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There were three British expeditions to Qomolangma in the 1920s. Permission to explore the previously hidden mountain, known to the British as Mount Everest, had been granted by the Dalai Lama to the Royal Geographical Society, whose interest had been aroused by the pre-war adventures of one Captain John Noel. He had secretly entered the country in 1913 and had come within 40 miles of the mountain. Noel was not only a soldier and an adventurer but a keen and knowledgeable photographer. He was also an enthusiast for documentary cinematography, being a great admirer of Herbert Ponting's films of the Scott expedition to Antarctica.
The first expedition, in 1921, was a reconnaissance trip that established the possibility of managing an attempt on the summit. During the second, in 1922, the climbers reached an altitude of 27,300 feet (8320m) using oxygen support. Seven of the expedition's Sherpa porters died in an avalanche. Among the expedition team was George Mallory, who would feature so notably in the third expedition of 1924, and Captain Noel, whose film of their exploits, Climbing Mount Everest (1922) was necessarily constrained by the limited achievement. Nevertheless, Noel learned a great deal about how to film in such extreme conditions, in particular the use of telephoto lenses to capture action beyond the physical heights that the motion picture camera could reach. He also discovered the huge difficulties in developing films on the spot, and decided on establishing a base laboratory for the third expedition in 1924.
Noel formed a company, Explorers' Films, and paid £8,000 for the rights to film the 1924 expedition. The result of this would be The...