George Mallory
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George Herbert Leigh Mallory (June 18 1886 – June 1924) was a British mountaineer who took part in the first three British Expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. During the third expedition, in 1924, Mallory (and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine) both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during (or perhaps after completing) the first ascent of the world's highest mountain in June of that year. The pair's last known sighting was only a few hundred metres from the summit. Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until 1999 when his body was finally discovered.
| Born: | June 18, 1886 Mobberley, Cheshire, England <tr><th style="text-align: right;">Died:</th><td>June 1924 |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Schoolmaster, Mountaineer
<tr><th style="text-align: right;">Spouse:</th><td>Ruth Thackeray Mallory</td></tr> |
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[edit] Early life
Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, the son of a clergyman. He was the elder brother of Trafford Leigh-Mallory, the Royal Air Force commander. In what is perhaps his most famous moment, having been asked repeatedly by reporters in New York City while on a lecture tour why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, to one he replied testily with the statement, "Because it is there." Although Mallory did say afterward that he didn't recall ever saying that, and if he did, it was merely a quip to deal with a "foolish question" from a reporter ignorant of the mountains--nonetheless, the quote is forever associated with both himself and the mountain.
[edit] Education
In 1896, Mallory attended boarding school in Eastbourne after completing preparatory school in West Kirby. At the age of 14, he won a mathematics scholarship to Winchester College. In his senior year at Winchester, he was introduced to rock climbing by a master, R. L. G. Irving, who took a small number of pupils climbing in Wales each year. In October of 1905, Mallory entered Magdalene College, Cambridge to study history. During his time there, he became good friends with John Maynard Keynes and rowed for Cambridge in all three Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race winning crews of 1906, 1907 and, as captain, in 1908. Mallory himself wrote an eloquent account of activities surrounding the 1907 race:
"What great things are now expected of this Jesus method of rowing! The style of the captain, the style of the secretary, the style of stroke, all imaginable styles except that peculiar to Mr Rogers, all are to be blended in an homogeneous, ergocosmic device, the ingenious and possibly ingenuous Quintessence of a Facile, Indefatigable Compendulum. We are to have a Jesus coach. Goldsmith has said: 'God will provide. But alas, how fickle, how selfish the Theocracy'. A fortnight has passed, and still no god to coach us. And so perforce we must go to the Hall, and get some sturdy unintelligent to 'bid him forward, breast and back as either should be', and teach us to shove it along by sweat and swearings, with all the horror of the ancient Swinck Misspent. And yet when he is secured he makes us row not a whit differently from the elegant, divine way, the way we rowed at Henley. He is none of your cursing, blustering, hell-for -leather, body-swing-overdone-at-all-costs, stupendous-recovery fellows at all. He is shy and rosy-checked, modest as any maiden, and makes a considerable effort to be sensible when sober and obscene when drunk."
It was also traditional at this time, to light a bonfire in the College grounds immediately after the Boat Club Supper. However, during the period 1906-8 they got somewhat out of hand. At the 1908 fire for instance, wooden panelling set aside specifically to repair Magdalene College Chapel was 'borrowed' for the Boat bonfire!
[edit] Career and family
He became a teacher at Charterhouse school in Godalming where there is now an expedition group named in his memory. Among his pupils there was Robert Graves who in his autobiography Goodbye to All That fondly remembers how he was introduced to mountaineering by Mallory. On 29 July 1914 he married Ruth Turner, the daughter of Thackeray Turner, a local Arts and Crafts Movement architect in Godalming. As Britain was about to become embroiled in World War I, an Alpine honeymoon was out of the question. Instead they went camping. Locals became suspicious about two young people in the woods and according to tradition the couple were subsequently questioned on suspicion of being German spies.
Mallory served as a gunner of the Royal Garrison Artillery in World War I, seeing action at Armentieres and attaining the rank of Lieutenant before he returned home in 1919 after the Armistice. Before being allowed to join up (schoolmasters were automatically exempt from service) he wrote a pamphlet called "War Work for Boys and Girls".
On 9 September 1915, Mallory's first daughter, Frances Clare, was born. His second daughter, Beridge Ruth, was born on 16 September 1917. His son John was born on 21 August 1920.
[edit] Climbing history
[edit] Climbing in Europe
In 1904 Mallory and a friend attempted to climb Mont Velan in the Alps but turned back shortly before the summit due to altitude sickness. In 1911 Mallory climbed Mont Blanc.
By 1913 he was at the peak of his rock-climbing powers and ascended Pillar Rock in the English Lake District, with no aid or assistance, by what is now known as "Mallory's Route" – currently graded Hard Very Severe 5a (American grading 5.9). It is likely to have been the hardest route in Britain for many years.
[edit] Climbing in Asia
In 1921 he participated in a reconnaissance mission exploring routes up to the North Col of Mount Everest, intended to produce the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain. Although he was accompanied by several senior members of Britain's Alpine Club and by surveyors based in India, the debilitating effect of altitude meant that Mallory, his climbing partner Guy Bullock and E. O. Wheeler of the Survey of India performed most of the exploration of the slopes. Under Mallory's leadership, and with the assistance of around a dozen Sherpas, the group climbed several lower peaks near Everest, including the North Col of Everest (7,066 m or about 23,000 ft) to gain an understanding of the region's topography. His party were almost certainly the first Westerners to view the Western Cwm at the foot of the Lhotse face, as well as charting the course of the Rongbuk Glacier and discovering the previously-unknown East Rongbuk Glacier.
In 1922 Mallory returned to the Himalaya as part of the party led by General C. G. Bruce and climbing leader E. I. Strutt, with a view to making a serious attempt on the summit. Eschewing their bottled oxygen, which had proved too unreliable to justify its weight, Mallory led his climbing team of Somervell and Norton almost to the top of the North-East ridge. Despite being hampered and slowed by the thin air, they had achieved a record altitude of 26,985 ft (8,225 m) before weather conditions and the late hour forced them to retreat. After a second party reached in excess of 27,000 ft (8,229 m) using bottled oxygen, Mallory organised a third attempt on the summit, departing as the monsoon arrived. While he was leading a group of climbers on the lower slopes of the North Col of Everest in fresh, waist-high snow, an avalanche swept over the group, killing seven Sherpas. The attempt was immediately abandoned, and Mallory returned home to face criticism for the outcome of the third expedition.
[edit] The Mt. Everest attempt
[edit] June 1924 expedition up Everest
On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to climb to the top of Mount Everest via the North Col route. Keen-sighted expedition colleague Noel Odell reported seeing them at 12:50 pm ascending one of the major "steps" on the ridge and "going strongly for the top", but no evidence thus far has proved conclusively that they reached the summit. They never returned to high camp and died somewhere high on the mountain.
In 1995, Mallory's grandson, George Mallory II, reached the summit of Everest.
[edit] Lost on Everest for 75 years
After disappearing in June 1924, serveral unsuccessful expeditions attempted to find their remains (and perhaps determine if they had, in fact, reached the summit of Mt. Everest). None of these expeditions proved successful, and Mallory and Irvine's ultimate fate remained unknown for 75 years.
Then, on 1 May 1999 Conrad Anker of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, sponsored in part by Nova and the BBC, arrived at Mt. Everest and commenced searching for the lost pair. Finally, the frozen body of George Mallory was found at 8,155 m (26,760 ft) on the north face of Mt. Everest. However, they could not locate either of the two cameras that Mallory and Irvine had apparently carried with them. Experts from Kodak have stated that if one of the cameras is ever found, there is a good chance that the film could be developed to produce "printable images". This is thanks to the nature of the black and white film that was used and the fact that it has been in continual "deep freeze" for over three-quarters of a century.
[edit] Clues regarding reaching the summit
Two details noted when Mallory's body was discovered are tantalising, although not conclusive in their own right:
- Firstly, Mallory's daughter has always said that Mallory carried a photograph of his wife on his person with the intention of leaving it on the summit. This photo was not found on Mallory's body. Given the excellent preservation of the body and its garments, this points to the possibility that he may have reached the summit and deposited the photo there.
- Secondly, Mallory's snow goggles were found in his pocket, indicating that he died at night. This suggests that he and Irvine had made a push for the summit and were descending very late in the day. Given their known departure time and movements, had they not made the summit, it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall.
[edit] Further expeditions and an unverified sighting
In 2004 another expedition was made to search for the cameras and for other clues that either had reached the summit, but found no new evidence. A third search expedition was made in 2005, which also proved futile.
In 1979 a Chinese climber named Wang Hongbao reported that, in 1975, he had seen the body of an "old English dead" (Englishman) near the summit. Tragically, he was killed in an avalanche a day later, before the location could be precisely fixed. Current information indicates to most analysts that the body he saw would have been Mallory's (see Hemmleb and Simonson, Detectives on Everest).
[edit] Assessments and commentary
[edit] Oxygen supply
From where it is commonly believed they made their summit bid – although the 1924 expedition cameraman John Noel maintained to his death that he knew they had departed from a higher camp than is usually believed – the climb would have taken them around eleven hours. They only had about eight hours of oxygen available, so – although this depends on the flow rate, which could be controlled and was not necessarily used on full flow – the oxygen may have run out before they reached the summit.
[edit] The difficult "Second Step"
Many experienced modern climbers also disagree on whether Mallory was capable of climbing the fierce and infamous "Second Step" on the North Ridge, now surmounted by two aluminium ladders permanently fixed in place by Chinese climbers in order to avoid the problem. However, Mallory is known to have "swarmed up" a very similar obstacle in alpine conditions on the Nesthorn (3,824 m) in the Swiss Alps, and his companions were under no illusions about either his considerable ability or his visionary, idealistic self-motivation. Initially, Noel Odell believed he had seen Mallory ascend the Second Step, but later confessed to doubts as to whether that was the case.
The Second Step was first climbed "free", i.e. by using only the natural hand- and footholds of the rock, by Catalan climber Oscar Cadiach in 1985. He rated the 15-foot crack that forms the crux 5.7-5.8 (5+ UIAA grading). Austrian Theo Fritsche repeated the free climb solo, i.e. without rope protection, in 2001, confirming Cadiach's rating of 5.7–5.8. Fritsche completed the climb without supplementary oxygen (as Cadiach did), wearing only a light down jacket. He now believes that Mallory could have summitted in his clothing on a good day. As for climbing difficulties, Mallory is known to have climbed comfortably at HVS (Hard Very Severe) standard or 5.8–5.9 range in North Wales. Many of his early pioneering rock climbs were undertaken on Y Lliwedd, a near-1,000 ft and often loose cliff face, which is part of the Snowdon massif. Those who have climbed on this face in mountaineering boots, perhaps armed with only basic equipment, will understand the genuine difficulty of a climb of HVS standard when so-equipped – and come to truly appreciate Mallory's boldness and physical ability.
[edit] Assessments by climbing partners
Harry Tyndale, one of Mallory's 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."
His close friend and mentor Geoffrey Winthrop Young, one of the most accomplished alpine climbers of his day, held Mallory's ability in awe:
- "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."
Informed of Odell's belief that Mallory had climbed the Second Step, Winthrop Young was convinced he made the summit. He wrote:
- "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, with the only difficulty past, to Mallory it would have been an impossibility."
[edit] First at the summit of Mt. Everest?
Even if evidence is eventually uncovered proving that George Mallory and/or Andrew Irvine reached the summit of Everest on that fateful day in 1924, a small minority questions the view that historical assertions should be changed to state that they made the first ascent. A few mountaineers maintain that a successful first ascent not only involves reaching the top but also includes returning to the bottom. Indeed, George Mallory's own son John Mallory, who was only three years old when his father died, said:
- "To me the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive. The job is half done if you don't get down again". However, it is known that John Mallory had considerably mixed feelings about his dead father's celebrity status, explaining understandably that he would far rather have had a father than a legend.
[edit] Sir Edmund Hillary's assessment
Sir Edmund Hillary echoed a similar perspective, asking:
- "If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain? I am rather inclined to think personally that maybe it is quite important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the bottom again." However, being the first credited (co-)climber of Everest, Hillary's objectivity might also be called into question on this point.
[edit] Chris Bonington's assessment
In conclusion, Chris Bonington, the widely respected British Himalayan mountaineer, summed up the view of many mountaineers all over the world:
- "If we accept the fact that they were above the Second Step, they would have seemed to be incredibly close to the summit of Everest and I think at that stage something takes hold of most climbers... And I think therefore taking all those circumstances in view... I think it is quite conceivable that they did go for the summit... I certainly would love to think that they actually reached the summit of Everest. I think it is a lovely thought and I think it is something, you know, gut emotion, yes I would love them to have got there. Whether they did or not, I think that is something one just cannot know."
[edit] Trivia
- Mallory has a court named after him at Magdalene College, Cambridge. There is an inscribed stone commemorating his death, set above the doorway to one of the buildings.
- A film is soon to be made of the life and times of George H. Mallory; it is unknown if it will also be inclusive of the part of Andrew Irvine as well as those many others who contributed to the early British Everest Expeditions. The movie is called In High Places and is being produced by Paul Heller (My Left Foot , Enter the Dragon). The debutante director is James McEachen, who is, himself, a climber (for more on this film, see this link Mallory Film).
- The band Gatsby's American Dream has a song called "The Fall of George Mallory", the first song on their freshman album entitled "Why We Fight" (2002).
[edit] See also
- Mountaineer
- Mt. Everest
- Andrew Irvine
- Edmund Hillary
- Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition
- List of people who have disappeared
[edit] Further reading
- Anker, Conrad and Roberts, David: The Lost Explorer - Finding Mallory on Mount Everest. London: Simon & Schuster, 1999
- Holzel, Tom and Salkeld, Audrey: The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine, revised edition. London: Pimlico, 1999.
- Firstbrook, Peter: 'Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine.' BBC Worldwide, 1999.
- Gillman, Peter and Leni. The Wildest Dream: Mallory, His Life and Conflicting Passions. London: Headline, 2001.
- Jochen Hemmleb, Larry A. Johnson, Eric R. Simonson, William E. Nothdurft: Ghosts of Everest - The Search for Mallory & Irvine. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 1999. Story of the 1999 expedition that located Mallory's body.
- Jochen Hemmleb & Eric R. Simonson: Detectives on Everest. The Story of the 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2002. Sequel to Ghosts of Everest, with new discoveries on Everest and revelations regarding the fate of Andrew Irvine.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- MountainWorld Photography – The photographer website from the 1999, 2001, & 2004 Mallory & Irvine Research Expeditions.
- Ghosts of Everest – New evidence examined. 1999 Expedition finds Mallory's remains; tries to reconstruct Mallory's ascent. From Outside Magazine
- Lost on Everest – In January 2000, PBS broadcast the story of the 1999 Nova expedition to locate the bodies of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.
- Alpine History – Overviews of the 1999 and 2001 research expeditions and findings, plus remarks on subsequent search attempts.
- 2004 Expedition to find the cameras
- The British Hero Who Died on Everest
- Mount Everest 1924 photographs – John Noel's photographs from the 1924 expedition.
- BBC: Replica clothes pass Everest test
- Photo of Mallory Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge
- Mallory Film
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