1933 British Mount Everest expedition

[5] His choice surprised everyone, including Ruttledge, who, although a veteran Himalayan explorer, had not done much in the way of cutting-edge mountaineering; he also suffered from a limp as a result of a "pig-sticking accident".

Further funds were secured by means of Ruttledge's book contract with Hodder & Stoughton, a newspaper deal with The Daily Telegraph and a gift of £100 from King George V. Many companies supplied items of equipment free of charge or at a discount.

Dr T. Magor Cardell and Mr Hamblin jointly designed high-altitude goggles with orange-tinted glass, and ice-axes and crampons were bought from, amongst others, Horeschowsky in Austria.

Time at sea was spent discussing the problem of climbing Mount Everest and the establishment of the various camps on its northern side, as well as learning the Nepali language, in which Crawford was proficient.

[19] Passing through Calcutta, where they were entertained by the Governor of Bengal, Sir John Anderson, the expedition members proceeded to Darjeeling, where Smythe, Greene and Birnie joined them, while Ruttledge went to Siliguri to rendezvous with Shebbeare and discuss transport arrangements.

At Darjeeling porters were selected for the march, Ruttledge's Sherpas from his 1932 trip, Nima Dorje and Sanam Topgye, having gone to Sola Khombu to alert prospective applicants to the existence of the British expedition.

[20] All the porters were screened at the Darjeeling hospital, 34 per cent being found to be infected with internal parasites, and then clothed in blue-and-white striped pyjamas and given numbered identity disks.

[21] On 2 March, in front of the Planters' Club in Darjeeling, the party attended the ceremonial blessing of all those taking part in expedition by the lamas of Ghoom monastery.

It was made out to cover fourteen rather than sixteen people, omitting the expedition's two wireless operators, which later perplexed the Dipon of Pipitang, although the matter was soon sorted out following a telegram to Williamson.

[25] The descent was made to Chumbitang, and thence to Yatung, past the monastery at Khajuk, where the lama and monks were mystified as to why anyone would wish to climb Mount Everest.

At Kampa Dzong, which possessed "architectural beauty of the highest order", Ruttledge clad himself in mock formal dress – a Tibetan silk gown with a sheepskin lining and red girdle, topped by a collapsible opera-hat that had originally been brought along from England as a reward to the most successful porter – to meet the nyapala[what language is this?].

Here a football match was staged, Boustead gave an exhibition of boxing and Longland put on a display of pole-vaulting using a bamboo pole (photographed by Smythe).

[29] The river Chiblung-Chu was next forded twice before the camp at Jikyop, then the party proceeded to Trangso-Chumbab and Kyishong, and then through a landscape compared by Shebbeare to the "mountains of the moon" until they reached Shekar Dzong, a vertiginous settlement of white houses and two monasteries that Ruttledge called "a setting for a fairy story, a place of enchantment".

[30] Here there was a smallpox epidemic; worse, according to Ruttledge, was the theft of equipment − including high-altitude boots and a Meade tent – and stores, for which the drivers of the baggage train were flogged by the Dzongpen the following day, although the culprit was never found.

[31] The expedition's Arctic tents were pitched for the first time at Shekar, to general approval, and a hair-cutting session took place, Wyn-Harris proving a capable barber.

Karma Paul, the interpreter, was dispatched to seek an audience with the lama of the monastery, as his blessing was considered important both by the Tibetan porters as well as those from Sola Khombu in Nepal.

[37] From here the North Col was clearly visible and constituted, in Ruttledge's words, "the first serious mountain problem ... for a steep glacier ice-fall is always on the move, and the negotiable route of one year may be seamed by crevasses or barred by ice-cliffs the next".

[38] Conscious of the avalanche that killed seven porters on the 1922 expedition, team members were circumspect in their approach to the sometimes vertical 1,000 ft ice wall that led up the col. A Camp IIIa was established at its foot to ease the difficulties of climbing this wall; eventually, the route taken by the 1924 expedition proving impossible – "it would take weeks to cut steps up this slope",[39] – the same route as was taken in 1922 was selected, leading to a shelf on the lower side of a crevasse below the col, which was to be the site of Camp IV.

Smythe, Shipton, Greene, Longland, Wyn-Harris, Wager and Brocklebank climbed the slope and equipped it with fixed ropes between 8 and 15 May; each day the steps they cut would be filled with snow, making re-ascent laborious.

Smythe and Shipton made the final ascent over a vertical ice section to the ledge using combined tactics on 12 May ("a fine effort of ice-craft, which evoked a sincere recognition")[40] with Longland and Wager fixing the rope ladder (presented, along with two others, by the Yorkshire Rambling Club) the following day.

[46] Wager and Wyn-Harris left Camp VI at 5.40 a.m. on 30 May, after spending an hour heating water and eating "a very poor meal", to make their summit bid.

[47] Not long after setting off they came across an ice-axe lying on rocky slabs sixty feet below the north-east ridge, bearing the inscription Willisch of Täsch, an equipment maker from Zermatt.

Finding that this was merely a shallow scoop, they followed Norton's 1924 traverse along the slabs above the yellow band on the north face, reaching the Great Couloir at 10.00 a.m. Shipton and Smythe were waiting at Camp VI for Wager and Wyn-Harris's return.

[51][52] The investigation into the expedition's failure set up by the Mount Everest Committee organisation and leadership ruled that Ruttledge, whom they greatly liked and respected, was not an assertive leader.

"[54] When analysing the expedition's overall lack of success, he stated that although "there has never been an attempt on a mountain more carefully prepared, more methodically directed", three things were responsible for the failure to reach Mount Everest's summit.

Regarding the flexibility of their approach, Corbett quoted Smythe, who stated that "Everest will only be climbed by a man who is single-minded in the matter of route, and any doubt or hesitancy in this respect must always lead to defeat."

"[58] By way of an alternative, Shipton advocated expeditions composed of a small number of climbers, each of whom "recognises their vital importance in the common effort and feels himself to have an equally indispensable part to play.