95 years ago, Everest was just as deadly but much less crowded

As climbers continue to die in the Himalayas, a look back at the conquest of the tallest mountain in the world.

Source: The New York Times

The mountains are deceptively calm. Snow-covered, sometimes they blaze bright enough to blind. They appear indifferent to the tiny travellers on their backs — these European men in the waning years of the British Empire, seeking, as the stories of the time often read, to conquer Everest.

Members of the 1922 expedition, shown camped at 22,500 feet. Two of them climbed to just above 27,000 feet — using bottled oxygen — the highest at that time. Source: The New York Times

Conquer? Really? Who conquers whom? If you’ve ever faced the Himalayas, you know they can swallow you whole.

Some of the earliest pictures of the highest peak on Earth were taken on British expeditions in 1921, 1922 and 1924. They are among the first pictures of our species trying to scale it — and to document the feat for future generations.

Members of the 1922 expedition used ice picks to hack footholds into a pristine slope, 23,000 feet up. Ropes, ladders and climbing aids are now on the route. Source: The New York Times

Rongbuk Glacier, which is about seven miles from the northern slope, during the 1921 reconnaissance expedition. The northern approach was deemed impassable. Source: The New York Times

Look at those tiny creatures — that’s us! — walking in a row against the dazzling white wall of ice. See, they are hacking at the mountain to dig steps in which to place their feet. By 1922, a British expedition team got within hundreds of feet of the summit.

What these pictures don’t fully tell you is that the mountains are not calm at all. They growl when stones tumble. The wind whistles as you climb. The altitude drains your breath. They tell you how puny you are, how frail really, which is why you try to supplicate them, as the Buddhists who are from those mountains do, by stacking one stone on top of another in prayer.

In 1921, the group camped near the town of Shekar Dzong. At the time, Nepal was closed to foreigners, so any approach was made through Tibet. Source: The New York Times

Everest, the peak, is named after a bureaucrat of the British Empire, a choice that itself foregrounds man over nature. The people of the Himalayas often refer to it as a goddess or a mother. In the pictures, they peek out from between the white men’s shoulders. In the captions, they are often unnamed, referred to as “sturdy native porters.” Their humanity had already apparently been conquered.

The pictures are a glimpse into our collective capacity for adventure and courage. But looking at them now, they are also a glimpse into our capacity for self-destruction, our ability to squander what we love.

Four of the five tallest mountains in the world are found in the Himalayas. Makalu, Earth’s 5th highest peak, overlooked the expedition’s camp at Pethang Ringmo Source: The New York Times

The 1921 expedition was led by Col. Charles Howard-Bury, pictured here seated. Source: The New York Times

What we know now is that by the time of these expeditions — as industrialism was enthusiastically conquering nature — we were already beginning to alter the Himalayas forever. The powerful among us, in Europe and the United States mainly, enlarged our economies as fast as we could by burning as much fossil fuel as we could.

The greenhouse gases we injected into the atmosphere have already warmed the planet measurably. They continue to, at an accelerating rate. As a result, the ice is melting in the Himalayas. At the current pace, scientists forecast that at least a third of the ice in the Himalayas and the neighbouring Hindu Kush range will thaw by the end of this century.

The crew made three attempts to reach the Everest's summit in 1922. After the third try — during which an avalanche killed seven porters — they gave up. Source: The New York Times

Why should that matter? These mountains are the water towers of Asia. When the ice is gone, the water is gone too, affecting more than a billion people who live downstream. Then there is nothing left to conquer. No ascent of man.

The mountain is indifferent, as nature almost always is to those of us who think we are somehow something other than just a part of nature.

Pictures are meant to be the repository of our collective memory. The Himalayas hold our memories too. As the ice thaws, it releases the bodies they swallowed long ago.

At the time, this image’s original caption said, this was “the highest point in the world at which photographs have ever been taken.” Source: The New York Times