HIMALAYAS - MOUNTAINEERING The 1937 British Mount Kamet Himalayan Expedition, ALBUM OF 64 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE EXPEDITION, vintage gelatin silver prints (35 'Agfa Lupex', 51 x 85mm.; 29 'Velox', 64 x 92mm., loose mounted 4-per page on 8 album leaves, contemporary album (with 'Halmac' of Leeds label inside lower cover), 175 x 215mm.), [1937] Footnotes: A PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF AN ATTEMPT TO SUMMIT MOUNT KAMET ON THE TIBET BORDER BY MEMBERS OF THE EAST SURREY REGIMENT IN 1937. Inspired by the successful attempt on Mount Kamet undertaken in 1931 by Frank Smythe, a team of five regular soldiers, led by Corporal R. Ridley, set out on a 200 mile trek from their headquarters at Ranikhet, India to make their own attempt. The planning had been extensive, but as the soldiers had little practical experience of mountaineering at altitude and minimal financial mean, it was always likely to be a valiant 'long shot' to succeed. Base camp was established on 24 May, Camp One on 26 May, moving with increasing difficult to Camp Four (21,000 feet) by 2 June. Here, with 'Heavy blizzard raging... No cigarettes. Very little food' they had to admit defeat, and return to the base camp. Ridley recorded that 'Our camera work was another item to which we gave a good deal of thought, and the excellent work evinced by our Agfa cameras and films show that our selection was right'. Of the images in our album 35 photographs are printed on Agfa paper, and these all depict the actual Expedition (the mountaineers, tents, mountains, etc.). The other images, on different paper, depict the East Surrey Regiment travelling on HMT Nevasa from England to Calcutta, on a train, and marching to the regimental headquarters in Ranikhet, India from where the Kamet Expedition subsequently set off. Sold with a a copy of The Ice Soldiers. Photographs from the 1937 Corporal Ridley Group - Mt. Kamet Expedition, edited by Peter Osborne and Paul Rogers, Blackpool, 2002, and photocopies of various contemporary newspaper cuttings and articles relating to the Expedition. These include an article by Corporal Ridley, 'Himalayan Adventure', in The Journal of the East Surrey Regiment, No.4, May 1938. Provenance: The original owner of the album was possibly Lance Corporal Henry Joseph Bull (c.1911-1963), a member of Expedition, who lived and died in Leeds, where the album was manufactured; Walter James Burton, Vancouver, bookplate loosely inserted. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing