EVEREST: ANNUAL REUNIONS

B. R. Goodfellow.

After the tumult of receptions and other festivities with which the returning Everest party was greeted in 1953, the ascent has since been celebrated in quieter fashion. In each subsequent year there has been a reunion in the British hills over the week-end closest to May 29th.

In 1954, the whole party gathered in Wales at Pen-y-Gwryd. A new route on a crag in Cwm Dyli was led by Tom Bourdillon and named 'Anniversary Wall'.

In 1955, the Everest reunion was in Skye at Sligachan Hotel during ten days of unforgettably brilliant weather. Few of the Everest party were able to travel so far or could spare the time, but the Reserves and some of the back-room boys were better represented. The best possible honour was done to Everest by a traverse of the whole main ridge of the Cuillin, the longest expedition in Britain, by a party of six—including Sir John and Lady Hunt, Emlyn Jones and Rawlinson.

The 1956 reunion was a memorable one, as this had now become a double event to celebrate both Everest and Kangchenjunga. Pen-y-Gwryd was again the focus, and forty or more came to stay at the Hotel, the Climbers Club hut at Ynys Ettws, or to camp nearby. The party included Sir John Hunt, Evans, Bourdillon, Wylie, Noyce, Westmacott, Ward and Pugh from Everest; Emlyn Jones, Rawlinson and Cox from the Everest Reserves; Longland from pre-war Everest; Streather, Mather, Jackson and Clegg from Kangchenjunga; and of the supporters, Sir Christopher Summer- hayes, Jack Henderson, Hotz, Bain, Ann Debenham, and Good- fellow, with of course Briggs (the host) ; wives, fiancees, and families made up the numbers.

In 1957, the reunion was again at Pen-y-Gwryd, and was combined with the first of the two meets which the Alpine Club held to celebrate its Centenary Year. There was a large attendance at the Dinner in Llanberis, and the absent New Zealand Everesters remembered the occasion by sending cables-—one from each side of the Antarctic Continent. Some outstanding climbing was done during the week-end, and the record for the 236-mile road journey from Marble Arch to Pen-y-Gwryd was lowered to 3 hours 9 minutes.

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