Charles Granville Bruce

“ If you happen to smack a young lama friendly on the back, say, a flake of dirt falls off. They are perfectly astonishing in their dirt. This, however, does not apply to the Dzongpens or others of position, for in this part of Tibet the Dzongpens wash on New Year’s night, and I think — I think — their wives do also.
From Shekar our road led across the Arun via the Pangla La down into the valley of the Dzakar Chu, thence following that valley up to the Rongbuk monastery in the Rongbuk valley. ”

“ Therefore, while the staff of the Expedition was establishing the base camp and Captain Finch was getting his oxygen apparatus into order, Colonel Strutt, Dr. Longstaff, Major Morshead, and Major Norton started out to make full reconnaissance of the East Rongbuk glacier. It was quite apparent that the work of establishing the camps and of making a further advanced mountaineering base on the Chang La would be very severe indeed. On these camps being fully rationed, fully provisioned, and supplied with fuel, would depend the success of the attack on the mountain itself. ”

“ The following day was a really magnificent march, but exceedingly trying. The wind was very high, but the weather perfect in other ways. The road led us over three great ridges, all being part of a great northerly ridge running from the northern slopes of Pawhunri, all these ridges being 17,000 feet above the sea, more or less. It was an exceedingly cold march, and very trying to men and animals. We finally camped under some small cliffs at a place called Hung Zung Tak; animals not arriving again many of them until ten o’clock at night, but the position was saved by our 50 Chumbi mules. ”

“ Early in the year all Tibetan animals are in very poor condition, and it was apparent that this must be so. Everything was frozen up and dried, and it is a wonder how the animals themselves manage to keep alive at all on the amount of grass to be seen on the hillside. However, we finally arranged to move from Phari in two days, but we were also obliged to take with us 50 of the Chumbi mules to complete the transport required. Ultimately our transport consisted of some 320 mules, yaks, cows, and donkeys, eked out with 15 or 20 coolies. ”

“ It must be understood though that the Dzakar Chu and neighbouring part of Tibet is very sparsely populated, and not only that, but the ploughing season and spring were approaching and it was absolutely necessary for these people to work on their fields. I had been given a promise of 90 porters to help, but only 45 were forthcoming. ”

“ All stores, as they were received in Calcutta, were forwarded by the Army and Navy Stores direct to Kalimpong Road, where they were received by one of our transport officers, Captain Morris, handed over to the contractors who had undertaken the transport of the Expedition, and forwarded by them with the greatest possible speed to Phari Dzong. Naturally this took a good deal of arranging, as the stores arrived in no less than four different consignments, the last consignment of all, the oxygen cylinders, actually arriving in Calcutta on or about the date that the Expedition left Darjeeling. ”

“ The Tibetan coolies could be used only for the first two stages; our own porters moved everything from Camp II. to Camp III.; and also great quantities of stores right up from the base camp to Camp III. The approximate heights were: The base camp 16,500 feet; Camp I. 17,800 feet; Camp II. 19,800 feet; Camp III. 21,000 feet. This required the most continuous hard work. I do not think ever before in the history of Himalayan exploration have men been called on to do harder, or even as hard, work. ”

“ Crawford and Captain Finch, who remained behind at Kalimpong to bring on the oxygen. We left Phari on the morning of April 8 in bad weather, which very rapidly degenerated, until the wind was blowing half a hurricane and it was snowing very heavily. After a most unpleasant march of 16 to 17 miles we managed to make a camp, and it was here that we found the great advantage of having kept 50 of our Chumbi mules. The rest of the animals with the advance party drifted in up to ten o’clock at night. The camp was deep in snow, and the cold was rather severe. ”

“ The first crime consisted in his having poisoned a well-known Lama at the head of the Dud Kosi. The second — an entirely unforgivable crime — was that he lost my ice-axe within four days of leaving Darjeeling.
Among the other followers of the Expedition were the cooks, a most important part. Having fixed on the men we thought were the most likely, my cousin and I took them out into the mountains and tested them as well as we could. ”

“ As long as the west wind, the great enemy of all climbing at this end of the Himalaya, is blowing, the mountain is generally in a fairly safe and firm condition. Though the west wind is a horrible wind blowing the whole length of the Himalayas and inconceivably cold, still it is dry. The south monsoon winds are warm and wet and destructive. ”

“ Two of them lost brothers, and others their special friends, but not a single man has shown any desire not to return; in fact, in Darjeeling on our return every single man volunteered for the next year. ”

“ Moreover, to employ our own porters in moving the stores themselves would not only take a long time but would greatly exhaust the porters, and then they would not be near their full strength for moving camps as high as possible on the mountain. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”