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Letter from George to Ruth Mallory from Kampa Dzong

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My dearest one,

As I sit in my tent writing I have at my side a pot of grease into which I occasionally dip a finger & then rub a little onto the sorer parts of my face. The wind & sun between them have fairly caught us all these last three days. Norton says that he was accused by his people after the last expedition of having acquired a permanent dint in his nose & he is determined to prevent the same thing happening again – but how to do it? Personally I limit my desire in that direction to keeping my nose the same size as usual; I don’t like to feel it swollen with sunburn. Somervell who started with a complexion tanned by the Indian suns, is now exactly the colour of a chestnut, and, as he greases freely, no less shiny. Beetham so far has the best beard, but then he had a start as he didn’t shave after Kalimpong & I’m inclined to back Geoffrey Bruce against him in the long run, as his will be blacker. The face with greatest number of flaky excrescences and cervasses is undoubtedly that of Hazard, & the underlying colour in his case is vermilion.

In my last letter I told you how well I was. But I have not been altogether well since then – something wrong with my tummy – a slight colitis or something of the kind. Consequently I have felt very feeble & as I am strictly dieted have little to sustain me beyond biscuits & jam. We shall have two clear days here and I shall have time to get better, & in fact I am already much better & haven’t the least doubt I shall be perfectly strong again when we are on the move once more.

Though we have almost exactly followed our tracks of 1922 from Phari to Kampa, it has been a very different journey – not only different companions & incidents, but a rather different Tibet. The second march from Phari landed us ½ a mile beyond the Blizzard Camp of ’22; we had no blizzard this time but neither had we the bright high lights of Tibet. Chomulhari, a mountain which impresses one more each time one sees it, was veiled at first in thin grey mist & then apparently caught it properly from the North; we were continually threatened at the other side of the great Tuna Plain & had a nasty wind in our faces, but escaped worse. I can’t tell you how much I am interested by the weather – it’s so difficult to make out what causes it or what the signs may mean or how it is to be compared with what we experienced in ’21 & ’22. This day I’m talking of was more like a day during the monsoon; in the evening smoky grey clouds were clinging to the hillsides as though the air were laden with moisture; & yet all the weather reports from India have shown a deficiency of moisture in Bengal. One of the novelties this year is our mess tent, Norton’s special child. It goes on in advance on a mule so as to be ready for us when we arrive – at least that is the idea; on the night I’m speaking of some of us were the first to arrive in camp & set to work pitching our ample green marquee. The first procedure is to lay down a string in the chosen spot marking the perimeter of the pegs; a placed is marked on this string against which each peg has to be driven in – driving pegs into stony ground at these altitudes makes one puff; the floor a large sheet of green canvas is placed in the correct position with the line of pegs & upon this the tent is hoisted. I must say it is a great success. It has perpendicular sides about 4 ft high below the slant of the roof & consequently there is ample headroom. The floor dimensions I should guess at 18’ x 9’. The mess waiters have plenty of room to pass behind us. The tables which are none of your gim-crack canvas-topped X pattern or other, but pukka wooden tables, with three-ply wooden tops & screw in legs, are 2’ 6” square made to fold into half that size & are arranged in series down the middle of the tent - & then cunningest device of all, there is a piece to go round the pole in the centre & fitting on to two half tables so that no gap is left. We have no tablecloths, as it was thought that our tables duly wiped would prove a cleaner way.

On the night of the second march from Phari (i.e. April 8) having pitched our tent we lay about in it waiting the arrival of (1) the cooks (2) the yaks. The former whose business it is to go on ahead & have a meal ready if possible or as soon as may be had lost themselves on this occasion. The yaks are in very poor condition & go even slower than I remember; the men with them (about 300 beasts) were too few so that loading up was very slow (2 to 3 hrs) in the morning, & one could hardly expect the bulk of the animals at the end of a long march before nightfall. So there we sat or rather lay out of the wind in our green tent chatting – chaffing until gradually one by one nearly everyone had a snooze; & as they lay there snoozing with faces rendered ghastly by the green light they looked like a collection of corpses.

The night of the 8th was decidedly chilly, the wind got up from an unexpected direction & blew violently into our tents; the minimum temperature was 4°. I should have told you however that before we turned in we were cheered by a clear view of Chomulhari. The point of Chomulhari is the way it dominates the plain. The view of it from Dochen reproduced in The Reconnaissance gives you some idea of what I mean; but coming across this way to Kampa Dzong we don’t go so far north & the further you go from the mountain the more its great wall of rock presents itself as the barrier of the world in which you are. Goodbye to Chomlhari – I should like to have a whack at him one of these days.

The march of the 9th corresponded with that of 1922 except that we stopped about 4 miles short of our last time’s camp; but it was a bitter journey; the wind blew in our faces all day often very strongly & terribly cold, & the sky was white or overcast & the sun had no warmth. And I had a bad tummy; I walked almost the whole way to keep warm; & it was very tiring work under those conditions. We camped in a good spot looking up nullah to Pau Hunri. The wind died down in the evening; the stars were bright & the temperature fell to 2° below zero. Beetham was up 15 times in the night.

The 10th was supposed to be a short march & a comparatively short day. The yak men had had enough of it on the previous day & consequently we made a very late start 10.45 I think. It was supposed that if we didn’t stop in last time’s camp 4 or 5 miles further on we should be able to stop 3 miles further on again. However no water was met with for another 10 miles. We went on & on over the wide plain sloping upwards; in the distance at last we saw a little cloud of smoke & a little later some flash of bright green near it – the smoke was from our cook’s fire & the green spot was our mess tent, which we reached towards sundown; & then turning to look back towards the east I saw the black battalions of yaks still a long way off & beyond them in the distance once more across the plain, nearly 40 miles away the great wall of Chomolhari, appearing as though the spurs of Pau Hunri which we had crossed with so much labour had no existence.

A beautiful camp this one with a velvet sided hill to the south of us & to the north a long line of hills near at hand, while the sunny side of Chomiomo appeared through a gap; & a good night not so cold.

On the 11th to Kampa; a pleasant & easy march with much looking at snow mountains, Chomiomo and Kanchenjunga principally. Everest was not clear as we came down to Kampa though we could make out where it was.

April 14. Yesterday we had the news that the General is not coming on. The possibility had been in the back of our minds since Yatung. We are all very sorry for him naturally. It is difficult to size up in a moment how much difference his absence will make. I don’t think the difficulties of travelling through Tibet will be considerably increased. The General’s influence with the porters must go for something; but Norton thinks that Geoffrey Bruce with his more direct contact with a personal knowledge of them counts for more. I expect myself the porters will work as well this year as in 1922. Still we’ve lost a force, & we shall miss him in the mess, and also his absence from the Base Camp will be inconvenient.

Meanwhile Norton takes command & we couldn’t have a better commander, he will do it much better than I could have done had I been in his place if only because he can talk the lingo freely. He has appointed me second in command in his place & also leader of the climbers altogether. I’m bound to say I feel some little satisfaction in the latter position.

I’ve been very busy these last two days formulating a plan of attack to be discussed as a commentary on Norton’s plan & we have just been having a general pow wow about the two schemes. I don’t know whether I told you anything about this before. Roughly N [Norton] proposes (a) 2 without oxygen establish Camp V at 26,500 & sleep there. Next day they go on & get as near as possible to the summit partly by way of reconnaissance, partly by way of taking the chance if it exists of getting to the top. (b) The day they go on a party of 3 with oxygen come up to V & are there to receive the first 2 & themselves go on next day.

The valuable points in this scheme are (1) that the oxygen party should not this way be let down by their load failing to arrive at V (2) that one attempt supports the other. The weakness & I think fatal weakness is that you spend 2 men making an attempt without the best chances of success, the best chance gasless being with 2 camps above Chang La; from the point of view of making the best possible gasless attempt supposing the 1st gas attempt fails two men have been wasted.

My adaptation therefore supposes;-
(a) Day 1 two with gas establish camp at 26,500. Next morning (1) if they feel strong & it is windless they start for the top.
(2) otherwise they wait & melt snow.
(b) 2 with gas come up to V on the second day. If (1) they support 1st party & if they have failed themselves make an attempt next day. If (2) all 4 go on together next day, in two parties of 2, an ideal mountaineering arrangement.
This leaves 4 men unimpaired for gasless VI camp attempt. Or this last may come first.

We had a very useful & amicable discussion of various points arising from these two plans & hope to get something settled by Tinkye.

Please don’t circulate this exposé of plans though of course you may tell climbing friends in confidence.

We are on the eve of resuming our march. The worst news is about Beetham who has not yet properly recovered from dysentery & is a very weak man. It is not yet decided whether we shall send him down to Lachen tomorrow. If he comes on & gets bad & Somervell (in the absence of Hingston with Bruce) has to take him back we shall have lost two of the best & be left without a medical officer, a very serious position. B [Beetham] is just on the turn; but even if he is going to get better up here it might pay better to send him down at once with a fair prospect of his rejoining us at the B. C. [Base Camp] about May 8 to 10.

This letter is full of news & very impersonal. Now about myself. I was able to feel definitely this morning that my trouble has passed. The tenderness in my gut is no longer sensitive, like an old bruise rather. I feel strong & full of energy & myself & I haven’t the least doubt I shall remain fit. I shall take every care to do so.

The warm pleasant days here have done us all good.

I’m happy & find myself harbouring thoughts of love & sympathy for my companions. With Norton of course I shall work in complete harmony; he is really one of the best. I read little what with Hindustani words & Sherpa names to learn, but I have occasional hours with Keats’ letters or the Spirit of Man which give perhaps more pleasure here than at home.

I have had no mail since I last wrote. If the English mail had been sent off as soon as it reached Phari we should have received it b now; but the arrangement is for the runner to come through & return so as to fit the out mail to England (a very bad arrangement on the surface) & consequently we shan’t get our letters before we get to Tinkye.

I’ve written to no-one but you this time. Please so what you can – at all events write to my people.

Dearest I wanted you very much to comfort me when I wasn’t well & I want you very much now to be happy with (not that I have been depressed).

Many many kisses to you & the children.
Ever your loving,
George

Letter from George to Ruth Mallory from Chiblung

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My dearest Ruth,

I don’t know whether you will easily find this place on the map. We have come north from Tinkye, avoiding unpleasant customers at Chushar and Gyanka Nampa & this valley is divided from that in which Rongkon lies by a low range of hills - we are encamped just at the corner of the Chiblung Chu; Sanko Ri & the ridge where Somervell & I climbed in 1922 is our view to the west.

Today – at last – an English mail has reached us. I have had a very nice long letter from you and also a picture of the children enclosed with the photos from my American friend Schwab illustrating his expedition to Mt Clemenceau (did you notice the one of Mt Farrar & Mt Mallory?). I’m very glad to have the children’s picture, but you don’t send one of yourself naughty girl. Nor do you send me any cuttings this mail, nor the Nation which I hoped you would be sending – though really European affairs are so far away & news is so old that I’ve not much enthusiasm about them. Karma Paul who brought our mail also brought news of the General, whom he left in Phari; he must be pretty ill still as he was unable to walk and was to be carried down to Chumbi; Hingston will accompany him to Ganktok & should rejoin us at the B.C. [Base Camp] about the middle of May. Meanwhile Beetham gets on slowly & can’t be said to have got rid of dysentery yet let alone picking up after it - however I think he’s on the mend.

I heard from Mary today with news of the weather in Colombo & it looks as if the earliest breath of the monsoon is a fortnight early! But that doesn’t necessarily mean much. The bad sign is the weather here which is distinctly more unsettled than in ’22 & these last two nights have been unhealthily warm. Today we have been in a regular storm area though no rain or snow has actually fallen here.

April 24 at Shekar Dzong.

I’ve left it rather late to go on with this letter – that is partly because one way or another I have been spending a good many spare moments on the elaboration of our plans. The difficult work of allotting tasks to men has now been done – N [Norton]& I consulted & he made a general announcement after dinner 2 days ago. The question as to which of the first two parties should be led by Somervell & which by me was decided on two grounds (1) on the assumption that the oxygen party would be less exhausted & be in the position of helping the other it seemed best that I should use oxygen & be responsible for the descent (2) it seemed more likely on his last year’s performance that Somervell would recover after a gasless attempt to be useful again later. It was obvious that either Irvine or Odell should come with me in the first gas party. Odell is in charge of the gas, but Irvine has been the engineer at work on the apparatus – what was provided was full of leaks & faults & he has practically invented a new instrument using up only a few of the old parts & cutting out much that was useless & likely to cause trouble; moreover the remaining parties had to be considered and it wouldn’t do to make Irvine the partner of Geoffrey Bruce as they would lack mountaineering experience; & so Irvine will come with me. He will be an extraordinarily stout companion, very capable with the gas & with cooking apparatus; the only doubt is to what extent his lack of mountaineering experience will be a handicap; I hope the ground will be sufficiently easy.

Norton if he is fit enough will go with Somervell or, if he seems clearly a better goer at the moment, Hazard. Beetham is counted out, though he’s getting fitter. Odell & Geoffrey Bruce will have the important task of fixing Camp V at 25,500.

The whole difficulty of fitting people in so that they take a part in the assault according to their desire or ambition is so great that I can’t feel distressed about the part that falls to me. The gasless party has the better adventure, and as it has always been my pet plan to climb the mountain gasless with two camps above the Chang La it is naturally a bit disappointing that I shall be with the other party. Still the conquest of the mountain is the great thing & the whole plan is mine & my part will be a sufficiently interesting one & will give me perhaps the best chance of all of getting to the top. It is almost unthinkable with this plan that I shan’t get to the top; I can’t see myself coming down defeated. And I have very good hopes that the gasless party will get up; I want all 4 of us to get there, & I believe it can be done. We shall be starting by moonlight if the morning is calm & should have the mountain climbed if we’re lucky before the wind is dangerous.

This evening 4 of us have been testing the oxygen apparatus, and comparing the new arrangements with the old. Irvine has managed to save weight, 4 or 5 lbs, besides making a much more certain as well as more convenient instrument. I was glad to find I could easily carry it up the hill even without using the gas, & better of course with it. On steep ground where one has to climb more or less the load is a great handicap & at this elevation a man is better without it. The weight is about 30 lbs, rather less. There is nothing in front of one’s body to hinder climbing & the general impression I have is that it is a perfectly manageable load. My plan will be to carry as little as possible, go fast & rush the summit. Finch & Bruce tried carrying too many cylinders.

I’m still very fit & happy. Tibet is giving us many beautiful moments. With these abnormal weather conditions it is much warmer than in ’22 & the whole journey is more comfortable. It is nice having one’s own poney – mine is a nice beast to ride, but he’s not in good condition, & today has had a nasty attack of colic; however he’ll have a long holiday to come soon & I hope he’ll fatten up & arrive fit & well in Darjeeling were I shall sell him. Only 4 marches, starting tomorrow morning to the Rongbuk monastery! We’re getting very near now. On May 3 four of us will leave the Base Camp & begin the upward trek & on May 17 or thereabouts we should reach the summit. I’m eager for the great event to begin.

Now dearest I must say Good Night to you & turn into my cosy sleeping bag, where I shall have a clean nose sheet tonight, one of the two you made to fix with patent fasteners. Considering how much grease my face requires & gets that device has been very useful.

Great love to you always.

The telegram announcing our success if we succeed will precede this letter I suppose; but it will mention no names. How you will hope that I was one of the conquerors. And I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Ever your loving
George

Letter from George to Ruth Mallory, from Hotel Mount Everest, Darjeeling [Letterhead].

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My dearest Ruth,

These have been full days since we came up here on Friday & tomorrow, Wednesday early, we start for Kalimpong - so that our stay has been short enough, & much taken up with packing & arrangements of one sort or another. Norton has got the whole organisation under his hand & we shall economise much time & money by dumping some of our boxes en route: all the stores for the high camps have practically been settled already. He is going to be an ideal 2nd to Bruce.

The party looks very very fit altogether. We had a very hot journey through India. The hot weather apparently came with a rush this year just before we landed & the temperature must have been up to 100 a good part of the time we were in the train, as it was supposed to be 99 in Calcutta; its a grimy dirty business & I was glad to get to the end of our train journeying. I was feeling a bit short of sleep otherwise very fit. The only doubts I have are whether the old ankle one way or another will cause me trouble.

Four of us walked up to Senschal Hill yesterday afternoon to see the magnolias. I was trying my new boots from Dewberry; they are going to be good but my right ankle didn’t feel too happy.

The magnolias were magnificent, a better show than last year - four different sorts white & deep cerise pink & two lighter pinks between - they so look startlingly bright on a dark hillside.

The country here is very dry at present & a haze of heat blown up from the plains hangs about. we haven’t seen the mountains until this morning when Kanchen has very timely made an appearance. Somervell & Odell besides the General, Geoffrey Bruce & Norton etc were here before us; it was very nice to see S. again & Odell is one of the best. Really it is an amazingly nice party altogether; one of the best is Hingston our M.O., an Irishman a quiet little man & a very keen naturalist. The only one I don’t yet know is Shebbeare, who belongs to the Forestry Department & is said to be a particularly nice man; he knows all about trees & shrubs which is a very good thing but nothing about flowers. So that we shall once more be without a real botanist.

We go to Kalimpong all together, as before, tomorrow and then separate in two parties; I shall be with the second, with Norton, Hingston, Irvine & Shebbeare I believe. Noel’s movements are independent; he is more than ever full of stunts; the latest in a Citroen tractor which some hour or another is to come into Tibet a pure ad of course (this may be a secret for the present).

The Everest Committee has now among us all a wonderful reputation for muddle and the latest is that after all they gave us the wrong address & the old one c/o Post Master, Darjeeling is correct. However I shall get your letters addressed to Yatung with little delay.

The English mail should have come in yesterday but the ship was 12 hrs late & we shan’t get it until today & consequently will have precious little time for answering.

I long to get your letter dear though it will only give me 3 days’ news.

How long is it since I left you? It will be four weeks on Friday. By now or very soon you will be leaving Cambridge for a time & won’t feel so lonely. I know you must have been feeling lonely some evenings; but you will have had Frances Wills part of the time & I hope you will have been out or had people to see you sometimes too. I expect the absence of me must make you feel less busy? Have you made a fresh start with china painting?

Dearest one, I often want you with me to enjoy things with & to talk over things & people quietly; and I want to take you in my arms & kiss your dear brown head. Here’s a great holiday time it seems & you not with me. But we’ll have a wonderful holiday together one of these days won’t we?

Later - The English mail has come in & I’ve had a letter from Mother but none from you. My dearest it is very disappointing. I hoped you would catch me at Darjeeling. Perhaps you directed to Yatung in which case I shall get your letter there in 7 days time.
I lunched with Her Excellency (what a title) Lady Lytton & her family today. Lady L. is really very nice but lord how folk can live with aides de camp hanging round! 2 here & presumably 2 more at Calcutta & one civilian one military secretary!

Much love to you dearest one & many kisses to the children.
Ever your loving
George.

Letter from George to Ruth Mallory from Rongli Chu.

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My dearest One,

This is the great day of valley-ease & warmth & languor & the delights of the lotus-eater, & I must write to you here with my feet in the splashing stream & heaven all about me as I look up. We started from Pedong this morning – sloped easily down the 2,000 ft to the stream where I bathed last time while Noel immortalised the event; there Irvine, Odell & I bathed, properly this time, even finding a pool to dive into, and at length. Thence on ponies up to Rheenok - you should be able to follow all this on one of my old maps of Sikhim [Sikkim] – where I made some attempts at photographing the remarkable houses, & thence, not up over the pass by Ari to get here by the shortest way, but contouring the hill until we could drop into this valley 6 miles below the bungalow. It is a very lovely valley, quite one of the best parts of Sikhim [Sikkim], & we had a good walk up, quite energetically carrying heavyish rucksacks. I was wearing my new boots for the first time for a whole march & found them pretty comfortable, my ankle & hip are all going quite well too, so that I quite expect by the time we reach Phari I shall have ceased to think about them.

The weather is perfectly fine but very hazy owing to the great number of fires in the valleys. It is the custom of the country to burn a good deal of undergrowth in the forests & dead leaves in order to get better new grass in the spring – but I can’t remember anything like so much haze as this last year. Consequently we have had nothing at all of a view all the way from Darjeeling & the country is looking more dry & dead than last year; it has in fact been very dry; I hear there has been exceptionally little snow in Tibet & the plains are already beginning to look green – but this is hardly credible. Incidentally, there are sights of a change of weather this afternoon but then we had a thunderstorm in Kalimpong which made absolutely no difference!

It has apart from views been a pleasant journey so far. We started in motors for 6 miles from Darjeeling & half way down the hill Norton, Hingston, Somervell & self had breakfast with a tea planter called Lister – it is a famous tea garden I believe & he certainly gave us to drink Orange Pekoe of the most delicious flavour (a series of violent slashes at this point). After that pleasant interval we took all the short cuts hurrying down to Tista Bridge, where we arrived dripping & found our ponies; my pony which is to carry me to Phari is quite a good beast – the best I have had at this stage & my saddle is comfortable & I feel very well off altogether -; we went straight up the hill on our ponies & were in Kalimpong at 1.30 for tiffin.

At Kalimpong next day last times performances were repeated – a “tamasha” for boy scouts & girl guides & a wonderful little ceremony in the big school room with all of us on the platform singing the metrical version of Psalm 121 to the tune of Old Hundredth, & prayers, & speech making divine/mixed. Old Dr Graham is really a wonder, & if one were going to be a missionary one couldn’t do better. He has between 6 & 700 children, mostly by bastards or children of ne’er-do-well parents & does them well all round. When the old Scot is short of money he goes down to Calcutta & collects a few batches of rupees from the big businessmen who all know & believe in him & his institutions flourish.

I think I told you the names of the 2nd party, but omitted Odell. Shebbeare the forest officer is an excellent fellow; we went a little walk into the forest above Pedong last evening & we saw quite close a very fine jungle cat, about as high as Raven but with the propositions of Agapanthus or rather perhaps of the other Westbrook cat, which it does resembled in colour – S. didn’t get a very good view of it & couldn’t tell me what it was; but it is extraordinary how it makes the whole forest seem alive to see a beast like that. We couldn’t be a nicer party – at least I hope the others would say the same; we go along our untravelled way in happiest fashion.
Since I began writing the air has become unbearably stuffy & a thunderstorm is brewing. The one crab about this place is that there is no water supply which is at all likely to unpolluted – & so one drinks tea, but our tiffin tea has left me very thirsty & I long for a long lemon squash or whisky & soda. You see how completely a physical animal one has become.

I’m spending a certain amount of time & effort as we come along learning Hindustani; it is very unsatisfactory because the coolies themselves are so bad at it; but I do find already that I get on with them more easily. We shall be very short of men who can speak to porters higher up. Irvine, Odell & Beetham, none of them know a word yet.

Dearest I’m really enjoying myself now with a good holiday feeling. If I were not I should be still feeling grieved with the world because no letter has yet reached me from you. Anyway after four marches I will receive a mail. Tomorrow’s march is all up hill to Sedongchen & the next, still up to Gnatong (12,500), is the great rhododendron march, but only the very lowest will be in flower. I have in mind another little detour, by the way of variety, from Kupup, diverging to the Natu La instead of Jelap La as before.

Dear girl I think of you often & often with ever so much love & wish for your company. Would there were some way of bringing you nearer. I think the nearness depends very much upon the state of ones imagination. When it boils up as it does sometimes at night, under the stars I could almost whisper in you ear; and even now dear I do feel near you, though my state is loggish & I come very near to kissing you.

My love to Clare & Berry & John & best of all to yourself.
Ever your loving, George.

Letter from George to Ruth Mallory, ’One march from Phari'

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My dearest Ruth,

I stupidly didn’t write from Phari – not realising that I should probably have no chance of sending a letter back on the way to Kampa. But it happens there may be a chance tomorrow so I will write a few lines in bed tonight. It isn’t easy to write because the site of my tent dips slightly towards the head of my bed & no amount of propping seems quite to overcome the difficulty. If I had my bed the other way round my head would be at the mouth of the tent & this would create a difficulty about light; besides it is snowing slightly & may snow more & though I don’t mind having my feet snowed upon for the sake of fresh air I am unwilling to have my head snowed upon during the night. As it is my tent is a wonderfully comfortable spot. The little table made for me by our friend in Maid’s Causeway is at my bedside & on it my reading lamp; I expect I shan’t always be able to have oil for this, but so long as I can I shall burn it. Did I tell you about the Whymper tents? We each have one to himself they have two poles /\ at each end a much more convenient plan than the other with single poles, a ground sheet is sewn into the sides so that draught & dust are practically excluded if one pitches in the right direction; and a great blessing, the tent has plenty of pockets; moreover it is by no means small – 7 ft square or very near it. The men’s tent also is a great improvement on last year’s; there is ample headroom & the men servants can pass round without hitting one on the head with the dishes the tables are wooden (3 ply wood varnished) & it is supposed that messes will be wiped off without difficulty; and they fit conveniently round the poles, the lamps which burn paraffin vapour (assisted by some clockwork arrangement inside) are also good & an enormous improvement or the dim hurricane lamps used last time. In short a certain amount of care & forethought (chiefly Norton’s) has made us much more comfortable with me spending a great deal of money.

I must tell you dearest one how wonderfully fit I have been here last days, much better at this stage I’m sure than either in ’21 or ’22. I feel full of energy & strength & walk up hill here already almost as in the Alps; I sleep long & well; my digestion is good & in short I haven’t a trouble physically, unless one may count my ankle of which I’m often conscious but the leg seems perfectly strong & I’m sure it won’t let me down.

The General’s trouble has been an irregular pulse & he & Hingston are both nervous about the effects of these altitudes on his heart – consequently he is not coming with us to Kampa Dzong (last year’s route but in 6 days instead of 4) but by another way which will allow him to camp lower. It is difficult to know how much to make of this trouble (don’t mention it) I think it is 10 to 1 he will be all right.
I can’t write much more in this position & my arms are getting cold. I was going to tell you something about our plans but I will leave that until next letter. Tibet is much warmer this year though this afternoon was pretty cold.

Much love to all & many kisses to you dearest one.

Ever your loving
George