The MountainWorld™ Blog

Climb like Hillary - or Mallory, or Noyce, or Tenzing

Or at least look like them when you're on the streets of Manhattan.

Back in September, 2009, I wrote about fashion designer Nigel Cabourn's new/old designs inspired by some of the great adventurers of yesteryear. Well, he's back at it with more designs.

New this year are the Everest Parka, the Tenzing Classic Tweed, the Cameraman (inspired by Wilfrid Noyce, which is strange since Noyce was more of a writer than a photographer), and more.

The only hitch is that outfitting yourself in Cabourn's adventure-inspired gear might cost about as much as an Everest expedition. The Everest Parka, in limited edition, sells for $3,450.

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

The First Adventure Photographer: Vittorio Sella

Highest peak of the Rouies as seen from the Chardon Glacier, August 3, 1888

When I was a kid, I remember seeing some of Vittoria Sella's dramatic, mysterious, intriguing images of the mountains. They captivated me...mists swirling around steep precipices, climbers venturing into unknown terrain.

Those images never left my mind's eye, and were a big reason why I began not only climbing mountains, but also photographing them.

Today, many of Sella's images sit in my office, in books of his expeditions with the Duke of Abruzzi. They inspire me to this day.

Those of you who live in Boston can see an exhibition of Sella's works - aptly titled Heights of Observation - at the Panopticon Gallery starting in September.

See some more of Vittorio Sella's images on the Panopticon website here, or read the PDF press release about the exhibition here. And, of course, if you're in Boston, don't miss the exhibit, which runs from September 9 - November 8, 2010.

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

 

Lost Panoramas of Everest's Northeast Ridge

Several years ago, I made a couple of posts with interactive panoramas of Everest's Northeast Ridge.

One, of the shot above, was just a fun one for people to be able to zoom in and see in detail the challenges posed by the famed First, Second, and Third Steps.

The second set of images related to a discussion on Noel Odell's famous final sighting of Mallory & Irvine in 1924. Shot from roughly Odell's location when he made that sighting, my images from 2004 show what he would have seen.

Unfortunately, while transitioning my websites a few months ago, those files were lost. I just realized it, and have re-uploaded them to the servers. You can find them and their related blog posts at the links below:

• Interactive Panorama of Everest's Northeast Ridge blog post
• Interactive Panorama of Everest's Northeast Ridge image
• Noel Odell's final view of Mallory & Irvine, June 8th, 1924 blog post
• Noel Odell's final view of Mallory & Irvine, June 8th, 1924 images

Enjoy!

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Did extreme weather help in Mallory & Irvine's desappearance?

George Mallory & Andrew Irvine have been in the news quite a bit lately, from Conrad Anker's new film The Wildest Dream to David Breashears' remaking of some early Everest images for the Rivers of Ice exhibition. 

And, they popped up again this weekend when Professor G.W.K Moore of the Physics Department at the University of Toronto released his findings from studying a forgotten weather record from the 1924 expedition. 

He concluded that the storm reported by Noel Odell during Mallory & Irvine's summit attempt created a barometric pressure drop of 18 millibars at basecamp, indicating a storm of unique ferocity. (Moore compares this to a similar, well-documented storm on Everest: The 1996 storm of Into Thin Air fame recorded a pressure drop of only 8 millibars.)

Could this storm have "caused" the disappearance and death of Mallory & Irvine? Well, it certainly wouldn't have helped their cause at all. Moore's findings, while interested, sadly don't prove anything, but add more interesting material to the growing database of Mallory & Irvine information. 

Read the entire story at these links:

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=82295&CultureCode=en

http://blogs.liverpoolecho.co.uk/aintnomountainhighenough/2010/08/mallory-and-irvine-did-extreme.html

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.