Browse content similar to The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Mount Everest. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
29,000 feet. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:49 | |
The highest point on Earth. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:54 | |
Captivating and deadly. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
In the 1920s, to conquer this mountain | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
was the greatest challenge remaining in a golden age of adventure. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
Everest was the edge of heaven, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
where many believed no human could survive. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
But not George Mallory. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
Everest is the last great conquest for man. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
The Wildest Dream. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:52 | |
George Mallory dreamed of being the first man to climb Everest. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:11 | |
On June 8th, 1924, dressed in Gabardine and hobnailed boots, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:17 | |
he and his fellow climber, Sandy Irvine, were last seen 800 feet below the summit. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:22 | |
Then the clouds rolled in. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:28 | |
They were never seen alive again. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
Many believed that almost 30 years before Everest was officially conquered, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:42 | |
George Mallory was the first man to set foot on the top of the world. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
75 years after Mallory and Irvine vanished, mountaineer Conrad Anker | 0:03:10 | 0:03:16 | |
took part in an expedition, looking for their bodies, high on Everest. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
-RADIO: -'Conrad, come in please.' | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
'I'm down at 26.7, over.' | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
Anker struck off, on his own. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
'Conrad, you're way below the search zone, you need to be higher, over.' | 0:03:33 | 0:03:38 | |
I was curious. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
I stopped, turned around... | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
..and there was a patch of white. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
It wasn't snow, it was matt. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
A light-absorbing colour like marble. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:55 | |
As I got closer, I realised | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
this was the body of one of the pioneering English climbers, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:14 | |
frozen onto the mountain side. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
For a moment, I thought, | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
maybe I can just keep walking | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
and keep it to myself. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
But then... | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
that's what we were there for. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
'Group meeting. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
'Mandatory group meeting, over!' | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Here, wait. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
-This is George Mallory. -Oh, my God! | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
You see that, George Mallory. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
George Mallory and I, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:40 | |
our two paths have intersected 75 years apart. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:46 | |
My aunt called me and said in a rather small voice on the phone, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:57 | |
"Suzie, they've found my father's body on Mount Everest." | 0:05:57 | 0:06:03 | |
And I was amazed, I was absolutely shocked. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
It was very powerful to know where my grandfather was and how he died. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:15 | |
He had a compound fracture of his right leg, above the ankle. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:23 | |
Fatal on Everest. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
His arms were outstretched as if he had tried to dig his fingers into the side of the mountain. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:32 | |
He was last seen up on the ridge, heading west for the summit. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:40 | |
But I found him far to the east. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
So Mallory was on his way back. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
Maybe returning from the summit itself. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
His sun goggles, vital against the glare from the snow, were in his pocket. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:04 | |
So it must have been getting dark. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
He and Irvine were tied together by a thin cotton rope. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:16 | |
They were tired, absolutely beat, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
no energy left, minds not functioning clearly. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
Mallory crossed his left leg over the broken one to ease the pain. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:16 | |
It was a matter of minutes, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
a half hour at the very most | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
before he died. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:25 | |
Did Mallory reach the summit, almost three decades before the first official climb? | 0:08:37 | 0:08:44 | |
We discovered many things on his body. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
Documents and letters perfectly preserved 75 years later. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:58 | |
His wristwatch, rusted in at ten after five. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:03 | |
The goggles that were inside of his vest. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:07 | |
An altimeter, the face broken and hands missing. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:14 | |
But one very significant item was missing, the photo of his wife, Ruth, | 0:09:14 | 0:09:19 | |
which he'd promised to leave on the summit. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
Was the photo missing because Mallory had reached the summit | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
and placed it there - the ultimate tribute to his love of Ruth? | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
He was last seen about 800 feet below the summit, near the notoriously difficult Second Step. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:44 | |
If Mallory was able to make it to the summit in 1924, he and Irvine would have had to have | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
climbed this overhanging cliff at about 28,000 feet. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:59 | |
There's never been a confirmed free climb of the Second Step. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
Everyone who climbs it today uses a metal ladder | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
bolted to the rock by Chinese climbers in 1975. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
I want to go back to Everest to try and climb the Second Step | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
under the very same conditions Mallory faced. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
It was a pure cliff when Mallory and Irvine approached it. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
No-one had ever been there. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
It would have been | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
an incredible feat of climbing if they'd pulled that off. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
Adventure, risk, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
there are some people that thrive on it, that seek it out. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
They want to push their own limits. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
Mallory is one of those people. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
Mallory grew up in Cheshire, northern England. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
He made his first fateful climb in Mobberley, his home village. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:16 | |
Mallory's father was a vicar here at this church. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
It was here that the young boy escaped | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
and climbed up to the top of the church at age seven. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
You can imagine that. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
Finding climbing is his true passion in life. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
I actually think that some people who climb | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
are wired a little differently from the rest of us. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
My grandfather really didn't feel fear of heights or precipices | 0:12:11 | 0:12:16 | |
or anything like that. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
He had a way of climbing that was not quite like everyone else's. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:26 | |
His arms and legs would just sort of eat up a mountain | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
and he would start flowing over it like a wave. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
Aged 19, Mallory entered the University of Cambridge at a time of great cultural upheaval. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:44 | |
When Mallory arrived in Cambridge in 1905 he pitched into this ferment | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
and bubble of ideas, excitement, intellectual, sexual, social, secret societies. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:57 | |
He obviously possessed some remarkable charisma, sort of charmed | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
presence that drew the eye, compelled the gaze. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
'My mind is in a state of constant rebellion. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
'I believe that will always be so.' | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
He was a dreamer. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:19 | |
And he was in Cambridge at a time of great and powerful dreaming. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
And eventually that dream took its form in the shape of Everest. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:31 | |
This was the golden age of exploration. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
Mallory watched with the rest of the world as explorers from America, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
Norway and Britain raced first to the North and then the South Pole. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
In 1912, Captain Scott, the legendary British adventurer, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:55 | |
died in the attempt to be first to the South Pole. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
Mallory was among those inspired by the tragedy. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
Britain was at the waning of the empire at this time it's looking for ways to reinvigorate itself | 0:14:03 | 0:14:09 | |
and so attention inevitably turns to Everest as the final possibility, the Third Pole. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:15 | |
Surveyors had calculated | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
that Everest was the highest mountain in the world, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
but no Westerner had ever been within 40 miles. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
Mallory became obsessed by a mountain he'd never even seen. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
"Everest is the highest mountain in the world. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
"No man has reached its summit. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
"Its existence is a challenge to man's desire to conquer the universe." | 0:14:41 | 0:14:46 | |
Mallory wasn't just enthralled with Everest. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
He had also fallen in love with 21-year-old Ruth Turner. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
Right from the start, they wrote each other adoring letters. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
"My darling, I'm longing for you. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
"I would kiss your lips and look into your eyes and you, you, you | 0:15:16 | 0:15:22 | |
"all near me and with me, strong and glorious and loving and laughing." | 0:15:22 | 0:15:27 | |
"I cannot find words that would be sure to convey what I feel about you. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
"What I really want is to know you and to love you more and more. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:40 | |
"Dearest and most beloved, your loving Ruth." | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
George and my grandmother, Ruth, fell madly in love in 1914. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:51 | |
They were both idealists, really seeing kindred spirits in each other. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:56 | |
They were married three days before the start of World War I. | 0:15:56 | 0:16:01 | |
Mallory enlisted and came face to face with death once more, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:09 | |
fighting in the Somme, the bloodiest battle known to man. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
"There is no reckoning with death here. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
"Life presents itself very much to me as a gift." | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
Mallory had witnessed the mass slaughter of the First World War. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
His fellow soldiers, some of them six feet away, killed by German shelling. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:34 | |
He knew how fragile life was. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
And knowing this, he wanted to live it to the fullest. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
He wanted the ultimate challenge and that, in the '20s, was Mount Everest. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:47 | |
Once the war was over, the Royal Geographical Society in London | 0:16:49 | 0:16:54 | |
planned the first ever expedition to Everest. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
They needed Mallory for his supreme climbing skills. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
He needed their backing to realise his obsession. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
When Mallory undertook that first expedition in 1921, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:18 | |
he had to approach Everest through Tibet, from the north. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
The Nepalese refused to allow access to the easier South side, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
used when Everest was first officially climbed in 1953. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
After an eight-week journey, Mallory finally set eyes on the mountain that had haunted him for so long. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:39 | |
"Like the wildest creation of a dream - Everest! | 0:17:41 | 0:17:47 | |
"A rugged giant. A prodigious white fang. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
"A colossal rock plastered with snow. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
"From the mountaineer's point of view, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
"no more appalling sight could be imagined." | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
When he first saw Everest, he describes it really almost as an adversary. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:07 | |
It's very beautiful, but also ugly or frightful, like an ogre. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:12 | |
There were no maps. No-one knew the terrain there. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
And this first trip, the trip of 1921, it was imperative | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
that the team find the route that would lead them to the summit. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:31 | |
For months, Mallory led the search, but the route to the summit eluded him. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
Finally, late in August, he found what he was looking for. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:55 | |
An enormous glacial valley that snaked for miles around | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
the other giant peaks, towards the very foot of Everest. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
"My dearest Ruth, we have found our way to the great mountain." | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
At the end of the valley was a wall of snow and ice, 1,000 feet high. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:42 | |
It led up to a crest that Mallory named the North Col. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
And then on to the top of the world. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
"We have established our way to the summit | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
"for anyone who cares to try the highest adventure." | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
But the heavy snow that comes with the monsoon each summer quickly made climbing impossible. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:21 | |
They had to head home. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
But within six months, Mallory was back again. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
This time with film cameras, to show Everest to the world. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
He climbed higher than anyone else before him. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
But late in the season, as Mallory led porters up the mountain, disaster struck. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:59 | |
A great snowfall had come. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
They got to a delicate place on this massive ice slope | 0:21:02 | 0:21:07 | |
and triggered an avalanche. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
"My dearest Ruth, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
"seven brave men killed. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
"And I am to blame. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
"It has happened forever and I can do nothing to make it good." | 0:21:33 | 0:21:39 | |
After the avalanche and when George returned to Europe, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
he really had no wish to go back to Everest. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
He just wanted to get away from the deprivation and the danger | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
and also the memories of that avalanche. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
He had been away for a very long period, over two successive years. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:06 | |
He wanted to get back to his wife and his family. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
They had three children. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
My mother was the second daughter of George Mallory. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
And, at this point, I think he was really starting to think about | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
wanting to be home more, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
to be with Ruth more and to address himself to raising the kids. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:33 | |
But a new expedition was being planned. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
And Mallory desperately wanted to be part of it. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
Against Ruth's wishes. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
"I love you and you love me and that ought to be happiness enough for a lifetime. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:56 | |
"But I do want you. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
"We want to live together all the time | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
"and share thoughts and joys and sorrows, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
"and we can't apart as we can together." | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
"I am having a horrible time, on a tightrope. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
"It would be an awful tug going away instead of settling down here with Ruth. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:19 | |
"But it would look rather grim to see others, without me, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
"conquering the summit." | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
Mallory clearly loved Ruth very dearly. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
She was his sweet, domestic, beloved partner who represented all that was | 0:23:33 | 0:23:38 | |
appealing about home, family, the flatlands of Cambridge, sea level. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:43 | |
But Everest represented all that was exciting, adventurous, visionary, mystical. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:52 | |
His personality was pulled between those two poles. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
Early in 1923, the crisis came to a head | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
when Mallory sailed to America to speak about his Everest adventures. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
He was the star turn at the Explorers Club in New York. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
I can just imagine | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
the audience on the edge of their seats | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
as Mallory told them about the biting wind, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
the lack of appetite, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
the fierce cold. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
A New York Times journalist asked the question, "Why climb Everest?" | 0:24:37 | 0:24:42 | |
Mallory gave his legendary reply. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
"Because... | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
"it's there." | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
Three words that have probably become more famous than | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
Mallory himself, suggest a sort of fatalism bubbling away in Mallory. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:07 | |
The mountain remains, it's unclimbed | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
and so the quest remains. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
And he is the man who is locked in to this almost fairytale relationship with the mountain. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:20 | |
He's been twice and he must go back for the third time. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
I think the idea that someone else would build on his progress and get | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
to the summit on his shoulders was quite difficult for him to accept. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
It was after all his route and his mountain. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
It is actually a surprisingly selfish thing for someone like Mallory to experience but then | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
mountaineers all do have this kind of element of selfishness deep down. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
Aged 38, this was Mallory's last chance to conquer the mountain. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
Conrad Anker will follow Mallory's footsteps, | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
leading his own expedition to Everest and the Second Step. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
During his climb, Conrad plans to test clothes and boots modelled on those he found on Mallory's body. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:35 | |
Using this replica clothing, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
I'm going to have this chance to go back and see what it was like | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
for Mallory to try climbing Everest in 1924. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
But like Mallory, Conrad is torn between his passion for Everest and his love for his family. | 0:26:54 | 0:27:00 | |
My family's anxious about this trip. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
I'm going to Everest. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
It's a deadly mountain. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
What's it worth? | 0:27:08 | 0:27:09 | |
Is it worth leaving your kids behind? | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
Why are you going to this mountain? | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
Are you going to be safe? | 0:27:14 | 0:27:16 | |
You know I love you. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
And I can see there, as I was trying to rationalise it | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
to my wife and children that it's a safe thing | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
and it's a fine thing to go on Everest and it's a noble thing - | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
that these were the same answers that Mallory had for Ruth. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:32 | |
I know what it's like to be the wife of a climber and | 0:27:32 | 0:27:37 | |
I know what it's like to be the wife of a climber who doesn't come home. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
Jennifer was previously married | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
to one of America's finest mountaineers, Alex Lowe, | 0:27:45 | 0:27:49 | |
Conrad's climbing-partner and closest friend. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
Just a few months after finding Mallory's body, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
Conrad was climbing with Alex when the mountains claimed another life. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:02 | |
An avalanche struck Alex and I as we were climbing in the Himalayas. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
He died | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
and I was three feet away from him. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
You could just look at him and tell that he was burdened with this world of guilt and grief. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:22 | |
That somehow he could have prevented Alex's death. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
In the aftermath of this tragedy, we communicated with each other | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
and eventually we grew to fall in love | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
and it wasn't just Jennifer that my love grew for, it was also the boys. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:43 | |
Jennifer must really like climbers to willingly bring me into her life | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
and then marry and have me adopt the boys because she knows it's downright dangerous work. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:52 | |
Boys, dear. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:56 | |
Look what I found downstairs! | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
-Whoa! -Good God! | 0:28:58 | 0:29:01 | |
Is this my Halloween costume, or is this what I'm going up Everest in? You guys are laughing. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:07 | |
-You look like Inspector Gadget. -You're supposed to take me serious. Mom can appreciate it. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:12 | |
No, it's amazing to think of those guys going for the summit in clothing like that. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:17 | |
-Would you climb Everest in that suit? -No. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:21 | |
What would you wear? | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
I wouldn't climb Everest. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:25 | |
Before climbing Everest, Mallory had to choose his climbing partner. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:47 | |
Among the candidates was a 21-year-old chemistry student, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
Andrew "Sandy" Irvine - a mountaineering novice. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
My great uncle "Sandy" Irvine took life by the horns | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
and if an opportunity presented itself to him, he would take it. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
He loved the theatre, he loved cars and, above all, he loved women. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
And he had this very indiscreet love affair | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
with his best friend's stepmother. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
It was a terrible scandal. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:17 | |
But Sandy Irvine was first and foremost an oarsman. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:25 | |
When he got to Oxford, he was selected to take part in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:31 | |
The annual Boat Race was the most prestigious sporting event of the day. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:37 | |
They were victorious, and what Mallory saw in Sandy | 0:30:44 | 0:30:48 | |
was this extraordinary ability that great oarsmen have, | 0:30:48 | 0:30:52 | |
to row through pain, to push himself almost beyond normal human limit. | 0:30:52 | 0:31:00 | |
But there was another reason for choosing Irvine. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
Mallory needed someone technical to master the oxygen equipment vital at high altitude. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:09 | |
And unlike Mallory, Irvine was very practical. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:14 | |
Sandy asked the Mount Everest Committee to send him a 1922 set, | 0:31:14 | 0:31:19 | |
plus the drawings, and he spent hours and hours in his rooms in Oxford | 0:31:19 | 0:31:24 | |
trying to make it serviceable, trying to make it lighter, stronger | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
and less fragile so that the climbers could use it with greater confidence. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:33 | |
And so, the fact that Sandy was so practical with the apparatus | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
I think made it quite clear in Mallory's mind | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
that he was a useful man to have climbing with him. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
Conrad Anker has also chosen a young Englishman as his climbing partner - Leo Houlding. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:57 | |
Like Irvine, Leo is young, strong, a natural athlete, and has never climbed at high altitude. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:04 | |
The 90-feet high Second Step | 0:32:04 | 0:32:07 | |
will be a dangerous venture into the unknown. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
I'm definitely concerned about the altitude and the acclimatisation process | 0:32:14 | 0:32:19 | |
just because I've never been high enough before | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
to know whether I might be one of those people it doesn't gel with. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:26 | |
I don't want to let Conrad down, and I'm sure Irvine felt some of that pressure. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:33 | |
Leo's never been to altitude, this unknown, | 0:33:12 | 0:33:17 | |
and you can't walk into a hospital and take a test | 0:33:17 | 0:33:21 | |
that will say, "Oh, you'll do well at altitude." | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
Some people do really well, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
but I've seen fit people doubled over with splitting headaches. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:30 | |
Being invited to climb the highest mountain in the world with Conrad, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
one of the best climbers in his generation, is such a privilege. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
For Irvine, being invited to climb with George Mallory, | 0:33:44 | 0:33:48 | |
the best climber of his generation on the unclimbed Mount Everest, | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
I just can't imagine how he must have felt. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
I am walking on metaphorical air. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
We shall go all out for the summit. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
If I have to die, then there would be no finer death | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
than in an attempt to conquer Everest. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:11 | |
On February 29th, 1924, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:17 | |
Mallory set sail from Liverpool, after making Ruth a solemn promise. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:23 | |
As my grandfather was leaving England and leaving my grandmother, | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
he told her that he would leave a photograph of her | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
at the top of Mount Everest, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
and I think he was pretty confident | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
that he would get there and that he would leave that photograph. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
With the eyes of the world upon them, | 0:34:44 | 0:34:46 | |
Mallory and Irvine set out on the three-week voyage for India. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:51 | |
Late that March, their convoy began its 350-mile trek. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:09 | |
5,000 miles apart, Mallory and Ruth wrote to each other frequently. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:31 | |
Couriers carried their letters across the world and, | 0:35:31 | 0:35:34 | |
after the months of tension they'd gone through, he and Ruth made up. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:39 | |
"I do miss you a lot. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
"I know I have rather often been cross and not nice, and I'm very sorry. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:49 | |
"I was unhappy at getting so little of you. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
"Very, very much love to you, my dear one. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:56 | |
"Your loving Ruth." | 0:35:56 | 0:35:57 | |
"Dearest one, we went through a difficult time together in the autumn. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:07 | |
"Your letters bring you much nearer. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
"I wish I had you with me." | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
We can think of the relationship between Mallory, Everest and Ruth as a kind of love triangle. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:20 | |
When he was at home with Ruth, he was dreaming of Everest. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
When he was away with Everest, he was dreaming of Ruth. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:26 | |
Until a certain point, until he got sufficiently close to the mountain that it cast its spell over him. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:31 | |
The convoy of 300 pack animals and 70 porters journeyed through Tibet. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:53 | |
Provisions included four cases of Montebello champagne | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
and 60 tins of quail and foie gras. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:02 | |
On April 25th, 17,000 feet up, they reached the last pass before Everest, | 0:37:05 | 0:37:12 | |
Pang La. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
The Pang La is the pass where you get the first stunning view of Everest, right? | 0:37:24 | 0:37:28 | |
Yeah, and it's this vista. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:30 | |
You've got five of the world's highest peaks in one view. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
That's Everest. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
Wow! | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
-It's so much bigger than all the other ones, isn't it? Just... -Yeah. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
It's really special that we haven't had any sign of the mountain and then you drive up to this high pass | 0:38:06 | 0:38:12 | |
then she just reveals herself in all her glory, you know, Chomolungma, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:17 | |
Mother Goddess of the Earth, the mountain we call Everest. Just bang! | 0:38:17 | 0:38:21 | |
This wonderful old photograph they had taken on 26th April 1924 is pretty amazing. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:33 | |
See Everest there, there's Mallory, Irvine, | 0:38:33 | 0:38:37 | |
a couple of their Sherpas they had with them and their pony. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:42 | |
This is almost exactly the same spot, right? | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
Pretty close, and they spent three weeks trekking on the plateau | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
to get to this point, to be able to see it. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
And they were on their feet, they'd walked every day. I mean, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
you think for us to get here, we've been in a jeep. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
On April 29th, Mallory and Irvine set up | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
their centre of operations, Base Camp, 12 miles from the summit. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:12 | |
Like Mallory, Conrad will rely heavily on Sherpa porters, | 0:39:26 | 0:39:30 | |
accustomed to high altitude. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
But this is still a dangerous mountain. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
Over 200 people have died here, among them many Sherpas. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:41 | |
Well, most important is safety. Ten fingers, ten toes, one nose, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:47 | |
-all come back. -Eyes! | 0:39:47 | 0:39:48 | |
-Two eyes! -Yes, two eyes! Oh, good! And if you see something | 0:39:48 | 0:39:53 | |
with us, if we look sick, then you tell us and say, | 0:39:53 | 0:39:58 | |
"Go down! Burra sahib... | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
"China burra sahib, finish!" | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
BELL RINGS | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
HE CHANTS | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
'Before one embarks on an expedition, it's customary to have a puja, which is a blessing ceremony. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:34 | |
'As Chomolungma is Mother Goddess of the Earth, the mountain is a deity. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:40 | |
'For the Tibetans and the Sherpas, | 0:40:40 | 0:40:43 | |
'safe passage depends on having a good puja.' | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
CHANTING | 0:40:57 | 0:40:59 | |
BELL RINGS | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
THEY CHANT | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
Good luck, everybody. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
Lots of luck. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
The monks from the ancient monastery nearby gave Mallory | 0:41:31 | 0:41:35 | |
a very mixed welcome when he approached their sacred mountain, Chomolungma. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:40 | |
It was 83 years ago on this day, May 15th, | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
that Mallory and his team came here for a blessing from the Lama. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:02 | |
The head Lama welcomed the strange white climbers, | 0:42:09 | 0:42:13 | |
but it was an ominous encounter. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:15 | |
Along with the blessing, the Lama had a very stern warning for the expedition. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:27 | |
He spoke of disaster to come, prophesying that the mountain's demons | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
would delight in forcing the climbers off Everest. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
The monks had even created an illustration, a very gruesome one, | 0:42:37 | 0:42:41 | |
of the gods disemboweling a Western man and pitching him into hell. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:48 | |
It must have been a terrifying moment for Mallory. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
He was not a superstitious man, but I think it would have been hard to be in that landscape | 0:42:52 | 0:42:58 | |
at that time on the third expedition and not feel the atmosphere to be saturated | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
with signs and portents and hints and forebodings. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:05 | |
Despite the bad omens, Mallory hoped that this time, | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
he'd summit the mountain. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:19 | |
The weather was good. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:20 | |
He planned to reach the top of Everest by mid-May to beat the snows that came with the monsoon. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:26 | |
On May 2nd 1924, the giant convoy of climbers and porters | 0:43:38 | 0:43:44 | |
made its way out of Base Camp. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
"My dearest Ruth, | 0:43:57 | 0:43:58 | |
"the thought of you will be present in the most important decisions. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
"I am eager for the great events to begin." | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
Mallory realised that the way to attack Everest | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
was a series of camps, almost militaristic in style. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:20 | |
You go some way up, then come back down, recuperate | 0:44:20 | 0:44:25 | |
and then move back up. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:27 | |
It's how you acclimatise. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
He pioneered this technique and it's the one we still use on Everest today. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:35 | |
Conrad and Leo follow Mallory's route | 0:44:55 | 0:44:57 | |
through a forest of ice pinnacles, up to Camp Three. | 0:44:57 | 0:45:02 | |
You definitely can't cheat or hide from altitude and acclimatisation - | 0:45:17 | 0:45:21 | |
it just makes everything really hard work. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:24 | |
-This is it, Leo. -Finally! -Camp Three for 1924. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:31 | |
At Camp Three, altitude really begins to show its nasty side effects. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:40 | |
With each breath, you're getting fewer molecules of oxygen in. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:45 | |
It's insidious. You lose your appetite, you have splitting headaches, | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
you have a difficult time just doing the simplest of tasks, | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
yet 9,000 feet above you, the summit of Everest and it's calling you. | 0:45:53 | 0:46:00 | |
Somewhere above their Camp Two, Mallory and Irvine | 0:46:13 | 0:46:18 | |
experienced their first bout of bad weather. A storm came in, | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
the temperatures plummeted, and Mallory realised | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
it wasn't going to be Easy Street up to the summit of Everest. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:29 | |
"My dearest girl, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
"I was acting as a lone horse and arrived first at Camp Three. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
"The glacier is everywhere beneath the stones. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
"My boots were frozen hard on my feet. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
"I was a good deal depressed by the situation. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
"I love you always, dear one." | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
-Shall we try it on? -Yeah, I'm pretty keen to... | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
see how this stuff works. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
Check this out. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
Can you imagine climbing up with these things? They're something else. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
So, I've got every layer on here. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
Mallory and Irvine had seven layers on when they went for the summit in '24. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:23 | |
But the big difference is here, in the footwear. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:27 | |
I tell you, the rest of this outfit seems pretty good, eh? | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
But compared to the boots that we wear these days, these things look decidedly, you know, inappropriate. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:37 | |
Wearing hobnailed boots and Gabardine jackets, Conrad and Leo venture on to the mountain. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:49 | |
We were right near the spot where | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
seven of Mallory's porters lost their lives in the avalanche. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
But, as in 1924, we were just bound together by a thin cotton rope. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:06 | |
Using Mallory's technique, Conrad cuts steps into the steep ice slope. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:18 | |
This is real mountain terrain. I mean, if you lose your footing, | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
you'll fall down 1,000 feet to the base of it, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
and we need to start being careful now. There's crevasses. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
There's a danger of avalanche. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:33 | |
When you stand on the edge of a crevasse, | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
you just see this slot disappearing down into the glacier. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
Hundreds of feet deep. But the dangerous ones are the ones that you can't see. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:44 | |
You can be walking across a snow bridge just a few feet thick and fall through it to certain death. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:50 | |
Yikes, she's deep, isn't she? | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
Yeah. | 0:48:52 | 0:48:54 | |
I'm right at the bridge! | 0:48:58 | 0:49:00 | |
Ten feet of rope. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:02 | |
Be careful, my friend. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:04 | |
It's phenomenal that they were able to get to 28,000 feet | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
in what I would basically call | 0:49:23 | 0:49:28 | |
clothing you'd walk through the forest. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:30 | |
Good job, Leo. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
No, good job, Conrad. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
Oy! | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
Oh, I'm knackered. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:43 | |
In 1924, Mallory's team were pinned down by weather so severe, | 0:49:49 | 0:49:54 | |
Sandy Irvine feared for his life. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:58 | |
May 10th. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:00 | |
Had a terrible night with wind and snow. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
I don't know how the tent stood it. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
Very little sleep and about two inches of snow over everything in the tent. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:13 | |
Awful headache this morning. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:15 | |
Irvine was suffering from altitude sickness. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
His role as Mallory's climbing partner was now in doubt. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
The harsh conditions forced the entire team back down to Base Camp. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:30 | |
When they arrived there, they found that two of the staff were dead. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
Instead of preparing for a summit bid, they were burying people in Base Camp. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:42 | |
It must have been quite strange for Irvine to come to terms with that. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:46 | |
One of our NCOs suddenly got paralysis, | 0:50:47 | 0:50:51 | |
probably due to a clot on the brain from frostbitten fingers. | 0:50:51 | 0:50:55 | |
The poor fellow died within half a mile of Base Camp. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
Meanwhile, Mallory plans another dangerous summit bid. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:07 | |
But he allowed no sign of the team's suffering to show in a letter to his eldest daughter, Clare. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:14 | |
"My darling, there is not so much wind today, so it is nice and warm. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:22 | |
"Now, tea has come and for the first time since I don't know when - cake. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:28 | |
"Shall we have a little tea party together, | 0:51:30 | 0:51:31 | |
"one day in August, with a flat, warm, squidgy cake and nothing else? | 0:51:31 | 0:51:36 | |
"Haven't you got a greedy daddy?!" | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
It was already mid-May, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
and soon, the snows would come. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:51 | |
The monsoon arrives early June every year. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
It releases a tremendous amount of snow. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
Climbing is impossible. | 0:51:58 | 0:52:01 | |
We had the same challenge as Mallory in 1924. We were there | 0:52:17 | 0:52:22 | |
late in the season. If we didn't get up the mountain | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
before the monsoon hit, we'd be in very serious trouble. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:29 | |
Over 22,000 feet up, Conrad and Leo start the ascent of Everest itself. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:43 | |
They are on one of the most treacherous parts of the mountain - | 0:52:47 | 0:52:51 | |
the giant wall of ice and snow that leads up to the North Col - | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
the launch-pad to the summit. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
Despite all the modern equipment, the altitude hits Leo hard. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:31 | |
You know, this is the first time I've ever been to this altitude and you just move so desperately slowly, | 0:53:31 | 0:53:37 | |
it's unreal. You just can't believe... You take two steps and you're completely out of breath | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
and I'm sure it's only going to get worse as we get up. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
With hobnail boots and no guide-ropes, Mallory led the assault on the North Col, | 0:54:00 | 0:54:06 | |
cutting steps into what he called "its great battlements of ice." | 0:54:06 | 0:54:11 | |
The North Col was a triumph. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:15 | |
I enjoyed the conquest of the ice wall and making the steps. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
Afterwards, I was practically bust to the world. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:24 | |
Looking back down the valley, | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
he was already higher than the greatest peaks in Europe or America. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:33 | |
But the summit was still 6,000 feet above. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
Here on the Col, Mallory set up his bridgehead to Everest, Camp Four. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:53 | |
He planned higher camps further up the mountain. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:57 | |
These would take him within striking distance of the summit. | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
Mallory had a cough that wouldn't go away. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:06 | |
Irvine was suffering from diarrhoea, | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
the cold never left them. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
COUGHING | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
My dearest Ruth, I couldn't sleep - | 0:55:16 | 0:55:20 | |
distressed with bursts of coughing fit to tear one's guts. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:24 | |
Fierce squalls visited our tents and shook them with | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
the disagreeable threat of tearing them away from their moorings. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:32 | |
There was never a more determined and bitter enemy. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
23,000 feet up, Conrad and Leo test out Mallory's gear one last time. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:47 | |
Suddenly, temperatures plummet to 20 below freezing. | 0:55:47 | 0:55:51 | |
They're in severe danger of frostbite. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:54 | |
-Thank you. -No problem. -Oh! | 0:56:04 | 0:56:07 | |
Oh, man, I can't imagine going to 8,500 metres in these boots. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:18 | |
Which is my theory - that if those guys were moving, | 0:56:21 | 0:56:24 | |
they were OK. But once they stopped moving, | 0:56:24 | 0:56:29 | |
the clock was ticking and it was a different game altogether. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
Oh! | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
My toes are freezing. Agh! | 0:56:37 | 0:56:43 | |
In '22, | 0:56:44 | 0:56:46 | |
Mallory frostbit one of his fingers | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
and he commented that it was bad, but not that bad, | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
and then sort of in a little note aside, he said, | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
"I wouldn't mind if I lost a finger for this summit." | 0:56:56 | 0:57:02 | |
And, If I was in his shoes, I probably would have thought the same thing, | 0:57:02 | 0:57:07 | |
because it was the Golden Age of Exploration. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
Ah, come on my little beauties. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:18 | |
Agh! | 0:57:20 | 0:57:22 | |
Bad weather blocks Conrad's path and the monsoon snows are imminent. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:34 | |
He and Leo risk being trapped high on Everest, beyond rescue. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:40 | |
It was a stressful moment. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:44 | |
What are we doing? We're climbing into the second week of June, the monsoon's on our ass. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:50 | |
I get on the phone to Jennifer and I say to her, | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
"It's not worth what I'm putting you and the family through, and I'm ready to come home." | 0:57:53 | 0:57:58 | |
The window was closing. I knew the monsoon was coming. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
I was looking at the satellite imagery of the weather. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:06 | |
I said, "Conrad, you know what, I'm looking at the computer screen | 0:58:06 | 0:58:09 | |
"and I'm seeing a giant wall of weather and it's the monsoon." | 0:58:09 | 0:58:15 | |
And I said, "Conrad, you need to be confident that you can make it. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:20 | |
"But if you have a chance to climb the Second Step, I want you to go for it." | 0:58:20 | 0:58:26 | |
"My dear one, what is happening to you? | 0:58:30 | 0:58:35 | |
"I wonder so much. | 0:58:35 | 0:58:37 | |
"Are you happy and are you well? | 0:58:37 | 0:58:39 | |
"All the immortal love my soul has is with you." | 0:58:41 | 0:58:45 | |
Early in June 1924, two of Mallory's team, Norton and Somervell, | 0:58:48 | 0:58:54 | |
pushed on up the mountain | 0:58:54 | 0:58:56 | |
but Everest forced them back. | 0:58:57 | 0:59:00 | |
Snow blind, Norton had to be carried down. | 0:59:00 | 0:59:03 | |
Somervell almost choked to death before coughing up part of his frostbitten larynx. | 0:59:03 | 0:59:09 | |
Clearly, it was time to go home. | 0:59:12 | 0:59:14 | |
They were weak with exhaustion. | 0:59:14 | 0:59:18 | |
The monsoon was due. | 0:59:18 | 0:59:21 | |
But Mallory refused to give in. | 0:59:21 | 0:59:24 | |
My dear girl, | 0:59:25 | 0:59:27 | |
this has been a bad time altogether. | 0:59:27 | 0:59:29 | |
Perhaps it's mere folly to go up again. | 0:59:31 | 0:59:35 | |
But how can I be out of the hunt? | 0:59:35 | 0:59:37 | |
Six days to the top from this camp! | 0:59:39 | 0:59:41 | |
It's 50:1 against, but we'll have a whack yet | 0:59:43 | 0:59:47 | |
and do ourselves proud. | 0:59:47 | 0:59:49 | |
Great love to you, ever your loving George. | 0:59:49 | 0:59:52 | |
The big question is why George Mallory thought it was worth one more shot. | 1:00:09 | 1:00:13 | |
I think the way to reconcile the overriding conflict in his life, | 1:00:13 | 1:00:17 | |
was actually to climb the mountain and be done with it and go home to Ruth and say, | 1:00:17 | 1:00:21 | |
"I've done it, it's over, now we can get on with the rest of our lives." | 1:00:21 | 1:00:25 | |
He knew that this was it. | 1:00:25 | 1:00:29 | |
He couldn't come back again later if he didn't get to the top. | 1:00:29 | 1:00:35 | |
It would be impossible to put Ruth through that again. | 1:00:35 | 1:00:39 | |
I must tell you, dearest one, I feel full of energy and strength. | 1:00:41 | 1:00:45 | |
My plan will be to carry as little as possible, go fast and rush the summit. | 1:00:48 | 1:00:53 | |
Mallory now needed oxygen and Irvine more than ever. | 1:01:03 | 1:01:07 | |
He wanted his partner, now over the worst of his altitude sickness, | 1:01:09 | 1:01:13 | |
to apply his technical skills to the final assault. | 1:01:13 | 1:01:17 | |
Irvine has been brilliantly skilful about the oxygen. | 1:01:19 | 1:01:22 | |
He has practically invented a new instrument. | 1:01:22 | 1:01:25 | |
5th June. | 1:01:28 | 1:01:30 | |
It will be a great triumph if my impromptu apparatus gets us to the top. | 1:01:30 | 1:01:37 | |
It has been very trying for everyone | 1:01:37 | 1:01:39 | |
with terribly strong reflection off the snow. | 1:01:39 | 1:01:43 | |
Have prepared two oxygen apparatus for our start tomorrow morning. | 1:01:43 | 1:01:48 | |
These are the last words written by Sandy Irvine. | 1:01:51 | 1:01:55 | |
He would have gone wherever Mallory would have wanted him to go | 1:01:57 | 1:02:01 | |
and I'm quite sure that he had every intention of coming back | 1:02:01 | 1:02:04 | |
from the mountain with both feet, both legs, both arms intact. | 1:02:04 | 1:02:08 | |
I don't think he even entertained, | 1:02:08 | 1:02:10 | |
truly entertained, the idea that he would die. | 1:02:10 | 1:02:13 | |
I think he believed that he was indestructible. | 1:02:13 | 1:02:15 | |
Early on June 6th, support-climber Noel Odell | 1:02:18 | 1:02:23 | |
photographed Mallory and Irvine as they set out from the North Col. | 1:02:23 | 1:02:27 | |
Who could hold back, when such a victory, | 1:02:32 | 1:02:34 | |
such a triumph of human endeavour was within their grasp? | 1:02:34 | 1:02:38 | |
One must conquer, achieve, get to the top | 1:02:43 | 1:02:48 | |
to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared. | 1:02:48 | 1:02:52 | |
There's nothing on top of Mount Everest. There's not a pot of gold. | 1:03:01 | 1:03:06 | |
Why are we doing this? | 1:03:06 | 1:03:08 | |
You want the glory. | 1:03:10 | 1:03:12 | |
You want that feeling of standing on top of the world. | 1:03:12 | 1:03:16 | |
Gambling on beating the monsoon, Conrad makes his choice - | 1:03:19 | 1:03:23 | |
to follow Mallory up to the Second Step. | 1:03:23 | 1:03:26 | |
We're starting our summit bid and it's 10th June. | 1:03:28 | 1:03:33 | |
I think 5th June is the latest anyone's ever climbed pre-monsoon. | 1:03:33 | 1:03:38 | |
The clouds in the background are an indication the monsoon rolling in | 1:03:38 | 1:03:42 | |
so we're going to play it by ear, one day at a time, but... | 1:03:42 | 1:03:46 | |
..this is our window. | 1:03:47 | 1:03:49 | |
WIND HOWLS | 1:03:59 | 1:04:02 | |
It's just ridiculously tiring, like it | 1:04:14 | 1:04:17 | |
feels like someone's taking the Michael, you like one step, and | 1:04:17 | 1:04:21 | |
your head's on your hands. | 1:04:21 | 1:04:23 | |
That is unreal, isn't it? | 1:04:49 | 1:04:52 | |
It's like an out of body experience. | 1:04:52 | 1:04:55 | |
On June 7th, cameraman John Noel | 1:05:06 | 1:05:08 | |
filmed the last images of Mallory and Irvine. | 1:05:08 | 1:05:12 | |
They were two miles above him with their porters, | 1:05:16 | 1:05:21 | |
climbing into the death zone, | 1:05:21 | 1:05:23 | |
where the lack of oxygen makes it impossible to function for long. | 1:05:23 | 1:05:27 | |
In the death zone, above 26,000 feet, | 1:05:29 | 1:05:33 | |
the body enters into what is known as necrosis. | 1:05:33 | 1:05:37 | |
One is dying. | 1:05:39 | 1:05:40 | |
Humans weren't meant to survive at this altitude | 1:05:44 | 1:05:47 | |
and you're on borrowed time. | 1:05:47 | 1:05:49 | |
As they enter the death zone, Conrad and Leo use oxygen, | 1:05:54 | 1:05:58 | |
like Mallory and Irvine before them. | 1:05:58 | 1:06:00 | |
I was just thinking, "Oh, the death zone, this place isn't that bad." | 1:06:11 | 1:06:15 | |
All of a sudden, the first of the dead bodies | 1:06:15 | 1:06:18 | |
that we encountered appeared right by the path. | 1:06:18 | 1:06:22 | |
And it was a real, I mean, when else do you walk past a dead body, | 1:06:24 | 1:06:27 | |
you know, unless you're in a war zone? | 1:06:27 | 1:06:29 | |
You're never going to witness anything quite like that. | 1:06:29 | 1:06:32 | |
It's such an extreme environment up there that no-one can | 1:06:32 | 1:06:35 | |
do anything about it, they can't bring them down. | 1:06:35 | 1:06:37 | |
High in the death zone, some 2,000 feet below the summit, | 1:06:44 | 1:06:48 | |
Mallory and Irvine pitched their last camp. | 1:06:48 | 1:06:51 | |
Here Mallory wrote to cameraman John Noel, | 1:06:54 | 1:06:57 | |
who was waiting further down to film the moment of triumph. | 1:06:57 | 1:07:00 | |
Dear Noel, we'll probably start early tomorrow to have clear weather. | 1:07:02 | 1:07:07 | |
Start looking out for us either crossing the rock band | 1:07:07 | 1:07:10 | |
under the pyramid or going up the skyline at 8pm. | 1:07:10 | 1:07:15 | |
Clearly he meant to say 8am. | 1:07:17 | 1:07:19 | |
He was tired. | 1:07:23 | 1:07:25 | |
He had been on expedition for three months and now | 1:07:25 | 1:07:28 | |
over three days in the death zone. | 1:07:28 | 1:07:30 | |
Just advance your headlight. | 1:07:38 | 1:07:40 | |
We knew the monsoon was imminent. | 1:07:50 | 1:07:52 | |
We only had a 12-hour window. | 1:07:52 | 1:07:54 | |
We had to strike while the iron was hot. | 1:07:56 | 1:07:59 | |
You're so nervous that I woke up before the alarm | 1:08:00 | 1:08:03 | |
and turned our headlamps on. Got all the layering systems set up. | 1:08:03 | 1:08:08 | |
When you step out of the tent it was a bit like a starting gate, | 1:08:08 | 1:08:11 | |
I was ready to go. | 1:08:11 | 1:08:13 | |
Leo was so excited. | 1:08:13 | 1:08:15 | |
He had that boost of summit energy. | 1:08:15 | 1:08:17 | |
It's probably similar to what Mallory and Irvine had | 1:08:17 | 1:08:20 | |
on their summit day when they were there, within striking distance of the first ascent of Everest. | 1:08:20 | 1:08:26 | |
Imagine the morning of June 8th 1924. | 1:08:42 | 1:08:46 | |
They're cold, they've had a restless night of sleep. | 1:08:48 | 1:08:51 | |
Compound this with lack of appetite, | 1:08:54 | 1:08:58 | |
severe dehydration. | 1:08:58 | 1:09:01 | |
Their bodies are wasted. | 1:09:01 | 1:09:03 | |
Their mental faculties are compromised. | 1:09:03 | 1:09:06 | |
Simple things become monumental chores. | 1:09:06 | 1:09:10 | |
28,000 feet is at the limit of what is humanly possible. | 1:09:25 | 1:09:29 | |
Even with supplemental oxygen it's very, very desperate. | 1:09:29 | 1:09:34 | |
And above them is a route that no-one has ever been on. | 1:09:35 | 1:09:38 | |
And when you're the first, overcoming this sense of the unknown is one of the greatest challenges. | 1:09:38 | 1:09:44 | |
Think about it. | 1:09:54 | 1:09:55 | |
The anxiety, fear, trepidation, combined with the exhilaration. | 1:09:55 | 1:10:02 | |
All those things | 1:10:02 | 1:10:04 | |
stirring around | 1:10:04 | 1:10:07 | |
and held fast | 1:10:07 | 1:10:09 | |
by pain and suffering. | 1:10:09 | 1:10:11 | |
Mallory and Irvine climbed the North Face, | 1:10:20 | 1:10:24 | |
up towards the summit ridge where the Second Step blocked their path. | 1:10:24 | 1:10:28 | |
We got to the ridge just on schedule, right after dawn. | 1:10:32 | 1:10:36 | |
Absolutely wonderful. | 1:10:41 | 1:10:43 | |
At 12:50 on June 8th 1924, support climber Noel Odell | 1:11:14 | 1:11:20 | |
sighted Mallory and Irvine through a gap in the clouds. | 1:11:20 | 1:11:24 | |
My eyes became fixed on a tiny black dot | 1:11:26 | 1:11:31 | |
a short distance from the base of the final pyramid. | 1:11:31 | 1:11:35 | |
Another moved up to join it. | 1:11:35 | 1:11:37 | |
They were moving expeditiously as if to make up for lost time. | 1:11:37 | 1:11:41 | |
Then the whole fascinating vision vanished, | 1:11:43 | 1:11:46 | |
enveloped in cloud. | 1:11:48 | 1:11:50 | |
Mallory and Irvine were missing. | 1:11:55 | 1:11:58 | |
No trace can be found. | 1:12:00 | 1:12:03 | |
Awaiting orders. | 1:12:03 | 1:12:04 | |
Instead of capturing their victorious ascent, | 1:12:06 | 1:12:10 | |
cameraman John Noel had to film the search for them. | 1:12:10 | 1:12:14 | |
Days later, | 1:12:17 | 1:12:19 | |
blankets laid out as a cross in the snow | 1:12:19 | 1:12:23 | |
signalled the devastating news. | 1:12:23 | 1:12:26 | |
Mallory and Irvine were lost, presumed dead. | 1:12:26 | 1:12:31 | |
Mrs Mallory. | 1:12:45 | 1:12:47 | |
Herschel House, Cambridge. | 1:12:47 | 1:12:49 | |
Committee deeply regret receive bad news. | 1:12:50 | 1:12:55 | |
Everest expedition today. | 1:12:55 | 1:12:57 | |
Your husband killed. | 1:12:59 | 1:13:00 | |
Last climb. | 1:13:00 | 1:13:02 | |
Committee offer you and family heartfelt sympathy. | 1:13:02 | 1:13:06 | |
Ruth received the news one evening. | 1:13:10 | 1:13:13 | |
She decided not to tell her children that night | 1:13:13 | 1:13:17 | |
cos they'd already gone to bed. She actually went to bed herself, | 1:13:17 | 1:13:21 | |
slept with the terrible knowledge and then, in morning, woke them up, | 1:13:21 | 1:13:25 | |
took them into her bed, and told them this terrible news. | 1:13:25 | 1:13:28 | |
George's spirit was ready for another life, | 1:13:28 | 1:13:33 | |
and his way of going to it was very beautiful. | 1:13:33 | 1:13:36 | |
I know so absolutely he could not have failed in courage or self-sacrifice. | 1:13:38 | 1:13:44 | |
If only it hadn't happened. | 1:13:45 | 1:13:48 | |
It so easily might not have. | 1:13:48 | 1:13:50 | |
The golden age of exploration had ended in tragedy. | 1:13:54 | 1:13:59 | |
The fallen hero was mourned by king and country. | 1:14:01 | 1:14:06 | |
It must have been an extraordinary day, | 1:14:08 | 1:14:11 | |
the bells ringing out around Britain in mourning | 1:14:11 | 1:14:15 | |
and then a memorial service in St Paul's, | 1:14:15 | 1:14:19 | |
the mourners packing the pews and speeches given in Mallory's honour. | 1:14:19 | 1:14:24 | |
Mallory, the man, soon became Mallory the legend. | 1:14:29 | 1:14:33 | |
Many people were convinced he had reached the top of Everest. | 1:14:35 | 1:14:39 | |
But to summit, he would first have had to free climb the Second Step. | 1:14:41 | 1:14:46 | |
On June 14th, our expedition reached the Second Step. | 1:14:48 | 1:14:53 | |
This formidable rock face that stood between Mallory and the summit. | 1:14:53 | 1:14:59 | |
The Sherpas cleared the fixed-ropes and hauled the ladder away - | 1:15:02 | 1:15:06 | |
restoring the Second Step to what it was like in 1924. | 1:15:06 | 1:15:09 | |
Goal is today, pull the ladders up | 1:15:14 | 1:15:17 | |
and... | 1:15:17 | 1:15:19 | |
climb it | 1:15:19 | 1:15:21 | |
"free" - that is without the assistance of the Chinese ladder. | 1:15:21 | 1:15:25 | |
This whole time on the expedition I knew it was going to come down to | 1:15:51 | 1:15:55 | |
this half hour on a cliff band at 28,300 ft. | 1:15:55 | 1:16:00 | |
Could I do it in the form | 1:16:00 | 1:16:03 | |
that Mallory and Irvine would have encountered it, | 1:16:03 | 1:16:05 | |
free of any ladder, free of any rope, free of any indication of man? | 1:16:05 | 1:16:10 | |
You have the whole North Face of Mount Everest, | 1:16:12 | 1:16:14 | |
all the way down to the central Rongbuk glacier below you. | 1:16:14 | 1:16:17 | |
7,000, 8,000 feet of exposure. | 1:16:19 | 1:16:22 | |
God, what am I doing?! | 1:16:22 | 1:16:24 | |
Just like Mallory and Irvine, Leo and I were tied together. | 1:16:37 | 1:16:41 | |
It's the brotherhood of the rope. | 1:16:44 | 1:16:45 | |
Imagine this, | 1:17:00 | 1:17:02 | |
June 8th 1924. | 1:17:02 | 1:17:08 | |
Come on, you've got it! | 1:17:39 | 1:17:40 | |
Whoa! | 1:17:43 | 1:17:45 | |
You OK? | 1:17:55 | 1:17:56 | |
Yeah. Man! | 1:17:56 | 1:17:59 | |
What happened? | 1:17:59 | 1:18:01 | |
Bad step. | 1:18:02 | 1:18:03 | |
Had I not caught myself, | 1:18:06 | 1:18:08 | |
there's a good chance I could have fallen over the edge, pulled Leo | 1:18:08 | 1:18:12 | |
from the mountain, and fallen 7,000 feet to the central Rongbuk glacier. | 1:18:12 | 1:18:17 | |
I think it shook him up somewhat and he ended up spending quite a long time | 1:18:19 | 1:18:23 | |
'Figuring out what to do next, recomposing himself, | 1:18:23 | 1:18:26 | |
'I mean, I'd say, at least 20 minutes.' | 1:18:26 | 1:18:29 | |
Want to stand on my shoulders? | 1:18:29 | 1:18:31 | |
I'm going to give it another go. | 1:18:32 | 1:18:34 | |
My job was to | 1:18:38 | 1:18:40 | |
climb the Second Step. | 1:18:40 | 1:18:43 | |
I knew that I had to try it from a different angle. | 1:18:43 | 1:18:46 | |
OK. Nice step. | 1:20:00 | 1:20:03 | |
I think I got it, Leo. I think I got it. | 1:20:31 | 1:20:34 | |
Oooaawwwww! | 1:20:40 | 1:20:42 | |
After eight years of keeping me awake at night | 1:21:13 | 1:21:17 | |
and being the 90 feet of climbing that I had to get done, | 1:21:17 | 1:21:22 | |
I got the Second Step. | 1:21:23 | 1:21:25 | |
I can't breathe. | 1:21:36 | 1:21:37 | |
I realised that my toes had gone completely numb. | 1:21:41 | 1:21:44 | |
My biggest fear through this whole experience | 1:21:44 | 1:21:47 | |
has been getting frostbite in my toes. | 1:21:47 | 1:21:51 | |
I was just concerned about getting to the top of the Second Step | 1:21:51 | 1:21:54 | |
as quickly as I possibly could. | 1:21:54 | 1:21:56 | |
I thought about Mallory. | 1:22:03 | 1:22:07 | |
Our ascent of the Second Step | 1:22:07 | 1:22:09 | |
opens up the possibility that they could have pulled it off. | 1:22:09 | 1:22:13 | |
Earlier, I was under the impression that the Second Step | 1:22:17 | 1:22:20 | |
was an impossibility for climbers of that time. | 1:22:20 | 1:22:23 | |
Now I'm changed on that. | 1:22:23 | 1:22:26 | |
They definitely were capable of doing it. | 1:22:26 | 1:22:29 | |
The Second Step is not too much of an obstacle for them to overcome. | 1:22:31 | 1:22:37 | |
They were determined | 1:23:00 | 1:23:02 | |
and, if they were strong and they were moving quickly, | 1:23:02 | 1:23:06 | |
there's a chance they made it to the top. | 1:23:06 | 1:23:10 | |
Dear one, I will be thinking of you as you set off for the summit. | 1:23:12 | 1:23:17 | |
I know you can achieve your wildest dream. | 1:23:18 | 1:23:21 | |
If we get within 200 yards or so of the top of Everest, we shall go. | 1:23:40 | 1:23:46 | |
And if it's a one way ticket, so be it. | 1:23:49 | 1:23:53 | |
Eight years after I found the body of George Mallory | 1:24:43 | 1:24:47 | |
the circle is complete. | 1:24:47 | 1:24:49 | |
A few hours before the monsoon closed in, | 1:24:55 | 1:24:58 | |
Leo and I summited Mount Everest. | 1:24:58 | 1:25:01 | |
And we have shown that these could have been | 1:25:05 | 1:25:08 | |
Mallory and Irvine's final footsteps. | 1:25:08 | 1:25:13 | |
Is this the summit crowning the day? | 1:25:23 | 1:25:26 | |
How cool and how quiet. | 1:25:28 | 1:25:31 | |
Have we vanquished an enemy? | 1:25:33 | 1:25:36 | |
None but ourselves? | 1:25:39 | 1:25:41 | |
# Every day I look beyond the endless sky | 1:26:08 | 1:26:12 | |
# And see you smile | 1:26:12 | 1:26:15 | |
# Every night I dream that you are by my side | 1:26:15 | 1:26:20 | |
# In a thousand frozen moments I have stared into your eyes | 1:26:22 | 1:26:29 | |
# Brought you with me, all these miles I have climbed | 1:26:29 | 1:26:35 | |
# I brought you with me | 1:26:35 | 1:26:38 | |
# On the edge of heaven | 1:26:44 | 1:26:47 | |
# I will wait for you | 1:26:47 | 1:26:52 | |
# On the edge of heaven | 1:26:52 | 1:26:55 | |
# Find me there | 1:26:55 | 1:26:59 | |
# On the edge of heaven Stand with me, my dear | 1:26:59 | 1:27:07 | |
# And you will feel the end of time | 1:27:08 | 1:27:13 | |
# And you will feel the end | 1:27:15 | 1:27:18 | |
# Oh, feel. # | 1:27:18 | 1:27:22 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 1:27:48 | 1:27:51 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 1:27:51 | 1:27:54 |