Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine (20 page)

The Vauxhall with Dick Summers driving, Sandy in the back with the Abraham sisters. Photo by George Abraham, 1923

As Dick and Sandy were both due to return to their respective universities towards the end of September, Dick suggested that they should have a couple of days motoring in the Lake District before they left the north for the Michaelmas term.  This suited Sandy’s needs perfectly as he was anxious to get in contact with Odell’s friend, George Abraham, as soon as possible to put in motion a recommendation for the Everest expedition.  In an adventure born of very much the same spirit as Sandy’s Foel Grach motorbike escapade in 1919, Dick planned an attempt to make the first crossing in a motor car, in both directions, of Wrynose and Hardknott passes.  Sandy contacted George Abraham in Keswick who, it transpired, had driven from Eskdale to Little Langdale via the passes in June 1913.  His daughter, who had accompanied him with her younger sister and mother on that journey, recalled her shock at seeing ‘car rugs and mats going out wholesale to give a grip to the wheels on the atrocious surface, and of dodging from the back to the front of the car to lay the next mat or rug for further progress.’ Abraham was so enthusiastic about Sandy’s suggestion that he offered to join them on the trip and record it in photographs.  He also brought his two daughters with him.

By any measure the crossing of Wrynose and Hardknott passes in a 1920s car was a fairly ambitious undertaking.  The road from Langdale to Eskdale rises steeply from almost sea level to the top of Wrynose pass, marked by the Three Shire Stone at 1277 feet, down through Wrynose Bottom at 763 feet and then over Hardknott pass, also 1277 feet and down into Eskdale.  The road is now metalled and has fewer hairpin bends than it had in the 1920s when it was merely a drover’s track, partly grass and partly large loose stones, but it is still only passable in good weather conditions and is often closed for weeks in the winter. Within this area the fells are some of the highest, roughest and grandest in Lakeland.  They are volcanic in origin and there is much naked rock in evidence. The views are breathtakingly spectacular and the drive of some eleven miles is one of the most exciting drives in the Lake District. 

After motoring up from Cornist, Dick and Sandy spent the night in Keswick, dining with Abraham.  Sandy made a good impression and talked to him at great length about the excitement and adventure of the Spitsbergen expedition.  He described the climbs he and Odell had done, emphasizing how he had enjoyed the ice climbing and adding that it was his most fervent hope that he would be considered for the Everest expedition.  Abraham agreed to write to his friend, C. E. Meade, who was a member of the Mount Everest Committee, and put Sandy’s name forward.

The following day the five of them drove from Keswick to Ambleside in Dick’s Vauxhall 30/98 and from there into Little Langdale from which valley the passes lead.  The weather was fine but there was a chill wind and they were all wrapped up in heavy coats, hats and scarves.  At the foot of Wrynose Sandy helped Dick to fix chains to the rear tyres of the car as the drover’s road was not only steep and winding, with hideous 180˚ bends, but also extremely slippery.  Dick relied on Sandy’s mechanical knowledge for the excursion and knew that if anything went wrong with the engine or any other part of the car he would be able to depend on his friend to fix it.  In fact everything went smoothly but the photographs show Sandy sitting in the back of the car with the two girls looking decidedly nervous on the steeper sections of the road.  Bill Summers, the family’s expert on cars, reminded me that the car had no brakes on the front wheels so, despite the chains, it would have been a fairly ‘hairy’ ride, especially on the downhill sections.  Dick added front brakes to the Vauxhall in 1924 but I do not know whether that had anything to do with the Wrynose and Hardknott crossing.  Abraham’s elder daughter, Enid Wilson, recalled: ‘the most lasting recollections of that trip – much less strenuous than the first – was of the superb driving and performance of the car, and of the evening light as we came back down Wrynose into Little Langdale’.

The following day they drove over the Kirkstone pass down to Ullswater where Abraham photographed them parked beside the lake.  Reading between the lines of her letter, I get the impression that Enid was rather taken with Sandy ‘the last (but far from the least) member of the crew’.  The dozen or so photographs taken
en route
are some of the most evocative images in the family’s collection.  Abraham has succeeded in capturing the beauty of the scenery with the little car appearing often only as a tiny dot on the steep tracks.  Dick was always very proud of the photographs and kept a full set of them in his desk until the end of his life.  It was clearly the highlight of that year’s motoring for Sandy who wrote later: ‘Dick I’ll never forget those 2 days last vac – the most enjoyable of any I can ever remember’.  Sandy returned to Oxford with the promise from Abraham that a letter would be sent to the Mount Everest Committee sooner rather than later.

One of the questions that has been in the back of my mind for a long time is why Sandy was ever considered a possible candidate for the 1924 expedition.  He was so much younger than any of the other expedition members and although he had exhibited great skill and determination in the climbs he had done with Odell, he was sorely lacking in real mountaineering experience and his height record to date was 5,800 feet, some 23,200 feet lower than the summit of Mount Everest.  There was nothing to lead anyone to be confident that he would perform well at altitude, nor did the fact that he climbed well up gulleys, chimneys and trees mean very much in terms of ice climbing in the Himalaya.  I strongly suspect that it was Odell who influenced the committee’s decision, convincing them that on the mechanical front, at least, he was as good as Finch had been in 1922. 

The Everest Committee certainly had a significant problem finding climbers with relevant experience and of the right age as the Great War had robbed England of a generation of young men.  Those men who had experience of climbing in the Himalaya were very few and far between in the 1920s, and the majority of them had been there in the 1890s and the early 1900s, and were thus in their forties and fifties.  The Everest Committee deemed these climbers to be to old to be considered for an assault on the mountain, so they went about finding the strongest alpinists of the day.

When it came to putting together a team for 1924 the Everest Committee decided, on the experiences of 1921 and ‘22, to set up a committee of twelve which included in their number George Mallory, Tom Longstaff, General Bruce and Percy Farrar.  It was agreed that they needed to send eight climbers and began to look around, once again, for suitable candidates.  By the summer of 1923 the list included Howard Somervell, Noel Odell, Benthley Beetham, Edward Norton and George Mallory.  That Mallory would be invited was a given, although it was by no means certain that he would accept and indeed he left the question open until late in the Autumn of 1923.  Norton and Somervell had proved themselves to be immensely strong climbers and very good at acclimatizing, Norton was also considered to be an excellent organizer and his strengths in that area were put to good use when he was appointed deputy leader under General Bruce.  Geoffrey Bruce, the General’s nephew had had no mountaineering experience prior to 1922 but he and Finch had set a height record of 27,300 feet and it was decided he too should be included; Finch, however, would not be asked to go back.  The committee was divided.  Finch had proven, argued some, that given fine weather, Everest could be climbed using oxygen.  Indeed Finch was a fierce advocate of the use of the gas and some members of the Committee, including Younghusband, had a real antipathy towards the clumsy apparatus and, by extension, to its chief advocate.  There were other problems with Finch who, acting as a free spirit as was his nature, had embarked on a series of lectures about Everest in flagrant contravention of his agreement with the Mount Everest Committee who held the right to decide who would lecture and where.  There followed an untidy scuffle between the committee and Finch which ended in his backing down, but certain members did not feel kindly towards him.  Besides, he wore his hair long, and that told them something about his attitude.  To their shame the Committee members dithered on the subject of Finch for many months but in the end his name was dropped.

The Committee had already chosen Odell to be one of the new men.  He had a great deal of Alpine experience and was deemed to be a strong team player, having been on the Oxford University Arctic expeditions of 1921 and 1923.  Benthley Beetham, a schoolmaster from County Durham, had been Somervell’s regular climbing partner in the Alps and his record fully justified his inclusion.  John de Hazard, also a fine alpinist, was a friend of Morshead and had served in India as a sapper.  Other new recruits were Edward Shebbeare of the Indian Forest Service, who was appointed transport officer under Geoffrey Bruce, and Maj. Richard Hingston as medical officer. 

Abraham was good to his word and put Sandy’s name forward in a letter to Meade,  on 10 October 1923: ‘You will probably remember our talks about Everest etc at Jerwalt last June.  There is a young friend of mine, A C Irvine, who is very anxious to go out next year.  He is an ideal chap for the job & if, as I understand, you are on the Selection Committee I have every faith in recommending him.’  He goes on to say that he knows Odell will be doing everything he can to include Sandy ‘as they went through the real stiff work of the recent Spitsbergen expedition together.’  He concludes: ‘Of course this is a purely personal matter, but as you do not know Irvine, I felt that a note of this kind might be useful.  He is up again at Oxford now, where on the athletic side he is exceptional – a good tempered youngster of wonderful physique.’ Such a ringing endorsement of Sandy’s enthusiasm and talent did not go unnoticed and Meade forwarded the letter to Hinks, noting: ‘I can only say that I know and like what I have seen of Abraham and that his opinion carries weight with me as far as it goes (as you know it does not go as far as India)’.  Meade’s opinion may not have gone as far as India but it went as far as the Mount Everest Committee.

The choice of Sandy as the final and youngest member of the climbing party was defended on the grounds that the committee believed they needed a young, strong man to complement the skills of the older and more experienced climbers.  He had an ally on the selection panel in Tom Longstaff who spoke up for him.  After the decision was taken to issue the invitation Mallory wrote to his friend, Geoffrey Young: ‘Irvine represents our attempt to get one superman, though lack of experience is against him.’  Even so it was always considered a contentious choice and the committee and General Bruce went to some length to defend their decision to expose someone ‘so young’ to the rigours of Tibetan travel and to the dangers of high altitude mountaineering.  One should not forget, in all this, Sandy’s own passionate enthusiasm for the venture.  If he was inexperienced and young he was nevertheless utterly dedicated to the expedition and determined to be included and to perform well.  It was inconceivable to him from the outset that he would not be one of the climbers tackling the summit.  This might be put down to youthful arrogance and enthusiasm but it was far more deep seated than that.  For Sandy the only possible outcome of any race was to win.  This was as true in the rest of his life as it was in his rowing.  Following the success of the Spitsbergen expedition he was desperately keen to pursue further expeditions; he had become completely captured by the excitement and adventure which such ventures afforded.  The Everest expedition was to be the fulfilment of all his ambitions and he threw himself into the project with all the energy at his disposal. Sandy was built for bravery and once focused on a objective he pursued it relentlessly until it was conquered.  Moreover Mount Everest presented him with the chance to prove himself, as much to himself as to anyone else.  It was in his eyes the ultimate goal.

One of the considerations he had to take into account were the feelings of his family.  Although technically ‘of age’, being twenty-one, he did not need the consent of his parents, he felt out of a sense of duty and love that their permission should be sought.  He talked to them in early October and they asked for time to consider the request.  In the past people have suggested that Willie and Lilian had no idea of the risks that their son would be taking if he were to climb high on Mount Everest, but I feel it is disingenuous to suggest that they were naïve.  I feel certain that Willie knew as well as any well-informed layman could what might be in store for Sandy.  The experiences of the 1922 Everest expedition had been well documented and he would certainly have read of the difficulties the team had encountered, the problems and effects of climbing at altitude and of the accident in which the seven porters had died.  The fact that both he and Lilian sought guidance through their prayers shows how very seriously they took the request.  Lilian wrote later to Hugh:

Often I have thought of the future & prayed that this same God who has been my Guide and Friend all my life and on whom I have relied in all our decisions, will be my children’s Guide and Friend too.  That is why I have never had any regrets or questionings about the right or wrong of letting Sandy go up Everest – it must be the answer to our prayers when we prayed earnestly about our decision to give him permission. 

They gave him their blessing and he pursued his application with even greater vigour.

On 24 October 1923 Sandy received an invitation from the Mount Everest Committee to join the 1924 expedition. The letter arrived at a time of unprecedented emotional turmoil in Sandy’s life.  On 19 October he received the news that Dick Summers had proposed to and been accepted by Evelyn.  The announcement came like a bolt out of the blue and completely knocked him off his stride.  He had been totally unprepared for this development, having only recently talked at length with Dick about his relationship with the Danish girl, Thyra.  The cocktail of emotions that coursed through his veins was so intoxicating that he gave vent to his feelings in a series of letters to Dick and Evelyn that give some indication of just how deeply he felt the shock and dismay at the announcement.  He felt betrayed and jealous.  Why had his best friend not confided in him his plans for the engagement?  How could his beloved sister, of whom he thought the world, have betrayed his trust?  Evelyn had been his friend, his playmate and suddenly he was forced to regard her as a woman and to admit she had a life of her own.  He didn’t like it.  Such irrational, immature but completely comprehensible thoughts were spinning round in his head when the wrote to Dick that evening in a state of drunkeness: ‘If I am construing your letter correctly and there seems only one construction to put on it, I think you are a bloody fool. There is only one possible thing to be said for it, and that is that I would get another opportunity to wear my Top Hat that I paid £1.10.6 for.’  He was certain that neither Willie nor HS would hear of the engagement and that all his brothers would be equally outraged.   Dick, after all, had been around since 1917 and it had never crossed any of their minds that he would ever be anything more to anyone in the family than Sandy’s best friend.  Besides, he was only twenty one and had still two years of study left.  No, it was unthinkable!  ‘I may have sobered down sufficiently by Sunday to be really serious with you, but at the moment I am walking metaphorically on air – not an advert. for Eno Epsum or ANDREW his liver salts. Have a good night’s sleep, a cold bath, read your morning paper and think twice, then again, and you will be nearer the mark.  Spheroids to you, Sandy.’ The allusion to walking on air is a reference to the fact that he was waiting to hear whether his name had been accepted by the Mount Everest Committee and I am sure this contributed to his heightened sense of emotion.