Everest - The First Ascent: How a Champion of Science Helped to Conquer the Mountain (57 page)

4 The association between rubella and the variety of problems now known as “congenital rubella syndrome” was recognized by the Australian doctor, Norman McAllister Gregg (1892–1966). See
Australian Dictionary of National Biography,
Melbourne University Press 1996, pp. 325–27.

5 HTP: Letter, Doey to Pugh, January 26, 1942.

6 HTP: Letter, Pugh to Doey, June 27, 1944.

7 “Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee, being a Joint Committee of the Board of Education and the Board of Control,” London HMSO, 1929, known as “The Wood Report” and “Report of the Departmental Committee on Sterilisation,” Cmmd 4485, 1934. See also introductory article by Macnicol 1983.

8 Napsbury Psychiatric Hospital, as it later became known, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, was finally closed down in 1999.

19.
A Man in a Hurry

1 PP 35.10.

2 Hardie 2009, p. 109, quoting Hillary and Lowe.

3 Hillary 1955, p. 62.

4 Johnston 2005, p. 82.

5 Hillary 1975, p. 22.

6 Ibid., p. 25.

7 Hillary 1955, p. 5.

8 RGS/EE/86&87.Press Cuttings:
South Wales Argos,
October 23, 1953.

9 This story was told to me by Norman Hardie, who was a good friend of Jim McFarlane. See also Johnston 2005, p. 84.

10 Hillary 1975, p. 182.

11 Ibid., p. 183.

12 Hardie 2006, p. 108.

13 Hillary 1999, p. 121.

14 Ibid.

15 Fuchs’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition was an independent enterprise, financed mainly by charitable funds. It was loosely associated with the “International Geophysical Year,” under which a large number of nations agreed to put aside their differences for a period of eighteen months (July 1957–December 1958) and release their scientists to cooperate in a joint effort to advance the world’s geophysical knowledge. Scientists from sixty-four countries took part, and some 4,000 research stations were set up throughout the world. Antarctica was one of the key focus points. In a frenzy of scientific activity, twelve different countries set up more than fifty overwintering bases there, to which they sent out numerous scientists. Fuchs himself (1908–1999) was a geological scientist who conceived of the idea of repeating Shackleton’s attempt at traversing Antarctica while working as field commander of the British Falkland Islands Dependency Survey (see
The Times
obituary, November 13, 1999, and Clarkson’s article on Fuchs in the
Dictionary of National Biography
2004).

16 See note 15 above.

17 Before leaving for Antarctica, Fuchs, Hillary, Lowe, and several other members of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition went to Pugh’s laboratory in London to have benchmark measurements taken.

18 Hut Point was the name given to the tip of the peninsula where Captain Scott established his shore base during the
Discovery
expedition of 1901–03. The sea inlet is known as McMurdo Sound. Jim Adam had been seconded to Edholm’s division at the MRC by the navy.

19 Hillary 1955, p. 63.

20 Hillary 1999, p.8 8.

21 A high concentration of red blood corpuscles is less advantageous to the high-altitude climber than common sense might suggest, partly because it tends to make the blood more syrupy and viscous, increasing the risk of blood clots and high-altitude strokes. On Cho Oyu and Everest, Pugh had begun to make some of the earliest comparisons between the British climbers and the native Sherpas and porters. He had noticed that the Sherpas performed better at altitude than most of the British, yet consistently showed significantly lower hemoglobin levels than the British. In an academic paper (Pugh 1954e) published a year before Hillary’s book came out, Pugh wrote that he had found “no obvious relationship between haemoglobin levels and physical performance.” Pugh’s measurements were the first observation of a phenomenon which is now thought to indicate that Sherpas are better adapted to altitude than lowlanders.

22 Squadron Leader John Claydon (later Wing Commander) kindly gave me a recorded interview when I visited him at his home in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2007. Claydon, who had been left in charge of Scott Base, told me that Hillary’s plans to go to the Pole were actually well under way long before he reached Depot 700. He said, “We got to Depot 480 and before I left Ed took me aside and said, ‘John, I want to tell you something in absolute confidence. Have you got sufficient fuel to bring the fuel to me at 700?’ He told me he was heading for the Pole and asked if I had enough fuel. I said ‘no.’” The fuel was eventually obtained from the Americans and flown to Depot 700 by Claydon.

23 Pugh was clear that Hillary was “forbidden” to go to the Pole directly by a telegram from Fuchs, which explicitly told him to abandon his idea of reaching the Pole (quoted in Hillary 1999, p. 225, Corgi paperback version), and indirectly by a preceding telegram from the Ross Sea Committee, which instructed him to ascertain and act in accord with Fuchs’s wishes, whatever they might be (quoted in Hillary 1999, pp. 219–20). Almost a year earlier, in March 1957, Hillary had already proposed to Fuchs a range of extracurricular activities he wanted to undertake at Depot 700, but Fuchs forbade him to do anything beyond establishing the depot. “From then on,” Hillary wrote, “I decided I would largely ignore the instructions of the Ross Sea Committee, and, as leader in the field, make whatever decisions I regarded as appropriate” (Hillary 1999, p. 186.)

After hearing the news of Hillary’s arrival at the Pole while in the NZ radio room at Scott Base, Pugh reported in his diary: “H has disregarded both Ross Sea Committee and Fuchs’ signals” (Pugh’s Antarctic Diary, January 4, 1958). John Claydon, who made Hillary’s project possible by flying out the fuel he needed, commented to me, “Quite simply it was a dirty trick, Ed going to the Pole. It wasn’t his place to go there . . . a lot of people think it was a good thing for Ed to do—to oppose authority and take the mickey out of the British and all the rest of it . . . The Brits were offended . . . and quite frankly, it beggared the expedition because the whole objective was the crossing of Antarctica with Hillary providing the support—an exact replica of what Shackleton had planned . . . Anyway, I think that as soon as [Ed] was selected, with the kind of bloke he is, before he left NZ, he thought, ‘I’m going to be the bloke.’ I think that Ed was just conserving his resources. He was sitting back there and just waiting until he got his turn and then, phew.”

24 See, for example, articles in
The Times
on January 7 and 8, 1958.

25
Paris Match,
January 18, 1958.

26 Hillary 1961, p. 210.

27 During my visit to New Zealand in 2007, I was told by several of those involved at the time that Hillary’s dash for the Pole was still a matter of controversy in New Zealand. Three of the scientific members of Hillary’s team complained that they were unable to carry out their pre-agreed research program because Hillary requisitioned the NZ tractors they had been promised for his race to the Pole. Furthermore, when Murray Ellis, who traveled to Depot 700 with Hillary’s group, asked Hillary to release him so he could join his scientific colleagues to carry out a prearranged mapping and surveying project, Hillary persuaded Ellis to forgo his project and join the race to the Pole instead, by threatening to go anyway with Peter Mulgrew as his only companion (see Hillary 1999, p. 20). Hillary lacked the skills to keep the vehicles going, and would have put himself in significant danger if Ellis, who was a skilled mechanic, had refused to accompany him. Afterward, it is said that Ellis never fully forgave Hillary for preventing him from using the unique opportunity to do his research. The residual resentment felt by Fuchs and others about Hillary’s behavior is discussed at length in Dodds 2005.

20.
Everest without Oxygen

1 See Hillary 1975, pp. 233–35.

2 PP 42.10.756: Cover letter dated April 6, 1959.

3 PP 42.10.748: Letter, Hillary to Pugh, February 16, 1959.

4 From a taped interview kindly given to me by Hillary’s friend, climber Mike Gill.

5 Pugh in Edholm and Bacharach 1965, p. 121.

6 This expedition was described by its leader in Dill 1980. See also West 1998, pp. 219–27. Pugh also often wrote about it (see, for example, Pugh 1969c).

7 WL Pugh ref.8525. Before leaving for Antarctica Pugh had been planning an Anglo-American scientific expedition to Kamet in 1959 or 1960. Will Siri and Nello Pace had expressed interest in taking part. He had applied to the Mount Everest Foundation for a grant, but he omitted to fill in the section of the application form requiring him to list his qualifications to lead a scientific expedition to high altitude. No doubt he felt that the MEF ought to know who he was. The result was that the foundation refused even to consider his application.

8 PP 42.10.750: Letter, Pugh to Hillary, April 6, 1959.

9 Ibid.: Letter, Hillary to Pugh, April 19, 1959.

10 Ibid.: Letter, Hillary to Pugh, September 19, 1959.

11 Ibid., p. 763.

12 Hillary describes this episode in his books of 1975, p. 235, and 1999, p. 241.

13 Copy in PP 42.10.766.

14 Izzard 1955.

15 See Ward 1972, p. 157. Notwithstanding Ward’s memory of being invited onto the expedition at a very early stage by Pugh and Hillary together, Hillary later objected to being asked to pay Ward’s salary, writing to Pugh, “I am afraid we will not be able to afford the luxury of Mike Ward. Mike could be very useful, but I do not regard his inclusion as sufficiently essential to pay £1,000 for it.” However, Pugh wanted Ward on the expedition, and he was included nonetheless (PP 42.10.a792).

16 HP MS 2010/1 NLZ folder 2.NLI folder 1.Sheet 9: Letter, Pugh to Hillary, 1959.

17 PP 42.10.771 “Notes after a consultation with Sir Edmund Hillary,” October 19, 1959.

18 Ward and Milledge 2002, p. 84.

19 Milledge 1993, p. 173.

20 Hillary and Doig 1962, p. 167.

21 PP 42.6 and 10.785. Pugh first approached Mr. Comrie, head of the Government’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. A minute of their first meeting (which Ward also attended) shows they discussed the location of the hut, the likely weather conditions, and the dimensions, including factors like sleeping area and bunks. Comrie then sent Pugh on to architect Ezra Levin. The hut was described in the
Marley News,
No. 28, October 1969, in an article entitled “Highest Building in the World.”

22 Hillary and Doig 1962, p. 171.

21.
“Only If I Have Complete Control”

1 HP MS 2010/1: Letter, Hillary to Pugh, August 18, 1960.

2 Silver Hut Diary, October 1, 1960.

3 Silver Hut Diary, October 17, 1960.

4 Doig and Perkins made a Yeti scalp of their own from Thar goat skin. A Thar goat is a Himalayan mountain goat with a thick, woolly, reddish to dark-brown coat.

5 Pugh to Doey, October 31, 1960.

6 HTP: Hillary and Doig 1962, p. 167.

7 Hardie described his experiences of the Silver Hut to me during several meetings in 2005 and 2006. He also wrote about them in a chapter on the Silver Hut expedition in his book published in 2006, pp. 192–217. Pugh often commented in admiration that Hardie did a remarkable job delivering the complete set of Silver Hut parts to Mingbo undamaged.

8 Hillary and Doig 1962, p. 170.

9 PP 42.7.639 Being in some respects shy, he would have found it hard to muscle in on Hillary’s group without being invited.

10 HTP: Letter, Pugh to Doey, November 10, 1960.

11 Silver Hut Diary entries for November 7–15, 1960.

12 HTP: Letter, Pugh to Doey, November 10, 1960.

13 Ibid. The full passage says, “E is a hopeless leader but good at forging on. He turns out to be much too small a man for an expedition like this, which includes a number of older & more experienced men as well as the young climbers. I have been unable to fathom his true intentions and he won’t give direct answers to my questions. For example, I cannot get him to give a direct yes or no about the radio communication & the use of helicopter. I expect he feels ashamed secretly about going back to NZ and wants to keep things as dark as possible while he is away. He seems unable to delegate authority & yet does not communicate his plans, so none of us know where we are. No doubt I shall have to have another straight talk with him soon and, if the result is not satisfactory, return home. So anything may happen.”

14 Silver Hut Diary entries for November 7–15, 1960. See also Pugh’s notes, PP 42.7.639–40.

15 Pugh had grouped the physiological equipment by procedure: All the items needed for respiratory gas analysis had been packed together, and so on. Three further lists provided a record of the contents case by case, a full general alphabetical inventory, and, lastly, a classified catalog according to procedure. His complaint was that Hillary put the wrong people in charge of the repacking; instead of Mike Gill, who understood the system, he gave the job to Milledge and Nevison.

16 Since they lacked radio contact with Kathmandu, a desperate message was sent by runner to Namche Bazar. From there they put in a request to the officer in charge of the military radio post to send a message by Morse to Kathmandu, and from there a cable was sent to the MRC in London. See unpublished draft article “Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition 1960/61 from Dr. L. G. C. E. Pugh” HTP.

17 PP 42.7.639–40.

18 Hillary 1975, p. 243.

19 Silver Hut Diary, November 7–15, 1960.

20 Hillary 1975, p. 243.

21 Silver Hut Diary, November 15, 1960. Pugh wrote: “Yesterday I was present at a long meeting between Desmond Doig & Z [presumably meaning some] of the Khumjung village elders sitting on furs round the charcoal brazier. The meeting lasted all of 2 hours & they agreed to hand over their Yeti scalp on already agreed conditions (6,000RN & a new school) providing that the remaining opposition can be bought off which would require 500RN.” Later the deposit was raised to 8,000 rupees.

22 PP 27.18.

23 HTP: Letter, Pugh to Doey, November 25, 1960.