THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR

Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.

15 August 1952

(page 14)

Climbers Will Still Face a

Tough One After Mount Everest.

Another Himalayan peak has already proved itself a major headache to mountaineers, says a member of the Star itself.

Twenty-nine-thousand-foot Mount Everest, because it is the highest known peak in the world, is properly the mountain climber’s No. 1 objective. This is why the government of Nepal how has three Everest expeditions on the books—the British in 1953, the French in 1954 and the Swiss, whose 1952 attempt failed, again in 1955.

But if and when man scales this much challenged monarch and comes back to tell about it, he’ll promptly cast about for another unclimbed giant on which to satisfy his adventurous appetite.

He won’t have to look far. He’ll even be able to see it from Everest—less than 90 miles south-eastward in the same Himalayan chain. This neighboring peak is Kanchenjunga, a weird, five-headed monster which sits serenely in the background while big brother Everest, because its 856 feet higher, gets the publicity.

Kanchenjunga is so big it dwarfs all surrounding peaks, which themselves are higher than any mountain in North America.

[ . . . ]

Kanchenjunga has not been completely overlooked by climbers in spite of Everest. It has been assaulted five times, all epic struggles in the history of mountaineering, all unsuccessful.

A Swiss group led by an Englishman, Aleister Crowley, first tried it in 1905. They got up to 21,000 feet before Kanchenjunga brushed away four of the party in an avalanche, and those remaining were forced to turn back.

[ . . . ]