Clothing List with Sandy’s annotations

1st January 1924

The photo portrays the equipment list sent by the Mount Everest Committee to expedition members. This is Sandy's own copy with his pencil annotations.

Preparing for Everest was not always as exciting. While some parts of the preparation, as the test flight, were Sandy's ideas, there was also a long list of items to get and luggage to get sorted. The Mount Everest Committee had issued a long list of the necessary items for each participant, and Sandy's annotated list is still preserved.

This document is extremely interesting as it allows us to know precisely what members were recommended to bring, to see Sandy's personal take on this list of suggestions, and to compare it to today's equipment. 

The long list of recommended items required in person visits to all the key mountaineering gear shops. For this reason, Sandy spent three days in London at the beginning of February  ordering his kit, trying on his boots and acquiring a saddle (an unlikely item in today's expeditions). But this was not all, as the trip turned out to be more than just a practical shopping break. Sandy was staying at the Jules Hotel with Marjory Summers, mother-in-law of his friend Dick and Sandy's lover. The final bill for his equipment, minus the tool kit, primus burners and spare parts for the oxygen kit, which he paid out of his own pocket, was about £75 (or £2250 today [in 1999]). In the meantime the Mount Everest Committee was bombarding Sandy with paperwork. There were agreements for signature, clothing lists and instructions as to equipment he would need, documents from Captain Noel about the filming of the expedition and sundry other communications.