Camp at 20,000 ft

:: Camp at 20,000 feet, Everest in the distance with wind on summit
© Royal Geographical Society

Willi Unsoeld

:: Willi Unsoeld

Want to introduce you to an amazing man.

"If we can pull this off, it will be the greatest achievement in the history of Everest", Norman Dyrenfurth, 1963.

And they pulled it off. Tom Hornbein & Willi Unsoeld did the first traverse of Mount Everest. They also did one more thing - they did the West Ridge. They climbed Everest from the West Ridge and came down the South East ridge. The mountain allowed them to and Hornbein is very aware of this crucial fact. In his own words:

"As we were climbing the West Ridge, I kept looking up at the summit. And it kept reminding us every second that we are mere guests here. And that we should behave like guests"

They did not do this without anxious moments, Hema. They had to bivouac without food and water at -40 degree at 28,000 feet for one night. It was a very tense night for the leader, Norman Dyrenfurth, who was at Advanced Base. When they bivouacked in that rough weather, Norman radioed them from Advanced Base and Tom Hornbein uttered hoarse, tired words which have gone down in history:

Norman : "Tom, how is it up there? What is up there ?"

Tom Hornbein : "Willi, me, and uncertainty..."

Hema, whenever anyone talks about Mount Everest, they will talk about these words uttered by Hornbein. In a way, these words summed up so much of the spirit which existed high at 28,000 feet, at unbearable temperatures, without food and water, and in the open. And the uncertainty. Uncertainty on whether he goddess will allow them to live for one, and to reach upto her for two. Willi Unsoeld lost nine toes of frostbite during their descent. Unsoeld says later, as his toes fell off one of one on their own:

"I was lying in hospital, watching my toes 'auto-amputate'. But I didn't let them go. I put them in a jar full of alcohol and kept them. These toes had accompanied me to the top of the world, I couldn't let them go".

Willi Unsoeld was a man who was different from all. He named his daughter "Nanda Devi" after the mountain he had climbed. And, then tragedy hit his life in 1977 when he lost his daughter when he took her with him to climb the same mountain, Nanda Devi. It was a critical lack of judgement by an overzealous Willi Unsoeld which cost him his daughter's life. His wife blamed him for the death of their daughter and that caused a rift in their marriage bigger than any crevasse he had crossed.

Willi himself died in an avalanche in 1979. Again, a critical lack of judgement about an avalanche prone zone. Notwithstanding the rift between them, when Willi died, his wife went on stage in his memorial ceremony and, calling Tom Hornbein on stage, said:

"This man and Willi have shared a rope way back in 1963 which binds their lives in a union stronger than death".

Willi lived his life on his judgement. It was his judgement which made them do that traverse of Mount Everest against all odds. That day, the mountain welcomed Hornbein and he, and Willi's judgement was correct. Yet, his judgement, his brashness about mountaineering cost him his daughter and later, his own life. His rashness is summarised in a statement he made when he was asked about his daughter's death:

"I made a mistake in anticipation. But then, risk is the heart of all
education"

Many people hated Willi Unsoeld for being so matter-of-fact about his daughter's death. he left his daughter there, Nanda Devi rests on Nanda Devi.

Willi Unsoeld was a man full of contradictions. He was asked why he took his daughter up the dangerous climb where she died. He answered:

"Because I wanted her to touch the sacred. I wanted her to discover the secret for herself".

Willi was a man who had been to the summit of Mount Everest, but never quite managed to return in his entirety.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 26 December, 2003

Chris Bonnington

Chris Bonnington when he finally reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1985. He reached lonely...because all he had tried to reach the summit with in the last 14 years were now dead...somewhere around the summit....all of them...Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker...all had died in previous years trying to reach the summit....

"I crouched in a foetal position and cried and cried in great gasping sobs tears of exhaustion, tears of sorrow for so many friends, and yet tears of fulfillment for something I had so much needed to do and had done with people who had come to mean a great deal to me."

-- Sandeep Chopra, 16 July, 2003

Everest

Sir George Everest
© Royal Geographical Society

George Everest was the Surveyor General of India who was instrumental in giving push to the "Great Triangulation Survey" by which they determined the exact shape of the Indian subcontinent. It was the most detailed survey ever conducted and was very detailed and scientific for its time. It was started before George Everest's time but he was the one who gave it the push and moved it forward. The survey mapped South India to start with and then moved north. They used gigantic equipment which required many men at a time to move it. George Everest retired when they started mapping the "white uprisings" they could see from the upper regions of (now) Uttar Pradesh. He was succeeded by Andrew Waugh, the next Surveyor General of India.

Andrew had a human computer - a Bengali of the name of Sikhdar. Sikhdar started measuring the heights of these uprisings in 1850 using the triangulation techniques of George Everest. As they measured the mountains, they gave them "working names", Everest was called Peak XV, it was the 15th peak measured by Sikhdar. Their first calculations were incorrect and Kanchenjunga was calculated to be higher than Peak XV. Andrew Waugh was excited that he had finally discovered the highest peak in the world. Yet, he kept it to himself.

The year 1852 came, and Peak XV finally asserted itself. Sikhdar came running into Waugh's tent one evening (they were camped in North UP, doing the survey). Sikhdar was very excited and said that he was now sure that Peak XV was higher than Kanchenjunga...and that Peak XV was 29,002 feet. Andrew Waugh dithered. How was Sikhdar so sure ? Sikhdar was asked to rework his numbers again and again. Despite trying to find every possible flaw in Sikhdar's logic and numbers, Peak XV kept emerging as the highest. The time had come for Peak XV to make its mark on mankind and no amount of flaw finding by Andrew Waugh to delay that.

Andrew Waugh took 4 years, till 1856, to finally be convinced that Sikhdar was correct. That Peak XV was indeed 29,002 feet, many many feet higher than the rest. He declared this to the high command in Great Britain. Andrew Waugh also recommended that the mountain be named Mount Everest after George Everest, in recognition of the latter's contribution to the triangulation survey.

A fierce controversy raged on this. Mountains were, as per practice, named after local names. The controversy lasted 8 years...till finally it was christened Mount Everest.

Yet, George Everest never saw Mount Everest. So that is Mount Everest....the same mountain as Peak XV, the same mountain as Chomolungma (the Tibetans) and the same Mountain as Sagarmatha (the Nepali). And baby....the same mountain as George Mallory....smile...

PS : There is one mountain which is still named by its original "working name"...like Peak XV was for Everest. Can you guess which one ..smile. It seems odd isn’t it that we never question why mountains are called what they are ? smile.....Ever thought why K2 is called that ? It was the 2nd mountain surveyed in the Karakoram range....smile

-- Sandeep Chopra, 21 July, 2003

Some trivia about someone - 2

:: Members of the 1921 Mount Everest Expedition
© Royal Geographical Society

This was all a big plot. It could not have been anything else. And Mount Everest wrote this plot:

Somewhere, maybe even before it was discovered by man, Mount Everest had decided that she wanted a son. And somewhere she had chosen the name of her son too - she wanted to call him George Mallory. And when she had decided on this, the sequence of events began. She started searching. And she noticed a Mallory family in a lovely village called Mobberly in a district called Cheshire in Britain. She had found the seed for her son. She started following the events in that family. There was no "George" in that family. She was jubilant when she noticed a George Leigh wander into Mobberly and fall in love with Julia. She conspired to get his name changed to George Leigh Mallory. But sadly she realised after that, that he was not the fearless son she yearned for. She had to conspire again. She made George Leigh Mallory and Julia name their son George Mallory. Alas, even this person did not have the grit to reach her. She was anxious.

Meanwhile events continued to transpire at Mobberly and decades passed. Mount Everest then noticed a young boy of 8 climbing the spire of a church. She peered at him closely. He was the son she wanted....she was so sure. And he was George Herbert Leigh. She again began to conspire - she should have the right to name her own son! And she asked Herbert Leigh to apply for coat of arms and she asked the parish to recommend that he add "Mallory". And she accomplished what she wanted. She had found her son and she had named him to her choice. A man called George Mallory who had the wherewithal to reach his mother now existed on this planet.

Now Mount Everest turned her attention to the other problem. She realised that man did not allow man to come near her due to stupid things men called "countries" and "boundaries". She started wondering what to do about this. And then, one day, she looked down on earth and noticed a guy called Francis Younghusband. She found him intrepid and brave and open to ideas. So she contrived a meeting between Younghusband and a person called General Charles Bruce in 1897. She smiled with satisfaction when Younghusband said to Bruce in an incidental conversation "I want man to reach the top of Mount Everest". These words were actually HERS and she had put them into Younghusband's head.

Years passed. Her son was growing. She made him meet Geoffrey Winthrop Young who taught him how to climb. She watched as her son trained to reach her. She watched as she taught her son how to respect her. She made her son a philosopher.

And then, finally, the time came. George Mallory was ripe to meet his mother. She turned her gaze again to Francis Younghusband. It was 1919. And one fine day, responding to God knows what call, Younghusband remembered the conversation he had had with Charles Bruce 22 years back. God only knows how Francis suddenly remembered. And he started hunting for General Charles Bruce. He found Bruce in some remote corner of Britain, recovering after World War I. And he made him remember the conversation they had had in 1897.

Mount Everest had worked very very hard and now, finally, things had begun to piece together. Younghusband founded the Mount Everest Committee and became the President. Charles Bruce was old, but he was made the leader of the first expedition in 1921. And then, out of nothing, Younghusband asked Geoffrey Winthrop Young who could climb the mountain. And Young recommended his favourite pupil. Young wrote to Younghusband : "I would recommend a young man I know. Unfortunately he has no record of climbing in the Himalaya, which is to his disadvantage. However, he more than makes it up by his fiercely intensity. He is of course an excellent climber and can get along well with fellow climbers. I must mention he is a little rash in his climbing, but ask me and I would say he is an automatic choice - at least worth a look. His name is George Leigh Mallory. He is currently travelling in Ireland, but I will get in touch with him and ask him to get in touch with you. regards." (I have quoted this verbatim – this is, in essence Mallory's resume...smile).

And the rest is history. Mount Everest had managed to call her son.

And he climbed to her.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 6 August, 2003

Some trivia about someone - 1

:: George Leigh Mallory

George Leigh Mallory was never a "Mallory". And people who get a little disturbed on hearing this have reached a stage when they associate the name with the mountain more than the man with the mountain, if you know what I mean. Let me tell you a bit about the man before he was born.

The village of Mobberly in Cheshire has had Mallorys for centuries. The first was Thomas Mallory who was born in 1621. The Mallorys were a respected name in the village. In the long list of Mallorys, a man called John Holdsworth Mallory was born in 1771. He continued the tradition of the "Mallory greatness and respect" in Mobberly, was married to a lady called Julia Crowder.

They had two daughters. And no son. And one of the daughters was again
called Julia.

A man called George Leigh (born 1806) came visiting Mobberly in those days. he fell in love with Julia, the daughter. When he asked John Holdsworth Mallory (then on his deathbed and depressed that the Mallory name would die since there was no son), he was allowed to marry Julia on one condition - that he added the word "Mallory" to his surname. Thus George Leigh, the starry eyed wanderer, became George Leigh Mallory, and inherited the heir.

George Leigh Mallory and Julia had one son, after which Julia died (young, at the age of 29). This boy was born in 1833 and they named him George Mallory (smile...).

After Julia's death, George Leigh Mallory (the husband) married again. He felt no compulsion to retain his "Mallory" surname now that Julia was dead and he reverted to George Leigh. He married a woman called Henrietta Trafford. They had a son called Herbert Leigh. Herbert Leigh was born in 1856. The name Mallory had disappeared by now if you notice. The tree was separate. The branch extended elsewhere.

Herbert Leigh married a lady called Anne Beridge and they had four children. One of this children, a boy, was born in 1886, and they called him George Herbert Leigh (and now......we are getting close....smile).

There was no Mallory in this tree. Yet, something strange happened. Herbert Leigh applied for the coat of arms, a respect given to very few in Britain at that time. He was narrated (by the church) the entire story about his father (George Leigh) having had one surname in one marriage and another one in his second marriage. The church thus told him that Herbert Leigh was in this unique position of not having a surname at all ! The parish told him that the only way to rectify this was to re-christen himself "Herbert Leigh Mallory".

Thus, his son, George Herbert Leigh became "George Herbert Leigh Mallory". And a legend which had been born in 1886 was given a name finally. The name has become so much part of Everest now, that I thought I would tell you the history behind it.

I have often wondered how Mallory, whose death was so fantastic, could have had an ordinary birth. And it is correct isn't it, that even his birth, the way he got his name, is as fantastic.

So much went into something as simple as even naming the legend.

And oh, one more thing, the church which gave Mallory his name ? The one I was writing about a paragraph or so above ?

It was the same church whose spire Mallory had climbed as a boy of 8.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 5 August, 2003

Cottie Sanders

There is a woman who is often forgotten when we speak about Everest. But then why should she be remembered....she has never even seen the mountain. She has nothing to do with it. She has never even wanted to go to the mountain.

Cottie Sanders had nothing to do with Mount Everest. She had everything to do with Mount Everest's most beloved son - George Leigh Mallory. Most of the people who knew George wondered why he never got married to Cottie. They had something going. Even after they got married individually to others, they still had something going. There were times when they were not in touch with each other for years, but they still had something going. They did not meet for 3 years at a stretch, but they had something going.....smile.

Mallory got married to Ruth in 1914. Cottie got married in 1916. No one knows why their marriage did not happen in the same year, on the same date, at the same time, and to each other. But what the world knows is that love abounded.

When Mallory died in 1924, Cottie wrote about him. She went with the sheaf of papers she had written and went to Ruth Mallory. She told him "I do not need to tell you that I have written about George and that I intend to publish this. But then, George would have wanted that you are told. In these bunch of papers rests many years of feelings, many years of grief and many years of smiles".

What she wrote never got published. It lies in the library of Royal Geographic Society, just the one copy which Cottie wrote - handwritten. It recounts many things about Mallory which the world would never have known otherwise. It tells of an old Doctor Benson who young Mallory had taken for a climb in Wales. On an impossible ridge, while Doctor Benson watched, Mallory stepped across not bothering whether he fell and died. Doctor Benson was amazed at how someone could care so little about a fall and death. And Doctor Benson said something after returning from the climb, way back in 1909. He said "this young man will not live for long". Cottie writes saying she vowed when she heard that, that she had very little time to love George but she would love him well.

Cottie was correct. From that time, she had just 15 years more to love Mallory.

Cottie writes about a climb Mallory went for in the Alps with his mentor Geoffrey Winthrop Young. On their way back from the summit, Mallory suddenly realised that he had left his pipe (tobacco pipe) by mistake near the summit where they had rested. He asked Young to wait while he went back for it. And he went back climbing an impossible layer of slabs, like tiles on a roof, horribly slippery and very very dangerous. When he returned Young admonished him and asked him why he didn't go back up the normal route. Mallory replied innocently "because this was the shortest route". That is labelled in history today as the "slab climb".

Those slabs still exist. No one has dared to climb up on them till date.

Cottie tells us about Mallory, when he was a young boy, was locked in his room along with her as a punishment by his mother for some mischief they had been upto. After an hour, noticing that there was not even a sound from the room, his mother opened the room. Cottie was alone in the room and the window was open. When his mother asked where Mallory was, a scared Cottie pointed out the window : Mallory had climbed to the roof from the window, climbed over to the sloping, tiled roof of an adjacent church, and was in the process of climbing the spire of the church. Cottie tells us about how shocked and scared his mother was, and she tells about how calm Mallory was.

Mallory was then 8 years old.

Cottie tells us that Mallory was determined to reach the summit of Mount Everest when he left in 1924. She says "George called me before he left. I could make out from the tone of his voice that this was his last journey to Mount Everest. And I secretly knew that I would never see George again if he did not make it to the summit. Or even if he did. And suddenly I knew that the "for long" that Doctor Benson had mentioned was probably coming to an end. And I found myself reflecting whether I had done a good job of loving this man in the last 34 years I had known him. I found myself pleading to Mount Everest to let George come back this time. But then I knew, things would happen exactly as Mount Everest and George collectively decide. I had no say in the matter".

And she did not have any say as she correctly realised. George Mallory had loved her. Yet, he was destined to die. His destiny was written a long time back, when he climbed his first tree, when he went back for his pipe and did the slab climb, when he was clinging to the spire of that church and listening to his mother screaming from the window, when he looked up at a peak for the first time.....

Somehow, just like Mount Everest would never have been complete with a George Mallory, George Mallory would never have been complete without a Cottie Sanders.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 2 August, 2003

Mick Burke

Ever so often, an ordinary person gets extraordinary callings and becomes a hero. It is sad that, when such persons die in pursuit of that calling, they are rarely recognised as heroes. The world only recognises people who are "successful" as heroes.

Mount Everest has had many unsung heroes. In fact, the real heroes on that mountain are the ones which are found in the footnotes. I want to introduce you to another such man. A man, who responded to his soul.

The year was 1975. Chris Bonnigton led yet another expedition up the phenomenal South West face of Mount Everest, this time determined to "succeed". He had stalwarts in his team...Peter Boardman, Doug Scott, Dougal Hanston...all giants in the field of mountaineering. The South West face of Everest was yet unclimbed and it looked like September 1975 would do it. Bonnigton coined his famous phrase "Think High, Sleep low", emphasising to his members that they must avoid the ill-effects of high altitude and remain fit for a summit bid.

There was one more man who accompanied this well-funded, much touted, expedition. A lesser known, almost unknown man of the name of Mick Burke. A small-time photographer who was a last-minute choice of Bonnigton when his main photographer took ill. Mick Burke was a nobody. He was broke and Bonnigton's offer was too good to resist. He had a family which loved him. He was contracted to photograph the expedition on the lower and mid-slopes of the mountain, the understanding being that the summiteers would take their own photographs when on the summit.

Mick Burke was no mountain man. He was a poor man in need of urgent of urgent money. He wanted to send his daughter to a particular university and didn't have the money. And he jumped on this offer.

Burke did a good job. He was a good photographer, after all. The expedition proceeded and camped near the rock band on the south west face of Everest. Dougal Hanston and Doug Scott left the next day and made the first attempt. And they succeeded. The first Britisher had climbed Mount Everest. Also, a new south west face route had been established.

Mick Burke's work was effectively over. He sat in the camp under the rock band and yearned to go home. He thought how he would give his daughter a good education.

The next day, Peter Boardman and Pertemba made a summit attempt. It was misty and foggy, but they wanted to try. Such was the benevolence of the goddess that they succeeded too. However, on their way back, just a 1000 feet down from the summit, Peter Boardman and Pertemba saw a figure treading up toward the summit through the mist. As they approached him, they saw Mick Burke. Alone, in misty foggy weather, making a summit bid. They were shocked. This was not Mick's terrain. This was not what he was supposed to be doing. More importantly, THIS WAS NOT WHAT HE HAD EVER WANTED TO DO.

They passed Mick and asked him to come down with him. Mick Burke made the most important decision in his life...he said "No. I don't know why, but something told me last night that this is something I need to do". Peter Boardman was scared for Mick. But he was too exhausted to go back to the summit with Mick. He said he would wait where they then stood....wait for Mick to return from the summit so that he could take Mick down with him. Mick smiled and said "Thanks, I promise I wont make you wait till eternity".

Peter waited for 2 hours. Mick should have been back in 45 mins. But there was no sign of Mick Burke. Peter looked through the mist, it was already so thick that he couldn't see more than 2-3 feet. It was past 5 pm. It was dangerous to sit there. In Peter's words..."An eternity nearly passed...and Mick had said he would not make me wait till eternity". At 5:30 pm, Peter Boardman headed back to safety and the camp, alone.

They never found the photographer. The man who, till last night, was yearning to be back home. And what happened during that night which made him so foolhardy the next day ? What did he hear...what did he see.. that he forgot the joy on his daughter's face when she would welcome him home ? No one knows. Maybe only Mick knew.

Peter Boardman..."Mick promised me that he would make me wait till eternity. Maybe, eternity has not yet passed.. maybe he is still looking for me where I had promised to wait for him".

Mick Burke is found in footnotes in Everest books. Chris Bonnigton is found in the main chapters. Yet, Mick probably heard the mountain's call more clearly than Chris Bonnigton ever has.

I want to become one of these guys someday love. It will take that split second probably to choose death rather than life, like Mick Burke did. But, the call, when it comes, is impossible to defy.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 16 July, 2003

Maurice Wilson - 1

:: He still lies there - Maurice Wilson's remains

There is one more man, who lived in 1933, who obsesses me in 2003.

There was a Yokshireman, a person of the name of Maurice Wilson. He was a rich, successful businessman, about 34 years of age, and disillusioned with life. Mountain-lore has it that, one day, in 1931, he was sitting in a cafe in London, sipping coffee when he came across a newspaper article which spoke about George Mallory, and how Mallory had died on the mountain in 1924. This ignited something in his heart.. he wanted to read more. And he dug deeper into the life of Mallory. And he found something beginning to tick inside him, somewhere. What he didn't realise at that point of time that it was merely Chomolungma calling him...distant callings, but definite callings.

Within 6 months, he had decided that he wanted to climb Mount Everest. There was but one problem...he had no experience and had never reached even a height of 10,000 feet before. But Chomolungma WAS calling him and he had no option but to respond to the goddess.

He was mad, he was crazy. He chalked a plan out...to fly all the way to Calcutta from London. And reach Chomolungma...the same route as Mallory. There was one more small problem...he had never flown a plane before in his life. To him however, these seemed minor obstacles. He took a preliminary 6-month flying course to correct this. He had no way to correct the 10,000 feet obstacle.

Because he was influential in the UK as a businessman, the government got wind of this. And they warned him that he could not go (flying space violation / violation of Tibetan treaty with British government where not just anyone could approach Chomolungma). Maurice Wilson went underground. The last thing before he flew off from London he did was tear off a warning telegram from the British government. He was flying. He was alone.

He flew the plane from London to South Africa. He wanted to "achieve something". Little did he know that this was an achievement in itself. From South Africa, he travelled by sea to Bombay and then by road to Calcutta. He went undercover again...the British government was frantically hunting him.

He reached Gangtok and hired 2 porters. He disguised himself and escaped into Sikkim with these porters. He travelled through the Kharta valley in Tibet and reached the Rongbuk monastery, overlooking the massive expanse of the North face of Chomolungma. He could now hear the callings more clearly. He now realised that it was these callings which he had heard first at that cafe in that suburb of London. He now realised he had reached where he had wanted to. Maurice Wilson had grown.

He trekked up the East Rongbuk glacier with his two porters, nauseated from the height, weak, but yet determined. He reached the ice wall at the end of the East Rongbuk glacier, where a 170- foot, 90 degree climb would transport him to the North Col. North Col is at 26,000 feet.

Fierce storms and avalanches tumbled down this ice-wall. It was here that his porters deserted him. They reasoned and told him to turn back with them. But he would never have done such a thing. They left him all alone. Someone who had never reached more than 10,000 feet was standing all alone below the ice-wall under the North Col. It was a lonely world for him. Only those callings beckoned.

He stayed the night in his tent. He attempted the ice wall, no technique.. just pure spirit. He managed and reached the North Col. He was standing where only George Mallory had stood last, 9 years ago. He was the only man to have stepped here after Mallory's death in 1924. But once again, temperatures below minus 40 degree and wind speeds above 125 mph beat him back and he scrambled back to below the ice wall on the east Rongbuk glacier.

Maurice Wilson was scared. He was alone. But yet, the next day he again scaled the ice wall and reached North Col. That night he slept at North Col. The next morning he would move higher.

They found Maurice Wilson's body in 1934, mangled, dead, at North Col in 1934. They also found a diary which he had written. The last entry in his diary said.. "Lovely day, am off again. Am coming up to meet you !".

Love, Mallory is called the son of Everest. Maurice Wilson is called the "Outsider". Somehow, this Outsider touches me so much, i still cry when I imagine what his spirit must have been. And how lucky he must have been to hear the goddess' callings from so far away. Maurice Wilson, the
Outsider, is Mount Everest too. He is what that mountain can do to people. He is how that mountain possesses and obsesses some. He is what love is all about.

Just wanted to introduce Maurice Wilson to you.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 7 July, 2003

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

Harsh Bahuguna

:: Memorial for Major Harsh Bahuguna, enroute Everest Base Camp
Copyright © Sandeep Chopra


The mountain has seen many heartbreaking deaths. There is a story which lurks in every corner, on every rock, on every ridge, one every couloir, in and above every crevasse.

This is a story about one such crevasse Hema. It is about a brave concept: an international expedition to the mountain which decided to try a dangerous route...the South West face and then the West Ridge Direct. The mountain herself warns us not to try that route often. She tells us often enough by creating wind loops and storms on the West Ridge more often than anywhere else on her body.

Yet this team set out to try the ridge. And sure enough, a storm hit the ridge beyond Camp 3. The expedition is an International one - there are 30 climbers from 13 countries. Yet, the story focusses on one climber from one country who is struggling, caught in the middle of the storm, clipped onto fixed ropes and dangling in mid-air. Helpless. It is -32 degree centigrade, and this man has lost a glove, and his bare midriff is exposed to air, and his face is coated in ice. His eyes are nearly frozen due to formation of ice.

Yet he is alive. He is struggling, trying to disentangle himself from the clips, trying to disentangle himself from the taut fixed rope which is stretched across a crevasse. Whatever little life is inside him is struggling for release.

There is his companion at one end of the crevasse who is trying to get this man to move horizontally along the rope. This other man is also tired and exhausted but is trying his best. The man dangling and the man trying to help are the best of friends - as best as friendship can be. They are pleading to the mountain to let this friendship not be cut short.

It is impossible to move this man horizontally across the rope. He is too entangled for that. This other man then gets an idea. He has some fixed rope in his rucksack. He takes out this rope. He throws it across to the dangling man and tries to lower him down vertically. The idea being that there is a crevasse below and that the crevasse would give him some shelter from the storm till help could be fetched. The idea works. The man starts getting lowered into the crevasse and hopes springs.

It was all a question of 2 feet. The new rope fell short by 2 feet and the man was left dangling 2 feet above the crevasse, not getting any shelter. It was a hopeless situation. The mountain raged her fury while a man dangled 2 feet above a crevasse exposed and another man looked on helplessly from one end of the crevasse.

Don Whillians said later that it was the saddest moment of his life as he saw Harsh Bahuguna's eyes open and look at him helplessly. There was fear and the inevitability of death in those eyes. There was also the pain of knowing that a friendship was ending. And then Harsh looked down at the gaping crevasse.

And Don Whillians said those famous words which he says haunt him even today " Sorry Harsh, old son, you've had it". And he turned and carried on, into the mist and zero visibility. Harsh kept looking down at the crevasse which was 2 feet below him till his eyes closed forever.

All that remains of this man is an inscription on the way to EBC. And a story which that crevasse narrates.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 19 November, 2003

Sandy Irvine

:: Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine

A 22 year old who was selected by the mountain to die along with Mallory. And selected by fate to have his name linked to Mallory's forever. This is what that 22 year old wrote in a letter to his mother (he was, after all, just 22 years old...he used to write letters to his mother...smile). And I am now quoting from "The Irvine Diaries"....


*******
"......Mother, there are so many stalwarts here, most of all Mallory himself. Am trying hard to get his attention...i know the only way i can is through my knowledge of mechanics...oh you should see these oxygen cylinders mother...they are a disaster.

....oh another thing....i was so disappointed the entire day because I hoped to catch my first glimpse of Mount Everest today but the entire day has been cloudy and misty. Ultimately i had to retire for the day disappointed. But then, the night was brilliant....oh you would never have seen many stars Mother ! It looked as if all the stars of the universe were there in my night sky ! And then....i saw one part of the horizon which was totally black...a huge pyramid where there were no stars at all...it was so puzzling .. i kept staring at it.

Mother....and then...i got the shock of my life, a chill down my spine, when i realised why there were no stars in that patch of the sky... i was staring at the mountain herself ! How many ways she must have to reveal herself to us.....and how very dramatically she entered my life!......."
*******

It was approximately a month after the mountain had entered Sandy's life that she took his life....to keep him with her forever.....

-- Written and compiled by Sandeep Chopra, 6 October, 2003

The Second Step

:: The three steps


:: Snowfield above the second step


:: The second step (just one portion of it)

The goddess tests us in various ways. She tests us with the vagary of weather; she tests us with the altitude. And, she also tests us with obstacles. She likes doing that - she ensures that, the people who reach her are not "strong" and with "stamina". For, she ensures through her various tests, that nothing called stamina remains, that the strongest of us break. She ensures that only devotees reach her. Only the fiery passioned and the ones in absolute love can continue toward her after words like strength and stamina lose meaning.

She has put up various such obstacles. On the traditional, 1953, South East ridge route, she has put obstacles like what we today call the "Hillary Step". Imagine, why should that obstacle be there when you have nearly reached the goddess ? It's because she wanted it there.

On the South West side, there is this insurmountable Rock Band. On the North East ride, we have the three Pinnacles.

On the East Side, we have the awesome Kangshung Face (this is what Mallory called he would leave to "other men, less wise.." ..this was there in my ryze page which i have now removed and sent to you...i will paste that quote again : "....that, in short, other men, less wise, might attempt this way if they would, but emphatically, it was not for us...." ). So Mallory looked at the East face and said this was not the route for them.

So then, we now come to the North Face. Mallory saw the three Pinnacles on the North East ridge. And he said NO. He then saw another ridge, the North Ridge, which joined the North East ridge halfway up and continued to the summit. But the good thing he noticed was that the North Ridge joined the North East ridge at a point where the pinnacles were already gone. In short, the North Ridge joined the North East ridge BEYOND the pinnacles.

And he chose this route. Ascend up the North Ride (the North Ridge descends to the North Col) and then meet the North East ridge, look back and wave at the Pinnacles with a smile, and continue up to the summit. But Mallory was only the son. And she was the goddess. What Mallory did not notice was that she has put more obstacles beyond the point where the North and the North East ridge meet. Chomolungma was not one to let anyone reach her without going through her tests, was she....

The goddess has made three "steps" on the North East ridge beyond its confluence with the North Ridge. Like the Hillary Step. Even Mallory didn't know. That is the greatness of Chomolungma.

I am attaching a photograph where you can see the 3 steps. Look at the combined ridge on the left against the skyline and you will see 3 "bumps"...the First and Second step quite close to each other and the Third a little farther up. And the Second Step is the most surmountable.

(See above: The three steps)

It is at the Second Step that Mallory and Sandy Irvine were seen last...by Noel Odell. Noel Odell saw two tiny specks...one moved up and then the other.....And you know what Noel has said about that vision ? He said ..

"It was a clear day, with isolated clouds and it was 12:50 pm. From the site of Camp V, i looked up at the skyline. At a very short distance from the base of the final pyramid, and at the last step but one, i saw a tiny speck highlighted behind gleaming snow. The speck moved. And the other speck a little behind it followed. The specks were moving and going strong for the top. And then the clouds came in, and the vision disappeared forever".

Those clouds took Mallory and, with him, Irvine, into history.

See how close the second step is to the summit. And there is no other major obstacle beyond the Second Step. And it was only 12:50 pm.

What could have possibly stopped Mallory from meeting his goddess ? Many many people believe nothing could have stopped him.

This is the picture of the goddess beyond the Second Step.

(See above: Snowfield above second step)

And this is the Second Step (just one portion of it).

(See above: Second step)

The Second Step is steep. But it got steeped in history because of one man who ascended it. Smile. But then, it has been Mallory's style to carry everything with him into history.

No doubt Mallory would have been surprised to see the Second Step come up on his path as he climbed. Especially since he had tried his best to avoid all of such things. But then, when the Step did come up, he would have looked up at the goddess, and acknowledged with humility that she was supreme, and continued on his way up.

Imagine when those clouds closed in on Noel Odell's vision...when Mount Everest decided that the world had seen enough of Mallory and she needed privacy with her son..

Behind the curtain of those clouds, Mallory reached and achieved his dream. The world only saw a white wall of clouds....but behind it....the mountain and her only son met....and this is what justifies Mallory's quote.....his quote which said.....

"I suppose we go to Mount Everest, granted the opportunity, because - in a word - we can't help it"

-- Sandeep Chopra, 9 September, 2003

Letters from Mallory

:: George and Ruth Mallory

There was a time when people both wrote letters and kept letters. This is about one such time, and this is about one mountain...

"My dearest Ruth...."

"It's all on the knees of Gods, and they are bare cold knees...."

"... I'll tell you about Everest in my next letter. Suffice it to say that it has the most steep ridges and appalling precipices that I have ever seen, and that all the talk of an easy snow slope is a myth"

"And then suddenly we were on the summit. As the wind blew rifts in the snow I had glimpses of what I wanted to see, glimpses only, but enough to suggest a high snow cwm under this North-east Face of Everest, finding its outlet somehow to the north. It is this outlet that we have now to find -the way in and the way up. We are going back to the valley junction, the glacier stream we left, with the idea that at the head of one of its branches we shall find the glacier we want"

"As it is we have established the way to the summit for anyone who cares to try the highest adventure.."

"We will stomp to the top with the wind in our teeth"

"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..."

"I feel strong for the battle, but I know every ounce of strength will be wanted"

"My darling, this is a thrilling business altogether. I cannot tell you how it possesses me, and what a prospect it is. And the beauty of it all!"

"At dawn almost everything was covered, but not by heavy clouds. Like guilty creatures of darkness surprised by the light, they went scattering away as we came up, and the whole scene opened out. The North Ridge of Everest was clear and bright even before sunrise..."

"My first thought on coming down was that the world was green again...To see things grow again as though they liked growing, enjoying rain and sun -that has been the real joy..."

"....that, in short, other men, less wise, might attempt this way if they would, but emphatically, it was not for us...."

"...one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end - to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared"

".... Sunrises and sunsets and clouds and thunder are not incidental to mountaineering, but a vital and inseparable part of it; they are not ornamental, but structural"

"I don't expect to come back"....1924

"I suppose we go to Mount Everest, granted the opportunity, because, in a word, we can't help it"

And what Ruth had to say...
"I know George did not mean to be killed; he meant not to be so hard.... I don't think I do feel that his death makes me the least more proud of him. It is his life that I loved and love. I know so absolutely that he could not have failed in courage or self-sacrifice. Whether he got to the top of the mountain or did not, whether he lived or died, makes no difference to my admiration for him."

-- Compiled by Sandeep Chopra, 9 September, 2003

Miracles

"Miracles happen. That’s what they say. They happen everyday, many times over. They happen in their own place. If we don’t see them, it’s just because we expect them to happen where we are. Some of us, on hearsay, and in hope, set out toward such fabled lands where miracles have been known to happen. Some of us reach. And some of us see those miracles. And life changes forever.

How much can I say, about a mountain with a feather? That she is beautiful? What can I say about clouds holding hands and snuggling peacefully in the cosy lap of mountains? That I wish I could find such peace in my life? What can I say about falling snow? That where is all this silence coming from?

Miracles happen. Whether or not, anyone is there to watch them."

-- Sandeep Chopra, excerpt from Khumbu Trails, 13 December, 2003

Tengboche

:: Monastery in the mountains -- Tengboche
Copyright © Sandeep Chopra

The trail

:: The long and winding trail from Namche Bazaar, the Nuptse wall conceals all but Everest's pyramid in the distance; a transfixed Ama Dablam on the right
Copyright © Sandeep Chopra

Chomolungma

:: Chomolungma, flanked by the West Shoulder and Nuptse
Copyright © Sandeep Chopra

Mani stones

:: Mani stones, halfway up on Gokyo Ri, overlook the third lake in Gokyo
Copyright © Sandeep Chopra