The
Last Blue Mountain: Ralph Barker.
232
pages Paperback
Perfect
Bound £12.99. Re-Published by Vertebrate, Original in Hard Back by
Chatto and Windus 1959.
‘I
must go where the fleet of Stars is anchored and the young Star
Captains glow’ James Elroy Flecker.
When
the first edition of this work was published I like most others of
the then climbing world were wondering who Ralph Barker was? There
was a great antipathy in that era about non-climbers writing about
mountaineering, even more so its tragedies, and Haramosh is one of
the most poignant such events in our sports history. We were
surprised to learn that Barker was a none climber, but had to admit
he had written this daunting story in detail and with an accuracy of
a kind rarely matched by someone who had not actually witnessed the
events described. He had access to the personal diaries of the
participants, and was able to interview the two survivors of the
accident, the medical student John Emery and the soldier, expedition
leader Tony Streather. ‘The Last Blue Mountain’ has remained for
climbers of my generation the most gripping survival story of its
genre, and also a most readable one when compared to the many
formulaic ‘Expedition’ books that had appeared prior to its
publication.
The
story begins with an Oxford University student Bernard Jillot, the
President of that bodies mountaineering club proposing that they
organise an expedition to the Himalaya. In 1957 that was a much more
difficult proposition than it would be today, although the OUMC,
founded in 1909 had many members over its years of existence who had
taken part in major exploratory mountaineering ventures, and for
instance Sandy Irvine of Everest fame was a member, but what Jillot
was proposing was an Oxford University Expedition to reconnoitre and
possibly to ascend ‘Haramosh’ a 24,270ft mountain in the
Karakoram Himalaya. He recruited three other members of the OUMC to
join him, his regular climbing partner John Emery, a New Zealander
Rae Culbert and an American Scott Hamilton.
Left to Right..Tony Streather,Scott Hamilton,John Emery, Bernard Jillot.
Readers may be surprised
at this International representation, but it is typical of the OUMC
which even in recent times when I have attended at their gatherings
the membership was made up of several different nationalities.
Jillot was to soon find that organising such an expedition was no
sine cure, and doubt about both the experience and strength of the
party emerged once he started applying for support and permission. He
was recommended to seek an older person to be the leader, someone
with a good previous Himalayan climbing record, and he decided to
invite Tony Streather to take this on. The latter had summited Tirich
Mir in 1950 with a Norwegian Expedition, been a member of the
American attempt to K2 in 1953 and had gone to the top of
Kanchenjunga in 1955 as a member of Charles Evans (another OUMC
member) British Expedition to that mountain. Streather a
Professional soldier who had stayed on in Pakistan post independence
had good contacts in that country that would smooth permission and
travel arrangements, and though he had then only recently married and
fathered a son, he could not resist the invitation to lead such a
party into his favourite part of the mountain world.
Barker
makes a good job of introducing into the narrative the character and
personality of each of the expedition members as the story unfolds.
We learn Jillot is a somewhat driven character, having gained
entrance into Oxford’s dreaming spires from a working class
background in Huddersfield, and that at 23 years old his life was
dominated by climbing, especially ascending hard rock routes in
Britain. John Emery also 23 years old was from an entirely different
background to Jillot, his schooling being via a high grade Public
School, but with other keen interests besides mountaineering; fencing
(he was Captain of his College’s team), medicine, literature etc.
Rae Culbert the Kiwi was studying Forestry and at 25 years old he was
perhaps the most mature of the four OUMC members; he had good
mountain experience in his home country working for its Forest
Service, whilst the American Scott Hamilton at 29 though the oldest
of the four had not had as much experience of wilderness as Culbert,
but he had good climbing skills gleaned in the USA. And he gelled
well with Jillot whose rock climbing ability he admired, but found
John Emery the person he most liked and enjoyed being with.
In
retrospect although one could imagine Jillot and Streather on
occasion having disagreements over strategy on the mountain, they
were as a well together team as one might expect for a party who
apart from the leader had no Himalayan experience.
Haramosh
even in 1957 was easily approachable from Gilgit, in fact you can see
the mountain from that viewpoint, and a few days of travel and
walking, led to the team setting up their base in the Kutwal valley,
under the mountain, well aided by some local porters, including some
Hunzas who were to help establish their lower camps. Unfortunately
they were extremely unlucky with the weather, and delay followed
delay due to this. But finally in mid-September they had established
a Camp lV high on the mountain circa 20,000ft under Haramosh ll. The
delays now meant there was little hope of summiting the main Peak,
the best they could do was reconnoitre the route for the future as
their planned for time was running out.
Rae Culbet
15th
September found Jillot, Emery, Streather and Culbert all at Camp lV
deciding how best to proceed, up or down. But Jillot and Emery with
the agreement of Streather decided to climb further up the North East
Ridge they were set below to scope the difficulty of the route from
there on, and get some pictures of this. Watching from Camp lV
Streather and Culbert were horrified to watch as suddenly the slope
that their friends were mounting, started to move, welled up into a
huge avalanche taking them with it up and then down the other side of
the ridge. Climbing up onto the ridge Streather was amazed to see a
1000 ft below him, in a sort of basin set in the surrounding cliffs,
a figure emerge out of the avalanche debris and stand up, and
realised it was Jillot, who then moved across the snowy mass to pull
Emery out of the icy blocks that were holding him fast. Unfortunately
they had lost their ice axes, and other equipment and Emery his
gloves.
There
was nothing that Streather and Culbert could do that day, but they
prepared a rucksack, put in their down equipment and other warm
clothing and pushed it off down the slope towards their stricken
companions, but they watched helplessly as it landed into a deep
crevasse, which was unreachable by its intended recipients who were
now faced with a night in the open with no warm outer clothing. This
was the start of this terrible tragedy, for the next day Streather
and Culbert tried to climb down to them, but Culbert lost a crampon
and they also fell into the basin. And like their companions they
also had lost their axes.
Trying to climb out on the 16th
September the whole party fell, twice more, this ascent being
complicated by it being necessary to make a long exposed traverse
from right to left, to avoid a set of steep cliffs. Finally on the
17th
September Jillot and Emery managed to climb out but it took them so
long they arrived in darkness at the top of the ice slope whilst
still seeking Camp lV. Moving around without lights and unroped;
first Jillot fell over the ridge again not realising he was on a
cornice that gave way, and on this occasion this led to his certain
death and this was followed so terribly by Emery falling down a
crevasse.
| Nearing the north-east ridge. The track bends to the left over the snow bridge crossing the crevasse in the foreground and then winds up towards the ice cliffs to the right of the Cardinal’s hat.Nearing the north-east ridge. The track bends to the left over the snow bridge crossing the crevasse in the foreground and then winds up towards the ice cliffs to the right of the Cardinal’s hat. |
Meanwhile
Streather and Culbert following on behind fell again for Culbert
could not climb the icy slopes on a single crampon.
Streather then
decided to climb out on his own, thinking Jillot and Emery would be
safely at Camp lV and ready to return for Culbert having refreshed on
food and most importantly liquid. This latter is so important at high
altitude, and they had not managed such for two days. Emery with a
last desperate effort managed to get out of the crevasse he had
fallen into, and subsequently found the tents at Camp lV. But his
hands were so badly frostbitten he could not make a drink, light a
primus or get his boots and crampons off and he collapsed unconscious
in the tent doorway and it was there that Streather was to find him.
In their enfeebled condition there was no way they could go back for
Culbert, for Emery could not stand on his own and it took them two
days in recovery before they could begin to descend. Fortunately
Scott Hamilton had stayed on at Camp 3 guessing something must have
gone wrong, but in helping Emery and Streather off the mountain, he
too was involved in a forced bivouac with them above the ice fall,
and they were not safe until the Hunzas came up to their Camp l to
help assist Emery and Streather descend to their Base Camp.
So
ends this heart-rending story? But not really for just imagine the
thought of having to leave one of your friends behind, just because
of a faulty crampon strap, how that must have ranged on the survivors
minds? And John Emery’s rehabilitation and recovery from his
terrible frostbite injuries was just beginning once back in Britain,
for eventually he lost all his toes, and finished with a flap of
flesh and a stub for fingers and a thumb. He still managed to qualify
as a Doctor in 1959 and married that same year to Sara. I later
became friends with Emery when I was the Secretary of The Alpine
Climbing Group, and he was our Treasurer. I spent some hours in
various pubs in the climbing areas of this country with John at our
meetings, but I soon learnt not to waste time feeling sorry for him
for he was always so cheerful, though I never, much to my regret
dared to ask him his feelings about the Haramosh Expedition; but a
good memory is of him telling at one of our gatherings of his joy in
climbing ‘Longland’s’ on Cloggy a previous weekend.
Diagram of the routes from base camp
John
returned to Alpine climbing in 1960 and over the next few seasons
climbing with an American friend David Sowles he ascended many
classic routes such as the Ferpecle Arete on the Dent Blanche and the
Cresta Rey on Monte Rosa. Unfortunately in 1963 having successfully
climbed the Schalligrat- Nordgrat traverse of the Weisshorn; on the
descent they were caught in a Lightning storm, causing a fall from
which both perished. John’s death affected me deeply and I wrote a
tearful condolence letter to Sara at this event, and I am sure all my
colleagues in the ACG felt the same. A wonderful tribute is included
in this new edition of ‘The Last Blue Mountain’ by including at
the end of the story, John’s article, ‘The Runcible Cat’ about
his passion for climbing and his return to the sport after Haramosh
although like Edward Lear’s cat he also had no toes!
Tony
Streather made a remarkable recovery and continued with his military
career, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He led the
successful Army Mountaineering Association 1976 Expedition to
Everest, and he was President of The Alpine Club 1990-1992, he died
in 2018 at the age of ninety-two. Haramosh
was climbed in 1958 by a strong Austrian party; the long ridge from
the scene of the accident took them eight days to overcome. They paid
tribute to the help the OUMC reconnaissance had made in their
success.
Haramosh Peak.
‘The
Last Blue Mountain’ phrase comes from a poem by James Elroy
Flecker, who it might seem has the right words to impart to any group
setting out on a dangerous enterprise, including the SAS from this
country and those same kind of units from India and Israel. That is
why I precluded this review by another quote by him. Because I was
privileged to know John Emery, this book holds a special place in my
psyche, but it is an epic tale of friendship and tragedy and one I
believe deserves to be on every climber’s book list.
Dennis Gray: 2020.
Photographs Provided courtesy of the Streather Family.
