From the S&S archives: Welsh party sets steep goal

A SIX-MAN PARTY of Welsh mountain climbers paused at Wiesbaden for camera equipment last week for use during an expedition into the unexplored wilds of the Nepal and Tibetan Himalayas.

Driving overland in small English station wagons, the intrepid Englishmen expect to reach the Nepal border by Aug. 15. Goal of the Welsh Himalayan Expedition 1955, sponsored by the Mountaineering Club of North Wales, is to scale the hitherto unconquered 24,062-foot Nalkankar Peak and survey Nepal's Nalkankar basin. To reach India, the party led by Syd Wignall, 32, of Colwyn Bay, North Wales, will travel through Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Other members of the party which took 16 months to organize are scientific officer John Harrop, 28, of Bangor, North Wales, transport officer Humfrey Berkeley, 32, of Trefriw, North Wales, school teacher Geoffrey Roberts, 27, of Colwyn Bay, and professional mountain guides Scotty Dwyer, 45, of Capel Curig, and John Henson, 45, of Vale of Gwynant.

Though all have had extensive mountaineering experience, it will be the first time any of the men have been to Nepal, It will also be the first time a Himalayan expedition has been led by a man who has never climbed the Alps.

"I was chosen to lead the expedition more for my organizational ability than mountain climbing lore,'' Wignall said.

In Wiesbaden for a one-day layover, the men received equipment from the German Exida camera firm for the gruelling job of charting a region closed to Europeans by order of Nepal princes from 1905 to 1949. The Exida firm manufactures cameras holding interchangeable lenses up to 35 centimeters.

In addition to their survey work, the party will make extensive films of the uncharted region. They will take color and black-and-white.

Under plans to return to Britain by mid-December, the budget for the expedition is around 2,000 pounds (about $5,600) — "roughly 300 pounds per man, a figure very low indeed," spokesman Wignall stated.

Finances for the trip have come from the Mountaineering Club of North Wales, Liverpool Daily Post, Life Magazine, "and private contributions."

In Nepal the party will be accompanied by a Nepalese liaison officer. Charts have been supplied by the British War Office and the Royal Geographic Society.

"The trip may sound like a bit of a lark, but we are very serious about it," Wignall said. "We have had people worrying about us ever since we started talking about it. There's no fuss — we are determined to come through."