Performance of old-style leather boots impresses 2025 climbers
Identical twins Ross and Hugo Turner carried out an unusual ascent of Mera Peak in the Himalayas in October.
They completed the climb of 6,476 metres on Nepal’s highest trekking mountain eating the same food in the same quantities at the same time, but wearing completely different footwear and apparel.
One twin, Ross Turner, had up-to-date clothing from mountaineering brand Montane and footwear from Mammut. Instead of this, though, Hugo wore replicas of the clothes and leather boots that mountaineer George Mallory wore for an expedition just over 100 years earlier.
Mallory and his climbing companion, Sandy Irvine, died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1924. They were last seen alive high up the north face of the mountain. There is speculation to this day about the possibility of their having reached the summit before they went missing.
What the Turner Twins wanted to test during their 2025 expedition was the performance of historical equipment, its possible effect on decision-making under extreme environmental stress and how this compared with modern kit.
They worked with the University of Portsmouth’s Extreme Environments Laboratory, which studies the limits of human endurance in harsh conditions. Using sensor-enable patches that were connected to their phones, they collected real-time physiological data, including body temperature, cognitive performance and cortisol levels, which are associated with stress.
Speaking to the BBC in early November, Ross Turner said: “We are still crunching the numbers, but we were collecting live data every five minutes from our boots, thighs, arms and chests.”
He said the George Mallory replica kit meant an average lower temperature of 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, but that initial data on the twins’ performance in 2025 showed them tracking almost identically to one another.
Hugo Turner pointed out that a difference of 2 or 3 degrees for traditionally made boots and clothes using only natural materials was impressive given the “huge amount of research and development” that has gone into the “synthetic, modern equivalent”. He pointed out, though, that he was wearing seven layers on the top half of his body and four on the bottom half.
He said it had taken two years to prepare the replica clothes and boots for the climb, first to research what Mallory wore and then finding companies to make new versions of the products.
He paid particular tribute to the work that Northampton-based footwear manufacturer Crockett & Jones carried out to replicate Mallory’s leather boots.
The whole experience led the twins to contemplate what Ross Turner called the “epically exciting question” of whether Mallory could have got to the summit of Everest in 1924. With the level of performance that his footwear and clothing achieved, he said both brothers “agree that he probably could have”.
Image shows Hugo (left) and Ross Turner.
Credit: The Turner Twins.
