The Wildest Dream

Because it is there – George Mallory

I like the image. Somewhere in the icy snows of Mount Everest, it is there. A photograph of a plain, middle-aged, large-eyed British woman, almost mousy in appearance. Maybe it is encrusted in a white cocoon at the summit, if he got there. He promised he would leave it there as a sign. Anyone that followed that impossible journey might find it, look at her face, and understand. Maybe, his leg shattered after the fall, knowing he would be unable to make the descent, that this was the end of the line, that he would die there, the hypothermia taking hold, he took out her picture to look at it one last time. As if somehow, within the last burst of a synapse firing in his brain, would be the memory of her, like the little match girl striking the third match, disappearing into the warmth of death. From there, maybe it vanished in the snow surrounding his body. In a sense, an eternal memorial. Possibly a strong gust carried it off the mountain, to Nepal, a country at the time forbidden for white men to enter. Maybe a Buddhist priest found it or a commoner, or some bird picked it up to be woven into the nest it was building for its young. Why? Because it is there.

As I write this, the likelihood that an American will step on the soil of Mars in this generation grows dimmer with each passing day. Economically it makes no sense for Barack Obama and Congress to spend billions on a program that returns seemingly so little, with an out of control deficit due to the tax cuts whose profits disappeared in the mortgage/Wall Street orgy. There are major problems here and now. Kennedy’s dream of conquering the stars vanished in a sea of bills that need to be paid. Why should we make the effort to go to Mars and beyond? The answer: Simply, because it is there.

In order to understand why we should explore the galaxy, seed life on other planets, one needs to understand that photograph of the woman and why George Mallory felt the need to climb Everest.

England in the early 1920s was an awful place to be. Entire villages and schools emptied, a generation of young men gone, buried in graveyards across the channel. Survivors bore the wounds of the conflict on their bodies and souls. Poverty, bitterness, debt, and things that best not be spoken were a dominate reality. The sun was beginning to set on the Empire, when, just a few years earlier, it looked like only bright days were ahead. God might save the Queen but for many it looked like the Almighty had forgotten the British people. In such a time some might have suggested that it is best to focus inward especially when there were almost no funds to make such a climb. The Common Everest Committee, after the bankruptcy of the Simla Bank, which cost them over 700 pounds, was deep in financial problems. Faced with international relationship conflicts explorers would have to climb the most difficult slope. With a lack of young, viral men to make the climb and almost no resources, why attempt to scale a mountain that no one had ever attempted before? Because it is there.

George Mallory was entering middle-age when he was asked to join the British expedition to climb Mount Everest, the highest point on earth. Maybe a few Sherpa had scaled it or some forgotten explorer, but in written records no one had ever reached its summit. Having lost out on being the first to reach the poles, national pride called for “conquering the third pole,” Everest. It was not an easy task because Nepal was off limits to westerners. Even scaling the north face would take a lot of political wrangling with the Dalai Lama of Tibet as England and Russia played a chess match for who would control Central Asia. Going up the north face would also be difficult because of the small weather window between the end of winter and the beginning of the monsoon season. It was little wonder that two previous attempts had failed (1921, 1922).

Relying on Sherpa guides and porters, Mallory was joined by nine other of his countrymen. While Brigadier General Charles Bruce was in charge of the expedition, he quickly succumbed to malaria and had to turn over the roll to General Charles Bruce. Mallory knew, given his age, that this would be his last chance to climb the mountain. After making camp, on June 1^st, Mallory and Bruce began their first attempt up the mountain with nine “tiger” porters in tow. Harsh winds caused seven of the nine porters to refuse proceeding any further at 25,260 feet. Edward Norton and Dr. Howard Somervell had started their trek up the mountain the day after Mallory and Brue. Shocked to see the first expedition returning down the mountain so soon, Norton and Somervell faced similar problems with their porters even though the weather was ideal. Returning to a previous camp, it was decided that Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine would try to make one last attempt. Irvine, while lacking experience, was young and “strong as an ox.” On June 5^th the two British explorers began their journey up the mountain. Mallory and his 22-year-old friend then disappeared into history. When no word came back and the duo did not return, team geologist Noel Odell, waiting in one of the temporary camps, knew that the worst had happened and signaled to the base camp by crossing two red sleeping bags that meant, “No trace can be found, Given up hope, Awaiting orders." On June 11^th, Odell returned to base camp and less than a week later the survivors returned home to England. Mallory and Irvine were celebrated as national heroes. It would be another eleven years until another attempt was made to scale Everest.

Did Mallory and Irvine make it to the summit? What happened to them? Their fate would remain a mystery until 1975 when a Chinese mountaineer, Wang Hong Bao claimed to have come across an “old English corpse” and took his snow axe. In 1999, at 26,768 feet, an expedition led by Conrad Anker found the middle-aged Englishman’s body. Directly below him, they came across Irvine’s axe. An autopsy revealed that he had fallen. Much to the expedition’s dismay, Mallory’s camera was missing. It would have given us much needed clues as to whether he made it. Strangely, his snow goggles were found his pocket, leading some to propose that he was on his way down when he fell, as Mallory had great difficulty with snow blindness. And then there was the photograph of his wife that was supposed to be in his pocket.

While I would like to think he made it, the odds are against it. Director Anthony Geffen tries to trace Mallory’s journey and what drew him to the mountain. Beautiful and breathtaking, after watching this documentary I am surprised that a feature length film on George Mallory has never been made. It is a powerful story of a man who loved his wife and a mountain that took his life.

We are a species that needs to explore. It is part of who we are. Charles Lindberg, Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Neil Armstrong, Ponce de Leon, David Livingstone, Lewis and Clark, Vasco Balboa, etc., their names stand out in human history. Why? Because they carried more than themselves. They carried the hopes, dreams and imaginations of their countrymen and the world with them. They uplifted the population with their heroics. Just like Mallory needed to scale Everest and his memory helped the British people during a difficult time, we need to go to Mars. Because just like love, the greatest adventure of all, it is there.

Verdict: A Great Documentary