In 1932, a manager of a woman`s clothes shop in Yorkshire set his sights on a place in history by attempting the first ever solo ascent of Mount Everest. His name was Maurice Wilson and he had a rather cunning plan.
He would conquer Mount Everest by crash landing a plane onto Mount Everest and then walk to the summit.
There were, alas, a couple of drawbacks to his ingenious plan. One, he did not own a plane .Two, he had never flown one before and there was the somewhat worrying fact that he had never done any mountain climbing. Undeterred he bought a Gypsy Moth aeroplane and booked himself some flying lessons. After several sessions, he declared himself ready for his great adventure. Flying to his parent`s house to bid them farewell he managed to crash the plane when overshooting the runway,
News of his proposed attempt had reached the ears of the authorities and he was forbidden to enter Nepalese airspace and put under surveillance.
With his plane now repaired, On March the 3rd 1933 the intrepid Wilson slipped out of England and flew to India, where after trying to raise some funds by giving rides to the public promptly crashed again and had to sell his plane for scrap and was forced to complete the rest of his journey on foot disguised as a monk .He arrived at the foot of Mount Everest on the 17th May.
With a combination of fasting and prayer Wilson then started his climb.
A year later, a British climbing team found his frozen body near a crevasse at 21,000 feet, beside him was his diary. His final words for 31 May, was “Off again, gorgeous day”