Morris, in an article in the

zine,

» \

^^'"^

^^

Xf

'^^

^^^^

HONGU ^NL ^^ GLACIER

'

^E5T iCOL

[mngu

1

\

?:.

1

1

Newk

C

(

T

GEORGE CSERNA

DESMOND

N

1

DOIG,

a

talented, witty journalist

(the Calcutta Statesman),

accompanied Hillary on

the expedition. His ability to speak the native language was invaluable, and the mutual affection

between him and the Himalayan people

\ XN

in his narration of the search for the

Miles

1

100

\

200

is

evident

Snowman.

Doig's sympathetic imderstanding of the native beliefs enabled Hillary's party to learn more

about the Yeti than had any previous expedition.

JACKET DESIGN BY RONALD CLYNE

/

{/

Printedin the U.S.A.

SK

.

to sran h lor ihr legendary Sncmnnaii

•

•

to diseover

_^^

answer— answer Can men survive long

|)erio(ls at

without oxygen tanks?

adventure high in a

•

to seek

an

land ol barelycredihle beauty This

is

the story ol the

who, in was strtu

FA'erest,

his

sean

k

h,

then saw^ his to

drop

also.

expedition by the Conquero r of

most important

down— and

fell()w\s .

last

begin

^^

^ ^^

high ahitude^*^**"^^'

^