Review: Into the Silence

December 2011. National Geographic explorer in residence, writer and scientist Wade Davis has written an epic book about the first three expeditions to explore and attempt to “conquer” Mount Everest. It’s an extremely detailed, yet never dull, account, perfectly suited to the enquiring mind and those with a passion for historical records. If you’ve an interest in mountain climbing, then this book becomes compulsory reading material.

It can be a bit daunting to review a professional, thorough and extremely detailed historical account by an expert on the subject matter and then cram it all into 500 words. To the poor man or woman who wrote the book, reading such a review must seem like a cheap slap in the face. So excuse me if this particular review tends to ramble on a bit.

The jacket for Into the Silence gives a very brief summation of author Wade Davis’s expertise: “Wade Davis is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including The Serpent and The Rainbow and One River, and is an award-winning anthropologist. He currently holds the position of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and divides his time between Washington DC and northern British Columbia.”

National Geographic’s website offers more: “An ethnographer, writer, photographer and film-maker, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology, and received his Ph.D in Ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6 000 botanical collections.

“His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international bestseller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture.”

Author, scientist, botanist, explorer . . . Wade Davis

Okay, so point made, Davis is a heavy hitter and extremely well placed to spend 10 years researching and writing a detailed, analytical and well-argued account of the earliest planned assaults on the world’s largest mountain, Everest.

This book is basically divided into two sections: The first is an account of the involvement of some of the roleplayers in the early Everest saga in World War 1, and their brutal personal experiences, exposure to suffering, in some cases work as surgeons in field hospitals, post-traumatic stress disorder, and survivor’s guilt.

No-holds-barred

In a no-holds-barred, straightforward manner, Davis breaks down how the bloody events played out and details the damage, mental and physical, done to the generation sent to war.

Immovable object: A view of Mount Everest looking towards modern day base camp

Then we move on to the first considerations of a British expedition to Everest (they didn’t even know yet how to reach the foot of the mountain), diplomatic considerations (for the Tibetans, Everest was a sacred site), to fundraising efforts, committees and personnel (the Alpine Club and Royal Geographical Society were the main players), and then final team selection for the first assault . . .  1921.

Why Everest?

One of the biggest questions is, “Why Everest?”. While Britain’s finest climber, George Mallory, would later famously says, “Because it is there”, the following thoughts from the author are instructive: “Mallory walked on because for him, as for all of his generation, death was ‘but a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day’.”

Davis continued: “For all of them Everest had become an exalted radiance, a sentinel in the sky, a symbol of hope in a world gone made.”

As the world’s highest peak, Everest was obviously alluring, mysterious, hidden away on the borders of Nepal, India and Tibet, with Bhutan in close attendance. It was physically and politically difficult to get to, the geography was daunting for an expedition in 1921, its close proximity had never been mapped. In fact, it took Mallory’s crew about a month of stumbling around on mini expeditions at high altitude just to find the correct route to the base of the upper structure of the mountain.

Taxing, mysterious

Although a taxing, dangerous and financially draining endeavour, the challenge was immense, the chance for national pride too important to pass up, however extreme the risk.

And there were casualties along the way, in 1921, 1922 and 1924, including of course, George Mallory himself. Did they reach the summit? No, it appears they probably didn’t come close in terms of a realistic assault on the death zone, although some argue that Mallory and his climbing partner Sandy Irvine summited first, before disappearing on their attempted descent. The evidence seems to indicate that this is highly unlikely.

But immense strides were made in terms of developing logistics required for a realistic summit attempt, extensive mapping of the area, technology (particularly the use of gas in the latter parts of the climb) and a realistic awareness of what was going to be required to tackle the beast, Everest.

Into the Silence has to be admired for the depth of research alone. The bibliography, index and notes section at the end of the book testifies to the amount of hard slog Davis put into his research and writing. The excellent collection of maps at the front of the book also helps bring alive the details of the routes and challenges faced by the expeditions. But it’s also an engrossing read, a drama played out over a series of punishing episodes, where there was little real hope of success and every chance of fatal failure. In the end, the personalities and characters (and Davis’s interpretation of those characters) of those who took this massive gamble for a shot at fame and glory is what makes Into the Silence a great read.

Into the Silence is published by Random House/Struik
Full title: Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest
Review: Garth Johnstone