As the Hastings dropped its canisters, they realised that it was also marking the position of the wreckage which had been hidden until now by the ridge they were climbing.

At 11.0 a.m. they were on the west summit (14,547 feet), and saw, to their dismay, that the east peak was not only about two miles distant, but that there was a drop that must have been all of 1,000 feet between the two. They descended from the cone of the west peak to a big flat stony plateau where the surface was sometimes completely denuded of snow, bearing witness to the terrific force of the wind at this altitude. They crossed this basin and started up again to the foot of the final slopes. Here they decided to establish Camp 2, and Costall started levelling a site while the others began to descend to collect the gear from Camp I. As they came to the foot of the west peak, they saw four figures on its summit. This was Robertson, Flying Officer Ellis - the medical officer, and two team members: Bishop and Murphy. They had been lifted by helicopter to 11,000 feet, but too far to the west, so that they had no choice but to go over the west peak themselves. This second party descended to the plateau. They had sleeping bags with them, but no tent, food, nor cooking stoves. There were now eight men of the final slopes with one tent and food for two only. Everyone except Murphy and Bishop was feeling the altitude and suffering from fatigue.

The need for another tent at Camp 2 was imperative. Robertson knew that the Hastings had dropped tents on the summit, but they couldn't be certain of finding the canisters in the mist which now covered the top. So Emmerson, Bottomer and Whelan continued to Camp I. They managed to by-pass the western summit by contouring to the S.S.W. ridge. At Camp I they struck the tent, and Bottomer and Whelan went down to base camp while Emmerson started up the mountain again for Camp 2, carrying the tent, food and cooking equipment. He went very slowly and, by the time he reached the plateau, he was exhausted.

In the meantime Murphy and Bishop had attempted to reach the wreck and to find the canisters which contained the other tents. But although they had been very close (for they had smelt the stale smell of an old fire), they could find neither wreck nor canisters in the dense cloud. High on the east peak they had come across rock buttresses but these were not continuous enough to form an effective barrier.

That night there were six men squeezed into the tow pup tents at Camp 2.

They woke early. Emmerson was sick. Bishop had a septic toe. Each was heartily disgusted with himself. Emmerson, having overdone the work the previous day, could keep nothing down long enough to derive any benefit. Bishop would have gone to the summit, but the medical officer forbade it. Before they made the descent, Bishop's toe was lanced with a blunt penknife.

The other four took two hours to climb the last eight hundred feet to the summit. The going was over step rocks plastered with snow. They found the top to be a saucer-shaped depression like the crater of an extinct volcano, ringed by small craggy points which rose one hundred feet or so above the rim. The wreck was scattered over a wide area of the depression. There were no survivors and the doctor confirmed that all had died instantly. They buried the bodies as well as they could and Murphy said a short prayer.

At the moment there was little else they could do except to demolish some of the more obvious secret equipment with their axes. At midday they descended to Camp 2 and picked up Emmerson and Bishop. On the subsequent descent Emmerson had recovered sufficiently to break the trail for a while, but at length he was forced to relinquish the lead to Murphy.

At 9,000 feet on the ridge they sent up a green Very light which, by great good fortune, was spotted by a sharp-eyed villager. This was interpreted correctly as a request for a helicopter lift, and an aircraft came out, picked them off the ridge and flew them back to the village in comfort. Continue to page 5