Modern technology? Bah. Climbers have just returned from testing replicas of the original clothing worn by Mallory and Tenzing on the first Everest expedition, and found them lighter than the modern stuff.
They say the kit was very warm, and apparently pleasant to wear for long periods. What they don't specifically say is whether it was as warm as the modern kit. Also, I suspect that the fact that they were tailored to fit, rather than off-the-shelf makes a significant difference.
On the whole, though, a triumph for the Wisdom of the Ancients. And very dapper.
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I remember a TV documentary (although I remember no details of who and when - and I don't have time to search for any of the facts) recounting that one of the early, famous, failed North Pole expeditions the explorers had on the modern kit of the time - plenty of layered clothes: jumpers etc. The narrator explained that the Inuit animalskin outfits were far superior, despite being scoffed at by the British, because the single layer of fur kept a massive amount of air as insulation. Conversely, the many layers of cotton had squeezed out the air and were far heavier. They were less insulating and heavier.
Were not so clever as we think, sometimes!
Norgay Tenzing was on the Mallory expedition? I didn't know that - he would only have been about 10 years old.
Yeah okay, my mistake. Although according to the BBC, it's Tenzing Norgay rather than the other way about.
No oxygen bottles, either.
Yes. Now that is what I call, "roughing it." On a different note, Shackelton's team endured a most inhospitable environment, as well, on that famous expedition.
See if you can get hold of the book, "Endurance", which was also the name of Shackleton's ship.
It's a remarkable tale, indeed.
Yes. I read it. I also caught it on IMAX. Now, of course, the obvious......... Was he a genius for making it through and keeping the team in good spirits and on task ..... or inept in allowing them to be placed in that set of circumstances?
He was a megalomaniac. Forging ahead with the expedition, as Europe ploughed headlong into a continuing war, was not the best time to go to Antarctica.
It is a credit to the man that he brought back all of the men whose lives he had wilfully endangered.
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