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South Col: One Man's Adventure on the Ascent of Everest 1953
Wilfrid Noyce was the first member of the 1953 Everest expedition to accomplish the ascent of the South Col, the small plateau just below the summit, from which Edmund Hilary's party set out to conquer the world's highest mountain. An accomplished poet and writer, Noyce's account communicates all the drama, excitement and vitality of one of the greatest feats of exploration of all time.
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 18, 2018
I'm a fan of climbing books and have read a fair number now. Within that Everest has always fascinated me. I picked this one up very cheap and had no particular expectations for it. Noyce was one of the 1953 team and one of the first people to see and talk to Hillary and Tenzing when they got back to the South Col.
In terms of modern climbing books this is an anachronism but that to me is a good reason to read it. This is no speed run to the summit dragging people paying large sums of money behind them. This is a slow journey to attempt to reach the highest summit in the world for the first time. Noyce writes poetically at times and also deals with some of the minutiae of daily life (often entertainingly). The walk in to base camp takes far longer than most expeditions these days. It is about a different era in climbing and well worth the read if that appeals. Noyce comes over as a gentleman with a twinkle in his eye and an excellent observer.
In terms of modern climbing books this is an anachronism but that to me is a good reason to read it. This is no speed run to the summit dragging people paying large sums of money behind them. This is a slow journey to attempt to reach the highest summit in the world for the first time. Noyce writes poetically at times and also deals with some of the minutiae of daily life (often entertainingly). The walk in to base camp takes far longer than most expeditions these days. It is about a different era in climbing and well worth the read if that appeals. Noyce comes over as a gentleman with a twinkle in his eye and an excellent observer.
January 27, 2015
As is the prerogative of the leader of a successful expedition, Sir John Hunt’s book “The Ascent of Everest” is a superb, almost technical, account of how the mountain was conquered by Man. I found it extremely interesting to keep open the large, fold-out “Chart of the Ascent of Everest” (between pgs 236 and 237 of the first edition of Hunt’s book) whilst I read Wilfred Noyce’s more ‘human’ account of the same expedition.
Noyce eloquently describes the sights, the hardships, the joys, the frustrations, the dangers, and the discoveries which were all constituent parts of the 1953 team’s success. As such, his book is the perfect complement to Hunt’s. Noyce’s account of the detailed physicality of moving eight tons of expedition supplies in over five hundred individual packages, by ship and by rail, evoked in me a startlingly real appreciation for the very high level of planning and attention to detail required to manage changing trains four times: offloading and reloading all that bulk and weight each time; everything from green eiderdown quilts to twelve full loads of bullion coin in metal boxes; just imagine it!
Noyce’s observations on the outward walk through Nepal is fascinating for his wonderful descriptions of the terrain, plant, and native life; the latter to be respectfully acknowledged but kept politely at arm’s length for fear of influenza and other unwanted diseases. How fascinating to learn that Noyce had, in childhood, modelled the Welsh hills in plasticine: an early attempt to capture his boyhood wonder at ‘new shapes’, now made manifest by the sight of the magnificent dominance of Everest, brooding over, and seemingly filling a landscape of many other great, mighty, and as yet unclimbed seriously high mountains.
This really is not an easy book to put down; I’ve barely finished the book and I already want to re-read it! In exquisite expression Noyce handles issues large and issues small with consummate grace, keen observation, skill, and feeling. Mallory’s description of the sight of Everest and Makalu, ‘fangs excrescent’(p.90) ‘upon the jaws of the earth’ is recalled; not in any maudlin manner, but with the greatest respect for both mountaineer and mountain. A little further on the mood alters again, as a contrasting picture is painted of the difficulties, frustrations and dangers of traversing an icefall, “… more than ever feeling like pygmies crawling over a giant’s sugar-lumps, which the giant has considerately sprinkled with castor sugar.”(p.121)
Grape Nuts (a breakfast cereal) were a staple constituent of the 1953 expedition’s daily rations (p.81). One box per person per day. Some years ago, in all seriousness, a friend of mine asked me, “But why do you eat gravel?” – a reference to the physical appearance and texture of the cereal. Noyce empathises with those who even after a hard day’s climbing, “cannot stomach Grape-Nuts or pemmican.”(p.81) A little further on he cannot resist returning to the subject, writing with deadpan humour; “I once discovered Charles Wylie, and Camp VII [on the Lhotse Face] consuming Grape-Nuts with a spanner. He seemed to get very few in each time.”(p.111). Further on still, the reader learns how John Hunt, the expedition leader, liked to take his Grape-Nuts in tea! (p.214).
Therein lies the compulsive readability of this book. Noyce kept notes so that he could later share his thoughts and impressions, trials and dangers, problem solving, conversation, and astonishment at the beauty of the surrounding landscape. He was the first man to reach the long-dreamed of South Col, at the awesome height of 26,000 feet; and a little below that to view the terrible desolation of the tattered camp remnants of the Swiss expedition of the previous year, which had so very nearly proved fatal. On the return trek to Thyangboche, Noyce muses, “If there is a joy in climbing high peaks more vivid than any other, it is the joy of contrast: to lie upon grass rather than snow or rock; to wake to a bird’s song, not the creak of ice; to look out at a flower, not at endless whiteness.”
Read Hunt to learn how to be the first to achieve the summit of Mt. Everest.
Read Noyce to experience that climb.
Noyce eloquently describes the sights, the hardships, the joys, the frustrations, the dangers, and the discoveries which were all constituent parts of the 1953 team’s success. As such, his book is the perfect complement to Hunt’s. Noyce’s account of the detailed physicality of moving eight tons of expedition supplies in over five hundred individual packages, by ship and by rail, evoked in me a startlingly real appreciation for the very high level of planning and attention to detail required to manage changing trains four times: offloading and reloading all that bulk and weight each time; everything from green eiderdown quilts to twelve full loads of bullion coin in metal boxes; just imagine it!
Noyce’s observations on the outward walk through Nepal is fascinating for his wonderful descriptions of the terrain, plant, and native life; the latter to be respectfully acknowledged but kept politely at arm’s length for fear of influenza and other unwanted diseases. How fascinating to learn that Noyce had, in childhood, modelled the Welsh hills in plasticine: an early attempt to capture his boyhood wonder at ‘new shapes’, now made manifest by the sight of the magnificent dominance of Everest, brooding over, and seemingly filling a landscape of many other great, mighty, and as yet unclimbed seriously high mountains.
This really is not an easy book to put down; I’ve barely finished the book and I already want to re-read it! In exquisite expression Noyce handles issues large and issues small with consummate grace, keen observation, skill, and feeling. Mallory’s description of the sight of Everest and Makalu, ‘fangs excrescent’(p.90) ‘upon the jaws of the earth’ is recalled; not in any maudlin manner, but with the greatest respect for both mountaineer and mountain. A little further on the mood alters again, as a contrasting picture is painted of the difficulties, frustrations and dangers of traversing an icefall, “… more than ever feeling like pygmies crawling over a giant’s sugar-lumps, which the giant has considerately sprinkled with castor sugar.”(p.121)
Grape Nuts (a breakfast cereal) were a staple constituent of the 1953 expedition’s daily rations (p.81). One box per person per day. Some years ago, in all seriousness, a friend of mine asked me, “But why do you eat gravel?” – a reference to the physical appearance and texture of the cereal. Noyce empathises with those who even after a hard day’s climbing, “cannot stomach Grape-Nuts or pemmican.”(p.81) A little further on he cannot resist returning to the subject, writing with deadpan humour; “I once discovered Charles Wylie, and Camp VII [on the Lhotse Face] consuming Grape-Nuts with a spanner. He seemed to get very few in each time.”(p.111). Further on still, the reader learns how John Hunt, the expedition leader, liked to take his Grape-Nuts in tea! (p.214).
Therein lies the compulsive readability of this book. Noyce kept notes so that he could later share his thoughts and impressions, trials and dangers, problem solving, conversation, and astonishment at the beauty of the surrounding landscape. He was the first man to reach the long-dreamed of South Col, at the awesome height of 26,000 feet; and a little below that to view the terrible desolation of the tattered camp remnants of the Swiss expedition of the previous year, which had so very nearly proved fatal. On the return trek to Thyangboche, Noyce muses, “If there is a joy in climbing high peaks more vivid than any other, it is the joy of contrast: to lie upon grass rather than snow or rock; to wake to a bird’s song, not the creak of ice; to look out at a flower, not at endless whiteness.”
Read Hunt to learn how to be the first to achieve the summit of Mt. Everest.
Read Noyce to experience that climb.
November 15, 2020
Truly an excellent, in-depth, personal account of one of the mountaineers that was on the expedition when Mt. Everest was climbed .
October 21, 2019
Written by a member of the 1953 team that put Tenzing and Hillary on top of Everest. Dated style, but it was, after all, 60+ years ago! Noyce was also a member of the faculty at Charterhouse School (where my brother attended). I recall there was some controversy about this book, but I enjoyed reading it. I think he covered the facts as well as the spirit of the expedition well.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews