The name of the Englishman George Mallory has been, since 1924, one of the greatest mysteries in the history of great climbing. That year he would have, alongside his friend Andrew Irvine, attempted to reach the summit of Everest, but, although he was last seen near the top, it has not been confirmed to this day whether he actually reached the top of the 8,849 meter mountain that, until then, no Westerner had climbed. The cause of its disappearance was never clarified and, as a result, the official conquest of the mountain was left to New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who went there in 1953, took photos and returned with proof of the feat.
Mallory’s body, mummified by the extreme cold of the highest mountain in the world, would only be located on May 1, 1999, by a joint expedition with the British television channel BBC and a group of American mountaineers.
What most caught the attention of the members of this expedition were the clothes worn by Mallory, preserved by the ice in which the body had remained since then — a parka, sweater, wool pants, 3/4 socks and studded leather boots —, totally insufficient to face the extreme negative temperatures of Everest.
And it was precisely to test the ability to resist the freezing cold with that clothing that two English brothers, Hugo and Ross Turner, 37, known online as the Turner Twins, or Turner Twins, and with a vast CV of adventures, decided to climb a Himalayan mountain wearing clothes exactly the same as the ones Mallory wore a century ago. They just didn’t try to climb Everest, as Hugo explained to the column, because “with the large number of people standing in long queues to reach the summit, the wait would create a problem that didn’t exist in 1924”.
“With those clothes, at that altitude, you have to keep moving all the time,” he adds, “and that wouldn’t be possible with these current lines.”
The brothers’ choice was, then, the Mera Peak mountain, also in the Himalayas, 6,476 meters high and less popular with the crowds that arrive in Nepal annually. They worked for two years with experts who developed everything from layers of silk and pure wool clothing to leather gloves and boots like those found on Mallory’s mummified body.
“Only the reproduction of the boots, by Crockett & Jones [tradicional fabricante de calçados inglesa fundada em 1879]took 18 months and involved the work of 40 people”, says Hugo. The pieces of clothing were recreated by the Norwegian company Devold, a specialist in merino wool, which is the most suitable to date as thermal protection for low temperatures. In total, 5 layers of blouses interspersed with pure silk and wool were created, 3 layers of long johns made of the same fabrics under knickerbocker trousers —amazingly!— made of cotton gabardine, typical of trails at the end of the 19th century, which hang just below the knee, and a coat also made of gabardine. On the hands, thick snow gloves (those that only have one finger) made of thick wool and an unlikely wide-brimmed hat, almost like an Indiana Jones, as suited the adventurers of the time, on top of the woolen caps. meter long and a small canvas and leather backpack completed the retro model.
While Hugo followed with Mallory’s clothes, his brother Ross followed alongside him with modern clothes and equipment. The team accompanying them monitored their cortisol levels, saturation, glucose and cognitive performance under extreme cold. And, after 10 days on the mountain, reaching the summit on November 17th, they came back thinking about what? “Now we’re going to a mountain over 7,000 meters high,” says Hugo, revealing that the next objective will be Mount Cho Oyu, the sixth highest on the planet, at 8,188 meters high, also in the Himalayan mountain range.
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