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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 27 August 1905
On the 27th, I awoke at 3 a.m., and by stupendous efforts got off the men by six o’clock. The Doctor [Jules Jacot Guillarmod] strongly opposed me, urging that the men should be allowed to warm themselves thoroughly before starting; in other words, to goat about 11 o’clock, when it is too hot, and the snow too soft, to make any progress worth speaking of. We went on to the glacier ice at once, and soon began to mount the actual slopes of this ridgelet of Kinchinjunga. The men were much afraid of falling, but a short exhibition of glissading on my part soon convinced them there was nothing to fear. Unfortunately, both the Doctor and Reymond were a little out of sorts, and contributed by their evident fear of the perfectly easy slope to the demoralization of the coolies. However, we at last reached Camp IV by a somewhat nasty slope of rock. The camp itself is perched on a little ledge, and is highly inconvenient. The next day we were obliged to rest, the Doctor being very ill. In the afternoon Pache [Alexis Pache] arrived unexpectedly, and without orders. It was becoming increasingly evident that my comrades were too ignorant to understand that any instructions I gave were for the good of all, and they consequently began the practice of finding ingenious excuses for disobedience. Immediate result: one of Pache’s men went off somewhere on his own account, fell, and was killed.
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