however, on the north ridge conditions were not good with soft snow lying deep so, with more snowfall on 18 may, smythe retreated to camp iii at the foot of the col. ruttledge then decided to withdraw to camp i because the conditions up to the col had now become too dangerous. news arrived that the monsoon had reached ceylon – a very unusually early date. judging they only had two weeks available they started off again on 23 may but with the news that the monsoon had already reached darjeeling and was advancing at a surprisingly rapid rate. two days later it had arrived at everest itself. on arriving at camp iii they were again driven back by the snow, leading to a third occupation of the camp a week later. on 4 june climbers again reached the col but it was going to be impossible to get the porters up there. beset by bad weather, they stayed at camp iii for two days until wyn harris persuaded ruttledge, against his better judgement, to allow him and shipton to try again. they only just survived a massive avalanche on the steep slope up to the col. shipton later wrote "it was a ridiculous thing to do, but we were rather desperate." so, the attempt on the summit failed without their oxygen equipment having been able to be tested at altitude.