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> However, Mallory had a fatal flaw, well known to his companions. He was one of those people who are both absent-minded and clumsy with equipment. [...] abov

> However, Mallory had a fatal flaw, well known to his companions. He was one of those people who are both absent-minded and clumsy with equipment. [...] above 21,000 feet in the death zone of Everest [...] intricacies of using the large, awkward oxygen bottles... One really wonders about the competence of the committee which was selecting climbers for the fatal attempt.

jupp0r 2y ago
Nobody had ever climbed mountains that high. There were no truly competent people around at that time, at least not competent in high altitude mountaineering.
- ProAm 2y ago
  Except the Sherpa's.
  - jupp0r 2y ago
    Do you have a source for this? I have read quite a bit about climbing in the Himalayas and I have never heard of Sherpas climbing at high altitude in the 1920s.
  - advisedwang 2y ago
    I doubt at that era Sherpas had experience climbing with oxygen either.
  - HKH2 2y ago
    I'm not sure about other mountains, but the Sherpas were against climbing Mount Everest because they considered it sacrilegious.
  - IncreasePosts 2y ago
    Everest would have been covered in tibetan Buddhist prayer flags if that were the case.
ItCouldBeWorse 2y ago
The day napoleon was defeated, europe was filled with generals who knew it better and would have won. We know much more in hindsight - and every game is easier with perfect information. We have send people to space in space-suits, which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. So the art to prepare for such "adventures" is very different to what we imagine. No endless information gathering, instead you select a person that can improvise on the spot with the spotty information you have. You give them tools to improvise: Knifes to cut the spacesuit open, duct-tape and rubber-tourniquets to keep the helmet pressurized. Not great, not terrible. Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned?
- krisoft 2y ago
  > Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned? That is one of the incomprehensible things for me about the early pioneers of parachute technology. Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower when they could have tested and perfected the jump with a sack of potatoes or sand?
  - mordechai9000 2y ago
    > Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower Tangential, but I think there was just one incident, and the guy was considered a crackpot even when he was alive. They thought he was going to throw a dummy off, but against all advice he insisted on doing it himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt
- foobarian 2y ago
  > which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. Huh. Did we really do this without testing it in a vacuum chamber on the ground first?
  - wrycoder 2y ago
mjb 2y ago
> One really wonders about the competence of the committee which was selecting climbers for the fatal attempt. That's not really what happened. There wasn't some committee deciding that Mallory and Irvine should go up that day - it was the result of health, weather, conditions, injuries, and politics inside the group. They were months of travel away from anything resembling a committee!
InTheArena 2y ago
This is a pretty gross generalization, and not one that I recall Wade Davis (the best boo I have read so far on Mallory) adopts; He does go into the fiddly nature of the O2 tanks a lot - The oxygen apparatus was new to everyone back then, and Irvine was there because he was the most proficient in it's use.
fuzztester 2y ago
competence ... committee one wonders ...

jupp0r 2y ago

Nobody had ever climbed mountains that high. There were no truly competent people around at that time, at least not competent in high altitude mountaineering.

ProAm 2y ago
Except the Sherpa's.
- jupp0r 2y ago
  Do you have a source for this? I have read quite a bit about climbing in the Himalayas and I have never heard of Sherpas climbing at high altitude in the 1920s.
- advisedwang 2y ago
  I doubt at that era Sherpas had experience climbing with oxygen either.
- HKH2 2y ago
  I'm not sure about other mountains, but the Sherpas were against climbing Mount Everest because they considered it sacrilegious.
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  Everest would have been covered in tibetan Buddhist prayer flags if that were the case.

ItCouldBeWorse 2y ago

The day napoleon was defeated, europe was filled with generals who knew it better and would have won. We know much more in hindsight - and every game is easier with perfect information. We have send people to space in space-suits, which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. So the art to prepare for such "adventures" is very different to what we imagine. No endless information gathering, instead you select a person that can improvise on the spot with the spotty information you have. You give them tools to improvise: Knifes to cut the spacesuit open, duct-tape and rubber-tourniquets to keep the helmet pressurized. Not great, not terrible. Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned?

krisoft 2y ago
> Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned? That is one of the incomprehensible things for me about the early pioneers of parachute technology. Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower when they could have tested and perfected the jump with a sack of potatoes or sand?
- mordechai9000 2y ago
  > Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower Tangential, but I think there was just one incident, and the guy was considered a crackpot even when he was alive. They thought he was going to throw a dummy off, but against all advice he insisted on doing it himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt
foobarian 2y ago
> which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. Huh. Did we really do this without testing it in a vacuum chamber on the ground first?
- wrycoder 2y ago

mjb 2y ago

> One really wonders about the competence of the committee which was selecting climbers for the fatal attempt. That's not really what happened. There wasn't some committee deciding that Mallory and Irvine should go up that day - it was the result of health, weather, conditions, injuries, and politics inside the group. They were months of travel away from anything resembling a committee!

InTheArena 2y ago

This is a pretty gross generalization, and not one that I recall Wade Davis (the best boo I have read so far on Mallory) adopts; He does go into the fiddly nature of the O2 tanks a lot - The oxygen apparatus was new to everyone back then, and Irvine was there because he was the most proficient in it's use.

fuzztester 2y ago

competence ... committee one wonders ...