Film Review: "The Wildest Dream"

A month ago I wrote a blog about Wade Davis’s Into The Silence - his recent book describing the British expeditions of 1921, 1922 and 1924, which developed into a sustained campaign to conquer Mt. Everest for the first time. It was the last major prize of a long period of exploration and adventure in the early decades of the twentieth century. Davis focused especially on the talented and charismatic George Mallory – considered the best British mountain climber of his generation. He was the only mountaineer of the group who participated in all three trips west across Tibet from northern India - attempting to reach the top of Everest via the immense mountain's daunting north face.

Interested in learning more about Mallory and those expeditions of the early 1920s, I did a search of the resources available at the Hamilton Public Library. To my surprise, I discovered a blu-ray DVD titled The Wildest Dream. It turns out to be a perfect companion-piece to the Davis book – or an alternative version of the story, for those reluctant to plough their way through the detailed history found in his 573-page book.

The Wildest Dream was directed by Anthony Geffen for Altitude Films; it was released in 2009 by National Geographic Entertainment. Its focus is on George Mallory’s attempts to climb Everest - and how his life-story intersects with, and parallels, that of contemporary American climber Conrad Anker, who found Mallory’s frozen remains on the upper slopes of the mountain in 1999, 75 years after he died in a last desperate attempt to reach the summit.

The film opens with a re-enactment of Anker’s discovery of Mallory’s body. It wasn’t an accidental discovery – Anker was part of an expedition team who were looking specifically for Mallory’s and Irvine’s bodies (Irvine was Mallory’s climbing partner on that day of June 8, 1924, when they went missing, trying one last time to get to the top of Everest). Footage from 1994 shows their search of the dead climber’s clothing. Mallory’s identity is confirmed by a name tag sewn into a piece of his clothing. Artifacts and papers are removed from the scene and provide some clues about their owner’s final hours alive on the mountain. Mallory had promised his wife Ruth that he would leave a photograph of her at the summit. That photograph was not found in any of his pockets. Also, a pair of snow goggles were found – suggesting that the sun had gone down when the accident occurred that killed the two climbers. If it was that late in the day, perhaps they had been delayed getting to the summit, and were on their way back. Furthermore, Mallory’s body was found in a position well below the Second Step, the last difficult bit of climbing they would have faced.

Modern climbers in vintage climbing gear of the 1920s

The first half-hour of the film gives a good summary of Mallory’s  life, up to the time he made a lecture tour of the United States between January and March of 1923. It was during that visit that Mallory was asked, at the end of one of his talks, why he was driven to climb Everest. He responded famously: “Because it’s there.” This part of the film goes into the background of his life, including his education at Cambridge University and his experiences in the trenches during World War I. Twenty of the twenty-six climbers who took part in the 1920s expeditions were veterans of the Great War.

The next section of the film concentrates on Conrad Anker and his decision to return to Mt. Everest in order to attempt a free-climb of the Second Step, a tricky cliff face at 28,300 feet that Mallory and Irvine would have had to get up and over in order to reach the summit. Just as Mallory needed a partner during his climb – he and Irvine would be attached to each other in the “brotherhood of the rope” – Anker recruits young British mountaineer Leo Houlding to join him on his adventure. Houlding was a talented young climber, but like Mallory, Irvine and the rest of the climbers on those 1920s expeditions, he had no experience of high-altitude climbing. But he's a good rock-climber - demonstrated by an amazing sequence that shows him climbing a rock-face without any ropes. He clambers over a couple of overhangs - suspended just by his fingertips.

During Anker’s and Houlding’s climb of Everest they also test out modern reproductions of the gear that Mallory and Irvine were using – clothing made from gabardine and climbing shoes which were nothing more, really, than hob-nailed boots.  They wore seven layers of clothing – just managing to cope with conditions on the upper reaches of the mountain. The boots, however, were completely inadequate. When Anker and Houlding don the vintage clothing for the second time - above Camp 4 - they narrowly escape suffering frostbite.

Conrad Anker (left) and Leo Houlding (right)

The last section of the film shows the struggle to get over the Second Step. It takes about 45 minutes, but Anker - taking the lead - eventually finds a route. The way is clear, and he and Houlding quickly make their way to the summit. Did Mallory and Irvine get over the Second Step themselves and reach the top? Or were they forced to abandon their goal after a long struggle with the extreme weather conditions? It seems no definitive answer is possible – unless Irvine’s body is eventually found and reveals more conclusive clues.

The Wildest Dream is a fascinating film for those who are interested in mountaineering in general, or the climbing of Everest in particular. The mix of historical detail and contemporary adventure is compelling; and the production is top-notch. There are two narrative voices driving the documentary forward: Liam Neeson is used predominantly to give the history of the 1920s expeditions; in the second half of the film, Anker’s voice takes over - recounting his ascent up the mountain, following in Mallory’s footsteps.

Ruth & George Mallory

One of the most effective techniques in the film is to use actors Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson to give voice to George and Ruth Mallory. And Hugh Dancy speaks for Sandy Irvine. No captions or identifiers are needed; their distinctive voices are immediately recognizable. Whenever they speak, we know who it is being portrayed. And the excerpts we hear - especially those from the regular letters back-and-forth between Mallory and his wife - recreate the drama of those times brilliantly, and, as Mallory’s fate moves inexorably closer, they become very moving.

The Wildest Dream is a blu-ray production. The modern footage of Everest and the land seen on the long approach to the mountain is stunning. Some computer-generated sequences are amazing – such as the footage showing the long ascent up the main Rongbuk Glacier, the parallel East Rongbuk Glacier, and the steep cliff of snow and ice leading up to the North Col. The views looking north, down and away from the Second Step, are breath-taking.

The film is also full of excellent black-and-white photographs taken during the expeditions of the 1920s. More importantly, there are many sequences showing film shot during 1922 and 1924 by British cinematographer John Noel (taken from the National Archives of the British Film Institute), who would use his footage later to produce a couple of documentaries about the British exploration of Tibet and the attempts to climb Mt. Everest. So we see lots of images – still photographs and very old film footage – that help us to imagine the type of person George Mallory was.

The director adds several dramatic reconstructions of Mallory and Irvine’s final climb – including an impressive sequence that shows the probable course of the accident that led to their demise. Seeing the actors on the slopes of the mountain in their period clothing makes you marvel at the ability of those early climbers to deal with the incredibly harsh conditions faced at those high altitudes – not just the extreme weather, but also the debilitating lack of oxygen.

Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding wearing vintage gabardine climbing clothes and hob-nailed boots

Eight years after finding the body of George Mallory 800 feet from the summit of Everest, the circle is complete. Anker and Houlding have retraced the intended path of Mallory and Irvine to the top of the world. “I know you can achieve your wildest dream,” Ruth wrote to Mallory about his obsessive drive to be the first man to conquer Everest. This fascinating film gives a riveting account of the struggle, and goes a long way to showing what kind of special people they are who are willing to risk their lives doing the same.

Book Review: "Into The Silence" by Wade Davis

Each March Break, for the last five years or so, I've picked a big book or two to keep me company on the trip, and to help make it notable. In two Cuba trips I got through five Hemingway books (four novels and a memoir). This year I ploughed through a 573-page book. It's a good one.

In the spring of 1996 Canadian anthropologist, ethno-botanist, and travel writer Wade Davis was completing a 4,000 mile overland journey from Chengdu, in China, through Tibet, and on to Kathmandu in Nepal. By coincidence, he passed close by Mt. Everest in mid-May, just as the tragic events unfolded on its upper slopes that would be chronicled later in the compelling books Into Thin Air, by journalist Jon Krakauer, and The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev. Those books provide gripping accounts of how five climbers died on Everest on 10 May and 11 May  -  a blizzard hit the mountain, just as a group of 34 exhausted climbers were struggling to return to the safety of camps below the mountain’s “death zone”. Davis, like many others who have read the books, was seized by an intense interest in Everest and the dramatic history of attempts to reach its lofty summit. The title of Davis’s book, Into The Silence is a salute, perhaps, to the inspiration of the Krakauer book.

In the fall of the following year (1997), Wade Davis was back in Tibet, with hopes of photographing the elusive snow leopard. He hiked on trails in the Kama Valley, south of Kharta - the same trails British expeditions had taken in their explorations of the early 1920s. His companion on this trip, Daniel Taylor, had made some 45 expeditions into Tibet. Taylor had been raised in the Himalayan region, the son of medical missionaries. One of his childhood heroes was George Mallory – the lead mountaineer on three successive British expeditions in 1921, 1922 and 1924, which hiked west through Tibet and attempted to reach the summit of Everest by climbing its northeast ridge. Mallory and Andrew Irvine died mysteriously at the tragic conclusion of the 1924 expedition, attempting to reach the summit. Their bodies were abandoned to the mountain – frozen in snow and ice.

Back in Vancouver, Davis discovered in a second-hand bookstore three rare first editions of the official accounts of those British expeditions (‘21, ‘22 and ’24). This began a systematic campaign to find out everything he could about the lives of George Mallory and the other members of those early expeditions, as well as classic books about Mt. Everest and the Himalayas. Wade Davis first wrote about Mallory in a book of essays published in 1998. The following year he wrote to his agent, outlining thoughts of a book about the little-known mountaineer.

The north face of Mt. Everest, seen from Tibet

And then, just as Davis’s research began in earnest, George Mallory’s body was discovered by Conrad Ankar on the north face of Everest. Mallory’s name was suddenly everywhere in the media. Within a year, eight books were published about him and the failed attempts to put a British climber on the summit of the mountain in the early 1920s. Davis didn’t want to write just another book about George Mallory. He decided, instead, to take his research into “new levels of depth and scope”. And, indeed, he has.

The resulting book, Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, took ten years of research. It explores four main areas: the First World War experiences of the twenty men (amongst the twenty-six expedition members) who saw active duty in France and Belgium; the history of the Mount Everest Committee, supported and manned by members of the British Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society; the history of political and military relations between the British Raj administration in India and the Tibetan authorities; and the detailed history of the three expeditions in the early 1920s which hiked from Darjeeling in the Himalayan foothills of Northern India north into Tibet, and then west to the Mount Everest region.

1921 Expedition: George Mallory is far-right on the back row, Oliver Wheeler stands beside him

Most of the British explorers were veterans of the Great War. Part of The Lost Generation. They were physically damaged by the war - most of them wounded in one way or another - and emotionally scarred. Davis provides a thorough treatment of each man’s war experience – and what an appalling thing it was that they endured. Mindless carnage. Hundreds of thousands of men on each side were slaughtered in battles that seemed to go on for ever. The number of artillery shells launched by each side on the other is almost inconceivable. And the top commanders were almost completely ignorant of the real conditions in the field and the complete futility of their campaigns. Their ignorance was criminal. Entire brigades were wiped out because they were ordered to walk or run at enemy positions that were solidly defended by machine gun fire. They were sitting ducks – both officers and regular troops. 

After the war, thanks to sustained negotiations between a few leading British diplomats in India and Tibet (the key figure was Sir Charles Bell), an opportunity opened up for exploration into Tibet and the planning of a possible expedition to Mt. Everest. In the early 1920s, the political situation in the Himalayan region was the opposite of what it is today. Then it was impossible to approach Everest from the south – through Nepal. The only chance was to come at it from the east, through central Tibet. Interested parties at the British Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society formed the Mount Everest Committee. Expedition leaders were hired and climbers and explorers were invited to join the team. George Mallory was the leading British mountaineer of his generation. He was an obvious choice and was soon part of the first expedition in 1921. Mallory’s climbing experience was primarily in the Alps. He and the other possible climbers who would attempt to scale Everest had no high-altitude experience at all. They knew almost nothing about the debilitating effects of the lack of oxygen in the so-called “death-zones” faced on mountains with peaks above 8,000 metres. Mallory was a much-admired mountaineer – recognised for his strength and courage. But he had faults – he was absent-minded, and did not always make sound judgements.

The route up the north face of Mt. Everest from Tibet

 

The first expedition into Tibet in 1921 was primarily a detailed exploration of all the possible routes available leading to the mountain. The fittest and ablest members of the team worked in two and threes to scout out various valleys and passes. It was Mallory who did most of the important exploring along the Rongbuk Glacier, and the paths leading off of it towards Everest’s northeast ridge. But strangely, although he’d travelled south down the glacier several times, he neglected to check out an access leading east out of that glacier into an adjacent glacier - the East Rongbuk Glacier - which turned out to be the easiest, and eventual, route up to the northeast ridge. Much to Mallory’s embarrassment (although he wouldn’t admit to it), that route was discovered by Oliver Wheeler, one of a few non-English members of the expedition (he was a Canadian surveyor) – embarrassing because Mallory had not been very complimentary about Wheeler’s abilities and attributes. After four months of intense exploration and surveying in 1921, the expedition was finally within striking distance of the mountain itself. Mallory was the first climber to set foot on the mountain.  He, Wheeler, Guy Bullock, and some porters began to climb its icy slopes towards the North Col. But a gale on top was blowing whipping snow into deep drifts. They got as far as the North Col (23,030 feet). They attempted to make further headway before being forced back. The weather had turned. It was the end of their first season; but Mallory had seen enough to realise that they had found the best route available up the mountain.

Last photograph taken of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine on Everest

A second expedition returned in 1922. This time there was little exploring to do; their focus was to be on getting up the mountain. They had to endure some horrendous weather conditions. They didn’t have appropriate mountaineering gear and were always in danger of frostbite and high-altitude sickness. Mallory and two other climbers managed to reach about 26,800 feet. But a day later George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce, using oxygen canisters for the first time, climbed another 500 feet higher, reaching 27, 300 feet. It was a vindication for those who believed that the use of oxygen was the secret to avoiding high-altitude sickness and exhaustion - particularly George Finch and Sandy Irvine. Many climbers felt that the use of supplemental oxygen in cylinders was "cheating". A couple of weeks later, Mallory began a third attempt. He and his party were caught in an avalanche. Mallory was able to dig himself out of the snow, but seven Sherpa porters were killed. These were the first reported deaths of climbers on Mt. Everest. It was a disastrous conclusion to a difficult season of climbing. Mallory was partly responsible and he was devastated by feelings of guilt.

The final expedition of 1924 faced the same horrendous problems of bad weather and extreme conditions. The team's careful planning and their experience from the previous trips counted for nothing once the mountain unleashed its fury on the exhausted climbers. On June 2, Mallory and Charles Bruce left the North Col to make the first attempt on the summit. Extreme wind and cold and the refusal of the porters to continue led Mallory to abandon the attempt. On June 4, Edward Norton and Howard Somervell attempted to reach the summit in perfect weather without oxygen; Somervell was forced to abandon the climb at about 28,000 feet because of throat trouble; Norton continued on alone, reaching a height of 8,573 m (28,126 ft), just 275 m (900 ft) short of the summit. Exhausted, he turned back. Finally, on June 8, Mallory and Irvine left their high camp at 26,900 ft to attempt the summit. Their colleague, Noel Odell, climbing in support below, wrote in his diary that at 26,000-ft he "saw Mallory and Irvine on the ridge, nearing base of final pyramid", climbing what he thought at the time was the very difficult Second Step at 12:50 p.m. It was the last time the two were seen. Whether either of them reached the summit remains a question for the ages. And the discovery of Mallory’s body on the mountain in 1999 provided no definitive clues to answer that mystery.

Sandy Irvine (left) and George Mallory (right) - faced death together on Everest in 1924

Into The Silence is a big book – 573 pages of text. It has sixteen pages of excellent photographs. And it has four crucial maps: showing the treks the expeditions took across Tibet; detailed regional maps of the area around the mountain; and a schematic map of Everest itself, showing the progress that various climbers made, on the two expeditions (’22 and ’24) that got near the summit. You’ll come back to these maps, time and time again as you’re reading the text, especially during the section which describes the reconnaissance exploration of 1921.

Some readers may find the amount of historical and political detail tedious. But this book will fascinate those willing to follow Davis into his detailed treatment of World War I, and the background politics that affected the course the expeditions took. Those interested particularly in Tibet – its history, culture, geology, flora and fauna will be riveted; it’s all here. These expeditions were important for their contributions to science and topographical surveying, as much as for the human drama of extreme mountain climbing.

Wade Davis took ten years to write Into The Silence

And, of course, it does come back to that human drama. A great climber who perishes on a mountain - a man who pays the price for his obsession. 

This is an informative and, surely, definitive treatment of its subject. I highly recommend it.