Read Everest - The First Ascent: How a Champion of Science Helped to Conquer the Mountain Online
Authors: Harriet Tuckey
My father’s funeral in 1994 at Lilley Church near Putteridge, where he married Josephine in 1939, overflowed with mourners. Even Sir John Hunt came. During the eulogy, it was not the tributes to his professional achievements that drew special warmth and recognition from the congregation but the stories of his eccentricity. It was the tales of Griffith’s “never conventional and sometimes bizarre” behavior, his “assertive and at times impressionistic” driving, and the idea that he “never suffered fools gladly—indeed, never suffered fools at all” that caused murmurs of affection to ripple through the little church. Do we all enjoy a joke at a funeral? I wondered. Are people simply amused by eccentricity? Or is there a recognition at some deeper level that eccentricity is a manifestation of independence of mind, a refusal to compromise that commands both respect and affection?
I wept at my father’s funeral. The people around me supposed this to be a sign of a daughter’s natural grief, but my tears were not tears of grief. They were tears of anger. Anger with my father, and anger with myself for the fact that we had never achieved a proper relationship with each other. When I started writing the story of his life, I was still feeling resentful. Now, having reached the end, I am no longer angry, but grateful to Griffith for having provided me with an intensely satisfying project that has taken several years to complete—his part to be the outstanding scientist and the worthy subject, mine to be his chronicler.
The pleasure of learning about his unique talent and recording his unusual life has banished the last vestige of umbrage from his daughter’s unforgiving heart and replaced it with a hope that, had he been alive, he would not have been too displeased with my efforts.
NOTES
AC = Alpine Club Archives
BBC = BBC Film Archive
BL = British Library
BOA = British Olympic Association Archives
BSC = University of Birmingham Special Collections
GP = Griffith Pugh (Lewis Griffith Creswell Evans Pugh)
HP = Hillary papers, Hillary, Edmund Percival, Sir. Personal papers. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS 2010/1.
HTP = Private Papers belonging to Harriet Tuckey and family
IOC = International Olympic Committee
IWM = Imperial War Museum, London
MRC = Medical Research Council Head Office
MSCL = Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD, USA
NIMR = National Institute for Medical Research
PP = Pugh Papers (Lewis Griffith Cresswell Evans [LGCE] Pugh Papers, MSS 0491. MSCL)
RGS = Royal Geographical Society
RS = Royal Society
TNA = The National Archive, Kew, London
UCSD = University of California, San Diego
War Diary = Pugh’s diaries of his experiences during World War II, in HTP
WL = Wellcome Library
PUGH’S DIARIES
War Diaries 1940–43—HTP and IWM
Cho Oyu Diary 1952—PP 33.3 and HTP
Everest Diary 1953—PP 35.13 and HTP
Antarctic Diary—1957–58—PP 3.8
Silver Hut Diary 1960–61 (Diary of the Himalayan Mountaineering and Scientific Expedition 1960–61)—PP 64.1 and HTP
ENDNOTES
Introduction: The Anniversary Lecture
1 It is “politically incorrect” to use the word conquest to describe the ascent of great mountains. Mountains, it is argued, are not conquered, they are simply climbed. However, I use the word conquest to convey something quite different—the triumph over human frailty and inadequacy in pursuit of a difficult goal. As the great climber Alfred Mummery once remarked, “. . . the essence of the sport lies, not in ascending the peak, but in struggling with and overcoming difficulties” (quoted by H. H. Tilman,1948, p. 4).
2 I have not seen a transcript of the speech, so this is not a direct quote, but as I remember it. There were seven major British expeditions to Everest in between World War I and II. There were two major Swiss expeditions in 1952. There were also maverick solo attempts on Everest in 1934, 1947, and 1951, plus a possible Russian attempt in 1952.
3 Hunt sent a copy of this letter to Pugh.
1.
The Man in the Bath
1 Michael Ward kindly described for me his first and subsequent meetings with Pugh during a taped conversation at his house in 2004.
2 See Norton 1925, p. 113. The altitude record set by Lieutenant General Norton (1884–1954) in 1924, of 28,126 feet, was not exceeded until the spring of 1952, when the Swiss reached an estimated 28,210 feet. Whether they actually achieved this height has recently been disputed by Bradford Washburn (see Washburn 2003).
3 See Ruttledge 1934, p. 261. Raymond Greene (1901–1982) was a fashionable society GP doctor to the 1933 Everest expedition, and an enthusiastic climber and member of the Alpine Club. He took a close interest in the problems of altitude on Everest, and worked on improving the oxygen sets beforehand, seeking advice from J. S. Haldane and C. G. Douglas of the Oxford School of Physiology. On the 1933 expedition he took samples of alveolar air (from the bottom of the lung) at 23,000 feet. See, for example, Greene in Ruttledge 1934 and Greene 1934 and Greene 1939.
4 Norton 1925 (I), p. 111. Also see manuscript paper by Pugh, entitled “Everest 1953 Physiological Notes” in RGS/EE/75, The Physiological Effects of Altitude.
5 Norton 1925a, p. 13.
2.
Gallant Failures
1 The seven official British expeditions to Everest took place in 1921, 1922, 1924, 1933, 1935, 1936, and 1938.
2 Ruttledge 1934, p. 2.
3 Tilman 1948, p. 107, H. W. Tilman 1898–1977x9, famous climber and explorer.
4 Tilman 1948, p. 22.
5 Warren 1937, p. 139.
6 Georges Dreyer (1873–1934) was a consultant to the Royal Flying Corps during World War I (this became the RAF in 1918). He also designed the oxygen apparatus used by the Air Service, US Army. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921. Although some of his experiments into exercise capacity at altitude have been described as “years ahead of their time” (see West 2006), he has been largely forgotten. The use of oxygen sets for flying became widespread only in World War I, when advances in aeronautical technology produced more powerful airplanes capable of flying higher than before.
7 This comment was made after George Finch (see note 10) had spoken on oxygen at the RGS in November 1922 (see Finch 1923, p. 199). John Scott Haldane (1860–1936) of the influential Oxford School of Physiology and his colleagues made important discoveries about the relationship between carbon dioxide and the control of breathing. Haldane was famous for saving the lives of miners by proposing the use of canaries in the mines and discovering the cause of “the bends” in divers. Together with C. G. Douglas, he organized one of the earliest high-altitude scientific expeditions to Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1911.
8 For example, Bryan Matthews was quoted in several newspapers, claiming that the combination of cold and oxygen-lack would always defeat them (see RGS/EE/65, press cuttings).
9 Some experimental oxygen was taken on the first expedition by scientist Alexander Kellas, but he died en route to the mountain and it was never used.
10 AC B 13. Farrar Letters 1919. George Ingle Finch (1888–1970) was Professor of Applied Chemistry at Imperial College, London, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1938. Born in Australia and educated in Europe, he developed his climbing skills while studying in Zurich before moving to England in 1912.
11 Finch described his conversion to oxygen in
Mein Kampf für Everest,
published in German (in 1925), recently translated and reissued with editorial comments (see Rodway 2008). See also Unna 1921–22 and West’s articles on Finch (West 2003) and on Dreyer (West 2006).
12 The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough (until 1918, the Royal Air Factory) was the RAF’s main center of research and development in the country. In 1939 Farnborough’s capacity for physiological research was increased with the setting up of the Royal Physiological Laboratory. Later this was transformed into the Centre for Aviation Medicine, led by Bryan Matthews.
13 Finch 1924, p. 293.
14 Finch, Geoffrey Bruce, and Corporal Tejbir demonstrated their superior speed using oxygen when they climbed from Camp Three (21,000 feet) to the North Col (23,000 feet) faster than their porters without oxygen, despite carrying greater weight than their porters (see Finch’s own account in Rodway 2008, p. 141). They passed their porters again climbing from the North Col to the next camp at 25,000 feet. Delayed for a day by bad weather, they gave up their summit attempt two days later when Bruce collapsed after a fault developed in his oxygen set. Making an oxygen-free summit bid earlier on the same expedition, Mallory, Norton, and Somervell stopped at 2:15 p.m. at 26,800 feet because they were climbing too slowly to get to the top and return down to a survivable height for the night. They were exhausted, cold, and desperately thirsty. Michael Ward analyzed their experiences in Ward 2003, p. 80. (See also Unsworth 2000, pp. 85–90, and Finch 1922, p. 418, and Finch 1924, pp. 323–30.)
15 For Finch’s exclusion, see West 2003; see also BL Add 63120 and Russell’s introductory memoir to Finch 1924.
16 Summers 2000, p. 118.
17 Printed in Lunn 2003, p. 72. Noel Odell had been appointed oxygen officer, but delegated responsibility to Irvine.
18 The 1924 expedition was led by Edward Norton, who took on the role after the original leader, Brigadier General Bruce, went down with malaria. Norton appointed Mallory the climbing leader.
19 BL manuscript Add 61139: letter: Mallory to his wife Ruth, April 19, 1924. Norton wrote of how he tried to dissuade Mallory from choosing the inexperienced Irvine as his partner, rather than the seasoned climber Noel Odell, who was also available. Mallory said he did not want to go with Odell because Odell did not “have faith” in the oxygen, and insisted on taking Irvine. See Norton 1925(1), p. 116. Professor Noel Odell (1890–1987) was an academic geologist who worked at Harvard and Cambridge Universities during his career, and was also a renowned climber with an apparently excellent tolerance of high altitude.
20 Magdalen College Archive: Letter: Mallory to his wife Ruth, May 27, 1924.
21 Ibid.
22 Jochen Hemmleb, who searched for Mallory and Irvine’s bodies in 1999, wrote afterward of the “very, very exposed” vertical walls, “intimidating” traverses that upset even experienced climbers, and the “terrifying” ridges that Mallory and Irvine would have had to cope with (see Hemmleb 1999).
23 See Norton 1925a, p. 116 and Summers 2000, p. 230.
24 See Norton 1925a, p. 14.
25 There are many descriptions of Mallory’s last climb. See, for example, Gillman 2000, pp. 246–59, Summers 2000, pp. 235–50, Ward 2003, pp. 97–204, etc.
26 Finch 1939, p. 90.
27 Acclimatization enables climbers to survive and climb at heights that cause the unacclimatized (such as airline passengers exposed to sudden loss of cabin pressure) rapidly to lose consciousness and die within a few minutes.
28 Longstaff 1934, p. 103. Thomas George Longstaff (1875–1964) was the first person to climb a summit higher than 22,966 feet, the Himalayan mountain of Trisul, in 1907. He succeeded by climbing 7,000 feet up and back in a single day.
29 Finch 1923, p. 19.
30 Dr. Raymond Greene commented on a talk given at the Alpine Club by Dr. Tom Longstaff (see Longstaff 1934, p. 108).
31 Smythe 1934, p. 443.
32 Odell 1932, pp. 91–95. Odell believed that he acquired “a very high degree of acclimatisation” by “living at an altitude of not less than 23,000 feet for eleven days” on the 1924 Everest expedition.
33 Young 1949, p. 8. Born in 1876 and educated at Marlborough, followed by Cambridge, Geoffrey Winthrop Young established a reputation as a leading climber by making a series of exceptionally difficult Alpine ascents before World War I. In his heyday a witty, dashing figure, reputedly with homosexual leanings, he regularly organized important “meets” at Penn Y Pass in Snowdonia, where top British mountaineers of his generation would join with elite, upcoming youthful climbers (such as George Mallory) for a few days of rock climbing and socializing. Young, whose climbing career was curtailed but not ended when he lost a leg in World War I, was a prolific poet and mountaineering author. He edited the
Alpine Journal
for some years, and remained an influential member of the Alpine Club until he died in 1958. His climbing manual (first published in 1920) was widely regarded as “the quintessential wisdom of mountaineering practice.”
34 Ibid.
35 See Greene’s comments in Ruttledge 1934(I), p. 255.
36 Greene 1974, p. 142.
37 They consulted Dr. S. S. Zilva of the Lister Institute, as indeed had the 1933 expedition under Ruttledge.
38 See Odell’s comments in Tilman 1938, p. 494.
39 Finch 1923, p. 199.
40 See Smythe’s comments in Tilman 1938, p. 491.
41 Longstaff 1923, p. 60.
42 See Hingston’s article in Norton 1925, p. 252. Major Richard William Hingston, Royal Indian Medical Service (1887–1966).
43 See Hingston 1925, p. 11.
44 Young 1921, p. 8 (pp. 8–9 in 1949 edition).
45 From Finch’s diary of the Everest Expedition of 1922, entry for April 12, 1922 (see Rodway 2008, p. 84).
46 AC B 49, Letter Smythe to Dr. C. R. Porter, August 20, 1938.
47 From Finch’s diary of the Everest Expedition of 1922, entry for April 12, 1922 (see Rodway 2008, p. 84).
48 Hillary 1999, p. 69.
49 See Ruttledge 1934, p. 256.
50 Letter, Wakefield to
Alpine Journal,
Vol. 46.248/9 1934, p. 450.
51 See Warren in Ruttledge 1937, p. 218.
52 For example, Hingston wrote after the 1924 expedition, “Elaborate scientific explorations were impossible, and anything involving complicated apparatus was altogether out of the question” (see Hingston 1925, p. 4). Similarly in 1937, Dr. Charles Warren wrote, “Since the main object . . . in 1936 was to climb the mountain . . . no provision was made for scientific work to be done . . . Only very simple observations could be made” (see Warren 1937, p. 126).