Bowers Museum and the Royal Geographical society present ‘Everest: Ascent to Glory’ in Santa Ana

Scaling a mountain is the quintessential metaphor we use for any difficult feat, with good reason. The earliest expeditions of Mt. Everest were not for the faint of heart. The Tibetan people call the mountain “Mother Goddess of the World,” and as many learned, survival wasn’t always assured on attempts to climb her.

This month Bowers Museum partners with the Royal Geographical Society to present “Everest: Ascent to Glory.” The historic exhibition opens Saturday and features more than 20 original objects and 60 photographs of Everest’s history.

“It tells the story of the original attempts to ascend Everest,” said Kelly Bishop, vice president of external affairs at Bowers Museum.

Visitors will find photographs, films and artifacts from five expeditions leading up to the earliest successful attempt to climb the mountain.

This exhibition comes just after the centennial of the first British reconnaissance expedition to Mt. Everest in 1921, which Bishop said was more of a mapping of a path to its summit than a climb. The following year, portable bottled oxygen was introduced, and while explorers were encouraged to try again, two fatal expeditions ended further attempts to scale the summit.

In 1933, radio made communication on the mountain possible for the first time, but it was not until 1953 that Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary would crest the mountain’s final dome.

Besides the history, “Everest: Ascent to Glory” explores unsung heroes like the Tibetan and Nepalese Sherpas.

“These guys couldn’t have done any of this without the Sherpas,” Bishop said of the British reconnaissance. “That is part of the story we want to tell in this exhibition.”

“Everest: Ascent to Glory” is organized by the Bowers Museum in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London. The 1924 Mt. Everest expedition in camp.

(Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG))

Highlights include a climbing rope found with the remains of George Mallory, an English mountaineer who famously perished along with his climbing partner, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine.

“[Mallory] was probably the most famous climber in the world in the 1920s. He was on the first three expeditions to climb Mt. Everest,” said Mark Bustamante, director of special exhibitions development for Bowers Museum. “Having failed in their first two attempts in 1924, they did an ill-advised third attempt, and he and his younger companion passed away trying to get to the top.”

Mallory’s remains were discovered in 1999, but Bustamante said the rope has become a lingering question. Did he manage to make it to the top of Everest?

“This rope seems to almost certainly answer the question. There is still a little bit of doubt, but it seems to indicate that he likely passed away before getting to the top of the mountain,” Bustamante said. “It is a fascinating piece and seems to show how these objects are so tied into the story of these early climbs.”

Visitors can also view the first oxygen sets ever employed in high-altitude climbing and a model of Mt. Everest from the National Geographic Society.

Wade Davis, an ethnographer, writer, photographer, filmmaker and former Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, is guest curator of the show. Davis authored “Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest” and on Saturday will do a virtual lecture to coincide with the opening, one of a three-part series that he will give during the course of the exhibition.

Other programming surrounding the exhibition includes a virtual presentation by Alasdair MacLeod, RGS Head of Enterprise and Resources at the Royal Geographical Society on Sunday, and a virtual presentation with the first all-Black team to attempt to summit the tallest mountain, the Full Circle Everest Expedition, on Feb. 19.

The exhibition is the latest project from Bowers Museum’s ongoing partnership with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and will run until Aug. 28 and is free with general admission. Tickets and a schedule of programming can be found at bowers.org/programs.

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