Charles Lind, An Afterclap of Fate: Mallory On Everest

Charles Lind seemingly came out of nowhere to win the Boardman Tasker Prize in 2006 with his thought account of the 1924 Everest expedition, "An Afterclap of Fate". The climbing world was not sure how to receive this unusual form of mountaineering literature. What they were sure of was that it was exceptional and the recognition well earned,

"Charles Lind revives the perennial mystery of Mallory and Irvine on Everest. An Afterclap of Fate is an extraordinary reconstruction in what Lind estimates could have been Mallory's own thoughts as the two climbers attempt the final lap to the summit. It is based on a close study of Mallory's own writings, books about him and Mallory's literary predilections. The vocabulary might be considered esoteric. Lind dusts down a whole glossary of words rarely, if ever, used to avoid any hint of tired, threadbare English, mountaineering stereotype or clich - though maybe a few slip through that had yet to be coined in 1924.

The story has two halves, a description of the climb, followed by a forensically thorough examination of the evidence leading to a credible conclusion. This is a bold book; fact, fiction and fantasy rolled together in a refreshingly different approach. It concerns a most potent moment in mountaineering history and in Mallory one of the fascinating and complex figures mountaineering has yet produced; a brilliant climber and a gentle, intelligent man profoundly affected by his experiences in the First World War trenches but driven by a steely determination to succeed. There is some curious punctuation here and there and, though the line in An Afterclap of Fate dividing tolerable speculation and pretentiousness may be narrow, it is never crossed. Indeed the writing is powerful, superbly structured and Lind indeed casts a fine spell of words. Delicate inquiries about the author revealed little more than that he was a poet who lived in Hove. We should learn a lot more about him because he is unanimously judged to be the winner of this year's Boardman Tasker Prize. Congratulations." [Ronald Faux, Boardman Tasker Prize 2006 chair of judges]

That we haven't heard of Charles Lind previous to his winning the award may be because, piecing together the little information there is about him on the internet, and hoping that there's not too many Charles Linds out there, he could be a reclusive ex-trustee of Survivors' Poetry and "a haiku nut of the most discerning kind", and not previously published, unless it was under a pen name.

So, his achievement with what seems to be an inaugural book is even more notable, and one cannot help to be amazed and awestruck. Indeed, it provides something far beyond the typical reading experience. Presented as a stream of consciousness it is the closest that anybody has attempted to get to inside Mallory's mind. Lind imbues Mallory's character with a higher literary intelligence and an aesthetic gentle manner in keeping with our understanding of the icon, and he certainly puts you there inside Mallory's thoughts, although with more brain power than realistically achievable at altitude - of course we would have had a much less erudite offering if the prose had been truly reflective of the stupefying anoxia at altitude. We witness firsthand the painful tormented breakdown of human consciousness, a life-force intellect running out; shard-like ends; dissolving cascades. All this only really possible thanks to Lind's writing style which is absolutely spellbinding; a long lost way with words. Reading between the lines, perhaps a gentle Charles Lind was the ideal person to get inside Mallory's head.

The history is beautifully and accurately re-crafted, spurring you on to discover the gradual unravelling of events. It is a perfect companion to the formal accounts of the early British expeditions ("Everest Reconnaissance", Howard-Bury & Mallory, 1921; "The Assault On Mount Everest", Bruce et al., 1922; "The Fight For Everest", Norton et al., 1924) as well as the long list of modern titles focussing on those first attempts ("Ghosts Of Everest" Hemmleb et al.; "The Mystery Of Mallory And Irving", Holzel & Salkeld) and Mallory himself ("The Wildest Dream", Gillman & Gillman).

"An Afterclap of Fate" could have been easily disregarded as an oddity if it had not been so superbly informed and obviously meticulously researched; Lind clearly worked closely with Norton's account of the 1924 expedition along with David Pye's and the Gillman's biographies, plus Mallory's own writings. Ironically this is the only place where the prose and detail may grate: fluidity is sometimes martyred for detail; for example, one might expect Mallory not to refer to the tents as "Whymper tents" in his thoughts but simply as the "tents". In defence of this long-hand form, we are in a lazy age of communication compared to our ancestors where the King's English garnered more respect when put to use in speech and the written word, and Mallory may well have preferred alacrity sacrificed for comprehensive integrity - he did teach the subject after all.

The only real criticism digs up the usual arguments about what really happened; we cannot expect any revelations about what really happened to our fallen heroes, but we can expect a reasonable piecing together of the evidential jigsaw, one that accounts for the facts unearthed to date. This is the indication of Lind's exceptional approach until he reconstructs the final scene and presents a hypothesis of what happened that will not be divulged here so as not to spoil the ending. Suffice to say that Lind follows the traditional line of placing Mallory and Irving atop the 2nd step at about 12-50pm, as initially reported by Odell. I am more tempted by the more recent hypothesis based on the two search expeditions that concluded it was very unlikely to mix up the three ridge steps and that the only step that Odell could have seen them climb was the 3rd step, nearest the summit pyramid.

More surprising is Lind's ignoring of a vital and valid piece of evidence, considering that he must have carefully constructed his ending to "An Afterclap of Fate" as meticulously as the rest of the book. Although only "confirmed" hearsay, a "British Dead" body was found by the 1960 Chinese climbers sitting up with a hole pierced in his cheek, too high on the mountain to be associated with Mallory's final resting place. This other corpse could only be Irving and makes Lind's ending unlikely. Also a serious cavity was discovered in Mallory's forehead which was unlikely to have been received from falling, and that also needs explaining in any account of his demise.

But these quibbles do not detract in any way from the great pleasure from reading "An Afterclap of Fate".