0:00:20 > 0:00:26In 1963, an American expedition did something never before achieved -
0:00:26 > 0:00:30they filmed from the summit of Mount Everest.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34'Before them is a sight to lift the heart and bring tears to the eyes.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37'These are the first moving pictures
0:00:37 > 0:00:39'ever taken from the summit of Everest.'
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Narrated by Orson Welles, this film was the first time
0:00:45 > 0:00:49the world saw the view from its tallest mountain.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52But these cameras were also capturing something else...
0:00:54 > 0:00:57The final chapter in the conquest not only of Everest
0:00:57 > 0:00:59but all the Himalayas' great peaks.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04This was the epic era of mountaineering.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09An era when film-makers helped turn mountaineering
0:01:09 > 0:01:12into a global struggle for prestige.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15There was this sense that there was an international race going on.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Nothing was more important than those mountains.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Between the 1920s and the 1960s,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24the highest mountains on earth became symbols
0:01:24 > 0:01:26of status and achievement.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29IN GERMAN:
0:01:34 > 0:01:37This was really mountaineering as politics.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39The largest expeditions ever assembled
0:01:39 > 0:01:42became displays of national power.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47The expeditions themselves were branded with Empire.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50From the beginning, film-makers risked everything
0:01:50 > 0:01:52to capture these great spectacles.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54This was something that nobody had done before,
0:01:54 > 0:01:59to climb up to those levels and film under extreme conditions.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00And their films didn't
0:02:00 > 0:02:03just immortalise these historic expeditions...
0:02:03 > 0:02:06but helped inspire and finance them
0:02:06 > 0:02:10in an era when the great peaks became great propaganda.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32The epic era of mountaineering required an epic stage.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39The Himalayas - a mountain range on a scale unmatched anywhere.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45It's a great arc of mountains stretching for over 1,500 miles,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49all the way from Afghanistan in the west
0:02:49 > 0:02:50to Burma in the east.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53It's just on a colossal scale.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57The world's 14 highest mountains are all in the Himalayas -
0:02:57 > 0:03:01the only peaks on the planet that reach over 8,000 metres.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09In 1913, a British Army officer and film-maker called John Noel
0:03:09 > 0:03:14gazed from Darjeeling in India towards these distant peaks.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19He dreamed of seeing one in particular, the tallest - Everest.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25Everest had been measured from afar by the British in 1856.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31And such was a wizardry of differential calculus
0:03:31 > 0:03:34and mathematics that they could literally
0:03:34 > 0:03:37peer across the skyline to the
0:03:37 > 0:03:41peaks that scored the horizon, and from considerable distances,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45come up with astonishingly accurate measurements of their height.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Once they discovered that this was the tallest mountain in the world,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51I mean, it captured the imagination.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55But before Noel, no-one had been within 40 miles of the mountain.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Because while the British could see it, they could not approach it.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Everest wasn't just shielded by the vast Himalayan range,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09but by the two nations on whose borders it sat -
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Nepal to the south, and Tibet to the north.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18These were nations caught between the great powers of their day -
0:04:18 > 0:04:22the British Raj, China and the Russian Empire.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26To survive,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30both Tibet and Nepal had isolated themselves to outside influence.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Throughout the 19th century, people have been trying to get to
0:04:34 > 0:04:40Tibet - explores, travellers, scholars, soldiers, missionaries,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44colonial officers - and effectively, Tibet had been closed to outsiders.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48None of which was going to stop John Noel.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54In 1913, Noel disguised himself as a pilgrim
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and crossed illegally into Tibet with two companions,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00determined to photograph a route to Everest.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05He was about to set in motion the epic era of mountaineering.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10This is a photograph of my father in 1913 in the disguise that he
0:05:10 > 0:05:16adopted to go to Mount Everest, and he had this coat made.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20In his case, he had to blacken his face with boot polish in order
0:05:20 > 0:05:22to effect a better disguise.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26He realised that he was going to have to avoid habitation
0:05:26 > 0:05:28because he didn't want to be seen.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34And so he had chosen this rather slightly obscure route.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37And he has written down here that this was an unguarded
0:05:37 > 0:05:41pass which is hitherto never been explored by a white man.
0:05:43 > 0:05:44It was incredibly courageous.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47You know, I mean, you read his packing list -
0:05:47 > 0:05:52disassembled rifles, a revolver, automatic pistols.
0:05:52 > 0:05:53There's no doubt about it,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55they knew what kind of welcome they were going to get.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Noel's photographs chart an eight-week odyssey.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05He was the first Westerner to come within 40 miles of the mountain.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09And he got close enough to see that there was a series of ridges
0:06:09 > 0:06:13still between him and Everest, but no-one had gotten that close.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16But he had also been spotted by local militia.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23And they fired a shot in my father's direction.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26They didn't realise that A, he was a well supplied with arms
0:06:26 > 0:06:32and that also he was a very fine shot so when he launched a shot,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34they disappeared rather quickly.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38His cover blown, Noel's journey was over.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42But he had proved that Everest could be reached.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46The initial scheme of going to Everest, this was very much
0:06:46 > 0:06:50the creation of John Noel before the First World War.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Having photographed a route to the mountain,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57next Noel would help inspire the first ever expedition
0:06:57 > 0:06:59to climb it and film it.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09In 1919, five months after the end of the First World War,
0:07:09 > 0:07:10John Noel addressed a meeting
0:07:10 > 0:07:13of the Royal Geographical Society in London.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18It's very modern. You know, lantern slides, a smoky room...
0:07:18 > 0:07:24He approaches the podium, there is cigar smoke all over the place.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Noel projected slides of his journey to Everest
0:07:29 > 0:07:30captured six years earlier.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37And so Noel began his talk saying that had it not
0:07:37 > 0:07:41been for the war, Everest would have been achieved
0:07:41 > 0:07:44and we must achieve it in the wake of the war.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Everybody erupted in applause.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Noel's audience was filled with veterans of the war.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55You can't understand who these men were without
0:07:55 > 0:07:59factoring in the reality that they spent four years and four months
0:07:59 > 0:08:05eye-deep in hell in the blood, mud, and agony of the Western Front.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08To men jaded by years of industrialised warfare,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Everest had new meaning.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14By then, the mountain's almost become a symbol
0:08:14 > 0:08:18of regeneration for a nation bled white by the war.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22His presentation is a huge hit.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27It all begins with that incredible evening in March of 1919.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Following Noel's address, a mission to climb Everest was proposed.
0:08:34 > 0:08:40An Everest Committee was formed, and in 1922, the first great expedition
0:08:40 > 0:08:44of the epic era of mountaineering departed from Northern India.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51Filming it is the man who had inspired it - John Noel.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57This expedition carries all the hallmarks of the epic
0:08:57 > 0:08:58era of mountaineering to come.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02The first is its huge scale.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10Over 300 pack animals and 100 Sherpa porters recruited from Nepal
0:09:10 > 0:09:12carry several tonnes of supplies.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17The second hallmark is the expedition's military structure.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21In command is General Charles Bruce.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25He and the other 13 British Noel included
0:09:25 > 0:09:27had all served in the First World War.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Military guys understand logistics.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35They understand moving materials from A to B and fighting a campaign.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39There was a symbiotic relationship between the Army
0:09:39 > 0:09:40and the climbing community.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The third hallmark is that this is no leisure pursuit -
0:09:46 > 0:09:48the expedition's scale and lofty goal
0:09:48 > 0:09:51means that national prestige is at stake.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57How it was presented to the public was very much a kind of expression
0:09:57 > 0:10:01of national will and ability, and this will bring glory to the nation.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05The expeditions themselves were branded with Empire.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Nearly two weeks after leaving Darjeeling,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11the expedition enters Tibet.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Passage to the mountain had been secured in return for British aid
0:10:17 > 0:10:20in Tibet's simmering conflict with China.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27The final permission to go into Tibet was part of an arms deal,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30so Everest was never divorced from the geopolitical
0:10:30 > 0:10:32ebb and flow of Empire.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33It was always integral to it.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43No-one has ever filmed in Tibet before Noel.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47His camera captures the first moving images the Western world will
0:10:47 > 0:10:48see of this hidden land.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53It's the first time that a film was made in Tibet and it's
0:10:53 > 0:10:58the first really ethnographic film or a film about the people of Tibet.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03It is a deeply futile society.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06You know, a third of the people are in monasteries and nunneries.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10It is, you know, life expectancy is not good. There is no education.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12You know, it's basic.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15It's not just the aristocracy that is filmed,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19he films the man in the street who comes up to look at the camera
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and smiles, the women out in their tents churning milk
0:11:23 > 0:11:25who are obviously embarrassed by the camera.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28I think it's delightful to have captured those images.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34As the landscape becomes more alien, so does the culture.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39At the final monastery before the mountain,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Noel films a religious festival.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47Dancers wear suits of human bones, and play drums of human skin.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Most of Noel's film of this expedition is of the journey
0:11:54 > 0:11:56through Tibet and its culture.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Because the filming of the mountain, like the climbing of it,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05would prove harder than anyone could have imagined.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12It was the moon shot of the 1920s.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14They were going somewhere... They didn't even know
0:12:14 > 0:12:16whether they could survive there.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18They didn't know whether they could breathe.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23It was just so beyond ordinary human experience.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28As the expedition heads into the unknown,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Everest appears on film for the first time.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Base camp is established at nearly 5,500 metres.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Above even the tallest peak of Europe, Noel sets up
0:12:45 > 0:12:48the world's highest ever photographic laboratory.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54He has a tent for developing his film that he sets up
0:12:54 > 0:12:56by the side of it glacial stream.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59His film and negative are sort of cracking,
0:12:59 > 0:13:00brittle in the frozen temperatures.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05It was a nightmarish proposition because, you know, developers would
0:13:05 > 0:13:10freeze in the cold, dust would enter the tent and ruin emulsions.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15He sets up a wee little stove fuelled by yak dung to try
0:13:15 > 0:13:17and dry out his negatives.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23He was a truly original photographer and film-maker.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Nothing escaped his imagination.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Fighting altitude sickness, Noel shoots and processes
0:13:31 > 0:13:3310,000 feet of film.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Two attempts are made on the summit.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Noel can only film them disappearing up the vast slopes.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50Out of his camera's range, each party sets new altitude records.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53But these are conditions no man has before experienced.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Noel films the two defeated teams returning.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03Basically, the camp is too low.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05They gave it a good try,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09but they are just not in the right place with the right stuff...
0:14:10 > 0:14:11..at the right time.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15With the monsoon approaching, the expedition
0:14:15 > 0:14:19retreats from the mountain and the long journey back to Britain begins.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25In London, Noel's film accompanied the climbers' lecture tour,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27and was not widely seen.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Everest remained unclimbed,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34but the expedition hadn't been for nothing.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36In many ways, it was a good first attempt.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38I mean, he was talking about it fairly well.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40They didn't do it, but they learnt a great deal.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43The mountain hadn't been climbed, but there is a strong sense of
0:14:43 > 0:14:44"we've got to go back."
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Noel shared the climbers' desire to return to the mountain.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53But a return expedition was in doubt.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01The first expedition had cost a colossal £12,500 -
0:15:01 > 0:15:03over £600,000 today.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08The Everest Committee could not raise that sum again quickly.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12But Noel had a radical solution in mind.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17He would form a film company, find investors,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20and fund the next expedition himself.
0:15:21 > 0:15:28In exchange for all film rights, he will give the Everest Committee
0:15:28 > 0:15:31£8,000, and in doing so, also relieve them
0:15:31 > 0:15:34of the obligation of paying for the photographic work which is
0:15:34 > 0:15:39essentially another contribution of £2,000, so £10,000.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42I mean, that's entrepreneurial brilliance.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44And it saves the RGS's bacon
0:15:44 > 0:15:46cos they need the cash.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50This is very expensive. It puts them back in the field.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The same film-maker who had inspired the first ever Everest expedition
0:15:54 > 0:15:58was now single-handedly financing the second.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07The expedition enters Tibet in 1924
0:16:07 > 0:16:09along the same route as its predecessor.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Expectations are high, not just among the climbers,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17but the British public.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19If you look at the amount of coverage in the times
0:16:19 > 0:16:21and the newspapers, it is
0:16:21 > 0:16:25really remarkable given everything else that was going on in the world.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29There was a total expectation of success.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34At base camp, Noel shoots a portrait of the climbers.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37He was actually quite aware that many of the climbers didn't really
0:16:37 > 0:16:40want a film-maker on the expedition.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43So actually, Noel is quite discrete.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46He is sensitive to the explorers' needs.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49One figure finds his way to the centre of the line-up.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54This is George Mallory, second in command of the expedition,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and the finest British climber of the age.
0:16:57 > 0:16:58Mallory famously said,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01"This isn't Hollywood. Why do we need a film-maker?"
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Filming was seen as kind of an unnecessary vulgarity.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09They didn't want a cameraman interfering with the climbers.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12What the climbers did not know was that Noel's film was going
0:17:12 > 0:17:15to change the course of mountaineering history.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19As the expedition prepares for the climb,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Noel begins putting into practice the lessons learned from 1922.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28He realised that there was no way you could develop
0:17:28 > 0:17:31film on the mountain, so he did the extraordinary -
0:17:31 > 0:17:35he bought land in Darjeeling, he built a photographic studio,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38and he arranged a relay system.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42So he is sending back his film on sort of runners
0:17:42 > 0:17:47and on the yaks to have this footage developed and processed.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Without having to develop overnight,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53now Noel can concentrate exclusively on his cinematography.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58He uses colour tinting to create atmosphere as the men
0:17:58 > 0:18:01struggle across jagged glacial ice.
0:18:02 > 0:18:09I really think he has captured the enormity of it, the desolation...
0:18:09 > 0:18:11I think with the tinting,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14he has given us a very good impression of the temperature.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17I can feel it. Chilly.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21There is artistry in this film.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24The shots of high-speed winds on the ridges of mountains,
0:18:24 > 0:18:25catching the clouds...
0:18:25 > 0:18:29There are shots of sunlight moving across the surface of glaciers
0:18:29 > 0:18:32that are just magic to watch.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Noel has with him 14 cameras.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Here, he demonstrates his primary cine camera.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43It features several of his own innovations.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Electric motors allow both time-lapse and slow motion.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Rubber casing prevents freezing.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Adjustments reduce static electricity
0:18:54 > 0:18:56that can damage the film.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00If you look at his film technique itself,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02he pioneered in so many ways -
0:19:02 > 0:19:08his use of lenses, his use of slow motion, his use of aperture.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11All of these techniques that hadn't yet been used,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13certainly not in the Himalayas.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Perhaps the greatest feat of film-making of its day
0:19:16 > 0:19:18was about to unfold.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26Noel climbs with his cameras to around 6,700 meters -
0:19:26 > 0:19:29the third of six camps, and the limit of his endurance.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Here he locates a ridge to film the final summit teams.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38That's my father with one of his porters looking for a suitable
0:19:38 > 0:19:41place to position the cameras.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45No-one has ever filmed before at these altitudes.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51He said on occasions he was so cold and so numb that he couldn't
0:19:51 > 0:19:57even think let alone try and manipulate the cameras.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Noel switches to his customised telephoto lens.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04What all of Britain hopes will be the ascent of Everest
0:20:04 > 0:20:06is about to begin.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Two climbers - Somervell and Norton - depart with their porters
0:20:13 > 0:20:16to the higher camps for the first summit attempt.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19At nearly two miles distant,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22no-one has ever filmed at this range before.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28As the climbers recede into distant specks,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Everest moves to centre stage.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33And the star of the film is the mountain.
0:20:33 > 0:20:40This kind of elemental colossus that is constantly just outside the tent.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45I mean, that's the great brilliance of this film is that you...
0:20:45 > 0:20:49you begin to understand the scale of the objective.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54And you're an increasingly weak and ill
0:20:54 > 0:20:58and uncertain creature in front of it.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Norton and Somervell return two days later, lucky to be alive.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Snow-blind and in agony, Norton is carried to his tent.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Now the final assault begins.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21From afar, Noel films George Mallory
0:21:21 > 0:21:23and his climbing partner, Sandy Irvine,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25as they depart with their porters.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28Using bottled oxygen,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32they are about to climb higher than any human before them.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37You can hardly see the men. They're like little ants, aren't they?
0:21:37 > 0:21:39You just see them at a distance.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43You know, incredibly fragile against this backdrop that, you know,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45they are gone.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48But now you can even begin to see in this footage
0:21:48 > 0:21:51the mist rolling in across the north-east ridge.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Nobody knew whether it was even physically possible for Mallory
0:21:56 > 0:21:58and Irvine to reach the summit.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04The drive to climb these peaks for the first time,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09it was pushing men way beyond the limits of what perhaps was sensible.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13Medicine just didn't know what was going to happen.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18But perhaps Mallory's sense of risk had been shaped by his years
0:22:18 > 0:22:20spent on the Western Front.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24In a sense, for that whole generation,
0:22:24 > 0:22:29it's an obvious reality that the war was the backdrop of their lives.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34At some level, they had seen so much death that it had no hold on them.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38I think life mattered less than the moments of being alive.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43And I think that is how they are able to accept
0:22:43 > 0:22:45the level of risk that actually Everest demanded.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Dawn brings no news of Mallory and Irvine.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Noel and his porters scan the peak for any sign of the men.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00A search party is sent to the highest camp.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Noel's camera captures the extraordinary scenes that unfold.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11For me, the most powerful sequence in the film is
0:23:11 > 0:23:15when they are waiting at the lower camp, waiting for men to return.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18And receipt tiny little figures assembling blankets
0:23:18 > 0:23:19in the form of a cross.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24The figures are the search party,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28and the cross is a pre-arranged signal.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32A symbol for, you know, effectively all hope is lost.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35You know, the men have died. There is no hope of rescue.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42There is one figure staying by the...
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Just the way that he slumped down in the snow.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48God, this is heartbreaking.
0:23:53 > 0:23:59It's very moving to see this, even, you know, almost 100 years later.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02As the moment where people knew, finally,
0:24:02 > 0:24:03no-one else was coming down.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09It must have been a crushing blow for Noel behind the camera.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13He invested this money in taking a film of this expedition
0:24:13 > 0:24:15and all of a sudden, he is behind the camera thinking,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18"Oh, no, tragedy has happened."
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Noel then films Sherpas laying out a responding message
0:24:21 > 0:24:23to the search party above.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27So it is six blankets laid in threes. Rows of blankets.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31The message, "Abandon all hope. Come on down."
0:24:31 > 0:24:34And it's like they are laying out bodies in the snow, these blankets.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37It's beautiful, it's moving, it's terrible.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Mallory's body was found in 1999.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Irvine's remains on the mountain.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51It's unknown whether they reached the summit.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57The great Everest expedition of 1924, so certain of success,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59has ended in tragedy.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Noel's hopes of being the man to film
0:25:04 > 0:25:06the climbing of Everest are dashed.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Looming large is the massive £10,000 outlay that needs recouping.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19The pressure on him to make a successful film,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22particularly in 1924, was intense.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26He had to recoup that investment and he had to have a hit.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30The challenge is for Noel is the expectation is victory,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32and the reality is death.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36His story has gone from being this incredible epic success
0:25:36 > 0:25:40to being a eulogy for the death of Mallory and Irvine.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43He is fretful. Is it going to be successful?
0:25:44 > 0:25:46To make back the money,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Noel hit upon an extraordinary way to publicise the film.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56He comes up with this scheme to get seven monks to come out
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and accompany the film at its opening.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Here you have Tibetan monks who looked glorious
0:26:03 > 0:26:06playing tunes on human thigh bones.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09How could you not want to see that?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The so called Dancing Lamas that accompanied Noel's film
0:26:12 > 0:26:14were the talk of Britain.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19But news of this stunt, together with some of the scenes
0:26:19 > 0:26:23depicted in the film, was not received well in Tibet.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25The Tibetans are furious.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30These monks have been reduced, in their mind, to a carnival show.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Their religion has been insulted.
0:26:32 > 0:26:38This affair, the Dancing Lamas, so offended the Tibetans that they
0:26:38 > 0:26:44refused any permission for future expeditions into Tibet.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Thanks to Noel's film and its publicity, the British would be
0:26:49 > 0:26:53denied further access to Everest for nearly a decade.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04When Tibet readmitted Britain in 1933,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08they found the Himalayan game had changed.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12The great problem for the Mount Everest Committee in the '30s
0:27:12 > 0:27:15is that other people, other countries, damned them,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18have shown up on the scene wanting to climb the Himalayan giant.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21There's lots of interest from Germany and Austria.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24There is interest from America. They want to come and play as well.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Nazi Germany launched its first large-scale expedition
0:27:31 > 0:27:33to the Himalayas in 1934.
0:27:34 > 0:27:40It's target was Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest of the 8,000m peaks,
0:27:40 > 0:27:41in what is modern day Pakistan.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46The expedition was financed by the Nazi state.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52The film, introduced by the Nazi Reichsportsfuhrer,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54left no doubt why they were here.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58IN GERMAN:
0:28:04 > 0:28:08They are there in order to further the standing of the German nation
0:28:08 > 0:28:14driven by a sense of competition with the other great
0:28:14 > 0:28:17mountaineering nations, first and foremost, the British.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21German mountaineers had come to believe that they could
0:28:21 > 0:28:25elevate their nation's status during the disastrous aftermath
0:28:25 > 0:28:27of the First World War.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35To the Germans, the First World War left a deeper imprint
0:28:35 > 0:28:38on their mountaineering practice than it had even for the British.
0:28:38 > 0:28:44And mountaineering is clearly seen as a tool to regain German
0:28:44 > 0:28:45standing as a nation.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49It becomes official policy of the German
0:28:49 > 0:28:52and Austrian Alpine Association.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54The German and Austrian Alpine Association
0:28:54 > 0:28:58soon aligned itself with Germany's rising right wing.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03A Jewish section is expelled from the German Alpine
0:29:03 > 0:29:09club in the early 1920s. These are sort of proto-Nazi policies.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14So it becomes associated with fascist politics early on.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15In the 1920s,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Germany and Austria were home to the biggest climbing club in the world.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26This explosion in mountaineering's popularity saw a new genre of film
0:29:26 > 0:29:30flourish, called bergfilme, or mountain films.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35The Holy Mountain was one of these films -
0:29:35 > 0:29:38tales of heroism and love set against the Alps.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44It wasn't long before bergfilme was also drawn into the Nazi sphere.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50The Holy Mountain was notable for the debut of its female star -
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Leni Riefenstahl.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Riefenstahl was a former dancer who became a leading lady
0:29:56 > 0:29:58in bergfilme in the '20s and '30s.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05In 1932, she directed her first mountain film, The Blue Light.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Riefenstahll's film - like others in the genre - used striking imagery
0:30:12 > 0:30:16to hint at a greater struggle than simply man against mountain.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20The imagery of mountaineering is a really powerful thing,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24and Riefenstahl, I think, really nailed that.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Among The Blue Light's many admirer's was Germany's new
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Reichschancellor, Adolf Hitler.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Hitler employed Riefenstahl to film the Nazi rallies at Nuremburg.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43He also had her film the 1936 Berlin Olympics -
0:30:43 > 0:30:46the great showcase of Nazi values.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Her balletic celebration of the physical form
0:30:50 > 0:30:54harked back to the dancing sequences of her mountain films.
0:30:54 > 0:31:00The quality of her work in the Olympics arose from her experience
0:31:00 > 0:31:02gained in the bergfilme.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04I mean, I think the two are very intimately linked.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07I mean, you can't have the one without the other.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10It was at the Olympics that the Nazi takeover of German
0:31:10 > 0:31:14mountaineering and mountain film was made complete.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Joining Riefenstahl's film was the premier of the Nanga Parbat
0:31:19 > 0:31:20expedition documentary.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25The expedition had been a disaster with ten killed in storms.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Their deaths are presented as heroic sacrifices
0:31:30 > 0:31:31for the fatherland.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37Coffins are shown wrapped in swastikas.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43And the Nazi Reichsportsfurhrer provides his stirring epitaph.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45IN GERMAN:
0:32:07 > 0:32:09The Germans weren't alone in harnessing
0:32:09 > 0:32:11the symbolic power of the Himalayas.
0:32:13 > 0:32:14A group of Britons,
0:32:14 > 0:32:19fearful of Nazi expansion, were about to turn Everest into the star
0:32:19 > 0:32:22of perhaps the greatest publicity stunt of the 1930s.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29In 1933, a camera crew films a British expedition to Everest
0:32:29 > 0:32:32arriving at Karachi, India.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36But this is not mountaineering equipment being unloaded.
0:32:38 > 0:32:39They were aircraft.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43And they were part of an audacious plan to be the first to fly
0:32:43 > 0:32:46over the summit of Mount Everest.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58The absolute crest.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00The pinnacle of the world.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02The last mystery, Blacker.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Well, do realise that you could put Everest on the map in three hours.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09The film portrayed the driving force behind the adventure
0:33:09 > 0:33:12as British pluck and derring-do.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17But forget the pluck, this was propaganda.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21The expedition was led by RAF officer
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Air Commodore Peregrine Fellowes...
0:33:24 > 0:33:26..a start this year. There's not much time...
0:33:26 > 0:33:27..a man who had become fearful
0:33:27 > 0:33:29of the rapidly expanding Nazi Luftwaffe.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34My great-uncle Peregrine had always been
0:33:34 > 0:33:38interested in the development of flight and he felt very,
0:33:38 > 0:33:43very strongly that we were in danger of going into a war with Germany
0:33:43 > 0:33:46totally unprepared in terms of air power.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51This flight over Everest was to be a PR stunt for the Royal Air Force.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54There's a romantic, practical purpose.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57It was to catch the imagination of the public.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59They thought that, you know,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03Everest had always been the great sort of challenge to man.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09The costs were huge - around £1.2 million today.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13This finance came from private backers,
0:34:13 > 0:34:18with a stipulation that would cause the pilots great discomfort -
0:34:18 > 0:34:21that they co-operate fully with the seven-strong camera crew.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27There's quite a few tales about the way the film-makers imposed
0:34:27 > 0:34:30themselves up on the whole business.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33- ..£40 and a guarantee.- Splendid!
0:34:33 > 0:34:37Here's poor old Per having to act enthusiasm on the telephone.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41You could sort of see what agony he was in, can't you, really?
0:34:41 > 0:34:45He couldn't stand publicity. He absolutely hated it.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The film-makers shadowed the pilots as they crossed India to
0:34:48 > 0:34:50their final base south of Nepal.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Two customised aircraft based on cutting-edge British technology
0:34:55 > 0:34:59set off to attempt a record-breaking flight.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02That they hated doing. When they were all waving their hats.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04They said it was absolutely ghastly.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06HE CHUCKLES
0:35:06 > 0:35:08Of course, the Englishman, you can imagine...
0:35:08 > 0:35:11"More enthusiasm, chaps! Come on!"
0:35:12 > 0:35:15While Air Commodore Fellows awaited news from the ground,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18MacIntyre piloted the second aircraft.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25What these men were doing had the ring of a suicide mission.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29To save weight, they would not be carrying parachutes.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Even if you bailed out, nobody would know where you were.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37There was no communication.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42A mad exploit, going up and an open cockpit plane in a heated suit.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45It should have never worked. It was mad.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48The vicious air currents the planes hit above the Himalayas
0:35:48 > 0:35:51are captured in the jolting camerawork.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53As they were approaching Everest...
0:35:55 > 0:35:57..on the southern flanks of Everest,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01they found themselves caught in this tremendous downdraft.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06McIntyre's aircraft was nearly dashed on the mountain side,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09barely cresting Everest's southern ridge.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14He describes the event as experiencing a terrific bump.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18Like passing over and explosives factory when it explodes.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22The other aircraft made it over the summit
0:36:22 > 0:36:24and got the crucial shots.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31How extraordinary must that have been knowing that no human being
0:36:31 > 0:36:33had ever seen this site?
0:36:34 > 0:36:39None of the climbers, nobody had ever seen Everest from this angle.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42I mean, it's really...
0:36:42 > 0:36:43unbelievable.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Both aircraft returned unscathed.
0:36:51 > 0:36:52Did you get that?
0:36:54 > 0:36:57- What was it like?- All right.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01The film, eventually called Wings Over Everest,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04was a huge success and would win an Oscar.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09For Air Commodore Fellows, the real success would be evident
0:37:09 > 0:37:12when Britain would have to fight its war years later.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15It did achieve its goal.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21I mean, after that, investment in air power did change substantially
0:37:21 > 0:37:22over the next few years.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26And we did have a fighting air force by the time war was declared.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31But there was another aspect to the Everest flight that makes it
0:37:31 > 0:37:33central to the epic era of mountaineering.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41As well as the film they shot, the pilots took extensive aerial
0:37:41 > 0:37:44photographs of the unknown southern approaches to the mountain.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49As we shall see, in time these photographs would be
0:37:49 > 0:37:53vital in planning a route by which the mountain could be climbed.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03For the rest of the 1930s, however, while Britain had captured
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Everest from the air, it could not conquer it from the ground.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13Expeditions to Everest in 1933 and 1935 ended in failure.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20These were smaller affairs than the great expeditions of the 1920s.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22Neither had official cameramen.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Interest at home was fading.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31The Germans returned twice more to Nanga Parbat.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Even with Luftwaffe supply drops, these expeditions also failed.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44But the films made of them continued to serve Nazi propaganda.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51In 1938, a final pre-war British expedition to Everest joined
0:38:51 > 0:38:55the other British efforts of the decade in failure.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58These were all truly dreadful failures,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01long forgotten and overlooked expeditions.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05But in a way, they had become symbols of the impotence of England
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and Britain on the eve of Hitler's war.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12As war broke out, Everest and the Himalayas'
0:39:12 > 0:39:16other 8,000m peaks remained unclimbed.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21Europe's climbing elite was drafted into specialist mountain units
0:39:21 > 0:39:23to fight from the Alps to the Caucuses.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31The violence didn't reach the Himalayas.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33But when the fighting stopped,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37the quest for the so-called 8,000-ers would become a race.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41The whole political map changes. Absolutely fundamentally.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43In all kinds of ways.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49In 1947, India and Pakistan were granted independence
0:39:49 > 0:39:51by a Britain weakened by war.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56In 1950, the Chinese invaded Tibet,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00forcing Nepal to open up for the first time.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03And they said, "Well, we will open our doors to the West."
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Nepal didn't want to be swallowed up by China or India.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11From now on, the British would have no control over who could climb
0:40:11 > 0:40:13in what was once their raj.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19The 14 8,000m peaks were open for business to all comers.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26And in 1950, a French expedition became the first to climb
0:40:26 > 0:40:28an 8,000m peak - Annapurna.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33By climbing the tenth highest of the 8,000-ers,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36a psychological barrier had been broken.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42The first ascent of an 8,000-metre peak was a kind of signal that,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45you know, it was possible to get to the top of big mountains.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48What nobody had achieved before the war was now starting to happen.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51There is a fundamental understanding that these things are going
0:40:51 > 0:40:53to be climbed, and soon.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56And if you don't get on with it, you're going to miss out.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02French success on Annapurna was especially alarming for the British.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Nepal hadn't just opened up a route to Annapurna,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08but to the southern slopes of Everest.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14With Tibet occupied, this was now the only way to reach the mountain.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19And in 1952, the unthinkable happened...
0:41:20 > 0:41:25The Nepalese granted access to Everest to a Swiss expedition.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27The film the Swiss made highlighted
0:41:27 > 0:41:29the expertise of their climbers.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Whereas most of the nations of Europe were
0:41:33 > 0:41:37fighting each other during the Second World War, the Swiss were neutral.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40So there was in lot more climbing going on in Switzerland
0:41:40 > 0:41:42than anywhere else.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44And the Swiss nearly did it.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50They nearly did it. They got to 8,500 metres. A mere 300 metres.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52God, they were so close!
0:41:52 > 0:41:57It would have been utter...dismay.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00The thought that the Swiss might gazump the Brits.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02Their mountain.
0:42:02 > 0:42:03Britain secured a permit to
0:42:03 > 0:42:06attempt Everest through Nepal the following year.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12The competition to climb the mountain was entering overdrive.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15There was this sense that there was an international race
0:42:15 > 0:42:17going on for who could get up Everest.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21That Nepalese government was giving permission for one country
0:42:21 > 0:42:26each year to have a go. In 1952, it's the Swiss. In 1953, was the British.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29In 1954, it was going to be the French.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32In 1955, it might have been the Americans or the Swiss.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35There were requests coming in from all over the world.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43As the British planned their 1953 expedition,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45they knew it was now or never.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51The pressure was intense on the expedition leader,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53John Hunt, another military man.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56He was a sort of army officer who was at that point,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01working for Montgomery in France. You know, he'd been through the war.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06He was very, very successful soldier. He understood logistics.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08An army marches on its stomach.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13He accepted hook, line, and sinker the notion that we have got to
0:43:13 > 0:43:17get to the summit by whatever means are necessary to get there.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23Hunt used the film and photography taken by the Wings Over Everest
0:43:23 > 0:43:28pilots in 1933 to help plan the route up Everest's southern flanks.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34A cameraman records the expedition's journey to base camp.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38But this ascent would be filmed differently to those before.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44As the climbers progress higher on the mountain, one of them,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47George Lowe, becomes chief cameraman.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52He was given a little camera. It was called a gun camera.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54These sort of a little robust cameras that were actually
0:43:54 > 0:43:58developed in the war attached to the wings of fighter planes
0:43:58 > 0:44:02trained on machine guns so they could sort of record footage.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04In George Lowe's hands,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08these lightweight gun cameras mean for the first time filming can take
0:44:08 > 0:44:10place on the higher reaches of the mountain.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18At around 7,500 metres up,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22the expedition meets its greatest challenge -
0:44:22 > 0:44:23the Lhotse face...
0:44:25 > 0:44:29..a 1,200 metre slope of ice.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Hunt plans to haul nearly a tonne of supplies up this frozen face
0:44:33 > 0:44:35to support his final assault teams.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40George Lowe and his team are tasked with cutting the steps
0:44:40 > 0:44:41the porters will follow.
0:44:43 > 0:44:49Getting up the Lhotse face really was sort of epic of tenacity.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52The big fear for any expedition was that you wouldn't get up
0:44:52 > 0:44:56in time before the monsoon.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58Struggling with exhaustion,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Lowe and his team fall behind schedule.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03With the expedition in the balance,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Hunt climbs up to Lowe.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08There was something slightly mischievous sometimes
0:45:08 > 0:45:11about George Lowe's filming because he sort of
0:45:11 > 0:45:14liked to show people, you know, in desperate straits.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Here was Hunt coming up to chivvy him along and he is saying,
0:45:17 > 0:45:19You know, actually you're exhausted.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22You know, you just see that look on his face.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23You know, "George, stop filming."
0:45:25 > 0:45:28To break the deadlock on Lhotse,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31Hunt orders the use of some of the expedition's precious oxygen.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36The reinvigorated team complete their task, and supplies are
0:45:36 > 0:45:41ferried up to the South Col, the jumping off point for the summit.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43This was the big carry.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47This is a long chain of Sherpa porters carrying supplies up -
0:45:47 > 0:45:51oxygen, tents, food - to the South Col.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56The moment has come for the assault team to leave to the higher camps.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Hunt selects the two climbers he feels are strongest
0:46:01 > 0:46:03and best acclimatised.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08They are a summit team unlike any the British have sent before.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12One is a New Zealander, Edmund Hillary,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15and the other a Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21They leave for the highest camp and the summit attempt...
0:46:21 > 0:46:24but this is where the filming stops.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27At the last minute, Ed Hillary said,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29"All right, go figure rucksacks, boys,
0:46:29 > 0:46:31"and get rid of anything which is non-essential."
0:46:31 > 0:46:35One of those non-essential things turned out to be the film camera.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40And so even though George Lowe went up to the high camp,
0:46:40 > 0:46:41he didn't film it.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Out of sight of the cameras, Hillary
0:46:44 > 0:46:49and Tenzing will have a hidden advantage on their summit attempt -
0:46:49 > 0:46:52a crucial scientific edge provided by the expedition's
0:46:52 > 0:46:54physiologist, Griffith Pugh.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59About 20 years ago, I interviewed most of the team who was
0:46:59 > 0:47:02alive then, and when I went to see the doctor, well,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05he's a surgeon, Michael Ward, the first thing he said to me -
0:47:05 > 0:47:07the most important person,
0:47:07 > 0:47:12the man who really made Everest a success in '53, was Griffith Pugh.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Griffith Pugh had studied the physiological reasons
0:47:16 > 0:47:19why previous Everest expeditions had failed.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24As Hillary and Tenzing began their final climb, they were using
0:47:24 > 0:47:28oxygen sets with double the flow rate of previous designs.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33This was thanks to Pugh's research into why previous oxygen sets
0:47:33 > 0:47:34had not been effective.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40The sets had been developed from high-altitude flying,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and Griffith realised absolutely immediately that pilots
0:47:43 > 0:47:47are sitting their cockpits not carrying the sets,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50whereas climbers are taking strenuous exercise.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54So if pilots need two to 2.5 litres of oxygen,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58it's obvious that climbers must need much more to get any benefit.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03190,000 litres of bottled oxygen were taken
0:48:03 > 0:48:05to Everest by the British -
0:48:05 > 0:48:08four times as many as any previous expedition.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Along with oxygen,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15the other fundamental advantage Pugh gave Hillary and Tenzing
0:48:15 > 0:48:19was equipment to melt large quantities of snow into water.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23What Griffith realised was, apart from sweating and evaporation,
0:48:23 > 0:48:28climbers also lose water because they breathe out hot,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32wet air and they breathe in dry mountain air.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35So they lose water from their lungs.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39In 1952, the Swiss had been reduced to melting snow over
0:48:39 > 0:48:42a candle for water at their highest camp.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46When Hillary and Norgay became the first men to
0:48:46 > 0:48:51stand on the summit of Everest on the 29th of May, 1953...
0:48:52 > 0:48:56..Hillary was so well hydrated that he was forced to answer
0:48:56 > 0:48:57the call of nature.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02Hillary, talking about having to pee on the summit.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04He had to have a pee on the summit! Yes, good point.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10I mean, that's incredible. Because he is so well hydrated.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15I mean, you cannot overstate the importance of that issue.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17The day after Hillary and Tenzing summited the mountain,
0:49:17 > 0:49:22cameras at the lower camps spot three figures returning.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26It's the two climbers along with George Lowe.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29No-one knows if the mountain has been climbed.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31This is kind of you know, one of the most famous
0:49:31 > 0:49:35scenes in mountaineering film.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39And what makes it so great is that it is spontaneous.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Hunt doesn't know. Can you imagine?
0:49:42 > 0:49:43I mean, he is the expedition leader
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and he doesn't know they have summited.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49And all of a sudden, George, who's at the front of the rope,
0:49:49 > 0:49:50starts putting his thumb in the air
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and pointing to the summit with his ice axe.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54You know, "We've done it! We've done it!"
0:49:54 > 0:50:01Hunt leaps on Hillary and just leaps on Tenzing.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06You get to see the relief. What a wonderful piece of film. Ah!
0:50:06 > 0:50:09The highest mountain in the world has been climbed.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12The timing was impeccable.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16News was rushed back to Britain on the day
0:50:16 > 0:50:18of Queen Elizabeth's coronation.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21This thing turned into something which nobody could've predicted.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24The fact of these things coming together at the same time
0:50:24 > 0:50:27sort of turbo-charged the expedition
0:50:27 > 0:50:30and it was all over the newspapers all over the world.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34The film was released with the triumphant title,
0:50:34 > 0:50:36The Conquest Of Everest.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41George Lowe's gun camera photography brought home the thrill
0:50:41 > 0:50:45and danger of high altitude mountaineering like never before.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48A stirring commentary ramped up the heroics.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53'Hillary and Tenzing stood on the summit of Everest.'
0:50:54 > 0:50:56'The top of the world has been reached.'
0:50:59 > 0:51:02It was a blockbuster success.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04This was the story of the moment
0:51:04 > 0:51:08and everything about Everest was selling in enormous numbers.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12The film's climactic image was the summit photograph
0:51:12 > 0:51:15of Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa,
0:51:15 > 0:51:17flying the flags, not just of Britain,
0:51:17 > 0:51:22but of the United Nations, Nepal and India.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26It was a story for a new Britain - no longer the head of an empire,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28but a new commonwealth.
0:51:28 > 0:51:29This was the period
0:51:29 > 0:51:33where Britain was trying to sell the idea of the Commonwealth.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38And so they liked the fact that this is sort of a rainbow coalition.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42The foreign office occasionally
0:51:42 > 0:51:46sponsored shows of the film abroad.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49They certainly saw it as British propaganda.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53It's their attempt to say, "This is Britishness today."
0:51:53 > 0:51:55It's not just white.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59It includes all the peoples of the Queen's dominions
0:51:59 > 0:52:01and territories and so forth.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07Britain had taken the ultimate prize in international mountaineering.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12But it had only returned with still photographs of the summiteers.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16There was still prestige to be found among the 12 remaining
0:52:16 > 0:52:218,000-ers, including being the first to film from one of their peaks.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25The same year Britain climbed Everest,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28the Germans and Austrians returned to Nanga Parbat.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33The expedition film was German propaganda of a new sort...
0:52:35 > 0:52:37..not to promote Nazi ideals,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41but the fruits of the post-war German economic miracle.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44It depicts tents made by Deuter.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47It depicts Lowenbrau beer.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52It depicts communications devices by Telefunken and so on.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55A strategy that nowadays is very common
0:52:55 > 0:52:58and that's called product placement.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00The flag the Germans took with them to the summit
0:53:00 > 0:53:03was the flag of Pakistan.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06But it was in the German flag and it was not the Austrian flag, so
0:53:06 > 0:53:14a clear dissociation from previous nationalistically tainted events.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17As the climbers leave for their summit attempt,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20like the British on Everest, the cameras can go no higher.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25This wasn't going to stop the film-makers from visualising
0:53:25 > 0:53:26the climb's finale.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31When it came to making the movie, they did something which
0:53:31 > 0:53:34nobody else had done, which is they reconstructed it.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37What is interesting is that it wasn't accurate.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42Hermann Buhl famously crawled to the summit of Nanga Parbat
0:53:42 > 0:53:45on his hands and knees.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Fuelled by amphetamines. Totally exhausted.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53In the movie, you see this rather nice, steady progress of this
0:53:53 > 0:53:56guy with his ski poles, silhouetted against the sun.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01The film was made by Hans Ertl, a veteran cameraman of
0:54:01 > 0:54:06pre-war German mountain films, and a former lover of Leni Riefenstahl.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Hans Ertl had learned his craft from the father
0:54:10 > 0:54:13of German mountain films, Dr Arnold Fanck.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18A lot of play between mountain and light and shadow,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21it's the filmic language of the mountain film
0:54:21 > 0:54:22that Hans Ertl was trained in.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26While German mountaineering had thrown off
0:54:26 > 0:54:29its pre-war political associations,
0:54:29 > 0:54:31German film-makers were still in thrall
0:54:31 > 0:54:33to the aesthetic of the 1930s.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40German success on Nanga Parbat was followed a year later
0:54:40 > 0:54:43by an Italian expedition to K2,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46the second highest of the 8,000-metre peaks.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53The Italians wanted to outdo the British on Everest.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59K2, they said, was the Himalaya's most difficult peak.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02And they were determined to not only reach the summit,
0:55:02 > 0:55:03but to film it.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06They knew from the beginning they were going to make a movie
0:55:06 > 0:55:10and the thing that's the summiteers wanted to do,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14in particular Achille Compagnoni, was to film on the summit.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18The Italian government had seen the prestige Britain had taken
0:55:18 > 0:55:20from Everest, and financed the biggest,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23most expensive expedition ever.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29Over 700 men helped get the Italian climbers to the summit.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35These are the first ever moving images from the peak
0:55:35 > 0:55:36of an 8,000-metre mountain.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43You don't see very much. It looks pretty dark. They look very cold.
0:55:43 > 0:55:48It looks pretty miserable. But this is it. This is the real McCoy.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Lead climber Achille Compagnoni removed his glove
0:55:51 > 0:55:55to operate the camera, and lost two fingers to frostbite.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00But these were the all-important images the Italians had come for.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04When the film was sold, this was very much part of it. You've seen Everest.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07You've seen the film on Nanga Parbat, you've seen the Annapurna film,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10but now were actually going to give you some footage
0:56:10 > 0:56:12of what it is like on the top of an 8,000-metre peak.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15The expedition's success was heralded as a moment
0:56:15 > 0:56:20of national healing for a country still confronting its fascist past.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23The welcome as the Italians got as they came off the boat
0:56:23 > 0:56:25having climbed K2 was just staggering.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29I mean, here was something that was spirited
0:56:29 > 0:56:31and joyful was a little bit of danger.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33And they were leading the world.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35And that meant a great deal, I think.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41After Everest and K2, the floodgates opened in the Himalayas.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47Improved technology and physiology meant that by the end of the 1950s,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51all but one of the 14 8,000-metre peaks had been climbed.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58And in 1963, the Americans did what the British could not -
0:56:58 > 0:57:02brought back film from the summit of the highest, Everest.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07The cameras followed an historic traverse of the mountain
0:57:07 > 0:57:10ascending one route, and descending another.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14But for the superpowers,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17mountaineering's prestige was fading.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22The Americans climbed Everest in 1963. They did its brilliantly.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Fated by Kennedy, but, um...
0:57:26 > 0:57:28You know, there was a sense, well,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30"That's that. We've done that.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32"Now let's get on with this going to the moon thing
0:57:32 > 0:57:35"cos that's going to be the next big thing."
0:57:36 > 0:57:40Even Everest paled in comparison to the new frontier of exploration.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49And when in 1964, a Chinese team climbed the last of the 8,000-ers,
0:57:49 > 0:57:54Shishapangma, the curtain fell on the epic era of mountaineering.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03Today, more people climb mountains than ever.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10But the symbolic power of the 14 great 8,000-ers is forgotten.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13The difference between modern mountaineering
0:58:13 > 0:58:18and the mountaineering from the '20s to the end of the 1950s, early '60s,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21is that in those days it was a national event.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25People were able to get funding to go to big mountains by saying,
0:58:25 > 0:58:29"This is all about our country planting our flag on the top."
0:58:29 > 0:58:33It was seen in this bigger nationalistic context.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35That is gone now.
0:58:35 > 0:58:37And in the digital era,
0:58:37 > 0:58:42film and film-making no longer plays the key role it once did.
0:58:42 > 0:58:46Nowadays, everyone thinks he or she is a film-maker cos everyone
0:58:46 > 0:58:49can take film on a camera this big.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52You don't take out an ice axe and unravel some flags.
0:58:52 > 0:58:55When you climb a mountain now, you're on a mobile phone,
0:58:55 > 0:58:59you take a selfie and you instantly whizz it back to your family at home.