We all have learnt in
School that Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary were the first to climb Mount
Everest in 1953.
But today I read about
people who were NEARLY the first to Climb Everest atleast 29 years before the
Firsts. And more than reading that, I was saddened by the fact that they were
nearly the first may be just because they never came back.
Yes one of them still lies somewhere around the Everest and the body of the other was retrieved 75
years later. 75 years after the expedition.
It was a British
Expedition crew and its about two of them: George Mallory and Sandy Ervine.
Nobody other than the
two knows if they really conquered the Mount Everest. Or may be their camera
knows which is still missing.
On Todays date i.e. 7 th
June of 1924 the duo went missing in an attempt of their ascent to the Mount
Everest.
George Mallory was well
known British Mountaineer and this was his third attempt to climb the Mount
Everest.
At 8:40 am on 6
June they set off, climbing to Camp 5 (Camp 5 would be more than 8000 m above
mean sea level).
On 7 June they
reached Camp 6. Mallory wrote he had used only 3⁄4 of one bottle of
oxygen for the two days.
This was the last time
the two were seen and they were not very far from the Summit of the Mount
Everest.
But one of their fellow
mountaineer who was on support role Noel Odell claims to have seen them after
this also and that also nearly means that they had made it to the top.
Odell said:
At 12.50, just after I
had emerged from a state of jubilation at finding the first definite fossils on
Everest, there was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and the entire summit
ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled. My eyes became fixed on one tiny
black spot silhouetted on a small snow-crest beneath a rock-step in the ridge;
the black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the snow
to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the great rock-step
and shortly emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole
fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more.
Black spots as
Odell saw must have been Mallory and Ervine.
The steps that odell is
talking about here can be more clearly explained by this picture of the North
face of Mount Everest:
The Three Steps are
three prominent rocky steps on the north-east ridge of Mount Everest. They
are located at altitudes of 8,564 metres (28,097 ft), 8,610 metres
(28,250 ft), and 8,710 metres (28,580 ft). Any climber who wants to
climb on the normal route from the north of the summit must negotiate
these three stages.
At the time, Odell
observed that one of the men surmounted the Second Step of the NE ridge. Apart
from his testimony, though, no evidence has been found that Mallory and Irvine
climbed higher than the First Step; one of their spent oxygen cylinders was
found shortly below the First Step, and Irvine's ice axe was also found nearby
in 1933. They never returned to their camp.
In 1999 the Mallory
and Irvine Research Expedition on 1 May, found a frozen body at
26,760 ft (8,157 m) on the north face of the mountain.
They were surprised to
find that name tags on the body's clothing bore the name of "G. Leigh
Mallory." The body was well preserved, due to the mountain's climate. A
brass altimeter, a pocket knife and an unbroken pair of snow-goggles were also recovered
from Mallory's corpse.
The 1999 research team
returned to the mountain in 2001 to conduct further research. They
discovered Mallory and Irvine's last camp, but failed to find either Irvine or
the camera he carried.
Mallory's daughter said
that Mallory carried a photograph of his wife 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, its garments and other items including documents in
his wallet, this points to the possibility that he may have reached the summit
and deposited the photo there.
Though everyone
remembers only the First to do things. Sometimes knowing the NEARLY FIRST makes
us appreciate the efforts of the First even more.
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