George Herbert Leigh Mallory remains, after all these years, a cult figure in the realm of mountaineering and perhaps, to anyone from England with a keen sense of history, a hero. It is 9 years since the discovery of his body on the North face of Mount Everest. Mallory accompanied by 22 year-old Andrew Irvine, whom he later described as someone who 'could be relied upon for anything except conversation', was on his 3rd mission to summit the so called "third pole". Peary in 1909 and Amundsen in 1911 had journeyed to the ends of the earth and Mount Everest was being dubbed the 'third pole'(It wasn't until 1960, with Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard's descent into the depths of the Mariana Trench, that rendezvous at the 'four poles' would be attained). Mallory, along with Irvine were last observed at a mere 100 m from the summit. They never returned to their base camp and were presumed dead. In England, there was a wave of sentiment for the duo, Mallory in particular, and both were mourned as national heroes.
For an aspiring mountaineer, an aborted attempt of Mont Vélan in the Pennine Alps in 1904 due to altitude sickness wasn't the most promising start. By 1913 though, he had climbed Mont Blanc and Pillar Rock in the English Lake District, charting what is now 'Mallory's Route'. In 1921, he participated in the British Reconnaissance Expedition, which produced the first accurate maps of the region surrounding the Everest. Having been the first person to set foot on Mount Everest, he returned in 1922, this time with an eye on the summit. Eschewing the use of bottled oxygen on ethical grounds, (the accompanying Sherpas used to laugh at the quaint equipment which produced 'English Air' as they called it) the party achieved a record height of 26,985 ft before being forced to return by bad weather and the late hour of the day.
Mallory was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering during his college days. The halcyon years may have been before the onset of the War but this was a man with a keen sense of adventure and a relish for challenge. This is evident from his response when quizzed about the daunting prospect of the 1921 Reconnaissance Expedition - "to refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell". In hindsight though, it must be said that those who set off on the expedition had no idea of what they were up against. If the towering might of the Everest against them did not suffice, they were up against it in terms of technological deficiency, lack of accurate information and know-how. Technological deficiency was compounded by issues plaguing the poor equipment used for oxygen cylinders back then. No all-encompassing maps of the Everest area existed but above all the 'enemy was within' as the British were wont to say. The biggest challenge, made even bigger by lack of comprehension on the part of the men, lay in the minds and the bodies of those who embarked on that adventure.
Placed in this context, their achievements beggar credulousness. They nearly made it to the top of the subsequently famed North East Ridge and at the forefront of his team's achievement stood Mallory, despite his not being their leader. The following year, another party made it a little further albeit using bottled oxygen for climbing and sleeping. The speed at which they did it might have forced Mallory to reluctantly accept that the 'English Air' was to be courted as a necessity. Towards the end of the monsoon, Mallory rallied his men once again and made another attempt. This, much to the horror of Mallory, ended in disaster. An avalanche struck killing seven Sherpas. Mallory returned home chastised for the outcome of the expedition.
The fact that Mallory was disheartened at the inhospitable conditions that had greeted them during their own climb cannot be doubted. As to whether his refusal to use bottled oxygen may have deprived the group of the base upon which they could fall back and in turn provide the impetus for further ascent, it is uncertain. With such thoughts playing upon a man upon whom the hopes of a nation rested, the avalanche must have come as a dreadful blow. He had come to feel a paternal responsibility to the Sherpas noting that they were - "ignorant of mountain dangers, like children in our care". The subsequent reprobation provided no relief either. The picture of a man nearly resigned to the fact that for him, the Everest was not meant to be, was beginning to emerge. It is a resignation Mallory accepted with dignity and went back to being teacher and handling domestic affairs.
In 1924, an offer was made to Mallory to head another expedition to Mount Everest. The inevitability of mental turmoil ensued and Mallory had to balance a Cambridge job and settled life with the prospect of glory on the Everest. Frequent traveling on account of his Everest expeditions and related lectures had ceased and the idea of reviving them did not excite him all that much. As he vacillated, one clear thought surfaced - "I have to look at it from the point of view of loyalty to the expedition," he wrote to his father, "and of carrying through a task begun". He thought it would be grim to watch others make the ascent without him. Yet, a sense of foreboding persisted. He is said to have told friends that 'this time was more like war than adventure' and that he doubted his return. Anyhow, a combination of sense of duty and purpose, a tinge of guilt and to some degree, the enticement that mountains pose for humans rendered him once more the willing adventurer. 38 at that time, this, he knew, was to be his one last chance for conquering Everest.
Despite the premonitions, the road to Tibet once again saw him in good spirits. "I feel strong for the battle," he wrote to Ruth from Base Camp, "but I know every ounce of strength will be wanted". As they prepared to summit, Mallory abandoned the skepticism with which he regarded the use of bottled oxygen feeling until then that its use was unsporting. It is in this regard, that Irvine, with his matchless skill in taking apart and re-assembling the cylinders, was so crucial to the expedition. Deciding on an all-out assault, Mallory, Irvine and the rest trudged their way up the mountain and on the way (on the 6th of June) passed Howard Somervell, a polymath and a close associate of Mallory's, who lent the group lacking a camera, his own. Among the many unique traits that characterized Mallory, forgetfulness held its niche. None who saw the episode were remotely surprised for such was his forgetful nature.
From this juncture, accounts cease to be first-person in nature and we have to be content with the observations and attempts of a geologist, Noel Odell who was following closely on their heels. He saw two black figures - no more than dots - approach and climb a rock step, called the Second Step, on the mountain's skyline, "nearing the base of the summit pyramid." To Odell, they seemed to be going strong and, although lower than he expected, he felt sure they should make it to the summit. Then clouds swirled in once more and Odell's tantalizing vision was lost forever. Shortly afterwards a sudden snow squall plastered the upper slopes with a thin layer of new snow.
Upon arriving at the high camp, Odell noticed hardware from the oxygen apparatus strewn inside Mallory and Irvine's tent. It appeared that Irvine must have been hard at work, making final adjustments to their oxygen canisters before their departure for the summit. Could this have resulted in their leaving too late for their summit bid? Odell retreated but kept watch all night for signs of life above him. There were none, and when two days later Odell began the long climb back up to Mallory and Irvine's last camp, it was with no great hope of finding his comrades. No one had been back to the tent. The expedition had to accept that Mallory and Irvine were lost.
All of Mallory's forebodings had come true and the brave expedition had been cut just short of bearing fruit. It is now assumed that they died on the 8th of June. Amidst the national mourning that followed, doubting voices sprung up from the multitude, unsure as to what place the mission deserved in the annals of history. Would Mallory' exploits be remembered for all time to come or would he be relegated to the pages of history under those who tried but couldn't quite make it ? The decision, difficult as it seems, was made even more so by certain conflicting observations and clues.
For an aspiring mountaineer, an aborted attempt of Mont Vélan in the Pennine Alps in 1904 due to altitude sickness wasn't the most promising start. By 1913 though, he had climbed Mont Blanc and Pillar Rock in the English Lake District, charting what is now 'Mallory's Route'. In 1921, he participated in the British Reconnaissance Expedition, which produced the first accurate maps of the region surrounding the Everest. Having been the first person to set foot on Mount Everest, he returned in 1922, this time with an eye on the summit. Eschewing the use of bottled oxygen on ethical grounds, (the accompanying Sherpas used to laugh at the quaint equipment which produced 'English Air' as they called it) the party achieved a record height of 26,985 ft before being forced to return by bad weather and the late hour of the day.
Mallory was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering during his college days. The halcyon years may have been before the onset of the War but this was a man with a keen sense of adventure and a relish for challenge. This is evident from his response when quizzed about the daunting prospect of the 1921 Reconnaissance Expedition - "to refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell". In hindsight though, it must be said that those who set off on the expedition had no idea of what they were up against. If the towering might of the Everest against them did not suffice, they were up against it in terms of technological deficiency, lack of accurate information and know-how. Technological deficiency was compounded by issues plaguing the poor equipment used for oxygen cylinders back then. No all-encompassing maps of the Everest area existed but above all the 'enemy was within' as the British were wont to say. The biggest challenge, made even bigger by lack of comprehension on the part of the men, lay in the minds and the bodies of those who embarked on that adventure.
Placed in this context, their achievements beggar credulousness. They nearly made it to the top of the subsequently famed North East Ridge and at the forefront of his team's achievement stood Mallory, despite his not being their leader. The following year, another party made it a little further albeit using bottled oxygen for climbing and sleeping. The speed at which they did it might have forced Mallory to reluctantly accept that the 'English Air' was to be courted as a necessity. Towards the end of the monsoon, Mallory rallied his men once again and made another attempt. This, much to the horror of Mallory, ended in disaster. An avalanche struck killing seven Sherpas. Mallory returned home chastised for the outcome of the expedition.
The fact that Mallory was disheartened at the inhospitable conditions that had greeted them during their own climb cannot be doubted. As to whether his refusal to use bottled oxygen may have deprived the group of the base upon which they could fall back and in turn provide the impetus for further ascent, it is uncertain. With such thoughts playing upon a man upon whom the hopes of a nation rested, the avalanche must have come as a dreadful blow. He had come to feel a paternal responsibility to the Sherpas noting that they were - "ignorant of mountain dangers, like children in our care". The subsequent reprobation provided no relief either. The picture of a man nearly resigned to the fact that for him, the Everest was not meant to be, was beginning to emerge. It is a resignation Mallory accepted with dignity and went back to being teacher and handling domestic affairs.
In 1924, an offer was made to Mallory to head another expedition to Mount Everest. The inevitability of mental turmoil ensued and Mallory had to balance a Cambridge job and settled life with the prospect of glory on the Everest. Frequent traveling on account of his Everest expeditions and related lectures had ceased and the idea of reviving them did not excite him all that much. As he vacillated, one clear thought surfaced - "I have to look at it from the point of view of loyalty to the expedition," he wrote to his father, "and of carrying through a task begun". He thought it would be grim to watch others make the ascent without him. Yet, a sense of foreboding persisted. He is said to have told friends that 'this time was more like war than adventure' and that he doubted his return. Anyhow, a combination of sense of duty and purpose, a tinge of guilt and to some degree, the enticement that mountains pose for humans rendered him once more the willing adventurer. 38 at that time, this, he knew, was to be his one last chance for conquering Everest.
Despite the premonitions, the road to Tibet once again saw him in good spirits. "I feel strong for the battle," he wrote to Ruth from Base Camp, "but I know every ounce of strength will be wanted". As they prepared to summit, Mallory abandoned the skepticism with which he regarded the use of bottled oxygen feeling until then that its use was unsporting. It is in this regard, that Irvine, with his matchless skill in taking apart and re-assembling the cylinders, was so crucial to the expedition. Deciding on an all-out assault, Mallory, Irvine and the rest trudged their way up the mountain and on the way (on the 6th of June) passed Howard Somervell, a polymath and a close associate of Mallory's, who lent the group lacking a camera, his own. Among the many unique traits that characterized Mallory, forgetfulness held its niche. None who saw the episode were remotely surprised for such was his forgetful nature.
From this juncture, accounts cease to be first-person in nature and we have to be content with the observations and attempts of a geologist, Noel Odell who was following closely on their heels. He saw two black figures - no more than dots - approach and climb a rock step, called the Second Step, on the mountain's skyline, "nearing the base of the summit pyramid." To Odell, they seemed to be going strong and, although lower than he expected, he felt sure they should make it to the summit. Then clouds swirled in once more and Odell's tantalizing vision was lost forever. Shortly afterwards a sudden snow squall plastered the upper slopes with a thin layer of new snow.
Upon arriving at the high camp, Odell noticed hardware from the oxygen apparatus strewn inside Mallory and Irvine's tent. It appeared that Irvine must have been hard at work, making final adjustments to their oxygen canisters before their departure for the summit. Could this have resulted in their leaving too late for their summit bid? Odell retreated but kept watch all night for signs of life above him. There were none, and when two days later Odell began the long climb back up to Mallory and Irvine's last camp, it was with no great hope of finding his comrades. No one had been back to the tent. The expedition had to accept that Mallory and Irvine were lost.
All of Mallory's forebodings had come true and the brave expedition had been cut just short of bearing fruit. It is now assumed that they died on the 8th of June. Amidst the national mourning that followed, doubting voices sprung up from the multitude, unsure as to what place the mission deserved in the annals of history. Would Mallory' exploits be remembered for all time to come or would he be relegated to the pages of history under those who tried but couldn't quite make it ? The decision, difficult as it seems, was made even more so by certain conflicting observations and clues.
From the rope-jerk injury around his waist, it appears that the two had been tied together when Mallory fell. His body, discovered by the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition in 1999, was well-preserved due to the climate prevalent on the mountain and was relatively unbroken compared to other bodies found on the Everest. Two tantalizing details that have perplexed observers worldwide are the absence of the photograph of Mallory's wife on his person despite the excellent condition the body was found in. Mallory had planned to deposit it at the summit and its absence is a pointer to the fact that he may have done so. Yet none of the subsequent expeditions that have made it to the summit have found evidence supporting the same.
The other issue is regarding the use of oxygen. It is uncertain as to whether Mallory and Irvine had with them, two or three canisters. With two, it is presumed that the ascent might have seen them run out of gas just about at the summit. It is also presumable that Mallory may have asked Irvine to wait while he ascended with an one cannister. If they had three, then the logistics of the ascent become more surmountable, for that would have given them the luxury of a third canister. It is also accepted that Mallory did not even consider ascending with only cylinder for the two of them, so the choice was between two or three. This issue plays upon the mind of anyone who tries to reconstruct the happenings after the 'Second Step' for it is crucial in determining their motives.
Although there were doubts expressed about Mallory's ability to negotiate the difficulty levels presented by the Everest in the immediate aftermath of the expedition, they have been quelled by fellow mountaineers who had witnessed his climbing skills at close quarters. Harry Tyndale, one of his climbing partners, said of Mallory: "In watching George at work one was conscious not so much of physical strength as of suppleness and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious was his progress in any steep place ... that his movements appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness". Geoffrey Young, an accomplished alpine climber of his era paid perhaps the supreme compliment to Mallory when he noted - "His movement in climbing was entirely his own. It contradicted all theory. 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". Such flattering accounts have meant that very few in the mountaineering circles venture an opinion today that amounts to challenging that Mallory was not up to the arduous task that lay before him.
All this has led to the expedition acquiring an air of mystery and like all persisting mysteries, it has left us grappling for answers and in their quest, provided us with fascinating insights into the affairs of men who stomach harboured guilt and shoulder the expectations of a nation or community. Customary of the post-modern psyche that turns to conspiracy theories and alternative suggestions at the slightest anomaly, theories ranging from their attaining the summit to the possibility of a tiff between Mallory and Irvine have been propounded. Similarly, opinion has varied as to whether they really did summit and even if they did, does it make them the first conquerors of the Everest. Mallory's son himself believed that a successful ascent entailed a return to the base camp. So did Sir Edmund Hillary who felt that the sport of mountaineering called for successful return as a yardstick for overall success.
Non-plussed with the conundrums weaved by the affair and the subsequent years, our minds inevitably turn to the man at the limelight. We may not make much of the mission but what place it deserves in the annals of mountaineering is certain, irrespective of the outcome. For its time, theirs was a feat of immense daring, resource and a mixture of calculation with action that makes mountaineering avoid the pitfalls of other sports and activities that require daring combined not with calculation and planning but instinct, of which we know very little. What of Mallory then ? Is his place assured among the exalted of his discipline ?
Even if not for his ascent of Everest his place in history is assured for his now exceedingly famous reply when asked by a reporter as to his fascination for the Everest and why he insisted on climbing it. One can imagine Mallory, as indeed all men who've had to explain their likes and longings to an uncomprehending majority, flummoxed, finding no logical answer in his own mind saying 'because it is there'. They are justly called the four most famous words in mountaineering and are certainly what drew me to reading up more on the man. Mountaineering is a discipline that finds its men racking for convincing answers when asked about their fascination for the dangerous sport. When some can find no all-answering logical explanation for the attachment, they probably turn to Mallory's answer. At once conveying a solidity of fact and implying an ambiguity of purpose, it serves them and by extension, serves them all that cannot quite lay a finger on the origins of attachment.
If it isn't that then his popularity as a household name synonymous with mountaineering during the years that followed his death needs to be considered. Not for nothing was Maclean's hero in the Navarone novels called Mallory. As to his other legacy, whether or not he made it to the top of the world, it boils down to what one believes. If one believes that Mallory failed, it is probably the only logically acceptable conclusion given the facts or the lack of them, rather. If one believes he made it to the summit (with or without Irvine), one is only believing in the potential of a person whose mind has been set to the task at hand. In the final analysis, it made be one of those cases where what we think of a man or issue reveals little about that being reflected upon but tells us a lot about ourselves.
Non-plussed with the conundrums weaved by the affair and the subsequent years, our minds inevitably turn to the man at the limelight. We may not make much of the mission but what place it deserves in the annals of mountaineering is certain, irrespective of the outcome. For its time, theirs was a feat of immense daring, resource and a mixture of calculation with action that makes mountaineering avoid the pitfalls of other sports and activities that require daring combined not with calculation and planning but instinct, of which we know very little. What of Mallory then ? Is his place assured among the exalted of his discipline ?
Even if not for his ascent of Everest his place in history is assured for his now exceedingly famous reply when asked by a reporter as to his fascination for the Everest and why he insisted on climbing it. One can imagine Mallory, as indeed all men who've had to explain their likes and longings to an uncomprehending majority, flummoxed, finding no logical answer in his own mind saying 'because it is there'. They are justly called the four most famous words in mountaineering and are certainly what drew me to reading up more on the man. Mountaineering is a discipline that finds its men racking for convincing answers when asked about their fascination for the dangerous sport. When some can find no all-answering logical explanation for the attachment, they probably turn to Mallory's answer. At once conveying a solidity of fact and implying an ambiguity of purpose, it serves them and by extension, serves them all that cannot quite lay a finger on the origins of attachment.
If it isn't that then his popularity as a household name synonymous with mountaineering during the years that followed his death needs to be considered. Not for nothing was Maclean's hero in the Navarone novels called Mallory. As to his other legacy, whether or not he made it to the top of the world, it boils down to what one believes. If one believes that Mallory failed, it is probably the only logically acceptable conclusion given the facts or the lack of them, rather. If one believes he made it to the summit (with or without Irvine), one is only believing in the potential of a person whose mind has been set to the task at hand. In the final analysis, it made be one of those cases where what we think of a man or issue reveals little about that being reflected upon but tells us a lot about ourselves.
