The Conquest of Everest

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1:05It is May 1952. On a mountain ridge that skirts the border of Nepal and Tibet, two men are locked in a battle with the elements. In the lead is Tenzing Norge, a Sherpa guide who grew up in the shadow of these peaks. He is an experienced climber, but he's never been this high before. Gasping for breath, he squints up the steep ridge that leads to the very top. snow blows off the summit as though the mountain is smoking he can hear nothing but the high scream of the wind Tenzing lifts his foot and stamps his crampons into the ice he shifts his weight then he lifts his other foot carefully knowing that every step could be his last his companion is down on his hands and knees inching along with his chin tucked into his armpit to shield his face from the merciless wind.

2:03Some say this peak is the roof of the world, but right now it feels more like death's door. The two men proceed in slow motion.

2:16After another hour, Tenzing is crawling too. Clouds swirl around a summit that flickers in and out of view like a mirage. Struggling for breath, Tenzing suspects their oxygen supply is faulty. They carry heavy gas bottles and have masks strapped over their faces, but right now the equipment seems to be all burden and no relief. As his vision blurs, Tenzing's concern escalates. He knows about the effects of high altitude. Mountain madness can cause men to lay down and die. If nothing else, they have to keep moving. If they can't do that, they must turn back. He struggles to his feet. He wants to say that he has stood higher than any other man on Earth.

3:04But then, with pain in his lungs and in his heart, he takes one last look at the summit. It is barely 800 feet above them, but right now it's an impossible distance to cover. They will not conquer Everest today. Tenzing slaps the boot of his companion, a man named Raymond Lombert, to get his attention. The two climbers have a lot in common. While Tenzing has known the Himalayas all his life, Lambert grew up tackling the mountains of his native Switzerland. A year ago, the Swiss man got stranded by a storm on the summit of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. He lost all his toes that night to frostbite.

3:48Now Tenzing suspects that people will say that if Raymond Lambert can't climb Everest, then no one can. So Tenzing must show them it can be done. He has been told it is his destiny. Although today he makes the wise decision to turn back, a decision that saves their lives, he vows to return. The summit flashes its face once again before it is veiled in snow. It is though Everest herself is saying she will wait for him.

4:25The 1952 expedition set a new altitude record for climbers when Tenzing and Lombert reached 8 ,595 meters or 28 ,200 feet. And it was the first time that a Sherpa was recognized as a full team member. The Swiss explorers valued Tenzing Norgay as a climber, not merely a porter. For the Sherpa people, Mount Everest is sacred. But for foreign adventurers, it is the Holy Grail. The highest peak in the world. One that needs to be conquered. For Queen and Country, for scientific progress, or just because it is there. But what did it take to reach the summit? Was it expertise and endurance, or simply better equipment?

5:12What sacrifices were made in order that a human being could stand on top of the world? I'm John Hopkins, and this is a short history of the conquest of Everest.

5:31The highest peak in the world stands in the Mahalunga section of the Himalayas. The bulk of the mountain lies in Tibet to the north, with the summit rising in Nepal to the south. 100 years before the Swiss expedition, the mountain is given the uninspiring name of Peak 15. The British colonial administration in India undertakes a geographical survey under the leadership of a man named George Everest. This involves the tricky task of measuring mountains, for which he needs a world-class mathematician. A 19-year-old Bengali man from Calcutta rises to the challenge. Radhanath Sikdar holds the role of chief computer.

6:18One day in 1852, he rushes into the office of the surveyor general and declares, Sir, I have discovered the highest mountain in the world. Peak 15 reaches 29 ,000 feet. This comes as a surprise because a mountain called Kang Jin Junga, elsewhere in the Himalayas, was thought to be the tallest. It means they need a more significant title for Peak 15. So the mountain is renamed Everest, after the now-retired Surveyor General. In the decades that follow, many people argue that the mountain should have been named after the man who measured it. Sir George Everest himself objects to the mountain taking any foreign name, having always preferred to label his maps with indigenous titles.

7:05In Nepal, the mountain is known as Sagamatta. In the Tibetan language of the Sherpas, it is Kamalangma. Some give it the poetic name of Mitiguti Chapulonga, which partly translates as, a bird that flies as high as the summit will go blind. Sikdar's mathematical measurement in 1852 proves to be extraordinarily accurate, only around 30 feet of the height measured today using data from satellites. In an age of adventure, Everest becomes the ultimate challenge. Mick Conifrey is a documentary maker and writer of several books about the Himalayas, including Everest 1922. As soon as Everest was measured and as soon as people realised back in the 1850s that it was the highest mountain in the world, almost straight away there were climbers wanting to have a go at it.

8:00because this was the era of trophy exploration where people wanted to get to go along the longest rivers, go to the remotest parts, climb the highest mountains. So the urge was just very strong. And then that urge continues today because really it's the only mountain in the world with universal name recognition. For decades, British climbers in particular had been trying to persuade the Tibetan government to allow them in to have a go at Everest. Before the First World War, they'd been turned down on several occasions. And finally, they'd managed to secure permission from the Dalai Lama himself to have a go in 1922 with a reconnaissance in 1921.

8:43By 1921, the British-led Mount Everest Committee sets out to find a viable route up the mountain. But there are obstacles to overcome before they even set foot there. Nepal is closed to outsiders for political reasons. The foreigners must assemble in the town of Darjeeling over the border in India, which is still under British colonial rule. From there, they trek north into Tibet and take a sharp left turn to explore the far side of the mountain. A man named George Mallory spends five months exploring the foothills. He writes to his wife that they are walking off the map. By 1924, his team is ready to try for the summit.

9:32So back in 1922, no one had any idea whether it would even be possible to get to the top. A lot of scientists doubted that it would be possible to breathe on the summit. The oxygen equipment that was then available was very primitive. The Sherpas, who are such an important part of modern-day mountaineering. Really, we're only just getting into climbing. So whereas a kind of modern climber might go to Everest equipment, very sophisticated equipment, none of that existed at all in the 1920s. When Mallory and his team begin their attempt in 1924, high winds force them to abandon the first two climbs.

10:12After waiting in vain for the weather to settle, Mallory makes a third assault alongside a climber named Andrew Irving. They were full of confidence, but the main issue for them from very early on was that the weather was atrocious. And whereas modern climbing teams have the benefit of up-to-date meteorological information and tell them what is the best moment to climb, in 1924, none of that was available. The best that they could do was Mallory, their sister who lived in Colombo in Sri Lanka, and she was supposed to be sending him postcards telling him what the progress of the monsoon was, because the theory was that the monsoon came up from the south, passed over Salon, and then eventually got to the Himalayas.

10:56But of course, the point was that it took so long for the postcards to get from Colombo to Everest Base Camp that the information was useless. So they had no information about the weather, and it just turned out that that year it was atrocious. Mallory and Irving finally set off to the summit on June 8, 1924, and disappear into the mist.

11:21Later, a team member in the camp peers through binoculars at the sharp fin of the peak. He spots movement high on the ridge, but the clouds close in and he loses sight of them. It's the last time the men are seen alive. Shortly before he set off, Mallory was interviewed by a reporter. Why did he want to climb Everest? He gave a classic reply that has inspired adventurers ever since. Because it is there, he said. In the 1930s, Andrew Irving's ice pick is found on Everest's north face. Then, near the same spot, in 1999, a body is found. It is half covered in scree and well-preserved by the cold.

12:06It has a rope around its waist. The right leg is broken, and a head wound suggests the man was struck by his own ice pick. In the pockets are an altimeter, a penknife, and a pair of snow goggles. Name tags on the clothing identify the dead climber as G. Mallory. The searchers bury Mallory's body under a cairn, but Irving is never found. One intriguing mystery remains from the Mallory Irving tragedy. Did the two men fall when they were pushing for the summit, or did they die on their way back down? For some, the contents of the dead man's pockets offer clues. Mallory always carried a photograph of his wife to leave on the summit.

12:54Perhaps the fact that the picture was missing suggests that he reached the top and put it there. Could Mallory and Irving have been the first men to stand on the roof of the world? A feat lost to tragedy? I don't think the answer is any different now than it was in 1924, which is that it is unlikely that they got to the summit, but it is not impossible. It is very unlikely simply because it was so hard, the climbing difficulties were so great. Something went wrong at some point, which tells you something about how difficult it was. You've got to remember that though Mallory was an experienced climber, Irvin was not.

13:35He'd done hardly any mountaineering. And so the idea that on really his first ever big expedition, he could have got to the top of Everest, it seems very improbable. But, you know, as Norwegian explorer Nansen said, the difficult is what gets sorted out next week, the impossible is what gets sorted out a month later. You can never say never.

14:00After World War II, Nepal opens up to outsiders. This allows climbers to try new routes onto Everest from the south. In 1951, a man named Eric Shipton explores a high valley known as the South Col between Everest and the peak of its neighbor, Lhotse. It makes a perfect high-level staging post. On this trip, Shipton also photographs a massive footprint in the snow. At 13 inches, it's longer than the head of his ice pick, and looks like it has been left by a giant paw. The explorer attributes it to a wild ape-like man living in the snowy wastes, the so-called Yeti. On the way out of Everest, the party kind of split up, and Eric Shipton went with one of the other members, a guy called Michael Ward.

14:52And as they were coming back towards Darjeeling, they found this footprint. Shipton photographed it, and it was sensational. The first reports of the Yeti had come in the 20s, people were already fascinated by it. But this was supposedly the first evidence. Now the thing is that Eric Shipton was known as a great practical joker, a guy who had a bit of sense of humor. So a lot of his friends said, well, hang on a minute, isn't this Eric Schindler just pulling our leg? Mike Ward always maintained that they had seen this footprint, but the world was hungry for stories about the Yeti. And to finally see a photograph was amazing.

15:29But Shiptin maintained the whole of his life that he was bona fide. The notion of not just the Yeti, but the abominable snowman, Bigfoot in America, what do they call cryptozoology, apocryphal stories is very attractive. And the Himalayas, if you like, were to an extent a realm of fantasy, the highest mountains of the world. Very religious place, but very strange, very remote. So it's a great place for all your fantasies to come true. You didn't start a business just to keep the lights on. You're here to sell more today than yesterday. You're here to win. Lucky for you, Shopify built the best converting checkout on the planet.

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17:19Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com, or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. But British fantasies about conquering Everest are yet to come true. Even while Tenzing and the Swiss climbers are making their attempt in 1952, another mission is being planned in England. A man named Colonel John Hunt is summoned from a military post in Germany to the offices of the Royal Geographical Society in London. Hunt walks along the elegant wood-paneled corridors in a double-breasted suit carrying a tan leather document pouch. He could pass for a civil servant, but he is an army officer who was born in India.

18:02His heels click on the polished marble floors as he makes his way to meet officials from the Joint Himalayan Committee. His leather folder contains detailed plans for an ambitious assault on the mountain. Some people are surprised that Hunt is being put in charge of a new Everest expedition instead of Shipperton. But at the age of 42, the colonel is an experienced climber and a renowned military mind. The British have secured permission from the Nepalese government to climb Everest in 1953. There are strict limits on the number of teams allowed on the mountain, so the pressure to succeed now is intense.

18:43The French have the authorization to mount an expedition in 1954, and the Swiss have bagged the slot in 1955. Knowing this could be the last chance for a British-led team to plant their flag first, the committee takes a fresh approach by appointing a military man to lead their 1953 campaign.

19:05John Hunt was completely different. He was a very successful soldier who had been on Montgomery's staff during the Second World War, had a very systematic way of approaching things, was a great man-manager who was able to get the best out of all the people in his team. He was very methodical in the way that he approached the whole expedition. he did an awful lot of planning before they got there, but also was in a sense the sort of heart and soul of the expedition that got the logistics right, was open to the science, made sure that they had the best possible equipment, the best possible oxygen sets, put everything in their favour before they went.

19:43And then when they were on the mountain, worked very hard to make sure that it all worked. A key moment that Hunt was willing to put himself to one side. His ambition really was to climb Everest himself, But realistically, that was never going to happen because he was simply too old. Something like that had to be a huge team effort. And to get a team effort working properly, you had to have a very good leader. And that's what he was.

20:09In preparation, John Hunt takes a team to Farnborough Airport, a military and aviation research center about 50 miles southwest of London. Swapping his double-breasted suit for state-of-the-art nylon overalls, he climbs inside a decompression chamber, a willing guinea pig to test prototype breathing apparatus The door closes Sealed inside this claustrophobic space, he adjusts the thick straps that hold a plastic mask over his face On the wall beside him is the round dial of a pressure valve Its needle drops as the tank simulates the conditions of thin air at altitude. Soon, the lack of oxygen bites.

20:52His head swims. Hunt pours at the walls, scrabbling for relief that isn't there. After a few minutes deprived of oxygen, it seems like a good idea to lay his head against the thick metal door and sleep. The decompression chamber is switched off, and Hunt quickly recovers. But he knows that when he enters the low oxygen zone at the top of Everest, there will be no one to bail him out His team need an oxygen system that works The British also test nylon that is virtually windproof and invent vacuum-packed meals Easier to open than the heavy, fiddly tins used on previous expeditions Shrunken packets of energy-giving foods are boxed up and labelled as assault rations

21:43the second world war had been a very technological war and there'd been lots of innovations in terms of cold weather clothing and things like nylon ropes which hadn't really existed before the second world war and i think that soldiers from that era came from a background where they sort of understood that if you want to leverage your strength you had to have a boffin you had to use the best possible equipment available. You had to think smart, minimize your losses, maximize your chances of success, use everything that was on offer. And also, obviously, working with an enormous team, the logistics are crucial, you know, making sure that everybody's well-fed, making sure there are enough oxygen bottles.

22:22So you had to have somebody who was organized and systematic and methodical, and that's what Hunt was.

22:33On the 12th of February, 1953, Hunt and his team board the SS Strathiden at Tilbury in Essex, bound for India. They ship 15 tons of supplies. Upon arrival in Bombay, the equipment is sent onwards by rail. Although there are roads inside Nepal, it is necessary to haul everything over the border using cable lifts and hundreds of porters. Slowly, the expedition assembles in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Very few Europeans have been to the country, which had been closed to outsiders for a century by the isolationist Rana dynasty. But Hunt is not there to see the sights. He needs to complete his team.

23:19On the 5th of March 1953, he is introduced to a group of Sherpa guides in the garden of the British Embassy compound. Their leader is Tenzing Norge. Some say Tenzing is destined for the top. Born in a Nepali village around 1915, from a young age he helped his father, a yak breeder, to herd the family's animals to high pastures. But like many indigenous Sherpa youngsters, he was soon drawn to the bright lights of Darjeeling and was first hired as a porter by a British expedition in 1935. The Second World War interrupted Himalayan exploration, but in the early 50s, Nepal opened up and foreigners returned.

24:02By the time Hunt meets him in March 1953, Tenzing is a Sherpa Serda, or leader, his reputation already sealed by his leadership of the Swiss expedition a year earlier. Though the summit remained out of reach, Tenzing Norgay has already climbed higher than any other human on Earth.

24:29Hunt is charmed by his ready smile and humorous banter. But the Sherpa, Serda, is also a steely leader. A British reporter from the Daily Mail newspaper describes him as having the bearing of a sergeant major. Colonel John Hunt has found his man. But Tenzing has recently suffered from malaria, and two attempts to reach the summit in 1952 have taken their toll. Tenzing intends to walk himself fit on the long march from Kathmandu to the mountain. By the time it came in 1953, Tenzing had a very proprietorial sense to an extent over Everest. He thought, I've almost climbed Everest with a Swiss team.

25:10I would quite like to come back with a Swiss team if they make another attempt in 1955. And he was a little bit ambivalent, really, about working with the British. Because you've got to remember, this is the sort of post-colonial era. Tenzing had gotten on very well with the Swiss, and he really liked being with them, and he felt that they treated him in a very equal fashion. And he wasn't quite so sure whether the same thing would happen with the British. But nevertheless, the other thing you've got to remember about him is he was incredibly goal-driven. And I think he recognized that this was a pretty good British team, that they were going to go all out to get to the summit, and he wanted to be part of that.