Pierre Vittoz (1926-1978)
The Swiss Almost-First-Summitting Of Mt Everest (1952)

A Swiss Feat: The World's Highest Climbing in 1952. The Everest up to 8,600 meter on 28 May 1952. 200m short of the summit. (without Pierre Vittoz this time) Source: Wikipedia Between 1926 and 1951, nine British expeditions had attempted to climb the Everest Mountain, most of them from the Tibetan side. All of them failed. Due to the Chinese military invasion of Tibet in 1950-51, this country was now closed to foreigners, but Nepal just opened up. The government in Kathmandu now granted one ascent permit to the Everest every year. They granted the 1951 permit to the British. In 1951 Eric Shipton's British-New Zealand reconnaissance party had climbed on the Nepalese side most of the Khumbu Icefall. They were stopped however by a huge 20 meter-wide crevasse at the end of the Khumbu – the ultimate obstacle before reaching the elusive Western Cwm [the flat valley sitting between Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse ("Cwm" means valley in Welsh)]. Unfortunately for the British, who had enjoyed exclusive access to the Everest for 31 years from Tibet on the Northern side, then in 1951 from Nepal, the Nepalese government gave the 1952 permit to the Swiss. Die Briten waren geschockt. Basil Goodfellow vom britischen Himalaja-Institut reiste Ende Dezember 1951 nach Zürich, um die Schweizer zu einer Gemeinschaftsexpedition zu überreden. Die Schweizer waren nicht ganz abgeneigt, weil sie von den Erfahrungen Eric Shiptons profitieren wollten. Die Verhandlungen scheiterten an der Engstirnigkeit beider Parteien. Dem Briten Eric Shipton war das Geplänkel egal. Der Ehrenmann fuhr nach Zürich, um den schweizerischen Bergsteigern unter der Führung von E. Wyss-Dunant sein Wissen über den Everest auszubreiten. Edouard Wyss-Dunant was appointed as the leader of this expedition. The other Swiss members were René Aubert, Léon Flory, Jean-Jacques Asper, André Roch and Raymond Lambert (despite Lambert's having suffered amputation of frostbitten toes). All the Swiss were from Geneva. Most belonged to the exclusive L'Androsace climbing club (equivalent to Lausanne's Groupe de Haute Montagne) and knew each other well. The city and canton of Geneva provided moral and financial support for the expedition, and the University of Geneva provided the scientific contingent. Switzerland had made demands of permits repeatedly since 1926, but, as long as Britain was the dominant ruler in the Indian subcontinent, the Nepalese had refused. In 1952, the British were aghast that another nation had obtained the permit. At this time, Kathmandu granted just one permit per year. The British tried to convince the Swiss to organize a common expedition, but somehow the negotiations failed. In the end, the great luck of the Swiss in obtaining the 1952 permit turned into their bad luck. Indeed, this permit had been granted at the last minute. The Swiss ended up not having enough time to properly prepare and test their equipment. During this expedition Tenzing Norgay was considered, for the first time, a full expedition member ("the greatest honour that had ever been paid me") forging a lasting friendship with the Swiss, in particular Raymond Lambert. Goals The mountaineering task that this team had set itself was primarily exploring the access to the South Col, the conquest of the labyrinthine Khumbu Icefall, and possibly the advance to the South Col. John Hunt (who met the team in Zurich on their return) wrote that when the Swiss Expedition "just failed" in the spring they decided to make another (summit ascent) attempt in the autumn; though as it was only decided in June the second party arrived too late, when winter winds were buffeting the mountain. This contradicts a reference which says that "no attempt at an ascent of Everest was ever under consideration in this case". Ascent Building on Shipton's 1951 experience, the Genevans were the first to cross the whole gigantic labyrinthine Khumbu Icefalls (Cascade de Glace) including the huge 20 meter-broad crevasse at the end of the Khumbu. They were the first to set foot on the elusive Western Cwm ("Cwm" means «valley» in Welsh (Combe Ouest) beyond the Khumbu icefalls. The Cwm is the flat valley at 5,800m-6,000 m extending between Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse, the valley where the huge Khumbu glacier is being generated. Jean-Jacques Asper was the first man in History to walk the Western Cwm, or Valley of Silence. He confided later that he felt like if he was the first man walking on the Moon. By walking on the Western Cwm, the Genevans proved that Everest could be climbed from Nepal. Further on, the Swiss climbed the huge mountain face leading to the South Col (Col Sud) at about 8,000 meter. Three Swiss climbers and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay continued towards the summit, pitching a tent at 8,400 meters (without sleeping there at first). Two returned (and 2 died?), leaving Tenzing and Lambert to make a summit attempt. Lambert and Norgay had become firm friends, in spite of speaking no common language. Lambert spoke almost no English while Norgay had no clue of French. Just the same, both men would understand each other perfectly well. High altitude mountaineering in 1952 was still in its infancy. Even Swiss organisation and technology were not up to the job and, apart from Tenzing, the Sherpas had little experience. Despite the best plans, Tenzing and Lambert now had to spend a night at 27,500 feet (8,400 m) with no sleeping bags and no stove; producing a trickle of drinking water by melting snow over a candle. Their oxygen sets were barely operable and when the two men continued in the morning of 28 May 1952, they were effectively climbing without oxygen. They struggled heroically, at times crawling on all fours, hindered by the dead weight of malfunctioning oxygen sets, finally grinding to a halt near 8600 m, about 250 m short of the summit, on the same 28 May 1952. Understanding that they would not survive any further forcing higher up, and noticing a storm forming close by they had to retreat. Edmund Hillary recalled in 1953 "an incredibly lonely sight, the battered framework of the tent that Tenzing and Raymond Lambert of the 1952 Swiss expedition pitched over a year before and where they had spent an extremely uncomfortable night (27-28 May 1952) without food, without drink, and without sleeping bags. What a tough pair they had been, but perhaps not very well organized." Hillary thought that Tenzing and Lambert were not sufficiently hydrated, having relied on cheese and snow melted over a candle for sustenance (he insisted on everyone keeping their fluids up by melting snow on a Primus stove for water). This was also the conclusion of Griffith Pugh in 1952. Images of the May 1952 Swiss expedition to the Everest Alp Info. 1952 – The Mount Everest 8,850m (left), the Lhotse 8,516m (center, in the background), the Nuptse 7,861m (right). Descending from between them: the Khumbu Glacier. At the root of the glacier, between the 3 mountains: the Western Cwm. Half-way along the glacier, the Khumbu Icefalls. (1.15Mb) 2015 – Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and their glacier, with the usual ascent routes to the Lhotse . Source: Alanarnette. (0.69Mb) The Khumbu Icefall (la Cascade de Glace de Khumbu). Behind in the background: the Lhotse (1.33 Mb) The labyrinthine Khumbu Icefall (0.89 Mb) Khumbu Icefall: crossing a giant crevasse (1.35 Mb) Khumbu Icefall: crossing a giant crevasse (1.27 Mb) From the Khumbu Icefall to the Western Cwm (1.18 Mb) May 1952: Reaching the Western Cwm (1.38 Mb) May 1952: Man on the Western Cwm! On a marché sur la Combe Ouest! Image of the first men to walk on the flat Valley of Quietness (5,800m-6,000 m), or Western Cwm, in History. On the left side, the huge Everest mountain (8,850m). At the end of the flat valley: the Lhotse (8,516m). On the right side, in the shade: the Nuptse (7,861m) (1.47 Mb) The Swiss expedition to Everest in May 1952 Overnighting on the Western Cwm. On the left side (cut), the huge Everest mountain. At the end of the flat valley (center, far): the Lhotse mountain. On the right side, in the dark: the Nuptse mountain Reaching for the South Col (1.70Mb) Reaching for the South Col (1.23Mb) Reaching for the South Col (0.88Mb) Enjoying the panorama (0.87Mb) The Everest Mountain peak, so close... but still so far (1.28Mb) Images of the May 1952 Swiss expedition to the Everest Alp Info. Results On 28 May 1952, Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay were able to reach a height of about 8,600 metres (28,199 ft) on the southeastern ridge of the Everest mountain, setting a new climbing altitude record (assuming that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine did not ascend any higher during their expedition of 1924). They were the first to cross the terrible Khumbu Icefalls, the first to walk on the huge Western Cwm (that so far had just been seen by far by Mallory in 1921 from the Lho-La Col). And the first to climb until the South Col at almost 8,000 meter altitude. The results of this first Swiss expedition to Mount Everest were remarkable, and exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. At the first attempt, it had opened up a new route to the peak of Everest, and it had reached an extraordinary height of 8,600 meter on the southwestern ridge in difficult conditions. The Tibetan sherpa Tenzing Norgay gained with the Swss a precious experience that was useful when he was hired to be part of the British expedition in 1953, during which he reached the summit with Sir Edmund Hillary. In the opinion of the extremely critical Marcel Kurz, this expedition was almost a victory. They had seen from close-up that the route to the South Summit had no insurmountable barriers, and only the last 90 metres to the summit remained unknown. The spring expedition might have reached the summit using the Draeger oxygen sets used for the autumn expedition. They established for the British that in 1953 the route should be up the Lhotse Face not the couloirs, and have a high camp(s) on the South Col (which meant more stores to be carried higher). The 1952 Swiss Everest expedition gave its name to the Geneva Spur rock formation, between the Western Cwm and the South Col. During the 1956 Swiss Everest–Lhotse expedition, Geneva Spur was the location of the last high camp before Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss achieved the first ascent of Lhotse summit, on May 18, 1956. Second Swiss expedition in Autumn 1952 In June 1952 (right after their quasi-victory of the Spring 1952), the Genevans decided to organize a second, post-monsoon, expedition to the Everest, in order to be the first to reach the highest mountain in the world. This had to take place in 1952 yet, before during the Swiss (exclusive) permit expired. The exclusive 1953 permit had been attributed to the British. This 2nd Genevan expedition was scheduled for October-December 1952. The Swiss alpinists would rely this time on new oxygen masks with two new types of open-circuit oxygen equipment. The better Drägerwerk set was based on apparatus used by pilots, and the oxygen supply could be selected to be between 2 and 4 litres/minute. With this better equipment, the Swiss might definitely have reached the summit this time, in the Autumn 1952. However, this second Swiss party arrived too late. The expedition started in October 1952. The indomitable Swiss climbers and their Tibetan sherpas managed to pass the South Col again, but had to turn back right after that, at about 8,100 meter altitude, due to deteriorating meteorological conditions. Winter winds were now buffeting the mountain cliffs. The expedition was back to Kathmandu by mid-December 1952. Leaving the road open for the British expedition of May 1953 to reach the summit. First successful ascent by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, 1953 In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, came within 100 m (330 ft) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their oxygen caches were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second assault on the summit with the second climbing pair: the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the Tibetan-Nepali Sherpa climber. They reached the summit at 11:30 local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col route. Fairly precisely one year after the Swiss expedition had almost reached the peak (28 May 1952). At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending. Ajouté août 2023 – Modifié 19 sept 2025

Top

Created: 20 Sep 2025 – Last modified: 20 Sep 2025