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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 15, 2019 - 10:49am PT
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Eat yer heart out! Nigel gave me the royal tour of The Alpine Club today. Whoa!
OK, so this guy got the really royal tour...
An astonishing library of 4000+ volumes!
Then I got taken to the Inner Sanctum and shown the punters’ club membership applications.
Then Nige (yeah, we’re Nige and Riles now) opened a special box which held Maurice Wilson’s diary. Now I’d never ‘eard of ‘im either. He’s the bloomin’ mold for all Mad Dogs and Englishmen. I’ll post more on him later but do read the last few lines. Oh, did I mention he was trying to do the FA of Everest and solo at that?
The next to last entry says “Stayed in bed”
The last says “Off on a gorgeous day.”
His body was found the next year by Mallory (?) and the perfectly preseved diary was inside his jacket.
They have an amazing art collection too. This beauty is hard by the bar. They had a slide show last night and I saw the empties that 50 blokes drained - moderately impressive! Anyway, this painting is a good 8’ high!
This one was supposedly painted ON TOP of Mt Blanc in 1869!
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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May 15, 2019 - 12:23pm PT
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TFPU!
The Alpine Club without a shade of doubt has the greatest mountaineering collection on earth.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 16, 2019 - 08:52am PT
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What a delight!
I am long over due for a visit to that venerable institution and need to make it happen soon as there are a few of the old tigers that I would love to have a drink and a chat with while they are still with us and thirsty.
Thanks for sharing your fun with us as you reliably do.
Cheers
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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May 16, 2019 - 09:24am PT
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Nice! Gotta visit that next time.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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May 16, 2019 - 09:38am PT
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The AAC library is a treasure...put it on your “to do” list when you’re on the Front Range.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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May 16, 2019 - 04:33pm PT
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hey there, say, reilly... wow! and, oh my... :)
say, thanks for sharing this!!!
enjoyed it so very much!
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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May 16, 2019 - 04:38pm PT
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OK Reilly! Your work paid off.
I am more than a little jealous.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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May 17, 2019 - 12:56am PT
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Maurice Wilson formed a plan to fly a small aeroplane to Tibet, crash-land it on the upper slopes of Everest, and walk to the summit. It was a bold plan; a solo flight halfway across the world would have been a significant undertaking for the best aviators of the day, while no mountaineer of the time would have contemplated a solo ascent of Everest – a feat which was not to be achieved until 1980. A practical problem was posed by the fact that Wilson knew nothing about either flying or mountaineering, ...
More to come from Reilly...
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 17, 2019 - 05:56am PT
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Crash land an aircraft on the flanks of an objective (THE objective) and solo to the summit?
Novel, bold, and completely whacked!
Let's go!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2019 - 04:19pm PT
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Did I mention that the estimable Maurice came out of The Great War with supposedly incurable TB? Not to worry, a mate put him onto the track of some sadhu who told him to go meditate on the oneness. That involved 9 years of traveling the globe whereupon he was pronounced good to go! That brings us to the first couple Everest expeditions which our hero, previously completely ignorant of the alpine temptation, pronounced as singularly egregious exhibitions of wanton British incompetence such as he had spent four years observing in the trenches. So our Maurice hied himself off to Cham to perfect his nonexistent piolet skills. Two weeks or so sufficed. Then, after acquainting himself with the logistical challenges of Everest, he astutely declared that flying there in a DeHavilland Gypsy Moth biplane was the proper way to avoid the tedious boredom of The Long March. Learning to fly posed a brief imposition. He proceeded as far as modern Iran where colonial bureaucracy and the lack of suitable fuel proved another brief hiatus. All this was as nothing compared to curing himself of TB, right?
Bloody ‘ell! I’m knackered just relating the Cliff Notes version, no pun intended. Do allow me the liberty of getting my Baileys refreshed.
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