The Ghosts of Everest

One of my favorite books on my bookshelf is The Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine. It is definitely a must-have for anyone who has a respect for the mountains and the brave, pioneering souls who climb and explore them.

I have always loved the mountains having grown up literally in the shadows of the San Gabriel mountain range on the north end of the Los Angeles Basin. Though the range is relatively unknown it has a rich and intriguing history for locals. John Brown, one of America's greatest unsung heroes, is buried there. John Muir wrote in his journals of the difficulty in navigating it's steep canyons. It was once the destination of the rich and famous who were ferried to the peaks by railroad where they cavorted at an exclusive resort. All over the peaks stand remnants of railroads, cobblestone foundations, and abandoned missile silos, acting as ghosts of what once was. A great part of my fascination with the mountains has always been the mysteries that exist there.

As I became older I started reading about mountaineers like Reinhold Messner and Royal Robbins. For a time I even entertained the idea of following in their footsteps. Unfortunately that never panned out but I did become an enthusiastic hiker, a novice climber, and a lover of mountain literature. The first book that really captured me was Annapurna, by french climber Maurice Herzog. It is the story of the first successful ascent of an 8000 meter peak. Among many things it was an education and history of Nepal and its way of life and how climbing used to be before modern technology began to exert it's influence on the discipline. It was the romance of human and beast powered transport across parts of a world unseen. It's the type of travel that allows a traveler to absorb a people and their culture firsthand and unfiltered and to experience the land as nature meant it to be, with respect. It was a story who's drama and intrigue hinged on a glorious ascent and a death defying descent that resulted in the loss of many body parts.

Mt. Everest has always loomed as The Mountain of all Mountains. It was one of the last great mysteries on earth. It wasn't until 1953 that it was successfully climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay. The story of Hillary and Norgay is gripping and fascinating but sometimes the stories of valiant failures can be more compelling than the stories of valiant success. I find the story of George Mallory's attempt to climb Everest to be such the case.

Mallory climbed for the glory of the British Empire, or so it is believed. It was part of the English mindset of the time to prove themselves superior to all other people on the globe. They established their superior presence on every continent. As a person of color, I can't say that I support what they did in Central Asia, South Africa, and the Americas, but I do have respect for individuals like Mallory, who were driven not by notions of British supremacy, but by the notion of the limits of human capability. When asked why climb Mt. Everest, it is Mallory who is quoted with the famous saying, "Because it's there."

Mallory's ill fated attempt was made in 1924 when the most advanced piece of equipment was the oxygen bottle. Initially he disdained the use of oxygen as he was a purist but he conceded to it after watching others use it to surpass the 8000 meter mark in the Himalayas. Other than oxygen, all Mallory had at his disposal was wool clothing, leather boots, ice axe, a wind up watch, pocket knife, sewing kit, pencil and paper, and a camera. Probably what aided him best was his courage, superior climbing technique, and the heart of a lion. Those who climbed with Mallory always mention his unique technique which was powerful and fluid, almost serpentine. He made climbing look effortless even when climbing the most difficult and technical routes.

It is still a dangerous and daring undertaking to climb Everest but today's climbers are aided by computers, satellites, radios, video cameras, topography maps, fixed ropes, pre established base camps, helicopters, high tech clothing, medical support, paid guides, and armies of Sherpas in support . Hundreds of people a year climb Everest, at times there are literally traffic jams to the summit, but even with all the support and equipment people still die up there every year. Back in the time of Mallory, if you were on Everest it was just you, your climbing partners, and handful of Sherpas in support. It was a lonely undertaking on the loneliest place on earth.

Mallory made his ascent just shy of his 38th birthday with a group of about eight British climbers led by Edward Norton. It was the third attempt by the British to climb Everest and Mallory had been on them all. This was to be his last try at conquering Chomolungma, the Great Goddess Mother, as Mt. Everest was called by the locals. Six camps were established with last being at 27,000ft. At the time it was the highest anyone had ever been. Before Mallory made his attempt there was a failed attempt by Norton and Theodore Somervell. They made it past 28,000 ft, without oxygen or ropes, just below the famous Second Step, but due to their deteriorating condition could go no further. To go further in their minds was to invite certain death. Labored breathing, and damaged throat linings, along with loose rocks on the Great Couloir convinced them to retreat. They were approximately 900 ft. from the summit and barely made it back to Camp VI alive. Somervell nearly choked to death on the desiccated mucous membrane of his throat.

Despite the failure of Somerveld and Norton, Mallory decided to make one last attempt at the summit. He chose Andrew Irvine to be his partner because of his technical expertise with oxygen tanks. Noel Odell would go up with them in support. On June 6, 1924, Mallory and Irvine set off with their oxygen tanks to reach the top of Mt. Everest. Odell would be the last human being to see Mallory and Irvine alive. He last saw them as they were climbing past the Third Step, about 600 ft. from the summit. When they did not return Odell searched in vain but was unable to get to the place where he last saw them.

For decades the climbing community debated on whether or not Mallory made it to the summit. Given where he was seen by Odell it certainly was possible. Nobody had a clue what happened to Mallory and Irvine until 1933 when an ice axe was found by Percy Wyn-Harris as part of a British expedition. The axe was found on the Northeast Ridge at about 27,760 feet. It had to belong to Mallory or Irvine because nobody else had been up that high on the mountain since their ill-fated summit attempt. The three notches on the axe's handle indicated it belonged to Irvine. The finding of the axe only fueled speculation, it was not proof that Mallory had reached the summit. It would be 42 years until the next evidence of Mallory and Irvine was found. In 1975, Chinese climber Wang Hongboa found a body that he described only as an "Englishman". He described the body to a Japanese climber as having the cheeks pockmarked from being pecked by birds. Hongboa died in an avalanche the day after finding the body so he was never properly interviewed, but it was enough to revive the interest in the fate of Mallory and Irvine.

In 1999, 75 years after their disappearance, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition team set out to find Mallory, Irvine, and the 1975 Chinese camp. They calculated a small search area based on the Norton's ascent, the location of the ice axe, and Odell's last sighting of the pair. The team of climbers discovered a half dozen bodies in the search area. It was like a graveyard of climbers. The dead climber's bodies were twisted and mangled which indicated they had died from long falls. Judging by their clothing, they were also climbers from recent times, wearing plastic boots and Gore-Tex. After discovering the dead bodies, one of the climbers, Andy Politz, on instinct, decided to head further down the slope. You have to understand, any deviation on the planned search area was a great undertaking due to the conditions they were working under. After climbing down a few hundred feet Politz saw a patch of white that was whiter than the snow and rocks around it. The patch of white was a body, a body that had been there for a long time. Dave Hahn, the first climber to reach Politz described what he saw.

"There was absolutely no question in my mind that we were looking at a man who had been clinging to the mountain for seventy-five years. The clothing was blasted from most of his body, and his skin was bleach white. I felt like I was viewing a Greek or Roman marble statue."

The hobnail boots told them the body had to be Irvine. No Westerners had been allowed in Tibet between 1949 and 1979 and this type of boot had been out of style since well before WWII. Nobody had died at this altitude between 1924-1938. At first they thought it was Irvine. On inspection of the clothing they found a laundry tag with the name "Mallory" on it. This wasn't the body that had been found by the Chinese, this was the body of George Mallory. They had been searching for Irvine and they found Mallory instead. They figured if one of them had fallen it would be the less experienced Irvine not Mallory. The photographs of the body are some of the most amazing I have ever seen. The body is completely preserved, the muscle tone still very visible. The body is clinging to the mountain, like Atlas holding up the world itself. Wrapped in tattered rope, fur lined cap, and almost completely disintegrated wool clothing, one almost expects the body to extract itself from the mountain and start climbing again. The skin truly looks like smooth marble, like a statue. The boots are off so the bare feet are exposed. One leg is broken. It was impossible to free the body as it was solidified to the mountain in rock and ice. The expedition team chipped away just enough to find several artifacts on Mallory's body. They found several handkerchiefs, perfectly preserved hand written letters, a tube of petroleum jelly, nail scissors, a matchbox, a tin of meat lozenges, a pair of sun goggles, a pencil, a pen knife, and an altimeter. They were unable to locate the one item they wanted to find most and that was the Kodak collapsible camera that Somerveld gave to Mallory for the summit ascent. If found it was believed the film would still be in good enough condition to be developed, and would solve once and for all the mystery of whether Mallory and Irvine were truly the first humans to ever reach the top of the Mt. Everest, at 29, 029 feet, the highest place on the planet.

We live in a world today where the derring do of men like George Mallory is rare. Nobody in their right mind would attempt to climb Mt. Everest today using only the clothing and technology that was available to Mallory in 1924. I wonder at times what price we have paid in terms of the loss of the human spirit for our love and reliance upon modern technology. We love our automobiles but most of the world was discovered by humans on foot or using wind powered ships and boats. The pyramids in Egypt have stood for thousands of years yet the World Trade Center towers were brought down in an hour's time. The empires of Persia, Alexander, and Rome crossed mountains, deserts, and continents without the use of machines or vehicles. We marvel at our GPS devices and i-Phones but how good are they once the batteries run out? How long would our infrastructure last without fuel and electricity? The machines can't live without us and we can't live without the machines (or so we think). Have we gone too far? Are we too dependent on technology? Sometimes I think our fascination and dependence on technology is only hastening our existence on the planet. Sometime I think to myself, "What's the hurry?" A traffic jam is a fitting metaphor for our times. Wrapped up in our cars with satellite radio, leather seats, and heating and air conditioning, we are stuck on a highway going nowhere fast. We can always choose to just get out of the car and be free but rarely do we. We have bought into the system that says we do this or that because we "have to". I tend to believe life is more about what Mallory said. I do life because, "It's there."