Masherbrum. We marched 112 miles from Skardu, along the Shyok, up the Hushe valley, and then, on June 15, 1957, to Base Camp on Masherbrum Glacier at the foot of Sérac Glacier. During fine weather we established Camp I (15,500 feet) at the top of the second icefall of Sérac Glacier on June 18, Camp II (17,200 feet) at the top of the third icefall in Sérac Basin the next day, and Camp III (21,000 feet) on the top of the Dome on June 23. The Dome is a rounded shoulder at one end of the cirque overlooking Camp II. After a week of bad weather we established Camp IV (22,000 feet) at the mouth of a basin beneath the southeast face on July 2, Camp V (23,000 feet) on the side of the east ridge on July 6, and Camp VI (24,000 feet) on the southeast face on July 9. Donald Whillans and Geoffrey Smith made a summit attack two days later, but were forced back by dangerous soft snow at about 25,200 feet in the couloir between the higher north (25,660 feet) and the south summits. They retired to a point beneath a sérac at 24,800 feet on the southeast face and bivouacked for the night, with a primus stove and plastic sheet cover, hoping to climb the couloir early next morning. Bad weather, however, forced them to retreat to Camp VI. There these two and their support party, Edward W. Dance and Richard D. Sykes, were pinned in the 2-man tent for the next three days by bad weather. On July 18 Robert O. Downes (deputy leader), Hussein (a porter), and I arrived at Camp VI as the second assault party. That night Bob developed a terribly bad cough, the first sign of pneumonia. Despite liquids, aureomycin, and air from a Lilo inflater, his respiration got weaker and he died at 6:30 the next morning. That day and the following days were bad with storms. On July 24 I descended with Hussein, who was a very sick and frightened man, to Camp IV. We reached Base Camp on July 27 to break the sad news to the rest of the expedition. The task of bringing Bob down off the mountain was a grim and difficult one.

On August 12 Don and I returned to Camp VI for a third and last attempt for the summit, but were penned in there by bad weather until August 15. Avalanches swept the southeast face and camp would have been safe nowhere else but under the sérac. On August 15 we climbed to the bivouac site of the first assault and made Camp VII. Part way up we had to dig a snow cave as shelter from the powder-snow avalanches until the sun went off the slope, leaving the snow hard and firm. At 2:30 A.M. we left Camp VII and were in the couloir between the twin summits at 25,100 feet by 4 A.M. The sun had only just reached us, but the snow on the steep slab rock was so soft that progress was impossible and any further attempts here would be exceedingly dangerous. We then got onto a deceptively difficult rock buttress on the left side of the couloir. The rock climbing was technically very severe. It took us six or seven hours to climb 200 feet, so at 25,300 feet we took stock of our position. Don had lost his gloves. I had frostbitten fingers and toes. The summit was not worth the risk of a certain bivouac. The ground ahead appeared no easier and, if anything, worse, and so we abseiled down the rocks and descended.

JOSEPH WALMSLEY, Rucksack Club