Everest Anniversary Part 2: Testing the limits of man and oxygen machines

By TIM WATKIN

Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were enjoying a brief reprieve from Everest's ice and snow on this day in 1953.

While expedition leader John Hunt and others were high above them wrestling with the difficult problem of negotiating a path up the mountain's formidable midriff, Hillary and Tenzing had returned to the rest camp at Lobuje.

"To see the grass and flowers again was itself a tonic, and we lay around idly in the sun laughing and talking," Hillary has written. "Our appetites grew and we could almost feel the flesh going back on to our lean frames."

Not that the pair, who would reach the summit of Everest less than a month later, were slacking off. On May 1, Hillary and Tenzing had put the expedition's oxygen equipment through its paces, climbing 1000m from Base Camp (5455m) to Camp IV (6460m) in five hours, including 45 minutes of rest breaks.

"This was a truly remarkable achievement," wrote Hunt in his book Ascent of Everest, "an indication both of the going powers of these two exceptional men and of the efficiency of the equipment they were using. Both were quite fresh and anxious to start on the long journey back to base."

On May 2, the pair headed down in a gathering storm. With mist limiting visibility and the sound of avalanches booming above them, they "fumbled" their way down in deep snow, often losing their way. It was dark by the time they reached base.

Remarkably, after a dangerously trying day and while his colleagues were struggling with the thin air, Hillary noted in his diary that he was "tired, but by no means exhausted".

The year before a Swiss campaign had reached the 7920m South Col via a ridge called the Geneva Spur. But there was no place to pitch a tent on the spur and the Swiss' efforts to climb it in one push had seriously weakened them.

The alternative route was up the Lhotse glacier, "a succession of shallow, shelving terraces, separated by crevasses and steep ice walls", as Hunt described it. But it was much longer. Choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea, Hunt decided at least one night's rest would be needed on the way to the Col.

"Only by discovering a route via the more devious Lhotse glacier could such resting places be found."

On May 3 Hunt ordered a reconnaissance party to go as far as possible up the Lhotse Face for a maximum of 48 hours and establish Camp VI - hopefully at the top of the glacier.

Terrible weather, however, meant Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon pitched their tents at just 7000m, about half-way up. The information they returned with was vital. But the Lhotse Face was proving a sterner foe than expected.