Alexander Mitchell Kellas

Alexander Mitchell Kellas (born June 21, 1868 in Aberdeen , † June 5, 1921 near Kampa Dzong , Tibet ) was a Scottish chemist, explorer and mountaineer, who is best known for his contributions to altitude medicine , but also a role in the history of climbing of Mount Everest played. Between 1907 and 1921, Kellas made several first ascents in the border area between Sikkim and Tibet. The most important ascent is the 7,128-meter-high Pauhunri , which he conquered in June 1911 together with two Sherpas who are not known by name . Until the ascent of Lenin Peak in September 1928 as part of the German-Soviet Alai-Pamir expedition , this was the highest climbed peak in the world. Because of his excellent knowledge of the area, Kellas became a member of the first British expedition to Mount Everest to explore the conditions for an ascent. He died of heart failure before the expedition had penetrated into the narrower area around Mount Everest.

Kellas was always convinced that mountaineers with outstanding physical and mental fitness could manage to climb Mount Everest without additional oxygen. His conviction was confirmed in 1978 by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler .

Life

Born in Aberdeen, Kellas spent a lot of time climbing Ben Macdhui , Scotland's second highest mountain, and other mountains in the Cairngorms , a group of the Grampian Mountains in northeastern Scotland. He studied in Edinburgh , in London at University College London and in Heidelberg and taught chemistry as a lecturer at Middlesex Hospital Medical School from 1900 to 1919. Between 1907 and 1921 Kellas carried out eight major expeditions to Asia. Mostly he was the only European who traveled, accompanied by only a few Nepalese porters.

Since Kellas was deemed too old to serve in the war, he worked with John Scott Haldane for the British Aviation Department during World War I , for which he continued his research on the effects of great heights on the human body. These investigations had assumed a new urgency, as the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps were meanwhile advancing their planes to heights that were not yet imaginable at the beginning of the First World War.

The deeply patriotic Kellas was one of those people for whom Mount Everest represented the “third pole”. On February 22, 1916, he wrote to his later expedition colleague Sandy Wollaston :

“We missed the pole after ruling the seas for more than 300 years, and we will definitely not miss the chance to explore the area around Mount Everest after having been the dominant power in for more than 160 years India were […]. I would be proud to go there with two to 10 porters, even go solo, to secure that bit of exploration for the UK. "

Map of the region east of Mount Everest. The red dotted line shows the path of the exploration expedition of 1921, the procedure of which was based largely on Kellas' knowledge of the area.

Members of the 1921 British Expedition
Standing: Wollaston, Howard-Bury, Heron, Raeburn
Sitting: Mallory, Wheeler, Bullock, Morshead

Due to his collaboration with the Sherpas, Kellas also realized very early on that the way to Everest was via Kampa Dzong . Kampa Dzong could be reached from Sikkim by following the Tista river valley . From Kampa Dzong the path led to the northwest, where one could cross the Arun River , one of the major obstacles on the way to Everest. If you then followed the Arun, you reached the Kharta Valley east of Mount Everest, which you followed to Langma La. This pass led to the Kama Valley and from there the Kangshung flank of Everest could be reached. It was a route traditionally used by shepherds who drove their flocks to the summer pastures below Mount Everest, but which had never before been used by Europeans. Sherpas commissioned by Kellas, however, had already photographed the Rabkar Glacier east of Langma La. Kellas had worked out extensive plans for entering the region without the permission of the Tibetan authorities. Among other things, he wanted Sherpas, whom he trusted, to set up depots with food and equipment in the uninhabited valleys west of the Kangchenjunga Glacier. Kellas entrusted this route to his friend John Noel , with whom he agreed to use this route to enter the area after the end of the First World War.

Plans to explore the area around Mount Everest were resumed in 1919. On March 10, 1919, at a meeting of the Royal Geographic Society, John Noel reported on his 1914 exploration of the region, and he took up what Kellas had written in 1916:

"Now that the poles have been reached, exploring and surveying Mount Everest appears to be the next most important task."

The approval of the Dalai Lama for an exploration and possible ascent of Mount Everest was available in January 1921. Kellas had been in the Darjeeling area since June 1920 to conduct a series of scientific experiments on the use of oxygen cylinders. He joined the expedition without returning to Great Britain.

Kellas was elected an expedition member despite his age of 53 because he had more experience in high altitude mountaineering than any other contemporary mountaineer and knew the conditions around Mount Everest better than anyone. He had identified the Sherpas as the most suitable porters and knew about the effects of high altitude and lack of oxygen like few others. While the expedition was being put together in London, he tested the primus herd selected for the expedition during a climbing tour on the Kamet and found them unsuitable for high altitudes. In his history of the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest, Wade Davis calls it a fatal decision by the expedition leadership to appoint Kellas as a member. At the age of 53, Kellas was no longer in a suitable physical condition for the challenges that lay ahead of the expedition members.

Kellas met part of the expedition team in May 1921 and, as George Mallory reported in a letter, was so weakened by an intestinal infection at the time that he had to be temporarily carried in a litter. Kellas, very depressed about his physical condition, refused to stay in Pagri . In the next few days his condition temporarily improved again. However, it became increasingly clear that he was too weak to travel to the immediate area around Mount Everest with the expedition. Sandy Wollaston and expedition leader Howard-Burg therefore decided that Kellas would be brought back to Darjeeling as soon as Kampa Dzong was reached. However, shortly before Kampa Dzong, Kellas died. Wollastone believed it was caused by heart failure caused by Kellas' total physical exhaustion. On June 6, 1921, Kellas was buried on a slope south of Kampa Dzong.

The expedition participants dealt with the death of Kellas differently. Edward Wheeler did not attend his funeral and justified this by saying that he had assumed that it would not take place until the afternoon. George Mallory was one of the expedition members who shook Kellas' death . After the expedition team had followed the route proposed by Kellas along the Arun, George Mallory and Guy Bullock climbed a 6,900-meter-high mountain peak west of the Rongbuk Glacier . Mallory wanted to baptize the summit in honor of Kellas Mount Kellas , but ultimately the Tibetan name Ri-Ring for this mountain prevailed. As a direct consequence of Kellas's death, Harold Raeburn , who was also ill, was sent back to Nepal from Kompa Dzong.

influence

Altitude medicine

Kampa Dzong, 1938. Kellas died in 1921 near this place, which was a major milestone on the way to Mount Everest.

Kellas' observations of altitude sickness had a direct impact on the Himalayan expeditions in the early decades of the 20th century. The symptoms of this disease, which in addition to headache also include loss of appetite , nausea , vomiting , tiredness , general weakness, shortness of breath , dizziness , light-headedness , ringing in the ears and sleep disorders , were first described by Jesuits who reached the Himalayas in the 17th century. They attributed this to the effects of poisonous plants and leaking gases. It was not until 1878 that the human body's reduced oxygen uptake at high altitudes was discovered to be the cause, but this knowledge only gained acceptance very slowly and was not yet generally accepted during Kellas' lifetime. Based on his measurements and observations, he came to the conclusion that fatigue, cold and insufficient sleep were factors that contributed to the occurrence of altitude sickness, but that lack of oxygen was always the decisive factor. Kellas believed that the human body was capable of adapting to altitude to a certain extent: tourists who came from the valley on the cog railway that had existed since 1891 often collapsed on Pike's Peak in Colorado . In contrast, there were villages in Tibet at this altitude, the inhabitants of which obviously did not suffer from any impairment caused by this altitude. Kellas came to the conclusion that the human body gradually got used to and adapted to the lack of oxygen at altitudes of around 7100 meters. At higher altitudes, prolonged stays led to impaired physical fitness. Nevertheless, he was convinced that peaks could be climbed in such locations: mountaineers were not allowed to stay too long in this zone, successful ascent of peaks at these heights required that the summit ascent and descent be quick.

Sherpas

In 1907 Kellas was one of the first to recruit Sherpas as porters for his ventures and was impressed by their achievements. He praised not only her physical strength, but also her disposition, demeanor, and courage.

Since Kellas was unable to travel to Tibet himself during the preparation time for the first British expedition, he trained one or more of his Sherpas to use his camera and sent them off to photograph parts of the route. When they returned to Sikkim, they brought Kellas, among other things, two panoramic shots of the Rabka Glacier not far from the Kangshung side of Everest.

Sherpas, whose services were used during the first British Everest expeditions due to their approval by Kellas, were later repeatedly used as auxiliaries for high mountain expeditions, mainly as porters, but also as mountain guides , scouts or cooks. Within a few years they built a reputation for excellence in the high mountains, especially on Mount Everest .

literature

• Wade Davis: Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest. Vintage digital. London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84792-184-0 .
• Ian R Mitchell; George W Rodway: Prelude to Everest: Alexander Kellas, Himalayan mountaineer . Edinburgh: Luath, 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scottish climber revealed to be altitude record-breaker - 80 years on . ( Memento from May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Caledonian Mercury , November 17, 2010.
2. ^ ^{A b} Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 76.
3. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 93.
4. ↑ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 79. The original quote is: We missed both Poland after having control of the sea for 300 years, and we certainly ought not to miss the exploration of the Mt. Everest group after being the premier power in India for 16 .. I for one would be glad to go in with 2 to 10 coolies, or even solo, so as to secure this little bit of exploration for Britain.
5. ^ ^{A b} Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 80.
6. ^ ^{A b} Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 83.
7. ↑ John Noel in his speech to the Royal Geographic Society on March 10, 1919, quoted from Davis, p. 87. In the original Noel used the words ... now that the poles have been reached it is generally felt that the next and equally important task is the exploration and mapping of Mount Everest.
8. ^ ^{A b c d} Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 140.
9. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 141.
10. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 221.
11. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 224.
12. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 227.
13. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 228.
14. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 281.
15. ^ Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 336.
16. ^ ^{A b c} Wade Davis: Into the Silence , p. 77.
17. ^ Stanley F. Stevens: Claiming the High Ground: Sherpas, Subsistence, and Environmental Change in the Highest Himalaya . University of California Press, Berkeley 1993, ISBN 0-520-07699-0 , Part II, Chapter 9: From Tibet Trading to the Tourist Trade, pp. 357 f . ( online [accessed June 20, 2011]).