[rollei_list] Re: Alfred Gregory, '53 Everest photographer death

  • From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:54:18 -0400

At 06:19 AM 3/15/2010, CarlosMFreaza wrote:
>I only repeated what Hunt wrote (page 218) in his book a few months
>after the facts, his book was first published in November 1953 and I
>have the January 1954 third impression. In the same "All India Radio"
>news during Queen Elizabeth Coronation day (on 2 June 1953)  they also
>listened that "..the Queen and the Prime Minister had sent telegrams
>of congratulations to us via the British Ambassador in Kathmandu..."

Carlos
What is the disagreement between us on this? Are you doubting that James Morris arranged to relay the information of the Ascent to the Palace via arcane channels at the request of the Queen Mother?
The "British Ambassador in Kathmandu" at the time lacked any electronic communications, Nepal having been "the forbidden Kingdom" in all regards until 1948, so such congratulations would have had to be sent by a runner from India, thence by runner from Katmandu to the Lhotse Glacier, and, by the time of its arrival, the Expedition would have been long gone on its slow trek back to Darjeeling and home, with some of the Sherpas remaining at the nearby Nepalese Monastery or over the passes at the Rongbuk Monastery facing the North Slope. It took approximately seventy days for an entire Expedition to move from Darjeeling to the Everest foothills in those days, whether the route be through Tibet or Nepal, as all motor transport was both impossible due to the lack of roads and also not permitted by the authorities.
An interesting note. In 1856, an Indian surveyor working for the Great Trigonometric Survey (that is, he was a native Indian, not a Brit) established a height for what was then known as Peak XV as being 29,002 feet. He did this, with rather primitive gear, from a distance of 200 miles. The actual height of Mount Everest is 29,029 feet, so the error was miniscule. I have the name of the fellow in several of my Everest references. Sir George Everest was in charge of the Great Indian Survey, so the Royal Geographic Society suggested some years later that Peak XV be named in honor of Sir George, and so it was. That must rank as one of the grand triumphs of surveying. (A British officer working for the survey established a height of similar accuracy for Mount Godwin-Austen (K2) from 130 miles away at about the same time.)
On a more photography-related note, Everest was first approached in 1912 by Captain John B.L. Noel, who disguised himself as a trader and got within 40 miles of the bottom of the North Face. It was Noel who, with Sir Francis Younghusband, got the Royal Geographic Society to adopt a plan for the conquest of Everest in 1914, with a reconnaissance in 1915 and a summit effort in 1916. World War I put a lid on that effort, and it is a shame that this died, as the best and the brightest British climbers of the time were actively involved, and it would have been a fascinating thing even had it not succeeded. Noel went on to serve as the photographer (still and cine) for the 1922 and 1924 climbs, and his movies are still worth watching. (One of his cine frames has been frequently reprinted: it shows the stretching out of the sleeping bags at CVI by Odell to indicate that he had found no trace of Mallory or Irvine on 8 JUN 1924.) Noel, thoough a climber, never went above the North Col (Camp IV), and most of his pictures were shot from Camp III, the Advanced Base Camp, at the foot of the North Col.
On a side note, the first man to ascend Everest solo and without oxygen was Reinhold Messner, in 1980, and he took great pains to record his entire ascent on film. His THE CRYSTAL HORIZON is a grand read, although I disagree with some of his conclusions about the earlier expeditions. (He even includes a shot of himself defecating, not included in all editions!)
All of the Everest-related Wikipedia entries are good places for a start, though none are absolutely accurate. I probably need to rewrite some of this and to disgorge some of the private communications I have had with regard to these climbs. (I do have a timeline on the 1924 Expedition available via Internet for those interested: it is in WordPerfect 7, so you Microsoft toadies will have to use OpenOffice to access it!)
I do realize that Gregory claimed to have set up CVIII for Hillary and Tenzing at 28,000 feet, but I find this improbable, simply as a photographer is a highly prized technician and is not used in such a role. In these Expeditions, there was a terribly sharp distinction between support staff and climbing staff, and only the climbing staff were permitted above the Col. I will have to do more research: it is not impossible, but it just seems improbable given the way these Expeditions were organized. Lord Hunt, incidentally, was selected by the Everest Committee to head up the '53 Climb over Shipton precisely as Shipton was seen as blurring the lines between the two parts of the Expedition, and Brigadier Hunt was expected to bring military precision to the climb, as he did. I would find it quite surprising to learn that he permitted Gregory above the South Col. Maybe he did. Ted Norton certainly never permitted Noel to move above Camp IV.
The Camp VIII used by Tenzing and Hillary, incidentally, has never been found again, though the high camps used by Tenzing and Lambert in both 1952 climbs still exist, albeit in shards. The South Face, as noted by Mallory in 1921, is the "soft" climb, though it has worse weather than does the North Face.
Fascinating stuff. If you keep it up, I'll be forced back to my references .... and I have quite a few! 

Marc




msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

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