1938 British Mount Everest expedition

However, The Times was willing to provide a limited budget and this matched the small scale, even austere, type of venture advocated by the leading British climbers of the day, Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman – similar to their 1935 reconnaissance.

At a meeting in February 1937 Tilman was appointed leader and Tom Longstaff, who had in years gone by been the climber–doctor on the 1922 Everest expedition provided £3,000 on condition that there would be no advance publicity and that, where possible, the climbers would each pay their own way.

Ang Tharkay was sirdar and Tenzing Norgay was one of the Sherpas and Karma Paul joined the expedition as "the zealous and energetic interpreter and general factotum".

[5] Arriving in Gangtok, Sikkim on 3 March 1938, the party crossed the Sebu La into Tibet hoping to reach Rongbuk well before the monsoon was expected to break.

Shipton and Smythe, who were being regarded as the pair most likely to be making the summit attempt, had been sent over the 22,000-foot (6,700 m) Lhakpa La to the Kharta valley to recuperate and now the rest of the team joined them there to enjoy a week in springtime conditions in meadows and forests.

The Sherpas were tremendously improving their climbing technique and for the first time were able to take a leading role, even encouraging the Europeans to continue upward.

[12][13] It was George Finch who had advocated open-circuit apparatus, against the advice of the other "experts" and this knowledge eventually was used in the planning of the successful 1953 expedition (which used both open and closed-circuit sets).

[12][14][15] The party returned to a Europe descending towards World War II but with the Mount Everest Committee requesting Tibetan permits for 1941, 1942 and 1943.

All this was not to be and after the war the Dalai Lama did not respond to requests and then in 1950 Tibetan borders were firmly closed with the occupation of Tibet by China.