me tactfully, `Monsieur Colonel, vous aurez gros problemes', meaning, I think, that we hadn't a hope in hell." On 26 May 1953, exactly a year after Lambert's attempt, Hunt himself photographed the skeletal remains of the tent at 8,400m. Said Hunt: "It brought home the significance of their performance and made me force myself 50m higher up the ridge, to deposit the supplies for our final camp." Three days later Tenzing and Hillary reached the summit. On the way home, the team stopped off at Zürich airport and met the Swiss trail-blazers again. Lord Hunt recalls: "They offered us unreserved applause. In later years Raymond and I became close friends. He was not a demonstrative person, but the warmth of personality, once bestowed, was very precious to me." References External links R.Lambert mountaineer and mountains air pilot 1914 births 1997 deaths Swiss mountain climbers