Everest 1953 by Mick Conefrey

Author:Mick Conefrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594858871
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Published: 2013-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

On the following night, at 5:00 p.m., John Hunt spoke by radio to George Lowe, who was at a camp in the Khumbu Icefall. Before he could announce the plan, Lowe delivered some bad news: George Band was ill and had not been able to get out of his tent that day. He would have to go down and, for the time being, would not be able to play any role in the attack on the Lhotse Face.

John Hunt would have to adjust his master plan—and they hadn’t even started.

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THE LHOTSE FACE

AT THE AGE OF TEN, George Lowe tumbled off the verandah at his home in Hastings, New Zealand, and broke his left arm. The family doctor was away that weekend and the limb was not set properly. After enduring eighteen months of painful operations in which the bone was repeatedly broken and reset, George was left with one arm that would not bend fully. It was a turning point in his life: instead of following the usual destiny of Lowe males into farming, he stayed at school and eventually became a teacher.

If Alfred Adler, the German “common sense” psychiatrist famous for his concept of the inferiority complex, had met him in his late teens, he might have wondered about the long-term effects of George Lowe’s accident. In a macho society like the New Zealand of the 1940s, it would have been very difficult to be declared the family cripple. A weaker personality might have crumbled but George Lowe was determined not to be defined by his physical handicap. Mountaineering gave him the chance to prove himself. He started working as an assistant mountain guide just after the end of the Second World War and was soon spending most holidays in the mountains. His bad arm meant he had to adapt his ice axe technique but it did not stop him from climbing hard and fast. At twenty-eight, George was tall and strong, with a short beard and a brow that frequently wrinkled in laughter. He was ambitious too, both for himself and his best friend, Ed Hillary.

They met in the late 1940s and soon became friends, and eventually climbing partners. George was the loud one with the funny stories and a way with women; Ed was much quieter and shy. Together they had gone with Earle Riddiford to the Garhwal Mountains of India in 1951 and to Cho Oyu in the following year. Both had been thrilled to be invited to join the 1953 Everest expedition and equally shocked to hear of Eric Shipton’s sacking.

George and Ed got on well with everyone on the British team but were amused by their reserve and their rather formal manners. They were also quite convinced that New Zealanders were better mountaineers, for these conditions at least. The Poms might be great rock climbers, but there wasn’t that much rock on this side of Everest. It was all snow and ice, just like the Southern Alps of New Zealand, which they both knew so well.

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