Reconnaissance photograph of the south side of Everest, showing the Khumbu Icefall and the Western Cwm, taken by Eric Shipton from Pumori, 1951, Edmund Hillary standing in the right foreground

Details

EVEREST RECONNAISSANCE EXPEDITION, 1951
Reconnaissance photograph of the south side of Everest, showing the Khumbu Icefall and the Western Cwm, taken by Eric Shipton from Pumori, 1951, Edmund Hillary standing in the right foreground
8 x 23¼in. (20.3 x 59.1cm.)
with the photolithographed reproduction of H.F. Milne's map 'The southern face and region south of MT EVEREST from photographs of the Mount Everest Flight, 1933.' laid down on two linen-backed sheets, carried by Michael Ward on the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, 1951 (pencil, pen and ink annotations and Shipton's pencil sketch map of the Western Cwm on the reverse of one panel), and a special-illustrated section of The Times, 24 April 1933, 'Over Everest First Pictures of the Houston Mount Everest Flight' with Ward's corrections to two printed captions identifying the views

Provenance

Michael Phelps Ward, CBE, MD, FRCS.

Lot Essay

Taken on 30 September 1951 at about 20,000ft (6,100m) on Pumori as part of a reconnaissance of the Western Cwm with Ed Hillary, Shipton's revelatory photograph shows the view up the Western Cwm which 'appeared like a vision' and unlocked the southern line of approach to the summit of Everest. (E. Shipton, The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 1951, London, 1952, p.41)

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