Alpine Club Notes

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE FOR 2001

PRESIDENT. .. . D KScottCBE VICE PRESIDENTS .. PF Fagan BMWragg HONORARY SECRETARy . GD Hughes HONORARY TREASURER AL Robinson HONORARY LIBRARIAN DJ Lovatt HONORARY EDITOR OF THE ALPINE JOURNAL E Douglas HONORARY GUIDEBOOKS COMMISSIONING EDITOR . LN Griffin COMMITTEE ELECTIVE MEMBERS . E RAllen JC Evans W ACNewson W JE Norton CJ Radcliffe RM Scott RL Stephens R Turnbull PWickens

OFFICE BEARERS

LIBRARIAN EMERITUS . RLawford HONORARY ARCHIVIST . PT Berg HONORARY KEEPER OF THE CLUB'S PICTURES P Mallalieu HONORARY KEEPER OF THE CLUB'S ARTEFACTS .. RLawford HONORARY KEEPER OF THE CLUB'S MONUMENTS. D JLovatt CHAIRMAN OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE .... RFMorgan CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE MH Johnston CHAIRMAN OF THE LIBRARY COUNCIL ..... GC Band CHAIRMAN OF THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE RM Scott CHAIRMAN OF THE GUIDEBOOKS EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION BOARD LN Griffin GUIDEBOOKS PRODUCTION MANAGER JN Slee-Smith ASSISTANT EDITORS OF THE Alpine Journal .. JL Bermudez GW Templeman PRODUCTION EDITOR OF THE Alpine Journal Mrs JMerz

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ASSISTANT HONORARY SECRETARIES: ANNUAL WINTER DINNER MH Johnston LECTURES . . MWHDay MEETS.. .. . JC Evans MEMBERSHIP . RM Scott TRUSTEES . . MFBaker JG RHarding S N Beare HONORARY SOLICITOR . PG C Sanders AUDITORS .. . Pannell Kerr Forster ASSISTANT SECRETARY (ADMINISTRATION) .. Sheila Harrison

ALPINE CLIMBING GROUP

PRESIDENT. D Wilkinson HONORARY SECRETARY RARuddle

GENERAL, INFORMAL, AND CLIMBING MEETINGS 2000

11 January General Meeting: Mick Fowler and Steve Sustad, Anva Tower 24 January Northern Lecture: Peter Gillman, On Mallory andEverest 25 January Informal Meeting: Audrey Salke1d, The Last Climb 4-5 February Scotland Winter Meet 22 February Informal Meeting: Dennis Gray, Climbing in South Africa March 3-4 North Wales Meet, Dinner & Lecture 14 March General Meeting: , Mountains of the Far South 28 March Informal Meeting: Charles Clarke, Science, Tibetan medicine and the Nyanchen Tangla 11 April General Meeting: Paul Deegan, Forbidden Summits - Tall Tales from the Pamirs 18 April Informal Meeting: Bear Grylls, Facing Up 5-7 May Peak District Meet and Dinner 9 May General Meeting: Julian Freeman Attwood, The Mountains ofthe AntarcticPeninsula 17 May Alpine Ski Club Evening 23 May Informal Meeting: Henry Day, Annapurna 1- 30years on (and three days) 14 June Eagle Ski Club Evening 8-15 July Alpine Meet: (with ABMSAC & CC) Bregaglia Circuit 15 July-12 Aug Alpine Meet (with ABMSAC & CC) at Pontresina 4-11 September Joint AC/CC Cornwall meet. 12 September General Meeting: Tom Chamberlain, The Lemon Mountains ofEast Greenland 21 September Informal Meeting: Steve Razzetti, Trekking & Climbing in ALPINE CLUB NOTES 349

22-23 Sept. Lake District Meet 26 September Informal Meeting: Roger Smith, European Summits 1999 4 October Alpine Ski Club evening 10 October General Meeting: David Simmonite, Rock Climbing in England and Wales 11 October Northern Lecture: Steve Jackson, 2000 24 October Informal Meeting: Hamish Brown, The Mountains look on Marrakesh and launch of exhibition of mountain paintings 8 November Northern Lecture: Marko Prezelj, Slovenians at home and abroad 11 November Annual Symposium and Meet at Plas y Brenin, Climbing in China, including Tibet 16 November Italian Evening: Val d'Aosta Lecture & opening of 'Theodul Pass' Exhibition 14 November General Meeting: Valeri Hardin, Kyrgyzstan 28 November Informal Meeting: Julian Freeman-Attwood, The British Trans-Himalaya Expedition 8 December Annual General Meeting, followed by Sir , AroundAnnapurna - reminiscences ofAnnapurna 11 and Annapurna South Face 9 December Annual Dinner

The l32nd Annual London Dinner was held on 9 December at The Great Hall, St Bartholomew's Hospital. The principal guest was . The toast to the guests was proposed by Ian McNaught-Davis.

THE BOARDMAN TASKER MEMORIAL AWARD FOR MOUNTAIN LITERATURE

The 18th award ceremony was held at the Alpine Club on 10 November 2000. The judges were Kathleen Jamie (Chairman), Alan Hankinson and Steve Goodwin. The winning book was The Wildest Dream by Peter and Leni Gillman (Headline). Other shortlisted books were Hell of a Journey - On Foot Through the Scottish Highlands in Winterby Mike Cawthorne (Mercat Press), Travail So Gladly Spent by Tom Price (The Ernest Press), White by Rosie Thomas (William Heinemann) and A Slender Thread by Stephen Venables (Hutchinson).

THE ALPINE CLUB LIBRARY ANNUAL REPORT 2000

Four Council meetings have been held this year, with work proceeding largely on the decisions made in 1999. In March we published the special Index to the Year Books of the Ladies 350 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2001

Alpine Club 1910-1975, painstakingly compiled by the former Editor of the Alpine Journal, Johanna Merz. This provides a concise history of the remarkable contribution of British women to Alpine climbing in the period before the Ladies Alpine Club merged with the Alpine Club in 1975. Our Librarian, Margaret Ecclestone, has been occupied with the third and final stage of the cataloguing of the 500 bound volumes of 'tracts', which should be completed early in 2001. [check is it complete?] There are now over 23,000 entries in the Library catalogue database. As proposed last year, we have embarked on the major project of computerised cataloguing of the Club's unique, mostly handwritten, archives. After seeking professional advice from the Hackney Borough Archivist, in May we engaged a professional archivist, Susan Scott, to work half-time for two years on the project. In considering the best computer system to use, it was decided to adopt ADLIB software and to link together the Library and Archive cataloguing systems so that a common front end would enable the user to draw search results from both databases, or confine the search to the Library or the Archive database. To do this, the existing Library software and computer had to be replaced and a network devised to cover the total Club and Library requirements. As we rely heavily on the voluntary expertise offered by Club members in their spare time, this took much longer to set up than expected; but it is now in place and the archivist busily employed. We are most grateful to the Pilgrim Trust which has now contributed its promised grant of £10,000 towards the costs of this project. The publicity surrounding the discovery of Mallory's body on Everest on 1 May 1999, and the publication of numerous books and articles about it, has increased the demand for the many unique early Everest photographs held by the Club. To facilitate our relations with the media, these deserve to be freshly catalogued using the latest techniques which would also enable us to duplicate and preserve them from future deterioration. Indeed, with hindsight, we should perhaps have given this project a higher priority than the cataloguing of the written archives. Hopefully we can do both together. A joint AC/RGS three-year 'Everest photo-archive project' has a good chance of raising the necessary funding to employ a photo-archivist to undertake this project in time for the 50th Anniversary of the first ascent of Everest in May 2003, when we expect media interest to peak. The Library continues to be grateful for donations and gifts in kind. The magnificent Ruskin watercolours bequeathed to us by the late Dr Charles Warren were immediately sought for loan to the Tate Gallery's major exhibition 'Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites', and then went on to the Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal. This friendly contact with the Tate Gallery has led on to the possibility of an exhibition in their Clore Gallery in Spring 2003 ofselected pictures from the Club and other sources to mark the Everest Anniversary. The Club has some 500 pictures, several requiring urgent conservation, and the collection could usefully be digitally scanned ALPINE CLUB NOTES 351 as a spin-off from the above much larger photo-archive project. The Library Council has put a proposal to the Club Committee to use a portion of Dr Warren's bequest to the Library for the conservation of the Club's pictures, and to take over responsibility for their curation, as we are already charged to do for the Club's books and photographic collection. Altogether, this activity is badly in need of further space withirI the Club's premises. A recent visit to the new premises of the in Golden, Colorado, made me very envious of the space at their disposal. I very much hope the Club and Library can soon afford to take back either the third or fourth floor of our building when the current leases expire, to give us all some more space for research, reading and informal discussion. We could then feel that the Library was properly addressing its responsi­ bilities for which it was established to curate and support the valuable possessions of the Club. The Council continues to be greatly indebted to its professional librarian, the new archivist, and to our core of volunteer workers. At the AGM in April there were a number of important changes. Luke Hughes succeeded Peter Ledeboer as Hon Secretary, and Richard Coatsworth took over from John Peacock as Hon Treasurer. Oliver Turnbulljoined the Council in place of Christopher Russell. David Baldock succeeded Michael Esten as leader of the joint AC/ACL Computer Working Party. Then, in December, Peter Berg agreed to succeed Livia Gollancz as Hon Archivist. We are most grateful for the services rendered over many years by the previous holders of these positions. Finally, we still urgently seek one ortwo people interested in books or photographs to take over from our seemingly indispensable Librarian Emeritus, Robert Lawford. Volunteers please!

GeorgeBand Chairman, Alpine Club Library Council

ALPINE CLUB SYMPOSIUM 2002

Next March, the Alpine Club will be holding a symposium similar in format to the highly successful 1999 event 'Climbing into the Millennium'. The subject will be 'Alpine-Style Climbing - Adventure and Commitment' and the organisers have booked an outstanding line-up of lecturers to appear at the Pennine Theatre at Sheffield Hallam University.

• From Slovenia, Silvo Karo will talk on alpinism in Patagonia. Karo recently made the second ascent of the Slovakian route on Fitzroy. He has a reputation for climbing long, committing big-wall routes on remote peaks. He has climbed Cerro Torre, and was on the team that put up a major new line on the West Face of Bhagirathi In. 352 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2001

• The famous Polish climber Voytek Kurtyka will give the keynote address, entitled 'No Limits!'. Kurtyka was one of the central figures in Polish Himalayan during the 1970s and 1980s, Poland being arguably the most successful nation in the most successful period of Himalayan mountain exploration. In 1985, with the Austrian climber Robert Schauer, Kurtyka made the landmark first ascent of the West Face of Gasherbrum IV.

• Jack Tackle is a leading American alpinist who has climbed in the Himalaya and South America but is best known for over two dozen expeditions to Alaska, which is the subject of his lecture.

• Yasushi Yamano is 36, and one of Japan's leading mountaineers. His climbing resume includes solo ascents of new routes on Kusum Kanguru, Cho Oyu and Ama Dablam, the latter in winter. He has climbed routes like Sphinx Crack (5 .l3b) in Colorado and Cosmic Debris (5 .l3a) in Yosemite, and he climbed a new route solo on Bublimotin at 5.10/A4.

There will be plenty of British climbers contributing as well: Mick Fowler will be on hand to introduce the day, Simon Richardson will lecture on the vibrant climbing scene in Scotland, Andy Kirkpatrick has done a number of bold ascents around the world, including most recently Reticent Wall in Yosemite. Andy Cave will introduce leading female alpinist Louise Thomas who will talk about Baffin Island and Doug Scott will give an overview on the whole question of alpine-style climbing. Plenty of distractions from the lectures are planned, with a workshop introducing the latest techniques for belaying, hauling and rope-ascending, a bookstall and other stands. The day will end with a party where you can meet the guests. The Alpine Symposium will be an outstanding event and we hope you'll join us. Tickets are available from the Alpine Club at the reduced rate of £13 for members.

THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MOUNTAINEERING LITERATURE: 10 CANADA!'

The Festival opened with some nice live Sax and Joni Mitchell on tape. It was a tenuous '0 Canada!' connection, but one that gave Terry Gifford an early chance to muff his lines, describing her as Judy Mitchell when welcoming an audience thinned by Rai1track delays. The Boardman-Tasker influence then asserted itself with Rosie Thomas talking about and reading from her short-listed novel, White. Rosie is an established commercial novelist and, as such, unusual at this festival. She provided some useful insights into the world of popular fiction in her ALPINE CLUB NOTES 353 explanation of how she came to write the book. It is her fifteenth novel and, while some might have felt that the extract she read shared some of the more melodramatic elements of 'chiclit', there seemed to be a real attempt to deal with the internal life of the characters, which would later be commended in the Boardman-Tasker judgement. She is clearly a practised speaker, who carefully tailored her remarks to an audience of vastly more experienced mountaineers. Her enthusiasm for her (guided) encounters with mountains won over her audience to the extent that there was no questioning of her motives in writing a novel which echoed so strongly the events of May 1996 and might be expected to enjoy a halo effect in the light of Krakauer's work amongst others. Continuing a tradition of publishing omnibus editions of the works of major mountain writers, Ken Wilson's latest offering was the Six Alpine/ Himalayan Climbing Books by Frank Smythe. Unfortunately publication had notbeen completed by the time of the festival, but it was a brilliant touch to have the book introduced by Tony Smythe, Frank's son. He surveyed Frank's life and writing with unexpected warmth for a man whom he admitted he scarcely knew after his parents divorced when he was five. His commentary was illustrated with family photos converted to slides and, though Frank Smythe had published 12 volumes of pictures, there remained many fine unpublished slides. The Canadian connection here relied on Frank's trips to climb in that country, but Tony apologetically confessed that in his view those episodes were peripheral to Frank's achievements and philosophy. Handling books ofthis sheer size one often has the sinking feeling that life is very short, but Wilson is making accessible key works in the history of mountaineering literature at a bargain price, establishing a canon of inspirational, quality writing. Graham Hoyland, the originator of the project which eventually led to the discovery of Mallory's body, was well placed to question the authors of this year's winner of the Boardman-Tasker prize about their biography The Wildest Dream: Mal/ory, His Life and Conflicting Passions. Since the spate of books on Mallory after the discovery of his body, it was reasonable to ask: why write another? But Peter and Leni Gillman had uncovered new infor­ mation and emphasised the personal conflicts and complexities of the man; the inner life again. One example was the discovery of a collection ofletters substantiating a homosexual affair with James Strachey which one ques­ tioner from the audience suggested might have vastly increased the book's commercial appeal, particularly with the emphasis given by the cover of the American edition. Ken Wilson suggested that we have in Mallory a charismatic character on a world scale but, even so, it is interesting to spec­ ulate why there should be so much biographical writing in mountaineering literature. Is it the size of the egos involved, the domination of personalised narratives, or the issues of motivation behind gratuitously putting oneself into danger? One person's 'focus' is another's 'selfishness'. 354 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2001

Lunch surprised us, coming over the PA with a shower of rain, so we queued for a distinctly vegetarian choice of food. The break provides an opportunity for those who don't get out much to catch up with the great and good of mountain writing and get their books signed. Browsing the extensive stock displayed by Jarvis Books is mandatory. As usual, people parted with far more money than they'd intended, but then again found just what they'd always wanted despite being previously, perhaps, unaware of its existence. The afternoon began with Steve Bell attempting to condense his 'Seven Summits' slideshow down from 11/2 hours to less than 112 an hour, he told us between plugs for his company. He also amazed his audience with his candour (I think that's the word I want) when he admitted that after finding the writing of the 'Seven Summits' book too time-consuming he decided to package other climbers' contributions instead. Is this literature? At £20 for less than 150 pages it seems a bit steep (sorry!) for what is essentially a picture book for adults. It could have been seen as a cynical promotional exercise, but in fairness he quoted Doug Scott's description of this expensive peak-bagging as a 'disreputable concept', and was clearly prepared to 'take flak' over the effects of guiding trips into some of the world's last unspoilt areas. Unfortunately, disgruntled mountaineers who have found themselves priced out of certain climbing areas had no chance to fire off any salvos as Steve seemed to have overrun. The programme had billed this as an area of debate but sadly this year's festival missed out on that dimension of audience involvement. Sid Marty, no stranger to the festival, continued with a selection of poems and songs from his new collection, 'Sky Humour'. Despite feeling less than cheerful, 'perhaps throughjetlag' he warned us, he interspersed poems about old-timers, Chinooks and literary carnivores in vegetarians' clothing with some nifty guitar work. It was a varied half-hour, both moving and humorous: a hard act to follow as Kym Martindale recognised. In the past Kym has presented poems commissioned for the Festival, before having been published, so it was good to see her reading from her first collection, 'Jujubes and Aspirins' (a quotation from Frank O'Hara). Strangely, the poems she read seemed to have little connection with the New York School, and their unremitting seriousness proved difficult to take after Marty's shifts of mood. In her nervousness she managed to hide behind a plastic water bottle balanced on the lectern. A previous review commented that two poets in a row is asking a bit much from an audience, and coupled with the fact that the afternoon session was conducted within a darkened auditorium, heads were nodding. Then we were into another slide show as Dave Simmonite struggled to capture the individuality of different written contributions accompanying his finephotography in Rock Climbing in England and Wales. He finished with a preview of a forthcoming collection of pictures of Scottish climbing. ALPINE CLUB NOTES 355

In her delivery of the Boardman-Tasker judgement Kathleen Jamie was dismissive of photo-books like Rock Climbing in Englandand Wales and Seven Summits. After all, this was supposed to be a prize for 'Mountain Literature'. She praised Stephen Venables' book in particular for its reflection of the inner life of the climber inways that Rosie Thomas had attempted in fiction, but tied herself in knots with comments on high altitude writing. She voiced a disbelief in the capacity of climbers to go up into extremis and bring all the experience back down in their writing, despite the frequent habit of quoting fromjournals and diaries in expedition books. No, Kath, a notebook doesn't weigh that much compared to the stack of other stuff carried. It may well be that the periods of inactivity enforced by weather or snow conditions are an important factor in the literariness of climbing to which she drew attention in her opening remarks. Al Alvarez then made a flying visit to the festival. A major figure in English and American literature of the 20th century, Al continued to stir controversy into the 21st. He began by confessing that he didn't read much mountain writing because by and large it wasn't written well enough to be regarded as literature. 'Most of it seems to be written just to finance the next expedition.' Risky stuff, but that's the stock-in-trade of a man who climbed with and managed to write about it, stuck his neck out for the poetry he believed in, and plays in international poker tournaments. No wonder his recent autobiography was entitled, Where did it allgo Right? Characteristically Alvarez extolled the virtues of a book that is out of print, Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World because it is 'great literature'. Quoting from the book he praised its spare prose as an epic of fortitude based on essential modesty. It was a commentary spiced with pithy observations such as that about the way men were escaping from the constraints of life in England at the time, from the rigidity and stupidity of people who could even ask Mallory that famous question. The strangely formulated High/Festivalwriting competition was, we were told, supposed to be funny. Jan Levi's winning entry, announced by Ian McNaught-Davis, was supposed to be funny too, and Ian Smith did his best to prove it with his reading. It had been a long afternoon. Tea was preceded by the opening of John Coulton's exhibition of fine chalk drawings and watercolours of British, Alpine and Himalayan subjects. 'The Mountain Seen' continued into December. After tea a second helping of Sid Marty was served up, this time in prose as he read from his book Switchbacks, which won the award for literary merit at the BanffFestival. It is a collection of reflective reminiscences which affectionately recapture the naive youth who still lives in him: 'The child is father to the man,' he quoted Wordsworth. Whether reading about an old rucksack, the character of a 'geriatric' mountain guide, or the fact that 'rum is no burden', there was a potent mixture of humour and fine feeling in the detailed descriptions and illustrative dialogue. 356 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2001

Finally Chic Scott topped the bill with a specially requested focus on the British contribution to Canadian mountaineering, though it was a shame the audience had thinned again. Scott's authoritative history of Canadian climbing, Pushing the Limits, is a tremendous achievement, establishing recognition for a whole area of climbing which has tended not to hold centre stage on the world scene. So it is no surprise that Scott and Gifford should hope to highlight the British involvement. Unfortunately the slide show suffered by comparison with the earlier, more spectacular, photo­ book presentations. Climbers tend to look much the same under all that hair in any given period, and unfamiliarity with the mountains meant that the portrait gallery of ex-pat Brits did not connect easily with the necessarily brief references to their achievements. Nonetheless, as Terry emphasised, this was a rich vein of British climbing, largely untapped in mountaineering literature, and Chic's book goes far beyond that in its scope and fascination. So another Festival drew to a close leaving all its participants with plenty to read and to think about. Once again full credit needs to be given to Terry Gifford and his team at Bretton Hall for a smooth piece oforganisation. Dave Wynne-Jones

THE ALPINE CLUB PICTURE COLLECTION IN 2000

The collection of pictures (currently standing at about 550 paintings and engravings) has been greatly enhanced by the recent bequest, from Charles Warren's estate to the Alpine Club Library, of three of the finest John Ruskin watercolours still in private hands. These are: (i) Grutli - Uri Rostockfrom Lake Lucerne, (ii) Vevay - Sunrise and (iii) Moonlight - Chamonix, dated 1888. Almost immediately the Tate Gallery approached us to borrow the first and third of these for their major exhibition at Tate Britain 'Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites' from 9 March to 28 May 2000. Subsequently these paintings reappeared at the Abbot! Hall Gallery, Kendal, in their 'Ruskin and the Light of Nature' exhibition, from June until October. During 2001 we intend to hold a small memorial exhibition of all the pictures given by Charles Warren to the Club during his long and expert custodianship ofthe collection. Earlier in the year we started what will be a long and fairly extensive (and therefore expensive) programme of conservation of some important paintings in the collection, by having three large oils by Loppe cleaned. Their preservation has been made all the more important by the loss or major damage to 30 of Loppe's works in a fire at the Chamonix museum last year. Our Loppes were cleaned as a gift to the AC from John Mitchell & Sons (picture dealers of New Bond Street) with whom we have had some co-operative association in recent years. We are very grateful to them for their generosity. ALPINE CLUB NOTES 357

Towards the end of the year Tony Astill of Les Alpes Livres approached us to see if he could hold an exhibition of paintings for sale in ourclubroom, in exchange for Donkin's memorial picture by Willink, both distinguished mountaineers and early members of the Alpine Club. WF Donkin, Honorary Secretary of the Club from 1885 to 1888, was a pioneer mountaineer and photographer, polymath, scientist and musician. HG Willink, Vice-President from 1899 to 1901, was a distinguished climber and painter. The Club owns ten of his sketches and watercolour drawings. Donkin and Fox died near Dych-Tau in the Caucasus in 1888. Willink's painting shows Ushba (with Fox in the foreground) in addition to Donkin's portrait and various vignettes associated with Donkin's distinguished and varied life. We were delighted to get this picture after an unsuccessful chase at public auction earlier in the year. The Les Alpes Livres exhibition ran from mid-October until Christmas and may well be repeated next year. Finally the Montecito Picture Company asked for the loan of some thirty paintings and artefacts which are to appear in a scene called 'the Mountaineers' Club' in a forthcoming feature film Killing Me Softly starring Joseph Fiennes. The healthy fee will help to launch ourconservation project, although by no means complete it. Peter Mallalieu Honorary Keeper ofthe Club's Pictures

FRANK. SMYTHE'S ICE AXE

Peter Steele's recent biography of revealed that Eric had a tendency to leave ice axes with his various girl friends. Perhaps this was a custom in the 1930s? The Club has just received an ice axe belonging to Frank Smythe which, on his way back from Everest in 1936, he had pre­ sented to Jill Henderson, the Himalayan Club's local representative in Darjeeling, who will be remembered as a great friend and link with the Sherpas who were engaged for expeditions. She was married to a tea planter, Jack, and they lived at Rungneet with a magnificent view of Kangchen­ junga from their bungalow. We stayed there with them on our way in 1955. After their retirement, the Hendersons lived in East Meon, Hampshire, until they moved, in the late 1970s, to South Africa where Jill died in 1985. One day in Hampshire their gardener, a Mr Gibb, started to use the axe as a garden implement, but was restrained by his son saying that it came from Frank Smythe and that Jill had eventually intended to present it to the Alpine Club. Not knowing quite where to send it, the axe remained with the son for over 20 years until, one day, while surfing the Internet, he came upon the Alpine Club website and contacted the Club. I collected the axe from his home in Petersfield on 8 December 2000 and was able to present it to the Club at the AGM that evening. 358 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2001

It is, in fact, an undistinguished ice axe of that era, slightly rusty, with a wooden shaft, and no maker's name engraved upon it. It is remarkably like the fIrst ex WD Army surplus ice axe I owned in the 1950s. I seem to recall a story that at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Smythe was asked to advise on suitable equipment for mountain troops. He duly handed over his ice axe and Bergen rucksack and said 'copy these'. So my ice axe was probably one of thousands based on Smythe's prototype. GeorgeBand

JACK LONGLAND'S CAMERA

A further item of Everest memorabilia has just been generously donated to the Club andbrought there by Graham Hoyland, a great-nephew of Howard Somervell. He recently gave a lecture on 'Cameras on Everest'. This cam­ era was used by Jack Longland on the 1933 Expedition. After his death, and that of his son John, it passed to John's wife, now Deborah Newman. At one time, when the Club was in South Audley Street, Deborah was employed as Assistant Secretary, so we are grateful that she should now think of giving the camera a permanent home at the Club. The camera is well preserved in a leather case. It is a Chronos "C" made by Ernemann, Dresden. It is a folding camera, with a bellows and rising front, f 3.5 - 22, shutter speeds 1 - 1/250 seconds. The body measures 9 x 12 x 5cm and weighs 750gms. A separate fIlm pack and roll fIlm attach­ ment weighs 3l0gms. Although the shutter clicks convincingly, I am not sure whether it could still be made to work, as I could not fInd out how the fIlm pack attaches to the body. Hopefully, an expert in antique cameras may be able to renovate it for us. George Band

HIMALAYAN TRUST

As part of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the historic fIrst ascent of Mt Everest in 1953, the Himalayan Trust UK is to produce a Himalayan Anniversary Calendar, reusable year byyear, for recording birth­ days and those special anniversaries. Publication is planned for 2002. It is hoped that the calendar will be widely distributed by retailers, but it will also be available direct from the Himalayan Trust UK. Featuring photo­ graphs, many of them previously unpublished, from eminent mountaineers including Sir , the calendar will be an excellent way to support the work of the Himalayan Trust. Contact the Hon. Sec., The Himalayan Trust UK, 'Lowecroft', Plains Lane, Blackbrook, Derby, DE56 2DD. Tel/Fax 01773823831, or email [email protected].