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Charles Wylie (British Army officer)
Charles Geoffrey Wylie OBE (24 December 1919 – 18 July 2007) was a British Army lieutenant colonel who served with 10th Gurkha Rifles [1] and was the organising secretary to the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition.[2] Wylie was also an early member of the Army Mountaineering Association, membership number 142, joining in April 1958 shortly after the Association's inauguration in 1957. He was appointed OBE in the 1995 New Year Honours. Machapuchare, 1957In 1957 Wylie joined an expedition to Machapuchare in Nepal (6,993 m (22,943 ft)) led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Roberts.[3] The party included Roger Chorley, David Cox and Wilfrid Noyce. Wylie climbed to Camp IV at 20,400 ft (6,200 m) with Cox and Noyce. Further progress involved crossing an ice ridge and descending by rope to a glacier below. In order to safeguard the return, Wylie remained at the camp with one of the sherpas whilst Cox and Noyce continued over the ice ridge and thence towards the summit.[4][5] Cox and Noyce successfully climbed to within 150 ft (46 m) of the summit via the north ridge (an approximate altitude of 22,793 ft (6,947 m)).[4] Whilst they were doing this Wylie and the sherpa, Tashi, dug a tunnel right through the little ridge, 25 ft. below its crest and 15 ft. long to make the return journey shorter and safer for Cox and Noyce.[6] References
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