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Conquering Mountains

by | 10th March 2023

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The front cover of 'The Times Everest Colour Supplement 1953'. There is a large colour photo that takes up most of the page, of two men in cold weather gear looking at the camera with snow capped mountains behind them. The cold weather clothing is bright and bulky, one man is in bright blue, the other in yellow, and it looks quite dated compared to similar gear today. One is wearing an oxygen mask and they have ropes attached to their waists. It is captioned 'Companions in Acheivement - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norkey (sic) who together climbed Everest'. The supplement is priced at 3s. 6d. and their is a museum accession number in the top left.

Conquering Mountains

At the end of March 1923, Blundells School was the venue for a very interesting talk by Captain Finch. The Gazette reports that he was a member of the 1922 expedition, the first to explicitly state the aim of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. He started by explaining that the politics in the region at the time meant a lengthy detour and an approach to the mountain from Tibet. The talk was illustrated with ‘a number of magnificent lantern slides’. Although unsuccessful, Captain Finch reached the highest point of the expedition.

George Ingle Finch was an Australian mountaineer, he was also a chemist. Because of his professional background, he was in charge of the bottled oxygen used in the expedition. This was clumsy and heavy equipment which was not universally accepted by the team. For a photo and more details of the expedition, follow this link.

A double page spread from The Times Everest Colour Supplement titled 'The Long and Bitter Struggle Nears Its Climax'. The pages are filled with colour photos of various members of the expedition scaling the mountain, looking up at the looming peak, pictured at Base Camp cooking or looking through supplies and using ice axes to cut steps into the ice.

It wasn’t until 30 years later and after at least 10 major attempts, that Edmund Hillary and Sherpa, Tensing Norgay reached the summit on May 29th 1953. The news was not received in London until late on June 1st, the eve of the Queen’s Coronation.

An advert for 'Radio used with great success'. A black and white photo shows 'Hillary and Lowe using a miniature Pye walkie-talkie during the ascent of Everest'. The walkie-talkie looks anything but miniature by today's standards but would have been far more portable than anything that had come before. The advert states 'Throughout their brilliantly succesful expedition the Mt. Everest team relied exclusively on raido communications equipment supplied by Pye.'.

The Times had exclusive rights on reporting from the mountain and issued two souvenir supplements, one in colour and one in black and white. The Museum has copies of both and the photos are taken from them. The advert for the ‘miniature’ walkie-talkie shows how far technology has come since those days. None of the expeditions in the past or today, would be possible without the dedication of the Sherpa porters and guides.

A grainy black and white photo that appears to be from a newspaper. The peaks of Everest loom large in the distant background of a l;arge group of Sherpa porters and guides sitting and standing in the foreground. Some are looking at the camera, others are engaged in what they're doing.