climber etiquette

CLIMBER TRICKS, ACTIONS, GESTURES AND ETIQUETTE

Rest and “knock a little warmth into chilled toes”

Pauses – Mallory kicks the ground to keep circulation in his toes.

Finch had slept w boots on. The other two hadn’t and it took an hour to thaw the leather w candles.

Bruce and Finch lightened their loads by abandoning one rope. When gas cylinder was used up they took great pleasure in chucking it off the side of the mountain. “The good steel clanging like a church bell at each impact” (lightened load by 5lbs)

When passing each other in 1924 – Mallory descent after failed attempt – the two climbing parties said nothing to each other except Mallory told them to watch for strips of cloth that would indicate the route.

Shuffling and stamping feet to stay cold. They made dinner and forced themselves to eat it. Just thinking of food made them nauseas.  But of drink one cannot have enough.

They moved at a “miserable crawl”. Mallory’s foot hurt – feared frostbite – removed boot Norton rubbed it and suggested he remove a pair of socks -his boot was too tight – problem solved.

Finch and Bruce had O2 tanks on and 2 thermoses of hot tea – they gave to climbers. Most of them could hardly speak. Finch had great admiration for what they had achieved. A “magnificent record” and safe return.

Then on the northeast ridge Bruce jr yelled not getting O2 and Finch didn’t hesitate – he raced down and grabbed Bruce jr just in time, before he was about to fall backwards off the mountain. Finch dragged him forward saving his life and inserted his own breathing tube into Bruce’s mouth. At elevation where most can’t think. Finch worked to solve the problem while figuring a way to let Bruce and Finch breathe from his own cylinder while he attached a new glass tube to Bruce jrs cylinder.  (At least Finch discovered that a sudden stop of O2 wouldn’t kill a man on the mountain as suspected.)

WHEN PORTERS DIE:  Mallory asked if the bodies of others should be retrieved and the Tibetans said the bodies of their friends and brothers should be left where they lay. The Brits saw this response as a sign of the universal spirit of mountaineers.

Somervell tormented by the loss and wished he too had been dead so that the others dead knew that the whites had shared in their loss.

THE SIGNALS THEY USED: (blankets by day and torch light signals by night) Odell made mark of t from camp 6. Hazard at camp 4 saw sign and using 6 blankets made the a cross – it was the message of death. Noel at camp 3 saw it first.  Bruce jr asked him what he had seen. Noel couldn’t speak. They both looked again “and tried…to make the signal different, but we couldn’t”. Finally they told Norton who hesitated for 10 empty and endless minutes before ordering three rows of blankets to be arranged in response. “Abandon search. Return as soon as possible.”

Hazard acknowledged receipt of order by removing blankets he had laid in snow. Then he signaled Odell. “All right. Return”

WHEN IT’S OVER:  Odell organizes the kits of the dead deciding what goes home. What gets burned.

Somervell and Beetham worked on the memorial cairn carving names into rocks w screwdrivers.

Norton busied himself w dispatches – most urgent code read: “Obterras London-Mallory Irvine Nove Remainder Alcedo-Norton Rongbuk”. It was wired June 19 night. By sat June 21 am all would know Mallory had died on June 8 10 days before his 38th birthday.