Joint Himalayan Committee

The Mount Everest Committee was a body formed by the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition to Mount Everest and all subsequent British expeditions to climb the mountain until 1947. It was then renamed the Joint Himalayan Committee; this latter committee organised and financed the successful first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953.

## Formation

[edit]

Although Mount Everest as a mountaineering objective had been on the horizon of British alpinists for some time – Clinton Thomas Dent[1] writing in 1885, had sketched the idea of an ascent and Dr A. M. Kellas's study 'A Consideration of the Possibility of Ascending the Loftier Himalaya' of 1916 had asserted that it was certainly possible physiologically – the initiative to form the Mount Everest Committee came from a talk given to the Royal Geographical Society in 1919 by Captain John Noel about his travels in the Everest region, and the resultant discussion.[2]

In 1920, at the behest of Sir Francis Younghusband (the first chairman of the committee), Colonel Charles Howard-Bury – the leader of the 1921 expedition – persuaded Sir Charles Bell to use his considerable influence with Tibetan officials to negotiate permission for a passage to Mount Everest from the northern side (the Nepalese approaches from the south were closed to foreign entry). Permission was granted by the Tibetan government for the British to proceed in the following year, 1921.[3]

To co-ordinate and finance the reconnaissance expedition, a joint body – the Mount Everest Committee – was formed, composed of high-ranking members of the two interested parties – the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society.

According to Sir Francis Younghusband:

> Diplomacy having achieved its object and human obstacles being overcome it was possible to go full steam ahead organizing an Expedition. And climbing Mount Everest was a matter which interested both the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. It interested the former because the Society will not admit that there is any spot on the earth's surface on which British man should not at least try to set his foot. And it interested the latter because climbing mountains is their especial province. It was decided, therefore, to make the Expedition a joint effort of the two societies. And this was the more desirable because the Geographical Society had greater facilities for organizing exploring expeditions, while the Alpine Club had better means of choosing the personnel. A joint Committee, called the Mount Everest Committee, was therefore formed, composed of three members each of the two societies. And it was arranged that during the first phase, while the mountain was being reconnoitred, the President of the Royal Geographical Society should be chairman; and in the second phase, when the mountain was to be climbed, the President of the Alpine Club should preside.

— .[4]

The first serious attempt on the summit was on the 1922 expedition. However, a diplomatic debacle after the 1924 expedition, later known as the Affair of the Dancing Lamas led to expeditions being banned until 1933. The embarrassment to the committee was so great that the affair was covered up for over fifty years.[5]

## Original members

[edit]

* Sir Francis Younghusband (Chairman) (President, Royal Geographical Society)
* Edward Somers-Cocks (Royal Geographical Society)
* Colonel Jacks (Royal Geographical Society)
* Professor John Norman Collie (President, Alpine Club)
* Captain John Percy Farrar (Ex-president, Alpine Club)
* Charles Francis Meade (Alpine Club)
* Mr John Edward Caldwell Eaton and Mr Arthur Robert Hinks (Honorary Secretaries)

## Subsequent members

[edit]

* Sir William Goodenough (Chairman from 1931) (President, Royal Geographical Society)[6]
* Sir Percy Cox (Chairman) (President, Royal Geographical Society)[7]
* Sir Geoffrey Corbett, representing the Himalayan Club[8]
* Robert Wylie Lloyd (Treasurer)[9]
* L. P. Kirwan (Director, Royal Geographical Society)
* Peter Lloyd
* B. R. Goodfellow (Honorary Secretary)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

|

## 1953 Everest expedition

[edit]

Main article: 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition

### Background

[edit]

The committee began the organisation for the full-scale 1953 attempt (in case the Swiss attempt in 1952 failed) in 1951, when it arranged the 1951 reconnaissance expedition.

In 1952, the following year, the Cho Oyu expedition was undertaken, which was also to test oxygen apparatus for 1953. But Cho Oyu was not climbed.[10] Members included Edmund Hillary. Hunt had asked earlier Everest climbers for comments on his 1953 plans; Teddy Norton advised him that previous assault camps had been too low, and that in 1953 it should be on or very close under the Southern Summit.[11]

### Selecting members

[edit]

John Hunt, the leader of the 1953 expedition, decided to recruit British and Commonwealth members (New Zealand and Kenya had potential members) rather than an "international" team, and the two New Zealand members not known to Hunt (Hillary and Lowe) were known to Shipton and others. He wanted climbers experienced in snow and ice (not rock climbers) and between 25 and 40 (although Band was 23 and Hunt himself was 42). A "large" party of ten was required, plus an expedition doctor; so Ward (doctor), Pugh (physiologist, sponsored by the Medical Research Council) and Stobart (cameraman, sponsored by Countryman Films) were added. A few months later Tenzing was invited to join the climbing party.[12]

There were five reserve mountaineers also prepared to assist the expedition: J. H. Emlyn Jones, John Jackson, Anthony Rawlinson, Hamish Nicol and Jack Tucker.[13] The various British mountaineering clubs had been requested to submit lists of qualified candidates to be considered by the committee, "whose responsibility it was to issue the formal invitations".[14]

### Financing

[edit]

According to Hunt, the committee's responsibility for drumming up funds for the 1953 expedition was not a welcome one:

> One of the principal tasks of the Joint Himalayan Committee in addition to those of conceiving the idea of an Everest expedition, seeking political sanction, deciding matters of policy in preparation, is to finance it. Only those who have had this care can fully appreciate the work and anxiety of raising very substantial funds for an enterprise of this nature, coloured as it inevitably is in the mind of the public by a succession of failures, with no financial security other than the pockets of the Committee members themselves.

— [15]

A number of organisations contributed to the committee, including The Times newspaper, which had also supported earlier expeditions.[16]

### Success

[edit]

On 2 June, four days after the successful ascent, Hunt sent a runner to 'carry messages to Namche Bazar, to go thence by the good offices of the Indian wireless station to Kathmandu. Cables of humble appreciation were sent to the Queen and the Prime Minister, another to the Himalayan Committee saying that I proposed to bring Tenzing and Hillary to England – George Lowe had already planned to come.'[17]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ C. T. Dent, Above the Snow Line, 1885, quoted at http://www.billbuxton.com/everest.pdf
2. ^ 'The idea [of climbing Mount Everest] was resurrected in 1919 when a young adventurer, Captain John Noel, spoke to the RGS about his experiences in the foothills of Mount Everest. In the discussion that followed, several big names such as Younghusband, Freshfield and Captain Farrar of the Alpine Club supported the idea of an attempt on the summit.' Patrick French, Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer, London: Flamingo, 1995, pp. 329–30
3. ^ http://www.mountain-portal.co.uk/text/everest/Evrst02.htm Archived 26 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Text of The Epic of Mount Everest, Sir Francis Younghusband.
4. ^ http://www.mountain-portal.co.uk/text/everest/Evrst02.htm Archived 26 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Epic of Mount Everest Accessed 17 April 2008
5. ^ Unsworth, Walt (1981). Everest. London: Allen Lane. pp. 142–157\. ISBN 0713911085.
6. ^ "Everest History". www.everestnews.com. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
7. ^ "XXI.-Obituary". Ibis. 79 (2): 415–422\. 2008. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1937.tb02183.x.
8. ^ Kenneth Mason, IN MEMORIAM GEOFFREY LATHAM CORBETT 1881–1937 Archived 15 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine from Himalayan Journal, vol. 10 (1938), online at himalayanclub.org
9. ^ "Mountaineering Scotland". www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
10. ^ The Ascent of Everest p. 22
11. ^ The Ascent of Everest p. 35
12. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 30
13. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 31
14. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 23–4
15. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 22
16. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 23
17. ^ The Ascent of Everest, p. 219

* v
* t
* e

Mount Everest

Topography
and landmarks|

* Base Camp
* Geneva Spur
* Hillary Step
* Hornbein Couloir
* Kangshung Face (East Face)
* Kangshung Glacier
* Khumbu Glacier
* Khumbu Icefall
* Lhakpa La
* Lho La
* North Col
* North Face
* Norton Couloir
* Rongbuk Glacier
* South Col
* South Summit
* Three Pinnacles
* Three Steps
* "Green Boots cave"
* Western Cwm

Expeditions|

* 1921 British reconnaissance
* 1922 British
* 1924 British (Affair of the Dancing Lamas)
* 1933 British aerial reconnaissance
* 1933 British
* 1935 British
* 1936 British
* 1938 British
* 1950–52 British–Swiss–US reconnaissance
* 1951 British
* 1952 Swiss
* 1953 British
* 1960 Chinese
* 1963 American
* 1975 British SW Face
* 1976 British–Nepalese SW Face
* 1979 Yugoslav West Ridge
* 1996 Indo-Tibetan Border Police
* 2006 Philippine
* 2007 Altitude Everest expedition
* Earth Day 20 International Peace Climb
* Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition

Notable fatalities|

* Francys Arsentiev (Sleeping Beauty)
* Peter Boardman
* Green Boots
* Scott Fischer
* Rob Hall
* Sandy Irvine
* George Mallory
* Hannelore Schmatz
* David Sharp
* Joe Tasker

Committees|

* Joint Himalayan Committee
* Mount Everest Committee

In media|

* Beyond the Edge
* The Climb (book)
* The Climb (2007 film)
* The Epic of Everest
* Everest (1998 film)
* Everest (2015 film)
* Everest (Indian TV series)
* Everest '82
* Everest: Beyond the Limit
* EverestMax
* Expedition Everest (roller coaster)
* Into Thin Air
* The Man Who Skied Down Everest
* Mount Everest webcam
* Paths of Glory
* Peak
* The Conquest of Everest
* The Wildest Dream
* Wings Over Everest

Years|

* 1970 disaster
* 1974 avalanche
* 1988 disaster
* 1996 disaster
* 2012
* 2013
* 2014 avalanche
* 2015 avalanches
* 2016
* 2017
* 2018

Mount Everest massif|

* Khumbutse
* Lhotse
* Lingtren
* Nuptse
* Pumori

Records|

* Times to the summit
* 20th-century summiters

Mountain guides|

* List of Mount Everest guides
* Sherpas

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template