ダンシング・イン・ザ・ライト

THE EPIC of MOUNT EVEREST
The Historic Account of Mallory's Expeditions
SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PATRICK FRENCH

p.211 'When Norton and Somervell and Mallory started up the North Col to rescue those porters they were already played out. The severe weather and labour at Camps III and IV had done them in. Their only chance was to get back quickly to the Base Camp to recover form. Instead, they had this infernally trying and excessively dangerous job of rescuing those men. That is what upset the apple-cart more than anything else. If only Somervell could have gone straight down, his throat would probably have recovered... Norton's double vision had nothing whatever to do with his subsequent snow-blindness: it was a symptom of derangement of the higher brain centres due to want of oxygen. But I hold that this was not due to absolute altitude so much as to the utter exhaustion produced by weeks of long-continued over-exertion just as a runner faints at the post. It's what they'd already gone through that made theiru pace so slow at this last shot. What they did under such conditions quite convinces me that if circumstances had been really favourable they would have got to the top.'

p.212 By effecting the rescue they had reaffirmed that principle of loyal comradeship upon which all mountaineering must be based. But by that act they had lost the great prize which might have been theirs.

p.234 He was almost fascinated. He realized that any mountaineer must be thus fascinated; that he who approached close must ever be led on, and, oblivious of all obstacles, seek to reach that most sacred and highest place of all.

It seemed to Odell that his friends also must have been thus enchanted: for why else should they tarry. And perhaps this enchantment of the summit is the solution of the mystery. For a great mountain invites as well as defies; and the nearer the summit men reach the intenser is the attraction.

p.241 But there in the arms of Mount Everest they lie for ever -- lie 10,000 feet above where any man has lain indeath before. Everest indeed conquered their bodies. But their spirit is undying. No man onward from now will ever climb a Himalayan peakand not think of Mallory and Irvine.

The bishop so well expressed the mind and feelings of those who took part in and of those who were responsible for the Everest expesitions that his words were published in the Geographical Journal for December, 1924, and may be repeated here. He took as his text the words, 'In whose heart are Thy ways', and said:

'Many no doubt know what stands for these words in the Latin version of the Psalms; a version used even more largely than ours, and more familiar in its beauty to a vast number of fellow-Christians -- Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit: He has set ascents in his heart; or, as we would phrase it, He has set his heart on ascents.

'It meant for the psalmist no steep or dangerous climb. It meant at most a long and tredious journey, the sort of thing that is venturesome undertaking to a quiet soul who lives at fat distance from the temple and city of God. But it led him upwards it led him to the place he wished to reach. Whether in memory or in anticipation, the road was dear to him. He had set his heart on it: he loved the upward path. It was fixed in his affection. Ascensiones in cordes suo disposuit.

'Far different from that easy pilgrimage is the challenge of the heights which has drawn into closest fellowship many of those who are here today. A great unanimity gives intense significance to your assembling in the house of God.For the lovers of the heights are a brotherhood more intimate, more closely united, more affectionately disposed to one another than almost any other group of men. It is as natural as it is beautiful that before your great meeting this evening you should meet here to remember, as in God's presence, those whose names are written in your records in letters of gold.

'It is not for us timid pedestrians to pretend that we understand your love of the heights. But if even from a distance and from some miserably lower level we have looked from afar upon the mountains, or known the silence of the snowfields, and the widening vision, and the exhilarating keenness of the air, and the perfect azure of the skies (and you are good enough to believe that even the humblest may breathe the spirit of the mountains), can anyone wonder at the fascination those mountais have for the real climber, that you have so set in your hearts the love of the heights? Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit. Might it not almost be the motto of the Alpine club?

'It is simply because they both came from our rountry and diocese of Chester that I am asked to speak today. I am bidden, so far as such a thing is possible, to represent that homes from which they come, and those who love them best. They, I am sure, understand and value very highly what you wish to express by your presence. They are grateful to you for it. I got them to tell me something of the boyhood and early years of their glorious sons. In each instance there was a like story of quiet modest strength, of infinite perseverance, of a great and tender love of home, of a transparent purity of heart of the deep and simple things that make fathers and mothers very thankful and very proud. I wish you could have been with us at Birkenhead, where, nerer home, an assemly not less significant, though it may be less august than this, tried to show its love for them and theirs.

'And as we read what was so lovingly written, with all the eloquence of its reserve, it was not difficult to see in it the presage of what was to follow at Winchester and Shrewsbury, at Cambridge and Oxford, in the Alps and in Spitzbergen, and at last on Mount Everest. It was the same Leigh Mallory who veiled the grace and brilliance of his leadership under the impenetrable cloak of his modesty; who when womething like disaster occuued insisted on claiming responsibility for it, and when an incredible presence of mind on his part saved the lives of others never let us know that it was he; who reminded us that in a matter like this we are ll comrades! Yes, and the same Andrew Irvine who, with all his brilliant, his amazing, his premature attainments as a climber, would laugh as he set himself to the humblest task, or use the splendour of his giant strength to bear the burdens of other men.

'Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit. Was it only love of high mountains that was set in hearts like these? No; but rather that with the love of the mountains was the ascent of spiritual altitudes, splendid peaks of courage and unselfishness and cheerfulness, such as are reached not necessarily by the sure-footed and clear-headed, but always by the compassionate, the brotherly, and the pure in heart.

Thankful as we are for what the expedition has to tell us of the way and the attempts and the great achievement and for its marvellous pictures, it is perhaps as a human record and a human document that it speaks most clearly and speaks to us in St Paul's today. The indomitable cheerfulness, the amazing courage of it, the passion for work, the refusal of praise. You have indeed set Ascensiones in our hearts: you have helped us more than you think to see those things which are above; Whatsoever things are true and honourable, just and pure, lovely and of good report, if there be any manly virtue, if ther be any praise, you have helped us to think of these things.

'It seems as though when God means us to learn He is wont to clothe that by which He teaches us in some form of simple and solemn beauty, of which it is hard to mistake or resist the appeal. So it is here! The cloud clears away for a moment and you are allowed to see the two men making, steadily and strongly, for the summit. That is the last you see of them, and the question as to their reaching the summit is still unanswered; it will be solved some day. The merciless mountain givesno reply!

'think of it how you will: as the ascent by which the kingly spirit goes up to the House of the Lord; as the ascent through death to endless life; as the ascent by which the men of clean hands and pure hearts ascend into the hill of the Lord and rise up in His holy place; as the way He went who said, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also."

p.252 man possesses the power of adapting himself to the conditions prevailing at the highest altitudes. His bodily organism does not remain fixed and unalterable. It rises to meet the new call made upon it by the strange surroundings and is able to do what before that adaptation took place had seemed impossible. And again it was found that his mind like the body rises to the occation and adapts itself to the new conditions. After a higher level had once been reached the mind accepted the fact and the acceptance of it made the attainment of a still higher level more easy. ............. Once Again man learned that the more he tries the more he can do.

p.254 And in seeking may they carry the Himalayan peoples with them. May the sacrifices made in rescuing the porters on the North Col have not been in vain. May the fellowship with these peoples which Bruce founded, and which NOrton, Somervell, and Mallory sealed, be maintained and developed; so that when the next assault is delivered on Everest the climbers may count on the loyal and willing comradehsip of these sturdy Himalayans, and success be assured.