At Senior House Assembly on Friday 27th September, Academic-in-Residence Richard McMillan gave a talk on George Mallory and the first attempt to ascend Everest, which occurred 100 years ago.
Mallory’s love of climbing manifested itself from an early age and it was not long before he was making regular visits to the Alps. He soon established himself as one of Britain’s foremost mountaineers. When, after the First World War, attention began to be given to an attempt on Everest, it was obvious that Mallory should be part of an expedition. There were three expeditions in all, in 1921, 1922 and 1924. These were all bedevilled by a multitude of problems: avalanches, desertion of porters, death of porters on one occasion, lack of suitable clothing, appalling weather and the need to carry heavy oxygen cylinders at high altitudes. Mallory was honest about both the dangers of trying to ascend Everest and also about why he was prepared to make an attempt. His famous answer, when asked why he was making the attempt, was disarmingly simple: ‘Because it’s there.’ By the time of the final attempt, in 1924, the party were at least clearer about possible routes to the top.
Mallory and his companion Sandy Irvine may well have reached the summit. There is no means of knowing, unless the film camera which the two were carrying is ever retrieved and it proves possible to develop the film. What is certain is that the pair lost their lives on the mountain. It has been said with justice that an attempt to ascend a mountain can only be considered successful if those making the attempt return alive and sadly in the case of Mallory and Irvine this did not happen.
The tragic story of this first attempt on the world’s highest mountain illustrates both Mallory’s sheer willpower in the face of overwhelming adversity and also perhaps the dangers of an unhealthy obsession with achieving specific goals, of which Mallory himself was all too aware.
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