{"id":2099,"date":"2013-01-09T12:55:42","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T11:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=2099"},"modified":"2013-01-09T12:55:42","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T11:55:42","slug":"mick-conefrey-everest-1953-the-epic-story-of-the-first-ascent","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=2099","title":{"rendered":"Mick Conefrey, Everest 1953: The Epic Story Of The First Ascent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mick Conefrey, Everest 1953:\u00a0 The Epic Story Of The First Ascent<\/i>, Oneworld \u00a320<\/p>\n

The received picture of the 1953 British Everest expedition is of a seamless triumph, something to make up for the earlier failures of the 1920s and 30s.\u00a0 Mick Conefrey\u2019s groundbreaking new book reveals how far from seamless it actually was.<\/p>\n

John Hunt\u2019s first summit team of two British climbers failed, partly due to his poor positioning of their final camp.\u00a0 Hillary and Tenzing were the foreign back-up, and were only given their chance because the New Zealander and the Sherpa had proved such a formidable load-carrying team on the approach.\u00a0 Tenzing had come close to summiting the mountain the year before in 1952 with the Swiss, and would have been equally happy to have done so with them. Now he was simply finishing the job.\u00a0 The British were still struggling to work out which system of bottled oxygen worked best, closed or open circuit. What really made the ascent possible was phenomenal luck with the weather \u2013 the best for many years \u2013 and the reconnaissance work done by Eric Shipton.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Eric Shipton: ‘the most charismatic mountaineer of his generation’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With his unruly hair and brilliantly written books, Shipton was the most charismatic mountaineer of his generation.\u00a0 In the public\u2019s eyes, as Conefrey puts it, \u2018he was Mr Everest\u2019.\u00a0 When, just months before the expedition, the Himalayan committee dumped him as leader in the most brutal possible way to make way instead for John Hunt –\u00a0 a decision comparable to Harry Redknapp being passed over for Roy Hodgson – they were signalling a complete change of attitude.<\/p>\n

Shipton had taken part in most of the British expeditions to Everest over the previous two decades.\u00a0 It was he who had suggested the successful south-western approach to the mountain rather than the usual northern, Tibetan side; he who recruited both Tenzing and Hillary; and he who led a team there in 1951 to establish that it was indeed a tenable route.<\/p>\n

But he also exemplified a romantic, slightly cavalier approach to the planning of expeditions that grated on the old men of the Himalayan committee’s nerves.\u00a0 He publicly stated that \u2018if mountaineering has any value, and its value after all is purely philosophical, it lies in the experience rather than the result. If competition and above all nationalism are allowed to enter into it, it becomes debased and meaningless.\u2019\u00a0 This was not what the committee wanted to hear.\u00a0 In their minds, there was only one possible successful outcome:\u00a0 getting to the top.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

John Hunt, although virtually unknown in mountain circles, brought a more military approach. Despite initial opposition from the team he inherited from Shipton, he also proved a capable leader who inspired great affection.<\/p>\n

Everest 1953<\/i> is excellent on the complicated emotions that swirled around the expedition.\u00a0 The hero of the story is the modest and down to earth Ed Hillary:\u00a0 on the summit he just took pictures of Tenzing, not himself, and pretended they had got there together;\u00a0 in fact, he had been the first man on top of the world.\u00a0 Moreover,\u00a0 he did what most walkers and mountaineers do when they finally get to their destination – take the opportunity to urinate – although this was less publicised at the time.<\/p>\n

Conefrey has written a magnificent book that deserves to become the definitive version: we cannot hope for a more human, funny or meticulous account of what was a very British expedition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0an edited version of this review appeared in The Independent<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mick Conefrey, Everest 1953:\u00a0 The Epic Story Of The First Ascent, Oneworld \u00a320 The received picture of the 1953 British Everest expedition is of a seamless triumph, something to make up for the earlier failures of the 1920s and 30s.\u00a0 Mick Conefrey\u2019s groundbreaking new book reveals how far from seamless it actually was. John Hunt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":616,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-without-sidebar.php","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2099","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099\/revisions\/2107"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}