The Hidden Histories of Exploration exhibit is going on now at the RGS headquarters in London. But, since London is a bit of a journey from here in Colorado, fortunately the good folks at the RGS put some bits of the exhibit up on the website. Amazing photographs and previously unseen film footage from 1922 can is available (see the video below).
So, check out the video below, and then head on over to the Royal Geographic's Hidden Histories of Exploration online, or, if you're near London, be smarter and see it in person! And, then, be sure to stop back by here and let me know how it is...I'll be jealous!
Head on over to the British Pathe to see some amazing old films. Some of you may already be familiar with this footage, but much of it was new to me.
I spent some time here watching historic footage from the great age of British exploration, but was particularly drawn in by the films from the 1924 Everest expedition.
It reminds me of that final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Ark is loaded into a crate and wheeled into some basement storage at the Smithsonian...The Royal Geographic Society has just announced that it has discovered a host of previously-unknown photographs and film footage from the 1922 Everest expedition.
The second Everest expedition ever, the 1922 attempt made huge strides in Everest climbing. On May 22, 1922, George Mallory, Howard Somervell, and Teddy Norton set an oxygenless altitude record of nearly 27,000 feet on the North Ridge. And, the next day, Geoffrey Bruce and George Ingle Finch set a record - using oxygen - of 27,400 feet. With enthusiasm for the summit, Mallory led a final summit assault later that month which ended in tragedy when a massive avalanche killed seven porters on the North Col Headwall.
It will be pretty neat to see the images and video footage...It's not everyday that something new is put into the public eye from these historic expeditions.
The RGS will be displaying the images and video footage on a new website, to launch on October 15, 2009.
If you want to see some other interesting and not often seen images from the early days on Everest, be sure to stop on by the Bentley Beetham Photographic Collection...very cool!
And, this fall, he's putting out a whole line of clothing inspired by Mallory & Irvine's clothes from the 1924 Everest Expedition. A few years ago, Cabourn was invited by the Royal Geographic Society to study and inspect the clothing samples we brought back after finding Mallory's body in 1999. In this fall collection, he's tried to reproduce those garments as closely as possible.
So, if you want to look like Mallory this fall - and don't mind dropping a couple grand to do so - think about outfitting yourself in the styles below:
Perhaps music is on my mind since I just saw Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Red Rocks last night. (By the way, it was a great concert...closing in on 70 and those guys can still hold it together! See them here playing Greg Allman's Midnight Rider.)
Regardless, I just came across a nice little piece of music: Indie folk artist Xander Singh playing a tribute to George Mallory. Probably not going to hit the Billboard Top 100 anytime soon, but not too bad either.
Just came across this video today, a snippet of Michael Palin at Everest's Rongbuk Basecamp discussing the '24 expedition. Not much true discussion here, but some pretty amazing old footage. Enjoy!
His story is too long to recount here - especially since I've got to run out the door and pick up my daughter! But, I have a longer post dealing with Mallory & Irvine's final climb and eventual disappearance, which I will post tomorrow.
For today, though, a remembrance of Mallory through his own words - eloquent, determined, nuanced, and timeless:
I suppose we go to Mount Everest, granted the opportunity, because—in a word—we can't help it. Or, to state the matter rather differently, because we are mountaineers.... To refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell.
How to get the best of it all? One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end -- to know there's no dream that musn't be dared...Is this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet! We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful, soberly astonished. Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success? That word means nothing here. Have we won a kingdom? No...and yes. We have achieved an ultimate satisfaction...fulfilled a destiny. To struggle and to understand -- never this last without the other; such is the law.
And in this series of partial glimpses we had seen a whole; we were able to piece together the fragments, to interpret the dream…
For the stone from the top for geologists, the knowledge of the limits of endurance for the doctors, but above all for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man.
The highest of the world's mountains, it seems, has to make but a single gesture of magnificence to be the lord of all, vast in unchallenged and isolated supremacy.
The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
And, finally, "Lines to an Indian Air" - Mallory's favorite poem - by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright: I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet Has led me - who knows how? To thy chamber window, Sweet!
The wandering airs they faint On the dark, the silent stream - The Champak odours fail Like sweet thoughts in a dream; The nightingale's complaint, It dies upon her heart; - As I must on thine, O belovèd as thou art!
Oh lift me from the grass! I die! I faint! I fail! Let thy love in kisses rain On my lips and eyelids pale. My cheek is cold and white, alas! My heart beats loud and fast; - Oh! press it to thine own again, Where it will break at last.
- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.
Nearly a year ago, I posted a video showing my May 20, 2004, discovery of the 1938 high camp on the Northeast Shoulder of Everest (see the post here). It was an exciting day - my friend, Dave Hahn, was en route to his 5th summit of Everest (he now has 10!) with our amazing Sherpas, Danuru and Tashi.
I had the option of going for the top again, but, having been there twice already, and being far more interested in the history of Everest and the artifacts I knew were still strewn about the upper North Face, I decided to forego another summit attempt and instead do some high-altitude exploring.
On previous expeditions in 1999 and 2001, I had been able to discover and unearth the 1924 and 1933 high camps. The remaining one that I hadn't visited, however, was from the 1938 expedition, a camp perched in one of the most inhospitable, wind-blown areas of the North Face - atop the North Ridge, just below the Pinnacles and the Yellow Band, on the crest of the Northeast Shoulder.
It took some looking and scouring - especially, as you'll see in the video, since it was a nasty day with high winds, snow, and poor visibility - but eventually the effort paid off. At the fringe of the Northeast Shoulder, just before the grand drop down the Rongbuk Face some 6000 feet to Advanced Basecamp, I saw a bit of wood sticking out of the rubble.
Wood had surprised me before, and led to neat discoveries, like in 1999 with the 1933 high camp, and in 2001 when the wooden tent pole of the 1924 high camp signaled to me that Brent Okita and I had found Mallory & Irvine's final camp. This time, however, I knew the wind was playing tricks on me. No matter how tough (and possibly crazy!) the climbers were in 1938, perching their pup tent on the Shoulder, I knew they would not have placed it where I found the bit of wood, which turned out to be a 2-section tent pole that now sits in my office. It was far too rugged, jagged, and not a flat place to be found.
No, the wind - the ferocious, jetstream wind of the upper reaches of Everest - had carried the pole away from its tent. Nonetheless, it was a clue, and i knew all I had to do was walk back, into the wind, and I'd be led by the prevailing wind direction to the rough site of the camp.
Another 45 minutes of searching, scouring, and being battered by the wind finally led me to the remains - small, sad, and beaten - of the 1938 High Camp.
The video posted last year was pretty poor in quality, and my voice barely audible. So, I took the time this week to edit a new cut of the same, this time adding in some more footage showing the view up to the Pinnacles - where Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker disappeared in 1982 - and the view up into the Yellow Band from the Shoulder along the route most likely taken by George Mallory & Andrew Irvine on their final, fateful summit bid on June 8, 1924.
It's a fun video - enjoy! The YouTube version is posted below, but feel free to check out the same video on DailyMotion, perhaps in a bit better quality.
- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.
The 1924 Everest expedition - which I have written extensively about here - was made most famous by the mystery shrouded disappearance of George Mallory & Andrew Irvine on June 8th, 1924.
There were, of course, other expedition members, most of whom have fallen into relative obscurity; they made it back alive and continued their lives, which is not nearly as sexy as disappearing high on the mountain!
But, they were an incredible group, from Doctor T. Howard Somervell to geologist Noel Odell, eccentric John Baptist Lucius Noel to larger-than-life Brigadier General Charles Granville Bruce.
He had not exactly the concentrated fire of Mallory, but he was
perpetually boiling and bursting and bubbling over with keenness and
enthusiasm – the kind of man that nothing less than a ton of bricks
could keep down: nineteen hundredweight would have been of no use.
And quite a climber he was. Beetham and Somervell made a 6 week foray into the Alps in 1923, during which time they climbed an astonishing 35 peaks!
However, as with all members of those early expeditions, Beetham was far from mono-dimensional. Climber, teacher, ornithologist, photographer, and cultural enthusiast, Beetham devoured the experiences on the approach to and climbing on Everest in 1924, and brought back the images to share.
The collection is extensive and impressive, offering rarely seen glimpses into the world of pre-World War II
Tibet, of early Everest climbing, and also Beetham's images of natural history, culture, Northeast England, and climbing and mountaineering in the Tatra Mountains of Czechoslovakia, the Atlas of Morocco, and elsewhere.
Take an adventure back in time and visit the Bentley Beetham Collection online. It is quite a journey into the life and explorations of a remarkable man!
- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.
I came across this video the other day on YouTube. Quite a nice tribute to Mallory & Irvine, and including some fascinating archival footage from the 1920's and 1930's.
Also in the mix are clips from a modern reenactment of elements of the Mallory & Irvine story...not sure where they came from, but they are interesting as well.
The creator of the video, Escalador78, has also put together a nice video montage paying tribute to Hillary and Tenzing. Enjoy!
- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.
when the Ark is loaded into a crate and wheeled into some basement storage at the Smithsonian...
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