Captain John Noel – The Epic of Everest

Mountain photographer Captain John Noel (1890-1989) is probably best known for his official film record of the unsuccessful attempt by Mallory and Irvine to conquer the peak of Mount Everest in 1924.

This evening we went to the British Film Institute to watch a digitally remastered version of the original full-length nitrate print – including tones and tinted shots and incorporating another tinted nitrate print that Captain Noel had used for his lecture tour.

The revised film, which was undertaken in collaboration with Sandra Noel, the director’s daughter , has been complemented with a wonderful music score by Simon Fisher Turner, which captures the harsh conditions of that epic climb, as well as some of the lighter moments at the beginning of the trek. These include panoramic shots of the huge contingent of people, animals and equipment deemed necessary for the trip -all financed by National Geographic.

They were also surprised by the birth of a donkey -who was forced to walk 22 miles on his first day of existence, 16 miles the second and then having the indignity of being carried by a Sherpa across a fast flowing mountain stream  – he proved difficult to wake the following morning but was last seen on film trying to grab Mum’s milk bar before the cortege set off again!

It was all fascinating, sad, and in some parts unbearably beautiful,  but I was struggling to find any connection with Florence to justify writing a Blog until my Husband picked up the programme notes on the way out, and we found out that Caption Noel (Bless Him!) had attended Art School in Florence as part of his privileged education and it was there that he learned about mountain photography through studying the specialist work of Italian Mountain photographer Vittorio Sella. (work shown below)

Mountain climbing at such altitudes didn’t seem to do much damage to either photogragher’s health – Vittorio Sella was still climbing the Matterhorn aged 76 and only prevented from reaching the peak by an accident to one of his guides – and John Noel himself lived life to the full, mentally fit and only slightly disabled by arthritis, until he died peacefully on March 12,1989, aged 99. 

As we know , tragically neither Mallory , aged 38 , or 22 year old Irvine survived their epic climb to the peak.

Noel’s highest quality special lens was only able to record them as very small images as he  followed them on film them at a distance of nearly two miles – until they vanished from view under heavy cloud cover.

One of the iconic photos of the year 1924 was taken from that trip after team member geologist Noel Odell had made a valiant rescue attempt , searching for two weeks and climbing without oxygen to to around 27,000-feet (8,200 m), but finding no trace of either man. Odell laid some large markers on the snow in the form of a cross which was to be the signal of DEATH so the waiting party below knew what to expect as his small rescue group made their way back down the mountainside.

The complete disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine became a compelling mystery: – Did the pair actually reach the peak, – only to die on their way back down?  When Mallory’s body was finally found and identified in 1999 the vest pocket Kodak camera that he had taken with him to record their triumph was missing – so I guess unless they find it with Irvine’s still lost body we will never know!

What wasn’t found in his wallet was the photograph of his wife that he had promised to leave at the summit when he reached it …..so maybe Mallory did beat Hillary to the top after all?

Noel’s film The Epic of Everest is being shown in the BFI until Thursday 31st October – and the mountaineering season Extreme Summits continues with 11 other spectacular films through to Friday 22nd November.

Husband John’s interest in the film was piqued by reading The Wildest Dream – the biography of George Mallory by Peter and Leni Gillman .

Sandra Noel’s book Everest Pioneer:The photographs of Captain John Noel is also available on Amazon

Paths Of Glory a novel based on Mallory written by Jeffrey Archer whilst detained at her Majesty’s pleasure is published by Macmillan, £18.99. His comments on researching the story whilst in jail are quite entertaining – the reviews of the book are too!