Pioneer of the High Realm: Michael Ward's Life of Medicine, Mountaineering, and Exploration

Michael Phelps Ward (1925–2005) (Figures 1 and 2) is perhaps best known to the public for his role as a team member of the 1951 Mount Everest Reconnaissance and participation in the successful 1953 first ascent of Everest. However, he was the holder of an enviable record of wider climbing and mountain exploration and an important pioneer in high-altitude/wilderness medicine as well. His busy professional life as a surgeon lasted until retirement from the UK's National Health Service in 1993, after which he continued to work on high-altitude medical problems and, additionally, devote a great deal of time to researching the history of Central Asian exploration. Of the numerous articles and books Ward wrote, his 2003 book, Everest: A Thousand Years of Exploration,1.Ward M.P. Everest: A Thousand Years of Exploration. The Ernest Press, Glasgow2003Google Scholar is perhaps his most distinctive work. This, his last book, stands as testimony to one man's exceptional, multifaceted talents. This most unique work brings together the historical chronicle of Mount Everest's mountaineering, geographical, and medical aspects into a definitive, coherent story.Figure 2M. P. Ward in China during the 1981 Mount Kongur expedition. Photograph courtesy of James Milledge.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT) Ward was the son of an expatriate family; his father was a member of the Malayan Civil Service. Educated in England, Ward spent long periods separated from his parents because these were the days before routine transoceanic flights. In fact, his parents were in Singapore when the Japanese Imperial Army swept through this region in the early days of World War II. His mother just managed to get a place in one of the last boats leaving Singapore for Ceylon and eventually Great Britain, but his father was captured and interned by the Japanese for the duration of the war. His love affair with the mountains can be traced to a guided ascent of the Wetterhorn, in Switzerland, when he was 14 years old. From preparatory school, Ward went to Marlborough, where he spent the war years. There he was introduced to rock climbing in Great Britain by a housemaster, Edwin Kempson. Kempson had been on Everest in 1935 and 1936 and had formed a small mountaineering club at the school before the war. With Kempson's help, Ward felt, “The seed planted by the Wetterhorn climb … was beginning to germinate.”2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar He began university medical studies at Cambridge in 1943. Climbing was never far from his mind, and it did not take him long to become involved with the Cambridge Mountaineering Club. He began to realize that “although rock climbing alone provided … physical delights, emotionally it was mountain country that exercised the stronger hold over me.”2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar After 2 years at Cambridge and upon taking a Natural Science Tripos (shortened during the war years), Ward started clinical medical training at the London Hospital. His first real alpine season was in 1946, and in the summer of 1947 he was again in the Alps, this time with top British climbers Bill Murray and John Barford. While descending the Col du Coste Rouge on the way to a route on a peak named Les Ecrins in the Dauphine group near Grenoble, France, Barford was hit by stone fall. Barford fell onto Ward, who was immediately swept off the slope as well. No one seems to recall whether falling stones or the weight of Barford and Ward tore Murray off the slope, but regardless, all 3 fell in a tangled mass for almost 200 m. Barford and Murray shot straight across a large crevasse at high speed, but Ward fell in, stopping the trio. Barford was dead and Murray only partially conscious. It was learned later that Ward had suffered a fractured skull, but luckily neither Ward nor Murray had any broken limbs. Murray was able to help Ward out of the crevasse, and the battered pair staggered unaided down the valley. Not surprisingly, when he woke in a hospital bed the next day, the concussed Ward was not able to recall the accident or the 24 hours preceding it. After the accident, Ward concentrated on obtaining his medical qualification but still managed to climb with enthusiasm in Britain and on the Continent during short holidays. In his words, “I was considerably more cautious. But the desire to do long and hard routes was as compelling as ever and before long I was ready to extend my reach.”2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar Qualifying in 1949, he started work as a House Surgeon at the London Hospital and then Ilford. During National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1950 and 1951, Ward had the time to pursue extracurricular activities. His growing interest in remote mountain country and Mount Everest climbing history led him to pay particular attention to the recently “opened” (to Westerners) country of Nepal. The 1950 probe of the southern approaches to Everest by the distinguished mountaineers Bill Tilman and Charles Houston was of particular interest, as were their reports, which were skeptical about the practicality of a south side route. However, Tilman and Houston had not come to grips with the Khumbu Icefall, nor did they go far enough up the Khumbu Glacier to look into the Western Cwm. In addition, they failed to actually visualize the slopes leading from the Cwm to the South Col. Ward spent untold hours at the Royal Geographical Society, where he “discovered” uncataloged photos and an unpublished map (ca. 1937), which in turn encouraged enough optimism to lead him to initiate a full-on reconnaissance of the southern “route” in 1951. With Bill Murray, Tom Bourdillon, and a Canadian, Campbell Secord, Ward organized the reconnaissance of a southern route and obtained sponsorship from the Royal Geographical Society and Alpine Club. With the help of Secord, Ward persuaded Himalayan veteran Eric Shipton to lead the undertaking. Shipton had spent the years of the war working for the British Foreign Office and continued to serve until 1951, when the Communist Red Army forced a retreat to England from his last posting in Kunming, China. In his book The Mount Everest Reconnaissance,3.Shipton E. The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 1951. Hodder and Stoughton, London1952Google Scholar Shipton wrote:When I arrived home in the middle of June, I had no idea of what was afoot. Indeed nothing was further from my thoughts that taking part in a Himalayan Expedition. After I had been in England for about ten days, I went to London and happened to call on Secord. He said, “Oh you’re back are you? What are you going to do now?” I told him that I had no plans, to which he replied, “Well you’d better lead this expedition.” I said, “What expedition?”, and he explained the position.This important enterprise was carried out along classic Shipton lines, that is, small, modestly funded, and living primarily off the local food. Although Secord did not accompany the 1951 reconnaissance into the field, Shipton invited 2 other “colonials” (from New Zealand) to join in Nepal. One of these New Zealanders happened to be none other than Ed Hillary, the beekeeper who was vaulted to world stardom less than 2 years later after he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to climb to the summit of Everest. Approaching the mountain during the monsoon, they arrived at the base of Everest by the end of September. Their commendable exploratory efforts ended at an enormous, insurmountable crevasse at the top of the Khumbu Icefall, barring the way into the Western Cwm. Nonetheless, the team managed a good look at the Lhotse face and were afforded a tantalizing view of the upper reaches of the peak that suggested a probable route. Just as important for Ward, he had the opportunity on this expedition to explore the unknown area west of Everest with Shipton, not to mention finding the much publicized “Yeti footprints” in the process.4.Ward M.P. Everest 1951: The footprints attributed to the Yeti: Myth and reality.Wilderness Environ Med. 1997; 8: 29-32Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar Ward later remarked, “This was my first taste of mountain exploration and I was fascinated by the mystery of penetration into unknown country.”2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar Before the expedition had left Britain, Murray paid Ward a tribute that placed his organizational efforts and vision into perspective:It has suddenly sprung up out of nothing through what Plato would have called a divine madness coming over you. These are the sort of expeditions that are worth going on.2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google ScholarWard's interest in mountain medicine can be traced to this experience in 1951. He realized on this trip just how dependent the modern doctor is on laboratory and other diagnostic aids. After he returned to England, Ward co-authored a short paper for The Lancet on the medical conditions he had encountered.5.Pugh L.D. Ward M.P. Some effects of high altitude on man.Lancet. 1956; 271: 1115-1121Abstract PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar The 1951 reconnaissance also provided Ward the occasion, through Tom Bourdillon's father, Dr R. B. Bourdillon (director of the Electro-Medical unit at Stoke-Mandeville), to meet Griffith Pugh of the Department of Human Physiology at the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Hampstead for the first time. The meeting occurred shortly before Ward left for Asia, so these scientists were unable to play any part in the reconnaissance. However, this gathering proved to be a very auspicious moment for the 1953 Mount Everest expedition. Once back in England, the plans to put together a full-on British expedition to Everest in 1952 came to naught when it was discovered that the Swiss had already obtained permission from Nepal for that year. The Swiss had actually applied for permission months before the 1951 reconnaissance had even gotten under way. The first reaction was one of great disappointment for Ward and his companions, but in the end the year was not wasted. The Swiss failed to summit in 1952, making attempts both in the spring and fall that year. They were frustrated primarily by significant difficulties with the weather and by the supplementary oxygen apparatus they were using. The British, at the behest of the Himalayan Committee, sent a team to another unclimbed mountain not far from Everest, Cho Oyu (8201 m). Ward elected not to go out with the Cho Oyu expedition, jeopardizing his chances of participating in any future Everest attempt. He instead spent the year working on the Primary examination of the Royal College of Surgeons. Anticipating an attempt at Everest in 1953 should the Swiss fail, the Himalayan Committee sent the Cho Oyu expedition into the field with Eric Shipton once again at the helm. The Committee outlined 4 primary aims for Cho Oyu: 1) to choose a group of climbers who were able to perform effectively at great heights, 2) to carry out a physiological research program, 3) to test oxygen equipment, and 4) to test clothing and other equipment intended for use in the intense cold and wind found at extreme altitude.6.Steele P. Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond. Constable, London1998Google Scholar The climb of Cho Oyu itself was not successful, but Ward felt that the results of 3 weeks of physiological work that Pugh did on some of the climbers on the nearby Menlung La (∼18 000 ft [5486 m]) was:of unprecedented value, for the first time the problems posed by high altitude were defined in the field. This was the decisive advantage that we in 1953 were to have over all who had gone before us.2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar On the other hand, Ward admitted that, by 1953, mountaineers in general had still not acknowledged that Everest “was as much a problem in applied physiology as in mountaineering.”2.Ward M.P. In This Short Span. Victor Gollancz, London1972Google Scholar After the return from Cho Oyu during the run-up to the 1953 Everest expedition, Eric Shipton was replaced as leader in favor of John Hunt in a somewhat sordid fashion by the Himalayan Committee. This change in leadership occurred ostensibly because it was thought that Shipton did not possess the interest or ability to lead a large expedition laid out like a military campaign. This was likely the last chance the British would have to make the first ascent of Everest, and the Himalayan Committee reckoned a military officer like Hunt was their best leadership candidate. However, Ward was adamant in his of this Pugh had not his work in 1951 at the Medical Research and in 1952 on the Menlung we would not have Everest in Pugh was the only in that still have up Everest, even with Eric Shipton, because the physiology was P. Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond. Constable, London1998Google Scholar In fact, that Pugh was not with of interest in his of applied physiological research during the 1952 Cho Oyu expedition that after intended to put climbers on the summit of Everest. Pugh was of the Cho Oyu to to which he attributed the high of and Once back in England, Pugh the Himalayan Committee his thoughts on leadership much this have had on the to Shipton with Hunt is not but it is the did to help of his with the 1952 Cho Oyu expedition, Ward was an for the 1953 Everest In to as a he was also medical The months leading up to the were as he continued work on his Primary examination in to for the expedition. 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