Old school mountaineering is the real deal. Blokes kitted out in primitive gear, climbing higher and higher into the clouds for the first time in history – genuinely not knowing whether they’d return in one piece. No GPS, no satellite weather reports, no high-tech layering systems. Just lots of wool. And loads of leather. Stories of the original mountaineers have infatuated us for decades, and it’s only when you step inside a Cotswold Outdoor, confronted by racks of space-age shells and ultralight sleeping bags, that you realise how far the gear, and mountaineering as a whole, has come.
Of all the legendary tales of early mountaineering, one stands above all – the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition. The second British assault on Everest’s summit after a failed attempt in 1922, which saw mountaineers George Mallory & Andrew Irvine disappear into the clouds, never to return. It has long been speculated whether the pair reached the summit, and now Montane are trying their hand at solving the mystery…
The brand has enlisted identical twin adventurers Hugo and Ross Turner for an expedition to Nepal this October to settle a big question: does modern mountaineering kit truly give you the edge, or have we wasted decades of research and millions of pounds when we could have just stuck with a trusty wool jumper and a pair of leather boots?
They’re off to climb Mera Peak (6,476m), the highest trekking mountain in Nepal. Not quite Everest, but it’s still high enough to be properly unpleasant.
One twin (Hugo) will be kitted out in forensic replicas of George Mallory’s 1924 Everest kit: hand-stitched wool layers from Devold of Norway, canvas outerwear, leather straps, and boots recreated by Crockett & Jones down to the smallest detail – including a curious waterproofing tweak Mallory himself allegedly added. It’s the sort of outfit that looks dead cool in a grainy Pinterest scan, but will it stand to modern Himalayan punishment?
The other twin (Ross) gets the full Montane treatment – ultralight shells, breathable insulation, moisture-wicking baselayers, and more pockets than you’ll ever remember to use. His boots will be engineered to survive the apocalypse, and his gloves definitely cost more than the 1924 team’s entire kit list.
The expedition is being held in partnership with the University of Portsmouth’s Extreme Environments Laboratory – people who get paid to find out exactly how badly humans cope in freezing, low-oxygen conditions. They’ll be strapping sensors to the brothers and tracking everything: core temperature, endurance, dexterity, decision-making, stress hormones, and maybe even how long it takes before Hugo starts daydreaming about central heating. Don’t worry too much, though, he’s got a neckerchief.
The hope is that the results will help shed some light on whether Mallory and Irvine genuinely stood a chance of summiting Everest in 1924. Could they have done it with the gear they had? Was it the equipment that failed them, or just the brutal reality of the mountain?
But even if they don’t crack that mystery, the Turner Twins will settle an equally important question: in a race up a Himalayan giant, would you rather back the man in a blazer and leather boots, puffing stoically into the wind, or the man in Gore-Tex, fiddling with his hood toggle while muttering about his jacket’s hydrostatic head?
