The Lost Explorer by Anker Conrad & Roberts David

Author:Anker, Conrad & Roberts, David [Roberts, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 1999-12-22T06:00:00+00:00

6 Teeth in the Wind

DR

MALLORY’S GRIM PREMONITION came true: in the end, the 1924 expedition was more like war than mountaineering.

Yet as he sailed from England to India, then as he rode and hiked toward Everest, Britain’s finest climber was filled not with foreboding, but with optimism. “I can’t see myself coming down defeated,” he wrote Ruth from the remote Tibetan village of Shekar Dzong. To his former teammate Tom Longstaff, he predicted, “We’re going to sail to the top this time, and God with us—or stamp to the top with our teeth in the wind.”

As he had in both 1921 and ’22, once more Mallory underestimated Everest. His bravura performance two years before, along with Finch’s, had made the summit seem well within his grasp. At times, his certainty about success could approach cocksure arrogance, as during his lecture tour of America, where, envisioning a third expedition, he boasted, “Mount Everest is asking for trouble.” Yet at other times, his confidence was laced with threads of doubt, as in a sentence he wrote his sister Mary from shipboard, “Anyway, we’ve got to get up this time; and if we wait for it and make full preparations, instead of dashing up at the first moment, some of us will reach the summit, I believe.”

The 1924 party was even stronger than the 1922 team had been. General Charles Bruce was back as leader, now fifty-eight and in poor health even before the expedition started. But Howard Somervell and Teddy Norton were returning, seasoned by their previous Everest foray. The cool-headed Norton was appointed climbing leader, despite Mallory’s greater experience and technical ability. Somervell brought along Bentley Beetham, a young climber of whom much was expected, for in the summer of 1923, the pair had had a season in the Alps few other Englishmen could match, climbing some thirty-five peaks in six weeks.

Noel Odell imported vast funds of exploratory wisdom and alpine expertise, and though he was slow to acclimatize, once he was in shape, he would outperform all his teammates except Norton and Mallory. Odell’s Spitsbergen protégé, Sandy Irvine, was an unproven quantity, but quickly showed that his solid athleticism and buoyant spirit could make up for lack of mountaineering experience. Rounding out the party were Geoffrey Bruce, now a mountaineer, thanks to his 1922 campaign; John de Vere Hazard, a fast and experienced climber in the Alps; and photographer-cinematographer John Noel, who would prove staunch in a supporting role.

Mallory thought the team “a really strong lot,” and Norton went even further: “I doubt if so strong a party will ever again be got together to climb Mount Everest.”

During the journey to the mountain, Mallory badly missed his wife, to whom he wrote often and at great length. The sense of having done her harm, during whatever “difficult time” the couple had gone through the previous autumn, afflicted him. “I fear I don’t make you very happy,” he wrote from the ship. “Life has too often been a burden to you lately, and it is horrid when we don’t get more time and talk together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.