Pièce 28 - Letter from George to Ruth Mallory, 22 August 1921 [confirms North Col route to summit]

Ouvrir Document numérique originale

Zone d'identification

Cote

MCPP/GM/3/1/1921/28

Titre

Letter from George to Ruth Mallory, 22 August 1921 [confirms North Col route to summit]

Date(s)

  • 22 August 1921 (Création/Production)

Niveau de description

Pièce

Étendue matérielle et support

1 item, paper

Zone du contexte

Nom du producteur

Histoire archivistique

Zone du contenu et de la structure

Portée et contenu

Letter to Ruth Mallory, written on ‘Mount Everest Expedition’ Letterhead

Brief Summary
Pleased with his photographs and hopes to make some money giving lectures on his return home. He had been unwell and stayed in camp when Bullock had gone on alone but was unable to find a way through the valley. Morshead had arrived and the next day he el better so they joined up with Bullock. Describes their clims, camps and troubles with rations. They were successful in finding the route to the North Col and therefore the route to the summit.

Detailed Summary
He was pleased with his photography efforts and printing which would make excellent slides for lectures. Asks her to keep the prints very carefully. He had written to Hinks suggesting he should give some lectures during the winter. He would let the Committee consider the financial arrangements. Asks her if she would like an American tour. They had received no English mail since 21 July [one month prior] and wonders if floods in Tibet had caused the delay. Says he was no longer in poor health and suspects he had tonsilitis.

Bullock had gone off alone reconnoitring and Morshead had arrived the same morning. He had received a chit from Bullock explaining that the valley would not lead to Everest. He spent the day in bed feeling weak, but the next morning was feeling much stronger. Describes his walk up the first valley to the left with Morshead. He didn’t expect to find a valley leading directly to the north col at the foot of the ridge they wanted to climb. He judged they might find a good way to Everest in that direction.

15 August - Continued trekking with Bullock, met the porters, brought down the tents, and took them a long way up the valley which he and Morshead had reconnoitred. There were complications in the march which caused delays and they ending up short of where he wanted to be with no view of their way. They had an uncomfortable camp perched on a stony hillside with snow falling persistently all evening.

16 August - They followed the ridge above them to the top of a small peak (20,500 ft) which was a 1,700 ft rise in an hour an a quarter. They had a good view point and had a clear hour for photography. They had vague hopes of reaching their objective which was a distant snow col in direct line with the north peak, but then had to descend nearly 1,000 ft and it was bad going over a big glacier. There was thick mist all round them and he felt very, tired with a nasty headache. As it was clearly hopeless they turned back. They reached camp late and it was snowing persistently but they knew where they wanted to go and how to get there.

17 August - A very hesitating move with much discussion of what they might and might not do. The rationing arrangement had broken down badly and they were short of food. He blamed it on the incompetence of the sirdar [sardar] at their base camp. They decided to go on next day with only one porter and sent the rest down to the camp below. They hoped to reach their snow col while the snow was still hard but it was a dim hope because they knew fresh snow had fallen and it was always difficult to estimate how much. They needed their snowshoes despite them being heavy on a long march and having to lift a considerable amount of snow on the snowshoe and it being worse for the leader than anyone following.

They reached the col where there were snow covered rocks above the icefall. It was not an agreeable way of passing time. For most of the time they were enveloped in a thin mist which obscured the view and made, one world of snow and sky.

Morshead, who knew the hottest heat of the plains in India, had said that he had never felt any heat so intolerable as this. They continued plodding on and needed a tremendous and continually conscious effort of the lungs. Up the steep final slopes he found it necessary to stop and breath as hard as he could for a short space in order to gain sufficient energy to push up a few more steps. Bullock and the porter had struggled on behind him and Morshead fell out near the top but re-joined them on the col. The clouds hid the peaks when they got there but the expedition had been a success. As they suspected there was a glacier running north from a cwm under the north east face of Everest. He wished it had been possible to follow it down and find out the secret of its exit. He describes the head of the glacier and that across it lay their way, across easy snow up the other side of the cwm where the approach to the north col, the long wished for goal, could not be difficult nor even long.

As they came down his thoughts were full of this prospect and this success. He didn't know when he had allowed himself so much enjoyment from a personal achievement. This success brought their reconnaissance to an end as they had found the way and they were now planning the attack.

These thoughts were needed during the hours that followed to stimulate the mind as it was the most dismal of processions. Morshead had been cooked going up to the col and later was in a state of collapse. The porters had all left their high camp, leaving three tents standing but they were cold and without provisions so they continued to the base. When daylight failed they missed their way and were compelled to make an arduous ascent up a steep rough hillside. A faint misty moonlight made it possible to step from boulder to boulder but Morshead was compelled to rest at frequent intervals. They continued until 2 am. He came in as fit and strong as ever after a long day in the hills and ate a hearty meal in my dry warm sleeping slack before lying down for untroubled sleep.

He organisation the camps and fuel supply before they went down to the expedition base at Kharta and waited on the weather while organising their push to the summit. He had been told that the monsoon should break at the end of the month and a fine spell should set in with September. [Bad weather ultimately delayed any progress for almost a month].

He was happy and full of the object in front of him although there were many times when his mind was full of her and home.

The expedition was short of candles and a little oil lamp constructed out of a vaseline pot was his light.

Évaluation, élimination et calendrier de conservation

Accroissements

Mode de classement

Zone des conditions d'accès et d'utilisation

Conditions d’accès

Conditions de reproduction

Langue des documents

Écriture des documents

Notes de langue et graphie

Caractéristiques matérielle et contraintes techniques

Instruments de recherche

Zone des sources complémentaires

Existence et lieu de conservation des originaux

Existence et lieu de conservation des copies

Unités de description associées

Descriptions associées

Zone des notes

Note

Sardar [Sirdar]

A Sardar or Sirdar is a Sherpa mountain guide who manages all the other Sherpas in a climbing expedition or trekking group; Sirdar is the most common spelling used in the majority of English-language mountaineering literature. The Sirdar is typically the most experienced guide and can usually speak English fluently. The Sirdar's responsibilities include:

assigning responsibilities to the other guides
hiring and paying local porters
purchasing local food during the trek/expedition
making the final decision regarding route choices
handling other trip logistics such as dealing with government officials or police.

The normal progression to Sirdar usually involves starting as a porter, working their way up to being a kitchen assistant, on to an assistant guide and then finally to Sirdar. Sirdars do not normally carry loads but will do so on occasion such as carrying the pack of a client who is having difficulties from altitude sickness. The appellation is sometimes qualified with expeditions having an overall Sirdar but with other individuals in subsidiary roles such as base-camp sirdar and ice-fall sirdar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardar_(Sherpa)

Identifiant(s) alternatif(s)

Former Reference

F/GM/III/1

Mots-clés

Mots-clés - Sujets

Mots-clés - Lieux

Mots-clés - Genre

Zone du contrôle de la description

Identifiant de la description

Identifiant du service d'archives

Règles et/ou conventions utilisées

Statut

Niveau de détail

Dates de production, de révision, de suppression

Langue(s)

Écriture(s)

Sources

Document numérique (Matrice) zone des droits

Document numérique (Référence) zone des droits

Document numérique (Vignette) zone des droits

Zone des entrées