Chasing Mallory’s Dream
The Race Between Britain and Germany to Climb the Himalayan Peaks
Distributed for Bodleian Library Publishing
Chasing Mallory’s Dream
The Race Between Britain and Germany to Climb the Himalayan Peaks
The incredible stories of the British and German climbers and their death-defying attempts to summit Everest.
Chasing Mallory’s Dream tells the story of the first British attempts on Everest and the competition with German climbers in the Himalayas. And all those who sought to test themselves against that famously dangerous terrain had been directly affected by the First World War, whether they had been veterans of the trenches or civilians raised in its aftermath. Both England and Germany saw Himalayan climbing as a route to national renewal—a sentiment reinforced in Germany by the arrival of the Nazi regime, which encouraged reckless risk-taking for state glory. The attempts, chronicled here, to realize famous climber Sir George Mallory’s dream of summitting Everest involve some of the most dramatic stories, poignant tragedies, and fascinating characters in mountaineering history. Recounting these perilous expeditions allows us to explore what motives pushed the climber to attempt the impossible and their contrasting attitudes to risk, leadership, and climbing style. Including striking archival photographs, Chasing Mallory’s Dream is a gripping narrative of Himalayan climbing during the years between the First and Second World Wars.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Going strong 12
The Third Pole 15
Rongbuk 18
The first attempt on Everest 21
The 8000-metre barrier is breached 25
The invisible engines 28
Norton’s fantastic climb 31
Galahad and Percival of Everest 36
Chapter 2 – A very British activity? 43
Where have all the climbers gone? 47
The invention of climbing 49
The birth of Himalayan climbing 52
The Munich School and the Great Piton Dispute 55
The VIth grade 57
Chapter 3 – The Orphaned Hand 63
Ten years earlier 67
Civil war and revolution in Berlin and Munich 72
Campfire by the River Isar 75
The AAVM leads a jump in climbing standards 77
Chapter 4 – Hours to illuminate a lifetime 81
The Himalayan Club 83
Into Sikkim 87
Finding a route 90
The ice towers 93
Chapter 5 – Champagne on high 97
The International Himalayan Expedition 100
The ice wall 105
Other targets 109
Chapter 6 – A new guard cuts its teeth 113
Bauer versus Welzenbach 116
A strengthened team 118
Summer rains 119
A fatal accident 122
The renewed assault 125
Outpost Peak 128
Chapter 7 – Not a reasonable and amusing sport 132
Merkl‘s first Nanga Parbat attempt 136
Germany sleepwalks towards the disaster of a Nazi regime 139
The British react to the German activity 142
The team for Everest 145
The summit attempts 149
The Yellow Band 152
Chapter 8 – The Mountain of Destiny 157
Rivals on the Conte Verde 159
The Night of the Long Knives hits both expeditions 163
The final attempt 167
On the Silver Plateau 170
The second party 174
The men left on the mountain 176
Chapter 9 – Arguments and defeats 181
The British return to Everest 186
The German Himalayan Foundation 189
We are beginning to look ridiculous 192
Nanda Devi 197
Chapter 10 – When the watches stopped 202
The greatest tragedy 206
Help from the skies 211
Grim discoveries 214
Trying light 216
Which way to the North Col 220
Chapter 11 – The gathering storm 226
The Murder Wall 228
Bauer’s struggle to control team selection 231
To India under the clouds of war 234
Internment 239
Chapter 12 War and delusion 241
Escaping the bitterness of defeat 244
The 8000ers are finally overcome, nationalism isn’t 249
It was not a race and nobody won 257
Children of their time? 262