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Clothing didn't prevent Mallory and
Irvine from climbing
London:
Contrary to the general belief that the two mountaineers George Mallory
and Sandy Irvine died in 1924 due to bad clothing, a unique experiment
on the peak has found that the clothes worn by the duo were excellent
and would not have prevented them from reaching the peak. Mallory and
Irvine took the expedition on June 6, 1924, almost 29 years before Tenzing
Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary successfully achieved the feat, but died
two days later. Even today the cause of their death remains a mystery,
though many believe that they died because they were ill-equipped. Over
the past few weeks, climber Graham Hoyland has been putting the old-style
clothing worn on the fateful Mallory expedition to the ultimate field
test on the world's highest mountain. Wearing replica gear made from gabardine,
wool, cotton and silk, he wanted to disprove the common myth that the
1920s climbers were ill-equipped to reach the summit. "This is just another
brick in my wall of evidence," the BBC quoted him as saying. The results
of Hoyland's in-the-field experiment also confirmed the investigations
carried out earlier by a team of forensic textile experts from Lancaster,
Leeds, Southampton and Derby universities in 1999. Wearing the replica
clothing for two days on Everest, Hoyland tested the suit alongside the
expedition leader who was wearing a typical modern down suit. He discovered
that the clothes were more comfortable to wear than modern day gear. "Like
most mountaineers, I am used to synthetic outdoor clothing: polypropylene
underclothes and outer fleeces which are bought pre-sized, off the shelf
and never quite fit properly. They are unforgiving in stretch, and begin
to smell unpleasant if worn for more than a couple of days. There is a
harsh synthetic sensation next to your skin. By contrast, the Mallory
clothing was made to fit me. This meant that the shirts didn't ride up,
exposing my kidneys when I stretched, and the whole ensemble felt of a
piece when walking. Instead of feeling bulky, the layers fitted very well,"
he said.
-June 14, 2006
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