THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

London, England

1 March 1930

(pages 13-14)

KANCHENJUNGA.

Past Attempts to Climb It.

LAST YEAR’S DEFEAT.

Bavarians’ Great Achievement

The Kanchenjunga region.

Among the high places of the world the Himalayan peaks are in a class by themselves. The Alps are small by comparison with them; a few isolated peaks in the Andes or Africa or the Rocky Mountains come within the same range as a score of the giants among them. Mont Blanc is little more than half the height of Mount Everest; Kilimanjaro (19,700ft.) and Mount McKinley (20,454ft.), the highest peaks of Africa and North America, would rank as minor peaks in the Sikkim Hunalaya; and even Aconeagua (23,000ft.), the monarch of the Andes, is no higher than the historic North Col on Everest. The Himalaya are a great assemblage of unscaled peaks towering over a land of immense altitude in the heart of Asia. Man has walked in this land only rarely and at the greatest risk of his life.

     Each group of the greater peaks has its peculiar scenery, but none is finer than the magnificent massif that culminates 28,150ft. in the summit of Kanchenjunga.

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The Crowley Expedition.

It was not until 1905 that a direct attempt was made to climb Kanchenjunga by a party consisting of three Swiss—Dr. Jacot-Guillarmod [Jules Jacot Guillarmod], M. Reymond [Charles-Adolphe Reymond], Lieutenant Pache [Alexis Pache]—and an Italian hotel-keeper from Darjeeling named De Righi [Alcesti de Righi], who put themselves under the leadership of Mr. Aleister Crowley. The expedition proceeded by the Singalaa ridge and the Chumbab La to the Yalung Valley, and having marched up the Yalung Glacier attacked the great curtain of icy slopes which falls from the base of the cliffs of the south-west face of Kanchenjunga. They succeeded in establishing a camp at 20,313ft., and some of them climbed 1,000ft. higher. On the afternoon of September 1 Dr. Guillarmod, Lieutenant Pache, and De Righi, with three natives, started to descend the glacier to the lower camp, leaving Crowley and Reymond at the higher. While traversing a snow-slope the two coolies, who were in the middle, slipped, dragging with them Pache and the third coolie, who were behind, and the Doctor and De Righi, who were in front. The Doctor and De Righi escaped with a severe shaking, but their four companions were buried in the avalanche of snow brought down by the fall. Thus ended the first attempt on Kanchenjunga.

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