The Daily Record has a short, but alarming, article about Conrad Anker’s plan to climb Everest using the same gear that George Mallory and his team had back in 1924 on their ill fated attempt at the highest mountain on Earth.
Anker was part of the team that found Mallory’s body on Everest back in 1999, and he claims that he’s been “haunted” by it ever since. He may be haunted by something else if the weather turns bad on his climb. Apparently the climb will be filmed to be included in a movie project down the line.
I’m not sure about you, but I personally like the new gear we have these days. I’m kind of attached, literally and figuratively, to my fingers and toes. If I were going up Everest in retro gear, I think I would have chosen the gear that Hillary used. At least he was successful in his attempt. 🙂
Thanks GoBlog!
Update: As usual, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Fortunately, I have smart readers who are always around to set me straight. Carl has passed on two very cool and interesting articles on the gear that Mallory used and how well it would work on Everest. The first article discusses how after building replicas of Mallory’s gear it was determined that not only could Mallory and irvine have survied at high altitudes, they would have been able to climb quite comfortably. The second article is a follow up to the first, with experts actually stating they would rather climb in the Mallory gear than the more modern stuff. The argument is that the the older gear was plenty warm, comfortable, and didn’t restrict climbing as much. They did note, however, that it was probably tougher to pee in. 😉
Thanks for the education Carl! Always appreciated. 🙂
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Actually the clothing worn by Mallory and Irvine was actually much better than you would expect and can hold up to the extremes of Everest.
I remember reading an article about the clothing being tested as high up as the North Col on Everest during last years spring climbing season, I want to say by someone on the Himex team.
The article also stated that the climbers testing the clothing found they had more mobility in the vintage clothing. It wasn’t as bulky but still provided warmth.
Here are some articles on one project to recreate the clothing from that expedition:
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/3517/v/1/
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/4133/V/1/SP/332217698174334663252
The Himex web site even makes mention of an entire team of Spanish climbers who were planning to climb Everest in similar clothing back in 2000. I couldn’t find anything on how successful that expedition was, it was a brief mention on the Himex site.
Cool links! I’ve added them to this orginal post. I had no idea the gear back in that era was so good.
Always glad to help out.
BTW: while my Rainier climb is off this year, I am going to atleast visit Rainier National Park this June. I’ll be going to Seattle for a business related conference (An Event Apart, http://www.aneventapart.com) and will be tacking on a few days of vacation to the tail end of the trip where my wife will be joining me. We haven’t been to the Pacific Northwest so we will have 4 days to see as much as we can. I guess tackling Rainier itself will have to wait until next year.
I’m sure you’ll love it up there. The Pacific Northwest is beautiful.
How come the climb is off? When are you going next year? I’ve actually started thinking about a Rainier Climb myself.
Climb is off mainly because of scheduling. We are going to Mexico in just under 2 weeks for 10 days and are planning on a trip for this fall or New Years to South America. At this point it looks like Brazil over the New Years holiday.
I probably could have worked in doing the Rainier climb while I was in Seattle for the conference but I figured i’d delay it and spend sometime with my wife hiking and seeing Seattle and the surrounding area. Do some hiking and see Rainier firsthand before doing the climb. I’ve seen Rainier from an airplane and the Seattle airport enroute to Alaska but this time i’ll get to see it from the ground and probably visit the Paradise area where a lot of climbs begin.
If I weren’t planning on going anywhere this fall/winter I probably would have went ahead and done it now… but the Brazil trip isn’t going to be cheap.
Next year would probably be a June/July/August time period. An alternate trip would be a Grand Teton climb. It will be one or the other for sure. They are different types of climbs but both are on my list of things to do.
And we all know the most crucial part of mountaineering is “The art of peeing on a mountain”.
I think I just found the title to a new book… I’ll begin looking for a publisher right away.