Looking West down the Hispar Glacier , from the crevassed slope just below the Hispar La . Further down , our route mostly followed the right edge of the glacier .
Following the failure of seven expeditions during the 1920s and 1930s , the British tried again in 1953 , this time approaching from the south via Nepal , rather than through Tibet , closed to outsiders since the Chinese occupation . The �irst summit attempt was made on 26 May by Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans , who left the South Col at 7.30am and reached the South Summit at 1pm . The summit was tantalisingly close , just 250 ft above , but they had lost time through problems with their oxygen equipment and were compelled to turn back . Alf Gregory ’ s photograph showing them back at the South Col conveys both exhaustion and disappointment : Bourdillon in particular was plagued with the thought that he could have gone on , as he made clear in an intimate letter to his wife Jennifer . He and Evans had however pioneered the route which Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay followed just two days later .
6 outdoor focus / autumn 2021