“Gradually,
very gradually, we saw the great mountain...far higher in the sky
than imagination had dared to suggest, the white summit of Everest
appeared......a prodigious white fang excrescent from the jaw of the
world.”
George
Mallory - 1921
I remain mesmerized by the eyes of George
Herbert Leigh Mallory, a century after his mysterious death. Writer
Lytton Strachey described him as having “the mystery of
Botticeilli, the refinement and delicacy of a Chinese print.”
Mallory was aware of his beauty and had no inhibition at displaying
his naked 6 foot tall, muscular frame for the camera. But he was not
a statue, but a living man, possessing “...vivacity and a love of
adventure...”. He was also known as impetuous, “charismatic
and endearingly absent-minded.” Being the greatest climber of his
age, it was inevitable that George Mallory should face the greatest
mountain..
“The
highest of the world's great mountains, it seems, has to make but a
single gesture of magnificence to be lord of all, vast in
unchallenged and isolated supremacy...other mountains are visible...
giants between 23,000 and 26,000 feet high...beside Everest they
escape notice.”
George
Mallory - 1922
Sixty
million years ago the 1 ½ million square miles of the Indian
subcontinent began to plow into the
16
million square miles of Asia at 6 inches a year. This massive slow
motion collision shoved the one million square miles of the Tibetan
Plateau 14,00 feet into the air, and crumpled the land between into
the 1,500 mile long 200 mile wide Himalayan mountains (above). In this
crumple zone stand nine of the world's ten tallest peaks, including
the highest, over five miles above sea level: Mount Everest..
“My
mind is in a state of constant rebellion. I believe that will always
be so.”
George
Mallory
After
service in World War One, George Mallory returned to his passionate
loves, his wife, Ruth and their two daughters. But his teaching
career was not his passion. As Robert Graves noted, “He was
wasted..” In 1921 the lure of the distant Himalayans called to
George, and he joined the first expedition to explore the approaches
to Everest. But these were different mountains than Mallory had known
in Europe.
“In
watching George at work one was conscious not so much of physical
strength as of suppleness and balance.”
Climber Harry
Tyndale
George
learned his art in the Alps, climbing the highest peak in Europe,
Mount Blanc, (White Mountain) at 15, 771 feet (above). It had first been
“peaked” in 1788, by local hunter Jacques Balmat escorting
physician Michel-Gabrial Paccard, who had been trying for five years
to take a barometer reading on the summit. It was “an amazing feat
of endurance and sustained courage, carried through by these two
men...unroped and without ice axes.” Having accomplished his goal,
Dr. Paccard never again challenged the mountains so boldly. The
egotist Balmat never stopped. He died at the age of 72, falling off a cliff, while
searching for gold.
“Have
we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success?
That word means nothing here. Have we won a kingdom? No. . . and
yes.”
George
Mallory
Justifiably
suspicious of their intentions, the tiny mountainous nation of Nepal
refused permission for the British surveyors to cross their
border. So the British were forced to measure the Himalayans from 100
miles away, making adjustments for haze, temperature and curvature
of the earth. Only in 1852, after thousands of field observations
had been compiled and compared in deary offices, did Indian
mathematician Radhanath Sikdar, realize the distant blur labeled Peak
XV was at 29,000 feet, the tallest mountain in the world. So
astonished was Andrew Waugh, British Surveyor General of India, he
insisted on more observations. Having confirmed Sikdar's work, Waugh
decided to name the mountain after his predecessor, George Everest,
giving its height as 29,002 feet, to make clear the measurement was an
estimate. Thus Andrew Waugh was the first person to put “two feet
on top of Everest.”
“He
would set his foot high against any angle of smooth surface, fold his
shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and upright again on an
impetuous curve. Whatever may have happened unseen the while between
him and the cliff ... the look, and indeed the result, were always
the same – a continuous undulating movement so rapid and so
powerful that one felt the rock must yield, or disintegrate.”
Climber
Geoffrey Winthrop Young
The
1922 British expedition made two attempts at “summitting”
without oxygen, but were forced back each time, reaching only 26, 980
feet. The team physician, Dr. Tom Longstaff, warned the oxygen starved
climbers could no longer trust their own judgement. But George
Mallory was determined to make a third attempt, and on 7 June, 1922,
he lead 4 other Brits and 14 Sherpa porters up the north “col” (a
ridge between two peaks) above 27,000 feet. In the still clear air
George was breaking a path through the previous night's fresh snow,
when he saw a snow slope above him give way.
”He
was so rhythmical and harmonious...in any steep place ... that his
movements appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness.”
Writer
and Climber Robert Graves
The
avalanche engulfed the first tethered group - Mallory, Colin
Crawford and Howard Somervell – but they managed to keep their
feet. Behind them nine Sherpa porters were swept 40 feet down the
slope and into a 60 foot deep ice crevasse. The Europeans struggled to
save two of the Sherpas, but six were found dead, and the seventh was
lost forever. Longstaff blamed George's impetuousness for the
tragedy, and George agreed. He wrote to Ruth, 'The consequences of my
mistake are so incredible. It seems impossible to believe it has
happened for ever and that I can do nothing to make good. There is
no obligation that I have wanted so much to honor as that of taking
care of those men.” The expedition arraigned to pay the family of
each Sherpa $13 , in quarterly instalments.
“This
forms the nub of a dilemma that every Everest climber eventually
comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven,
but if you're too driven you're likely to die.”
Author and
Climber Jon Krakauer
Decades
later Canadian Wade Davis wondered who were these first humans to
die on Everest. “Sherpas, “ he wrote, “were not born to climb.
In their language there is not even a word for mountain summit. They
were farmers, descendants of ethnic Tibetans who had settled...on the
southern approaches to Everest, in the 15th century. As Buddhists,
the idea of risking one’s life, this vital incarnation, in order to
crawl over ice and rock into nothingness was for them the epitome of
ignorance and delusion.” The Sherpas were climbing, and are still
climbing Everest, to provide for their families - nothing more and
nothing less.
“There
are men for whom the unattainable has a special
attraction....Determination and faith are their strongest weapons. At
best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad.”
Author
Walt Unsworth
It
proved impossible to raise money for another attempt in 1923, in part
because the greatest climber in the world, George Mallory (above), showed
little enthusiasm.
By a year later George had grown aware that at 37,
this would probably be his last chance at the peak. He wrote his
father, “I have to look at it from the point of view of loyalty to
the expedition, and of carrying through a task begun.” . He added,
"To refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a
pea in its shell.”
And so in early 1924, “With faith and
hubris, woefully under-equipped for a battle at high altitude, armed
with little more than a length of rope, a straight-picked ax and
hobnailed boots,” George Mallory left his wife, his young son John
and his two daughters, and headed back to Tibet.
“People
ask me, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer
must at once be, 'It is of no use.' There is not the slightest
prospect of any gain whatsoever... What we get from this adventure is
just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life.”
George
Mallory
George
wrote to Ruth from Base camp, “It is almost unthinkable with this
plan that I shant get to the top...I feel strong for the battle, but
I know every ounce of strength will be wanted.” But the first
attempt by Mallory and Geoffrey Bruce failed, and while a second
managed to get above 28,000 feet, it too was also forced to turn
back. Most of the climbers were ill. The Sherpas were exhausted.
There was strength and determination for just one more try.
And, of
course, George would be in the lead, with 22 year old geologist,
Andrew "Sandy" Irvine (above) on his rope.
“If
you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds
to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the
struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward,
then you won’t see why we go.”
George
Mallory
On
7 June, 1924 Mallory and Irvine set out from Camp 5, carrying several
canisters of oxygen, to establish camp 6, before trying for the
summit the next day. .Irvine carried a camera and Mallory a photo of
Ruth to leave behind, as proof they had summited. Noel Odell snapped
a photo as they set off (above). He and three Sherpas were to follow,
bringing up more oxygen to the 26,000 foot level.
“Everest
has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless
romantics and others with a shaky hold on reality.”
Author Jon
Krakauer
After
a night spent at Camp Six. at the Mushroom Rock, the path to the summit for Mallory and
Irvine was a 2, 000 foot vertical climb (above). First there was a steep hike
over crumbly yellow limestone slabs on "The Yellow Band". Then there was a 100 foot high
vertical wall of harder rock – the First Step. This was followed by
a gently sloping ridge, ending in another 100 foot high wall – the
Second Step. This led to an easy slope and an easy Third Step, the pyramid and
then a walk to the summit itself. Both men had made far more
difficult climbs before. But this one was at 28,000 feet above sea
level, in the “death zone”.
“One
comes to bless the absolute bareness, feeling that here is a pure
beauty of form, a kind of ultimate harmony.”
George
Mallory – Letter to Ruth
Just
before one in the afternoon of 9 June, before setting out from Camp 5
, Noel Odell would see “...a sudden clearing of the atmosphere,
and the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled.
My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted on a small
snow-crest beneath a rock-step in the ridge (the Second Step) ; the
black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the
snow to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the
great rock-step and shortly emerged at the top; the second did
likewise. Then the whole fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in
cloud once more. There was but one explanation. It was Mallory and
his companion...”
At that moment Mallory and Irvine were within
800 vertical feet of the summit of the world.
"After
nearly twenty years' knowledge of Mallory as a mountaineer, I can say
that difficult as it would have been for any mountaineer to turn
back... to Mallory it would have been an impossibility."
Climber
Geoffrey Winthrop Young
Certain
Mallory was going to succeed, Odell and the Sherpas set out with the
additional oxygen, expecting to celebrate with Mallory and Irvine at
Camp 6. After several ardours hours Odell and the Sherpas made it, but
found the single tent empty. When a snow squall blew up, Odell
ventured 200 feet higher, calling and whistling, trying to lead the
summit team back to safety. There was no answer. There never would
be. In a few hours Odell and the Sherpas were forced to return to
Camp 6, and the next day all the way down to Camp 4. Neither Andrew
Irvine nor George Mallory were ever seen alive again.
"Anyone
who had climbed with George is convinced that he got to the summit."
Robert
Graves
At
7:30 on the evening of 19 June, 1924 a telegram arrived at Mallory's
home in Cambridge. The next morning Ruth (above) invited all three children
into her bed, and only then told them together their father had died.
They all cried together. No one in that house ever asked the question
if Mallory or Irvine had made it to the summit or not. But with
time, and with failure after failure to summit Everest, the question
would be asked: Had they made it?
“It
is obvious to any climber that they got up....”
Climber
Dr. Tom Longstaff
Everest
was not challenged again until 1933, when three attempts at the
summit were made: all failed. However an empty oxygen tank was found
at 27,760 feet, just 200 yards below the First Step, and a
distinctive ice axe, known to have belonged to Andrew Irvine, was
found nearby. After the Second World War another post war generation
was drawn to challenge the mountain. And in 1949, Nepal opened its
borders for one expedition each year. Now the far easier southern
route to the summit could be attempted.
In May of 1953 New Zealander
Edmund Hillery and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (above) reached the summit of Mt
Everest, “together, as a team.”
“Mon
dieu!—George Mallory!”
Writer
Lytton Strachey
The
mystery of George Mallory endured for 72 years, until 1 May 1998,
when an expedition found George Herbert Leigh Mallory's mummified
corpse frozen into the 30 degree broken rock slope, 1,000 feet below
where Irvine's ax had been found 60 years earlier. From his injuries
it seemed George had fallen while roped to Irvine. In the plunge
Mallory broke both bones in his right leg. The rope connecting him to
Andrew Irvine had bruised his waist before snapping under the strain.
Mallory's powerful arms were raised above his head, his fingers and
ice ax scraping across the broken slope to slow his fall. Then the ax
caught on a stone for a moment, before recoiling back, driving the
spiked tail into his forehead. His descent slowed and stopped. “Pain
and hypothermia rapidly take over. Within minutes, Mallory is dead.”
Irving must have died shortly there after, and still lies
undiscovered, frozen into the mountain. But we still do not know if
Mallory got to the top.
“Now,
they will never grow old and I am very sure they would not change
places with any of us.”
Climber
Dr. Tom Longstaff
Everest
has become a character of the mountain George Mallory was drawn to
challenge. It is now littered with discarded oxygen tanks, abandoned
tents, medical waste, trash bags, bags of human poop, the residue of
4,000 climbers, over 700 of whom summit and the bodies of dead on
the upper slopes, left where they fell. Until 1987 climbers on
Everest had a 37% death rate. But improvements in clothing and
equipment, and preparation work on the trails by Sherpas have dropped
that death rate to less than 1% in 2012. Over half of all climbers
now summit, so that even the rich but untrained can be “guided”
to the top of the world. .
“To
me, the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive. The job
is only half done if you don't get down again”.
John
Mallory – George Mallory's son
- 30
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