1951 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition
The expedition reconnoitred various possible routes for climbing Mount Everest from Nepal concluding that the one via the Khumbu Icefall, Western Cwm and South Col was the only feasible choice.
In 1950 a highly informal trek involving Charlie Houston and Bill Tilman reached what was to become Everest Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier.
There remained three main aspects of a route to Everest via the Western Cwm where the difficulties were unknown: the Khumbu Icefall, the climb up to the South Col, and the ascent to the final ridge.
[3][5] On the basis of this photographic evidence, Ward proposed to the Himalayan Committee that a reconnaissance expedition make direct inspections from the ground.
[6][7] Murray was to be leader, with Ward, Secord, Tom Bourdillon, and Alfred Tissierès forming the initial party but when Eric Shipton turned up (after having been expelled from his post as British consul in Kunming, China) he was persuaded to take on the leadership.
Shipton himself, discouraged by Tilman's discoveries, was not hopeful of finding a route – he rated the chances as 30 to one – but he was very keen to visit Solu Khumbu, the home of his pre-war Sherpa friends.
With Ang Tharkay as sirdar and twelve Sherpas, the main party departed Jogbani on 27 August 1951; the New Zealanders caught up with them on 8 September at Dingla.
[6][8][9] Hillary was nervous about meeting Shipton, the most famous living Himalayan mountaineer, and was worried his own colonial upbringing might not be up to the standards expected by the English.
After a month-long trek in the late monsoon they reached Namche Bazaar, and on 30 September Shipton and Hillary climbed sufficiently far up Pumori that they had the first good view up the Western Cwm.
[14] Ward, Bourdillon, Riddiford and Murray started a three-week trek by heading west from the Khumbu valley, trying to find the Chola Khola.
However, their map was inaccurate, and they had in fact reached the Ngojumba glacier, the main source of the Dudh Khosi river, at the foot of Cho Oyu.
They then headed for Nup La[note 5] but progress was slowed by two considerable icefalls so they abandoned the attempt and travelled back to Namche Bazaar improving the mapping of the Chola Khola region as they went.
[16] The entire party met up again and made another attempt to climb the Khumbu Icefall, but found there had been a major collapse of ice and the area was highly unstable.
[17] The party was to return home via Kathmandu to the west so they traversed the completely unexplored region between the Bhote Koshi river of Sola Khumbu and the Rongshar valley in Tibet.
[18] Even while they were still investigating the Khumbu Icefall, Shipton reported back to the Himalayan Committee that they had found "a practicable route from the West Cwm to the summit of Mount Everest".
[20] The 1952 Swiss Mount Everest expedition very nearly reached the summit, so the minds of the British mountaineering community and establishment became strongly focused on their 1953 slot, particularly because France had been granted an opportunity for 1954.
He had climbed to 24,500 feet (7,500 m) and was only turned down for the 1936 British Mount Everest expedition because of an adverse (and incorrect) medical report about a heart murmur.
