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