StatementsThe Alpine Club makes the following recommendations to those seeking to find the body of Sandy Irvine who lost his life with George Mallory on Everest's North Ridge in 1924. Dead climbers found on mountains naturally evoke strong and often conflicting emotions but especially feelings of sadness and respect. Such are the mythic proportions of the Mallory/Irvine tragedy that despite natural reverence and respect for their bodies, historical investigations will inevitably intrude. The Irvine family has therefore approached the Alpine Club for help in identifying appropriate conduct to be observed should Sandy Irvine's body be found. CONSULTATION 1.1 To consult with the Irvine family through John Irvine, Chairman of the Sandy Irvine Trust as follows: 1.2 periodically before departing for Everest 1.3 from the mountain before information is given to anyone else, particularly the media and any sponsors and also 1.4 immediately on return from the mountain and then shortly after to submit a full and comprehensive report 1.5 John Irvine's address is: Email John.Irvine@dial.pipex.com THE BODY 2.1 Expeditions finding the body of Sandy Irvine should bear in mind that the Irvine family would prefer, as does the Alpine Club, that his body be left in peace, especially as there are still relatives alive who knew him. The family, however, recognise that there are many people interested in the fate of Mallory and Irvine and that finding a camera might be the best indication as to whether or not they actually reached the summit of Everest. They are therefore facing up to the possibility of Sandy Irvine's body being found and request it to be treated with the utmost respect. 2.2 The body, if found, should be searched with the greatest care to avoid damaging the frozen body, as happened to that of George Mallory during a second search for more artefacts, a few days after the first encounter. 2.3 A major effort should be made for the body to be committed and covered with stones if at all practicable. 2.4 The body should thereafter remain untouched. In Britain and many other countries it is illegal to disinter a body without a Court Order. This practice should be respected in the mountains. PERSONAL BELONGINGS 3.1 The family lay claim to all personal belongings found on the body and request they are returned to the Trustees. The trust exists to preserve the good name of Sandy Irvine; to look after archival material and artefacts relating to his life and death and ultimately to benefit mountaineering charities by making donations from any monies coming into the trust from reproduction fees and loan fees. 3.2 The Alpine Club fully supports the family's claim that all personal effects be returned to them as that is their request. It is also logical to have all artefacts in one place and convenient for mountaineering historians. PHOTOGRAPHY 4. Published photographs in the media or in books of any mountaineer's body can be most distressing to surviving relatives. The Alpine Club therefore strongly supports the family's request that they are consulted before any photographs of Sandy Irvine's body are published and that the family have the right to veto any image for publication for whatever reason. Those seeking to find Sandy Irvine's body and camera may do so in a genuine, if obsessive spirit of enquiry. They may, if successful in their search, be taken by surprise at the media's insatiable desire for images of the body and an account of the gruesome details. They should be prepared for this eventuality and avoid acting in a distasteful way that may later be regretted. It should always be upper most in the minds of those who find the body that the media tend to be anonymous and unaccountable, as well as distant from the family and they exist primarily to sell their product. It is one thing to have a photograph showing the final resting place, on Everest, of Sandy Irvine and George Mallory in a definitive book on the subject or in an alpine journal, but quite another to have images splashed across the pages of the popular press for promotional purposes and financial gain. Doug Scott - President 22 January 2001 |
|
ALPINE CLUB,
55/56 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3QF |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||