News of some new attractions at the excellent Helly Hansen
National Mountaineering Exhibition at Rheged in the north Lakes.
Last week, Sir Chris Bonington unveiled a display case containing
the actual ice axe used by George Mallory on the 1922 Everest
Exhibition. Remarkably, Mallory used the wooden-shafted axe to hold a
three-man fall above the North Col of the mountain while descending
the North Ridge after an unsuccessful attempt on the mountain.
An
exhausted and frostbitten Henry Morshead slipped pulling two other
climbers on the rope into a potentially fatal slide. Fortunately
Mallory's quick reflexes and instinctive reactions allowed him to
hold all three with an emergency ice axe belay averting potential
tragedy.
The 1922 expedition set an altitude record on Everest and paved
the way for Mallory's return. He was issued with a new axe for that
famous but ill-fated attempt on the mountain. After his death the axe
was apparently donated by his widow to the all-female Pinnacle Club
and later used by a young Lakeland climber.
The picture below, from the Audrey Salkeld Collection, shows
George Mallory's son, John, being shown the axe during a visit to the
Exhibition in May.
Also newly on display at Rheged is the one-piece down suit worn by
Reinhold Messner when he became the first climber to ascend Everest
without supplementary oxygen in 1978.
Doug's Knackered Kit
Finally
there's another little piece of mountaineering history with Doug
Scott's boots, fibrepile jacket and underwear also going on display.
They were worn during his first ascent of Everest's SW Face in 1976
when he also became the first Briton to stand on the summit of the
world's highest mountain.
Look closely and you'll see that the boots and the knees of his
leggings have holes worn in them. These are the direct result of
Doug's epic descent of the Ogre with two broken legs when he crawled
around eight miles down the mountain and back to base camp helped by
Chris Bonington and two other climbers. One of mountaineering's great
survival stories written in ragged clothing.
A selection of Scott's photos are on display in the exit gallery
of the museum and there's also a realistic replica of the snowhole
where Scott and Dougal Haston survived the world's highest bivouac on
their descent. Brrrrr... Someone pass the central heating please.
The HH National Mountaineering Exhibition is currently hosting a
unique exhibition called 'Everest; The Top Of The World'. You can
find full details of the Rheged venue at the
web
site. See also our illustrated article below.
