It is generally acknowledged that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to summit Mt. Everest, a feat they accomplished on May 29, 1953.
But for many, their accomplishment, as bold and brave as it was, has always come with an asterisk because of something that may, or may not, have happened on June 9, 1924. That’s when a British team consisting of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine set out for a summit attempt and never returned.
Whether or not Mallory and Irvine could have or did in fact make the summit that day is the subject of an excellent IMAX documentary, The Wildest Dream, currently showing at the Pacific Science Center's Eames IMAX Theater. [Ed: That's the theater to your west, if you're facing south at the ticket gate.]
Narrated by Liam Neeson, Dream is a fascinating look into what has come to be known at the Golden Age of Exploration. Mallory was definitely a man of that age, when men became obsessed with conquering some unknown territory or physical obstacle.
Mallory was obsessed with being the first to summit Everest. It was he who, in answer to a reporter’s question on why anyone would want to climb Everest, memorably answered, "Because it’s there." Mallory participated in three expeditions to Everest in 1921, 1922, and 1924 and the first surprise of Wildest Dream is that National Geographic Society filmed both the 1922 and 1924 expeditions.
The grainy, black-and-white footage is amazing. You are transported to a time when the Earth was filled with unexplored places and man was reaching out to close those gaps, sometimes at fearsome cost. There is a certain, tangible sadness in Mallory’s story, but his desire and bravery is also compelling. It’s amazing this story has never made it to film before.
Wildest Dream also documents a 2007 expedition led by Conrad Anker, a skilled mountaineer who set out to follow Mallory and Irvine’s path to determine if they could have reached the summit in ’24.
Anker is a handsome man with a brilliant track record of successful climbs above 26,000 feet. Earlier, in 1999, he led a successful team that found Mallory’s body on Everest. That discovery is shown in the first part of Dream and it’s fascinating. Because the body rests above 25,000 feet, there has been little deterioration.
Mallory’s body and possessions were sufficiently preserved to allow Anker’s team to read his nametags, personal letters and the time on his watch. (One of the strange aspects of climbing on mountains above 26,000 feet is that the bodies of anyone who has died above that level are still there; survival at that height is so tenuous that energy cannot be expended to remove the bodies.)
When Mallory was found, his possessions told researchers a great deal. His watch had stopped after 5 p.m. (possibly as a result of his 2,000-foot fall) and his goggles, absolutely necessary to prevent snow blindness, were in his pocket. Mallory, it seems, was on his way back to camp in the dark when he fell and died. But back from where? How far did he get?
Wildest Dream is, first and foremost, beautifully filmed. One can hardly fail to send an IMAX camera to the Himalayas and not get beautiful footage. Mallory’s expeditions approached the mountain from the Tibetan side because the Nepal side was closed to Western travelers in the 1920s. The situation was reversed when Hilary and Norgay climbed Everest from the Nepal side. That route is the more commonly traveled to the summit; the Northern route, Mallory’s route, is the harder climb, and that fact is central to the question of whether he could have made it and the focus of Ankor’s attempt to prove he did do it.
Mallory’s route features a steep stone cliff at 28,000 feet, known as the Second Step, which blocks the route to the summit, at 29,000 feet. On June 9, he was spotted by team member Noel Odell near that spot and “moving expeditiously,” though clouds rolled in after that and blocked Odell’s view. Could Mallory and Irvine have conquered that step with rudimentary equipment, at that height, on their summit attempt?
It’s a good question, and one that’s complicated. Since 1975, no one has had to climb that step because a Chinese expedition lashed a ladder to it and every subsequent attempt has used that ladder to make an ascent. Anker recounts that it is a question that has obsessed him for over a decade.
The central part of Wildest Dream juxtaposes Mallory’s 1924 expedition with Anker's 2007 expedition. Ironically, it’s this section that is the film’s biggest weakness. Lining up shots to echo the same shots in the 1924 footage is cumbersome and distracting--and occasionally macabre.
So is Anker’s plan to use replica equipment from the early attempt, an idea that is scuttled so quickly that it hardly warranted any mention at all. Suffice to say, the 1924 equipment offered limited protection. How the earlier teams made it so high with such equipment is an astonishing tribute to Mallory, Irvine, and the other 1924 team members. It’s hard to believe they could have made it as far as they did.
Anker and the filmmakers have strained to match the other team’s attempt in other ways. When Mallory chose Irvine, he picked a young, strong man with no mountain climbing experience; his use to the team was his knowledge of the oxygen apparatus that the team would use, his youth and his overall strength. Trying to mimic that, Anker also picked a novice climber with no high altitude experience, Leo Houlding.
Such moves might heighten the similarities between both quests, but you have to wonder about the ethics of the situation. After all, Mallory and Irvine died on Everest and Anker surely doesn’t want that close a match. Also slowing Dream down early on is Anker’s questioning why he’s climbing mountains in the first place.
The movie also builds up Mallory’s image as a man of destiny a bit too much. His story is poignant enough without the talking heads gushing. He reached at least 28,000 feet with a gabardine climbing suit and leather boots. You don’t need to convince us that he was courageous in the extreme.
At the film’s climax, Anker does climb the second step without using the ladder, something which he states proves that Mallory and Irvine could have done it. To me, Anker’s success demonstrates that Mallory probably couldn’t have done it, particularly with a partner that had never climbed that high, equipment so low-tech that Anker abandoned it and a final camp much farther from the summit than current climbers use, meaning a longer, harder climb on summit day. But, one of the beauties of this film is that you are free to make up your own mind.
Wildest Dream is a wonderful film that gives you both the beauty and danger of climbing Everest. It also gives you insight into the powerful pull this peak has on the adventurers that want to stand on the roof of the world.
NOTE: The Wildest Dream is the last film credit of the late Natasha Richardson, who provides the voice of Mallory’s wife, Ruth. Richardson died shortly after recording her narration. Ironically, she too died after a fall on ice and snow.
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