Everest, Mount (China and Nepal) -- Description and travel, Mountaineering -- Everest, Mount (China and Nepal), Mountaineering, Travel, Asia -- Mount Everest, Mount Everest (China and Nepal) 

When in June 1953 the members of the Swiss Everest Expedition telegraphed to Sir John Hunt their congratulations on the British ascent of the mountain, he replied, ' A vous autres une bonne moitie de la gloire.' Sir john has, in fact, always been the first to acknonwledge the debt of the British climbers to their Swiss predecessors who were, in 1952, the first to explore the whole southern approach to the mountain from the top of the great ice-fall, where Shipton had been halted, to a point only a few hundred feet from the summit. They were the first ever to set foot in the Western Cwm and to scale the enormous ice rampart of the South Col, and it was by their successes and mistakes that they did, in effect, pave the way for the later success of the British expedition. Only bad weather and faulty oxygen apparatus forced Lambeert and Tensig to turn back when so close to vicotry.