The Ill-Fated Insane 1934 Mt. Everest Solo Expedition by Newbie Climber Maurice Wilson

During the past 100+ years, thousands of people have attempted to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Most have been experienced climbers who attempted the climb as a part of a team, using supplemental oxygen and following the instructions of an even more experienced guide. Still, there have been many others who preferred to go at it alone – without any help of any kind – and for them, the expedition typically does not end well. Even those who make it to the top alone often die during descent. The first person to successfully make a solo climb of Mt. Everest was Reinhold Messner, one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, and it didn’t happen until 1980, 27 years after Edmund Hillary became the first confirmed person to reach the summit.

Maurice Wilson

However, 56 years before Messner’s achievement, there was a man who made one of the most insane attempts to reach the summit of Everest in the history of the mountain. His name was Maurice Wilson and his plan was to crash land a plane on Everest, then walk to the top. The only problem – he knew nothing about mountaineering or flying an airplane.

Maurice Wilson was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on April 21st, 1898 and may have lived a normal, quiet life working in the mill with his father had it not been for the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Wilson joined the British Army when he turned eighteen in 1916 as a commissioned officer and quickly rose through the ranks. Wilson became a war hero when he single-handedly held a machine gun post against approaching Germans after the rest of his unit had been killed or injured. He was awarded the military cross, with the citation reading:

2nd Lt. Maurice Wilson, W. York. R. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He held a post in advance of the line under very heavy shell and machine-gun fire on both flanks after the machine guns covering his flanks had been withdrawn. It was largely owing to his pluck and determination in holding this post that the enemy attack was held up.

He was later wounded by machine gun fire and sent home. His left arm caused him pain for the rest of his life but his attempts to receive compensation for himself and his brother, who suffered from severe PTSD, were denied. After his discharge from the military, Wilson had trouble readjusting to civilian life. He became restless and felt the need for more excitement and adventure. In 1921, the financial means to achieve this became a possibility when his father died and left him his estate, valued at around one million dollars. The next year, he married a woman named Beatrice, but married life never satisfied Wilson and he began to travel the world, looking for new adventures, leaving his wife, jobs, and other responsibilities behind.

Maurice Wilson's plane after crash

It was during 1932 when he read about the famous 1924 British Everest Expedition in which a team of climbers attempted to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The two climbers who were determined the strongest during that climb, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, made a final push towards the summit but never got off the mountain alive to tell the story of whether they’d made it or not. By 1932, there was still no proof that any human being had ever reached the summit. Maurice Wilson was captivated by the amazing story of Mallory & Irvine and he decided that he would be that first confirmed man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, despite having no experience as a mountaineer.

The best way to go about such an ambitious goal would have been to get into top physical condition and begin a career as a mountaineer, with hopes of joining the Alpine Club and eventually becoming part of a future British expedition to Everest. Instead, Wilson decided he was going to reach the summit of Mt. Everest completely alone, without any assistance of any kind. To put this into perspective, there had already been three massive expeditions that included teams of dozens of trained and expert mountaineers along with hundreds of locals called Sherpas to assist them, and Everest remained undefeated. Even in modern times, some of the most elite climbers in the world have died attempting to summit Everest alone.

Wilson’s original idea – the most insane idea in the history of mountaineering, which is quite a declaration – was to crash a plane near the top mountain then simply climb to the summit from there. The first problem – he had never flown a plane. Flying a plane solo halfway around the world would have been a great achievement on its own, without climbing the highest mountain in the world. Secondly, even if he survived the crash and successfully parachuted himself onto the mountain safely, he would quickly lose consciousness from oxygen deprivation and die shortly thereafter. The body needs to slowly acclimatize to the altitude, which is why Everest climbers slowly climb up and down the mountain, gradually moving higher, returning to base camp to rest multiple times, before making a final assault on the summit.

Nevertheless, Wilson began to take flying lessons and eventually purchased a two-seat DH-60 Gipsy Moth airplane. He called the plane “Ever Wrest,” and after a couple months of lessons, was able to fly it by himself. However, according to his peers and instructors, Wilson was not a good pilot and a relatively slow learner. It took him twice as long as the average pilot-in-training to earn his flying license. They begged him to reconsider his plans, but he was resolute. Wilson was putting his plan into motion and even flew to his mother’s home to say goodbye to her in case he perished on the mountain. As insane as his plan was, he did come to realize that he had to bring supplementary oxygen in order to not immediately pass out and planned to bring along 750 liters of O2. He was also a strong believer in prayer and fasting and thought that with his advanced spiritual awareness, he could survive through what previous climbers could not.

Maurice Wilson

Unsurprisingly, he was heavily criticized by members of the elite Alpine Club, who believed he was treating the ultimate challenge of reaching the summit of the world’s tallest mountain with complete disrespect. However, the media covered Wilson’s story, sometimes even mocking him, but he reveled in the attention. What made Wilson’s attempt even more insane if that’s possible is that he never trained to become a mountaineer. He knew nothing about basic rock climbing, using ropes, crampons or an ice axe. He never even practiced climbing mountains in the snow. The level of insanity in this attempt cannot be overstated – it would be comparable to some one to just learned how to tread water attempting to swim across the Atlantic. He planned to depart for Tibet in April of 1933, but he crashed the plane into a field during its final test flight, which caused damage to the plane and the Everest attempt had to be postponed. Wilson was uninjured.

The following month, on May 21st, 1933, after his plane was repaired, Maurice Wilson took off on the adventure of a lifetime, making the first leg of his journey from London to Freiburg, Germany. From there, getting to Nepal would be a monumental task. Wilson would have to fly through clouds and severe weather for the first time, constantly alter his route as did not have the proper permits to fly over several countries and did not even have the backing of his own government to make this flight. Still, he was making national headlines in England during a time when pilots who were attempting to break barriers and test boundaries were the superheroes of the day.

Wilson kept pushing forward and made it to Cairo, then Baghdad. From there, he planned to fly over Persia towards Nepal, but he was denied by Persia. Instead, he headed towards Bahrain, using a children’s Atlas to guide him, low on fuel, through scorching temperatures. Against all odds, he made it to Bahrain, but was grounded there. The British government ordered Bahrian to not refuel him unless he agreed to return to Baghdad on his way back to London. This was not only because they did not believe in his mission, but because his plane did not have the fuel capacity that would guarantee him to reach his next eastern destination, which would have to be India, since Persia would not allow him. Wilson promised that he would return to London, but as soon as he was in the air, he headed towards India and somehow, flying only by compass, he made it with the fuel gauge on E. From there, the challenges continued as Nepal informed him that he would not be allowed to fly his plane into Nepalese airspace nor enter on foot in order to attempt to climb Mt. Everest. To no one’s surprise, this did not deter Wilson.

He was forced to abandon the airplane idea and decided to attempt to climb the mountain completely on foot from the Tibet side of the mountain. To his dismay, the Tibetan government also forbid him from entering their country. At this point, he would have to get creative. Wilson spent the winter in Darjeeling, India, where he met three Sherpas who had recently attempted to climb Mt. Everest during the unsuccessful 1933 British Expedition. On March 21st, 1934, the four men left Darjeeling, disguised as monks, entering Tibet, heading straight for Everest. Wilson pretended to be deaf, dumb and in very poor health to avoid suspicion. After a grueling 24-day trek, they reached the Rongbuk Monastery, near the base of the north side of Everest. Regardless of how insane his plan was, the fact that Wilson had gotten this far is a testament to his staunch determination and willpower.

Rongbuk Monastery

Wilson was able to obtain some of the equipment left behind by the 1933 Expedition and after only 2 days at the monastery, set off by himself, without the Sherpas, towards Everest. The only reason we know anything about what happened next is because Wilson kept a diary, in which he recorded the events that occurred as he attempted to do completely alone as a newbie amateur mountaineer something that not even a complete team of experts could do after four massive expeditions funded by an entire country – scale the tallest mountain on Earth. Not surprisingly, things did not go smoothly.

The man who had never stepped foot on a glacier in his life struggled getting through the challenging Rongbuk Glacier. He came across an abandoned camp and found some crampons, which would have helped him immensely. He foolishly threw them aside and left them. After five days, the harsh and unforgiving climate of Everest had defeated Wilson and he returned to the Monastery, never having made it as far as Camp III. At this point, he had a twisted ankle, was snow blind and his war injuries were causing him immense pain, but he was alive and made it off the mountain. He could have given up here and been proud of his effort and the fact that he made it as far as he had.

Instead, after eighteen days to recover, Wilson tried again, but this time he brought along two of the Sherpas. With their assistance, Wilson made it to Camp III in just 3 days. From there, he set off alone towards Camp IV, hoping that the steps cut into the ice and ropes would still be in place from previous expeditions. In his diary, he wrote

Not taking short cut to Camp V as at first intended as should have to cut my own road up the ice and that's no good when there is already a hand rope and steps (if still there) to Camp IV.

Of course, he was disappointed to find no trace of previously cut steps or ropes. The following day, he was forced to turn around short of the North Col when he ran into a forty foot tall ice wall that was impossible to climb. The two Sherpas informed him that it was over – they had to turn back. Wilson refused. He had come this far and was not ready to give up. In his diary he wrote, “This will be a last effort. And I feel successful.”

Without a doubt, Wilson had made it further than he ever should have, especially in the 1930’s before any human had been confirmed to have summited Mt. Everest. The fact that he had survived up to this point and nearly made it to the North Col was nothing short of a miracle. He had the chance now to survive this insane journey and earn massive respect for chasing an insane dream and nearly achieving it while still having the wisdom to understand when he had been defeated. Instead, Wilson left alone towards the North Col on May 29th while the two Sherpas awaited his return. Eventually, they descended and waited at the monastery for 3 weeks until it became obvious – Maurice Wilson had pushed his luck too far. He had died on Everest.

About a year later, in 1935, mountaineer Eric Shipton was on a reconnaissance mission when he came across Wilson’s body at the foot of the North Col, lying on its side with a rucksack containing his diary and Union Jack flag that he planned to leave on the summit nearby. Wilson was buried in a nearby crevasse but even in death, he refuses to stay down and his mummified body has resurfaced multiple times over the years, most recently in 1999. There have been many ambitious climbers who have gone on what can only be considered suicide missions, such as David Sharp, who tried to climb Everest alone with the bare minimum equipment and no radio or Nobukazu Kuriki, who kept trying to climb the mountain even after losing 9 fingers, looking for the most challenging routes, despite never reaching the summit using traditional routes. But these climbers all had one thing in common – they were attempting something that had been done before, and had a slight idea of what they were doing as they had conquered other high altitude mountains and could call themselves mountaineers.

Maurice Wilson, on the other hand, had no mountaineering experience and was attempting something that had never been done, not even by the most elite mountaineers in the world. Was he a complete lunatic suffering from mental illness and PTDS who just lucked out that he got as far as he did? Or, is he a heroic and inspiring example of what some one can achieve if they never give up on their dreams? He may have never made it to the summit, but for a non-pilot non-mountaineer to take some flying lessons, acquire a plane, fly to Tibet, hire some Sherpa and make it to the foot of the North Col in 1934 is quite impressive, albeit also completely insane.

Thank you so much for checking out today’s video; please subscribe to the channel for more videos on not only mountaineering but also space exploration, true crime and much more stuff that happened. I hope you all have a wonderful day; let me know your thoughts on this incredibly ambitious but troubled man and we will talk to you in the next video.