Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine

by Julie Summers

  They knew then that the best way to keep warm was to dress in layers and to wear silk or wool close to the skin. What they didn’t have was down, goretex and polar fleece but nor did Hillary and Tenzing when they made their ascent in 1953. I have talked to several high altitude mountaineers and they all agree on two things. First, the overwhelming advantages of today’s clothing is that it is breathable and light: wool, gabardine and tweed can be very heavy and restrict movement. Second, if anyone were caught out for a night on the high mountain in 1924 clothing they would have no chance of survival. Nowadays there is a chance that a climber can survive for a night or sometimes more. But that is only of use if they can then be rescued or get down the next day under their own power. Where Sandy and Mallory died they had no chance of being rescued.

  The 1924 expedition benefited from the best research and the most advanced equipment available at the time. Not only had they had the experiences of the 1921 reconnaissance mission and the 1922 assault to draw upon, but they had also made great advances on the clothing used in the Antarctic by the Scott Polar expedition of 1911-12 and in oxygen technology for which the research had been carried out by the RAF. Several of the appliances, articles of clothing and of course the tents had been specially designed for the expedition. They firmly believed they were wearing and carrying the best of the best, which indeed they were for the time.

  The Mount Everest Committee had to organize every last detail of getting the supplies shipped out to Calcutta on time and in good condition. It was comparable to a military operation and with General Bruce and Colonel Norton in charge it ran as smoothly as a well-organised campaign. The Committee issued a long list of necessary items annotated by Norton with his usual dry wit. Members were even advised to take their own saddles – not a piece of equipment much used by modern-day Everest climbers. The note reads, ‘Tibetan saddles are the acme of discomfort’ and goes on to give a name of a second-hand saddlery company in St Martin’s Lane where such equipment can be acquired. The list ran to four pages and the budget for acquiring the equipment was £50, or about £1500 in today’s money. The first items on the list were windproof clothing to be acquired from Messrs. Burberry, Haymarket (‘ask for Mr Pink’), the Shackelton range of windproof knickerbockers, smoks and gloves. Norton added a note: ‘a knickerbocker suit of this sort supplied to Major Norton was a great success last year’. The next item was Finch’s eiderdown quilted balloon cloth coat which, years ahead of its time, was laughed at by the 1922 expedition team and was dismissed by Sandy with a simple strike of the pencil.

  General Bruce was a big fan of puttees and persuaded the committee to issue them to the expedition as standard. The photograph taken by Odell of Mallory and Sandy leaving Camp IV shows them quite clearly. A puttee comprises a long strip of cloth, in this case the finest cashmere wool, that is wound spirally around the leg from the ankle to the knee. Not only were they warm and comfortable but Bruce was convinced they offered support to the leg as well.

  Messrs Fagg Bros. in Jermyn Street supplied a felt boot with leather sole, which was to be made large enough to accommodate three pairs of socks. As this new boot was an experiment they were also advised to purchase a pair of Alpine climbing boots which the committee recommended they had ‘nailed’. The leather sole of the boot has hobnails, but in addition to that, little metal plates about 1 centimetre long, are driven between the inner and outer soles to give extra grip. Some of the ‘nails’ are serrated. Norton goes into great detail about these nails, not least as some believed that the conductivity of the metal caused the foot to get prematurely cold. He sets out his case at great length, recommending a certain design and then recommending a felt sole to be added between the welt and the nailed sole but concluding, ‘Boots should be sparingly nailed for lightness – every ounce counts.’

  A selection of bills from Sandy’s collection showing equipment he purchased for the expedition

  When I read the reference to camp equipment I really began to get a feeling for how extraordinarily tough these men were. ‘Camp bed is not strictly necessary; it is a comfort up to Phari and in the Kama valley in wet weather. A camp chair is a comfort in tent and for dining (the alternative being a ration box).’ I find it a little difficult to conceive of sitting on a ration box for five months and I was glad to see that Sandy bought himself a camp chair. ‘An X pattern bath and basin is sound; a bath between two is probably sufficient. A camp table is a luxury; a private folding candle a necessity’ the list went on.

  Under ‘Miscellaneous’ they were advised to take out a dinner jacket, to be worn with a soft shirt as opposed to a stiff collar, a big umbrella, also available in Darjeeling at a competitive price, and one packet of Dr Parke Davis’s germicidal soap. Presumably not all to be used simultaneously.

  The expedition supplied the tobacco duty free to the team members and asked them to let Norton know which was their preferred brand. Sandy, who seemed very much to enjoy his pipe and was frequently photographed with it, appears to have foregone smoking for this trip: he makes no reference to it in his diary and letters, nor are there any photographs of him smoking. Finch had argued in 1922 that he and Geoffrey Bruce had derived benefits from smoking at altitude.

  Sandy’s final bill for his equipment, minus the tool kit, primus burners and spare parts for the oxygen kit which he paid out of his own pocket, was about £75 (or £2250 today). He was finally reimbursed for his equipment plus the additional kit he had ordered on behalf of the expedition to the tune of £86 1s 1d in May 1924 which, he told Willie Irvine cheerfully, should help to reduce his overdraft.

  With a sigh of relief Sandy returned to Birkenhead to spend the final month before leaving England with his family, although he made three further trips to London at Unna’s request to finalize details about the oxygen equipment and stoves. He had collected from Oxford the oxygen apparatus and set to work on it in his workshop at Park Road South. Still having heard nothing from Siebe Gorman he pressed on with his modifications, the realization dawning on him that he was in all probability going to have to effect some fairly major alterations as soon as he met up with the apparatus in its final form in India. He was also occupied with putting together the tool kit and ensuring that the primus stoves and burners that Unna had asked him to take responsibility for were up to standard. Unna had a great deal of faith in Sandy’s mechanical capabilities and had given him a free hand in ordering the tools he thought might be required. Sandy sent his list to Spencer at the Mount Everest Committee saying that he regarded it as adequate for looking after the oxygen apparatus, primus burners and the ladder bridge. He added: ‘they all pack in quite a small box and none are very heavy; the vice is not a large affair at all and would clamp onto a box or table or any old thing like that.’ He had also recommended a pair of Bernard Revolving Pliers for punching holes in leather and a variety of stocks and dies which, he added quickly, would not depreciate in value and could be brought home intact.

  Although Odell was appointed oxygen officer Unna addressed all his communications on that subject and on all other matters to do with the stoves to Sandy, asking him to ensure Odell received copies of the letters. This was in part a shift in Unna’s thinking but it was also necessitated by the fact that Odell was on his way to Persia on company business prior to his arrival in India.

  Hinks had arranged for Sandy to travel from Liverpool in the company of George Mallory, Benthley Beetham and John Hazard at the end of February. Other expedition members would be travelling from different parts of the Indian subcontinent and of course Odell from Persia and they would all meet up in Darjeeling at the end of March.

  A dinner in honour of the four ‘North Country’ members of the expedition was given at the Wayfarer’s Club on Friday 28 February at the Exchange Club in Fenwick Street in Liverpoo.. Sandy sat next to Carl Saunders, a member of the Alpine Club, and discussed at length the forthcoming expedition. Saunders was impressed by his modesty, courage, vigour and good sense, as he later wrote to Willie,
and had looked forward to Sandy being elected as a member of the Alpine Club on his return so that he could get to know him better. Both Sandy and Mallory’s fathers attended the dinner as guests of honour and the team was sent on its way with great hopes pinned on their success. The local press had made much of the fact that Sandy and Mallory were both Birkenhead men and had already been fantasizing about the possibility of the two of them standing on the summit of the world together. The Liverpool Post had published the names of the 1924 expedition members on 11 January 1924 and ran the headline: ‘MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION – TWO BIRKENHEAD MEN IN THE PARTY’. In the minds of the Liverpool press at least, the names of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine were already linked.

  The following day Mallory, Hazard, Beetham and Sandy posed for photographs leaning uncomfortably against a life-boat wearing light suits and deck shoes on board the SS California, somewhat dazzled by the interest their presence had aroused. The quayside was thronging with well-wishers and members of the press. One journalist from the Daily Graphic caught Sandy’s attention and asked him how he felt about climbing Everest. ‘It is the duty of the Alpine Club to climb as near as it can to Heaven!’ he exclaimed with boyish thrill.

  George Mallory and Sandy Irvine on board the SS California, 29 February 1924

  The Irvine and Mallory families turned out en masse for the send-off, caught up in the excitement and commotion. Tur stood on the dock beside his mother and brother, and muttered prophetically; ‘Well, that’s the last we’ll see of him.’ He was rounded on by Alec who told him abruptly to hold his counsel, but the words had been uttered.

  Sandy had been overwhelmed with advice and good wishes from friends and family. Everyone felt involved in his adventure and they all felt enormous confidence in his ability to climb the mountain, even though there were at least seven other men who were far more experienced than he was in mountaineering. To all of them it was a matter of great personal pride that Sandy had been selected for the expedition and they were to follow its progress enthusiastically in the Times dispatches. Lilian handed her son an envelope as he embarked containing a letter in which she expressed her hopes for Sandy’s success. She also permitted herself to give him a good deal of advice and to encourage him to live up to his reputation and not to let the family down. He was not unaware of these high expectations and in his first letter from the California, written the day after they sailed he wrote to Lilian thanking her for her letter and promising to ‘try & live up to it’.

  The California was a 10,000 ton steamship belonging to the Anchor Line Company, based in Glasgow. A large majority of the crew were Glaswegians and there was some mirth on account of the accent which rendered them incomprehensible to a number of the passengers. The Master of the Ship was James Blackie, to whom the expedition members had a letter of introduction.

  They finally set sail on the evening of 29 February after several hours of delay. Sandy’s first letter was written at the end of their second day on the ship bound for Bombay. He told Lilian about the delays they experienced leaving Liverpool, where the ship was held up for several hours until the harbour master succeeded in finding enough tugs to tow them out of harbour in the strong cross-wind. That night was very rough but once they reached open sea the following day the wind dropped and weather was calm; ‘It has been fairly mill-pondish so far nevertheless the breakfast room was almost empty & the decks are strewn with very miserable looking people. We will be in the middle of the Bay tonight so I hope we don’t have an expensive dinner.’ Mallory reported at the same juncture that the sea was rough, so perhaps Sandy was comparing it with the stormy experiences he had had en route for Spitsbergen.

  As usual his letter contained instructions to his mother about his personal effects which he appears to have left scattered all over the house in Birkenhead. A suitcase he had borrowed from an Oxford friend would need to be sent back, cleaned and emptied (‘I’ve left some bits of primus in it!’) and his grandfather’s hymn book, which he’d left on the billiard table he asked her to hide until his return. It evidently contained anecdotes and tunes, probably irreverent, that he didn’t wish his grandfather to see by mistake. James Irvine was in his ninetieth year but he still exerted a very strong influence over the whole family and had taken Sandy aside before he sailed to give him some advice and warn him what to expect. In his typically dry style Sandy points out that what his grandfather had led him to expect on the boat turned out in fact to be the very opposite. ‘He said I would hardly be on the boat before people would start singing hymns – people look more like a burial service than singing!’

  The Mount Everest Committee had booked two first-class cabins on the boat and although Mallory had suggested to Baldrey that he and Sandy might share a cabin as they were both leaving from Liverpool, Sandy ended up sharing with Benthley Beetham and by the spin of a coin got the coveted bottom berth. Never able to resist tinkering he told his mother that he had pulled the plug on their WC and it had not stopped running which, in his opinion, saved a lot of trouble but had been causing the crew endless headaches as they could not work out how to turn it off. ‘Practically the whole of the ships crew have been in to try & stop it but none of them thought of turning off the tap just above!!’

  The dining arrangements on the ship had also been prearranged and Sandy was at a table with Mallory while Beetham and Hazard were sitting together at another table. Dinner was a formal meal for which they were expected to dress in dinner jackets but with the concession that soft collar rather than starched collar shirts were acceptable. The seating plan was not changed until the ship arrived in Port Said, so they had plenty of time to get to know the other diners at their table. Two days into the journey Mallory wrote to Ruth giving his impressions of his fellow travellers. Beetham he found good-humoured and unselfish, ‘I expect he’ll be very useful altogether.’ Of Sandy he wrote: ‘sensible & not at all highly strung he’ll be one to depend on, for everything perhaps except conversation’. If Mallory thought Sandy was short on conversation after just two days at sea, Sandy was equally candid about him, writing ‘Mallory is far too energetic for so early in the voyage – he was up and dressed before I had even finished my morning tea & apple.’

  When Sandy first met Mallory is a question that has vexed many of us for a very long time. I cannot believe he would have written a comment like that to his mother if he had not already at least made Mallory’s acquaintance and talked of him to her. Try as I might I have not found anything that would indicate they had ever seen each other before the dinner at the Wayfarer’s Club. Nevertheless, when I was looking through Sandy’s correspondence with Unna and I came across a reference in which it was suggested that Mallory and Hazard should visit the Royal Geographical Society to see the oxygen apparatus. Although there’s no proof, I suggest Sandy met Mallory on one of his visits to London which coincided with the meeting Unna was keen to set up.

  Mallory’s remark about Sandy has been widely published in the accounts of the 1924 expedition and has been used further to underline the fact that Sandy was inarticulate and lacking in intellectual strength. The latter claim contains some truth, but his lack of conversation, initially at least, would have been on account of his shyness. Mallory wrote to Ruth about the people at the table early on in the voyage:

  Next to me at the head of the table is a gentlemanly looking colonel with whom I don’t expect to converse in any very interesting way and opposite are a youngish army doctor & his wife, good, enterprising, hard sort of people – hard I mean in the good sense -; she is Canadian by birth & doesn’t love Canadians which is a mercy. Mrs Solly’s friends, the Lennoxes (you’ll remember he’s in the Indian survey) seem pleasant people too. Anyway here we are all learning each other’s languages, a process which may have gone some useful distance by the time we reach Bombay; then we shall go our separate ways and I shall never see any of this group again.

  Poor Sandy. It is hardly surprising that he felt uncomfortable at dinner. There was no one his age at th
e table and almost certainly no one who shared his interests.

  Arnold Lunn had commented that when Sandy joined them in Műrren it was inordinately difficult to get him to participate in the conversation at dinner. Once Sandy found his confidence, however, his company was greatly enjoyed by everyone and he had the ability to tell an amusing story well. He clearly got over his shyness with Mallory but never felt confident to hold his own when discussing great works of literature or philosophical ideas. He had a very good eye for observation of his fellow men and was able to communicate that with fluency and often humour both verbally and in his letters home. He was primarily a practical person and when it came to discussing the oxygen equipment he was eloquent and held strong views.

  Sandy respected Mallory’s knowledge of mountaineering and particularly his experience on Everest from the two preceding expeditions, and he was enthused by Mallory’s determination to climb to the summit. In Mallory Sandy found someone who was as focused and determined as he, someone who went all out to achieve his goal and moreover someone who had set himself the highest goal in the world and was resolved to attain it. The two men had much in common, both from the point of view of their backgrounds but also in their aims and ideals. Mallory, like Sandy, valued friendship and loyalty very highly. He was at times impatient and intolerant, something Sandy well understood and a trait he shared. Above all else, he was physically immensely strong and at least as energetic as Sandy. People have sought in the past to try and assess why Mallory was drawn to Sandy and why he elected to make the climb to the summit with him rather than one of the other climbers with more experience and there have even been some suggestions of a physical attraction on the part of Mallory. Peter and Leni Gillman wrote in their biography of Mallory: ‘It is more likely that George saw in Irvine a reflection of his younger self, the enthusiastic, athletic undergraduate, eager for new experiences, determined to live them out. Through Irvine, George could also act out the counterpoint of his relationship with Geoffrey Young and his other senior mentors, this time with George initiating a younger partner into the ways of mountaineering.’ That assessment is much closer to the mark than any other and there can be no doubt that Sandy adopted Mallory as a role model and went all out to impress him from the outset. The summit of Everest had became a goal of his own and although it never gnawed away at him as it did Mallory, he nevertheless set his sights no lower than 29,002 feet and he was determined to be chosen for a final assault.