Science: There She Stands

Since 1841, Mt. Everest (29,000 ft.), in the Himalayas, has reigned as the highest peak in the world. It has never been climbed.* But a few pilots thought they had seen a higher one among the Amne Machin Mountains of West China. When peripatetic Pen-Manufacturer Milton Reynolds went looking for such a peak (TIME, April 12), he ran into trouble with the Chinese government, failed to get anywhere or prove anything. Last week, another expedition quietly took off from a hard-packed loess runway at Lanchow to make the first recorded flight directly over the Amne Machins.

The expedition was headed by Baltimore-raised Moon F. Chin, once Chiang Kai-shek's personal pilot. "I don't think the mountains are as high as Mr. Reynolds claims," he said. "But we might as well see." With him went 14 Chinese and foreign correspondents, two technicians, and a Chinese crew armed with radar equipment.

Pilot Chin circled and zigzagged over the range (most of the time at 18,000 ft.), found no competitors for Mt. Everest. The tallest peak he saw (22,000 ft.) was not among the Amne Machins but in the Kuolo range near by. Tallest Amne Machin peak observed: 19,000 ft. Drawled Chin: "I never thought those mountains were very high. But I didn't expect they'd be that damn low."