Maurice Wilson - 2

:: I want to fly - Maurice Wilson

In 1960, the Chinese undertook the first post-war expedition on the North side of Everest. The native Gombu, part of this expedition, found the remnants of an "old tent" at 8500 m (28,050 feet), well above the yellow band of Everest on the North side, and just under the North-East ridge. The tent was merely 800 feet from the summit of Everest.

What makes eyebrows rise is that the highest tent erected on the North side of Everest is known to be at levels of 8300 m (27,390 feet). There is no record whatsoever of a tent at 8500 m as was found by the 1960 expedition. Camp VI of 1924 (Mallory) was at 8140 m (26,862 feet), Camp VI of 1933 at 8380 m (27,654 feet) and Camp VI of the 1938 expedition at 8305 m (27,406 feet). After this, there was no expedition on the North face of Everest till 1960, when this tent was found at 8500 m.

Whose tent could it be ? That is what the world is asking Mother Everest now.

In all of the arguments which the world is raging on this, they seem to have forgotten that an unknown, inexperienced novice also attempted the North side in 1933. A novice who learnt how to fly and how to climb at the same time. And, no one knows how he died. All they know was that he died at the North Col (26,000 feet) where his body was found, right ? But, what proves that he died while going up, and not while coming down ? "Off again, brilliant day. Coming up to meet you"....did he meet her ?

Think hard...world. Try and deduce. When you found his body in 1934, did you find his tent somewhere there ? NO. Did he carry a tent up with him when he went there in his solo attempt ? OF COURSE HE DID. Why didn't you find his tent at 26,000 feet where you found his body ? Was it because the tent was flapping wildly in the winds at 28,050 feet high above ? In which case he set up the tent there, some 800 feet below the summit ? In which case he slept in it ? In which he might have "gone up and met her" ? World, why do you disbelieve anything till you have evidence ?

Why have most historians on Everest ignored this man ? Why has he been mentioned in a manner which only describes him as mad ? Well, historians, today you are unsettled and nervous when you face a possibility that the man you have overlooked for decades might have actually put that tent up. Alone. Those dear historians are getting that sinking feeling in their stomach.

Small voices are whispering now, and people are getting uncomfortable. One such voice :

"He was a decorated World War I hero, badly wounded in action. His 1933 flight from Britain to India alone is the singular stuff of legend. Had he not gone on to conduct his clandestine raid on Everest, that astonishing solo flight would be a monumental achievement in and of itself. He hiked overland, often at night, through Tibet to Everest, where his true character, and hidden legacy, repose. Maurice Wilson was one tough guy.

The expectations of a skeptical world, and the mountaineering elite, for these many decades. According to this amassed evidence, not only did Wilson surmount the North Col, but he may have reached the summit - perhaps for the first time in history - only to die on the way down; his triumph lost to the eternal merciless winds. "

See him, see his smile. He is just leaving for an across - the - world solo flight. With only 6 months of flying training.

(See above: I want to fly)

And see him, he is still there.

(See above: He still lies there)

Meanwhile, the tent still flaps in the winds. It has been doing so for about 70 years. Who slept in it ? Not anyone the world has known. Maybe this one person the world overlooked.

Maybe the only one smiling in this entire affair is Mount Everest. After all, she was the one who called him, didn't she ? Why did we all assume that she didn't meet him when she called him ? Maybe she did meet him. If he reached all the way from a cafeteria in London, despite all odds, to within 800 feet of Mount Everest, he would have climbed those last 800 feet. This is more plausible since he died at 26,000 feet, much below. That mad man would never have left the last 800 feet and walked down only to die 2000 feet below.

Maybe, madness pays. Maybe love pays.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 10 July, 2003