That’s pretty spiffy, actually. I suppose if you can hire enough porters to carry all the gear it doesn’t matter too much what kind of materials are used. Goose down is liable to icing up under extended hard use, the type of use on a trip as extreme as Everest.
The ironic thing is that if you gave Mallory and Irvine modern clothing and equipment, I'm pretty sure they would have made it. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't have been caught dead in any of it.
Why? I’m quite certain they would have embraced superior performance modern materials just as soon as they were available. Just like everyone else did.
Well, they had the chance with Finch's down jacket, and they all turned it down. Nothing of the sort was included in the '24 expedition. Same can be said (almost) for oxygen. Despite the fact that Finch and Bruce set an altitude record of 27,300' with oxygen during the 22 expedition, almost nobody wanted to use it on either that, or the next trip. Ironically, about the only time it was used during 1924 was the last (and fatal) attempt by Mallory & Irvine.
... good point. As to whether or not they were using oxygen on the decent: probably not. Mallory's body was found without an oxygen apparatus, so presumably they ran out of gas on the ascent, and ditched them somewhere. How high they actually got is anybody's guess.
One school of thinking is he fell or slid from such a height or distance, there was no way to tell for sure. One boot was missing, any oxygen tanks or equipment like that would likely have been ripped off and lost. One theory is the hole in his skull was from his ice axe during a self-arrest attempt.
Interesting stuff on Mallory's clothing, from Wikipedia: "In 2006, Graham Hoyland climbed to 21,000 feet (6,400 m) in an exact reproduction of Mallory's original clothing for a field test. He stated in Alpine Journal that it functioned very well and was quite comfortable.[39] The Performance Clothing Research Centre at the University of Leeds tested the reproduced outfit thoroughly and "concluded that Mallory was sufficiently well insulated to operate effectively on Everest, provided he was moving and not forced to bivouac".[40] Human thermo-regulation expert George Havenith of Loughborough University (UK), has tested a rigorously accurate recreation of Mallory's clothing in a weather chamber. He concludes that the clothing is sufficient to −30 °C (−22 °F), though "If the wind speed had picked up, a common feature of weather on Everest, the insulation of the clothing would only just be sufficient to −10 °C (14 °F). Mallory would not have survived any deterioration in conditions."[41] Link: 1924 British Mount Everest expedition - Wikipedia
Down. But down was already the choice for heavy blankets and comforters, so that wasn't a new idea. I'm not sure when this became common, but by the 53 expedition, they had 2 bags, an inner and an outer. That way you would alternate them, and avoid any buildup of moisture from condensation. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) that this is still used for arctic and other really cold environments. But it's heavier, so you don't see it much for backpacking & climbing.
Vapour Barriers are now often used to stop build of moisture & ultimately ice inside sleeping bags in Arctic conditions.
@Fettler - It took a bit of searching, but I finally found a diagram of the 1922 oxygen apparatus. The 1924 setup was very similar, though simplified and extensively modified by Irvine en-route to the mountain. The key part here is the waist belt. If they were using the belt when climbing with the set, it would still have been attached to Mallory's body when they found him in 1999: Having said that, along with most things concerning this story, it's hard to find definitive proof of anything. Irvine could have removed the belts during his modifications, or perhaps Mallory just didn't prefer to use it. It was, essentially, an external frame pack, and having one's back splinted strait while trying to scramble over difficult rocks can be quite annoying. Anyway, food for thought - Paul
At the risk of too much information... Here is an article written by Finch for the Alpine Journal in 1923, where he gives his recommendations for clothing on subsequent expeditions. Curiously, no mention of down anywhere: Note the reference to Meta, along with the opinion that "climbing irons" - i.e., crampons, "...are unnecessary." This, from somebody who was arguably the best and most advanced snow & ice climber of his day. Although crampons were invented by the Englishman Oscar Eckenstein, they never really caught on until the Germans started using them during the 30's. Also interesting that cigarettes were considered useful at the high camps because they allowed for normal breathing - without them one was forced to concentrate on the act of inhaling because the brain 's mechanism doesn't work well at high altitude. Anyway, here's the link: https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1923_files/AJ 1923 Vol 35 68-74 Finch Everest.pdf
Cigarettes? I’ve heard everything now. @PWDolkas - thanks to you I went down a bit of a rabbit hole the other night, there is a website named Overview - Mallory and Irvine Analysis of 1924 summit attempt. (naturally) and some of the thinking about the number of O2 bottles taken between them gets quite involved theorizing. But one of the things a lot the expedition members seemed to do was ditch everything but the bottles themselves &c. when up high, so it’s even possible they didn’t have the O2 carrying apparatus to save on weight.
@Fettler - Unlike modern oxygen sets, where the regulator attaches directly to the bottle, the 1922 & '24 designs didn't allow for this. Since my post the other day, I've uncovered more tidbits about the actual sets that they used on the mountain - very little of this was documented because Sandy Irvine redesigned and reworked the sets while he was on the approach march and the early days at base camp. It was all done in the field by Irvine, assisted by Odell (the nominal oxygen "officer") using whatever tools he had with them. Here's what I've found (and please forgive me, this is getting a long way from anything to do with stoves): Irvine literally sawed off everything extra from the frames, and remounted the regulator from the front "arm" that you see in my earlier post to the back as shown. Here's an early sketch from his notebook: There's a couple of shots of him posing with the final design ("Mark V"): And here's a closeup of the set. You can still see the side arm of the frameset (circled in blue), to which the aforementioned hip belt would have been attached. It's a little difficult to make out with all the tools & hand drills scattered about. Thanks for indulging me - Paul
