The Himalayas – Pocket Knives to the Top of the World
The Swiss knife has been taken on expeditions to the highest mountains in the world. It has been taken up the 8848-metre Mount Everest and up Anapurna in Central Asia. In 1970 Englishman Chris Bonington led the Anapurna South expedition. This mountain is the smallest of the 14 peaks over eight thousand metres high and, like Everest, lies in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Following the successful expedition, Bonington sent a letter of thanks to the Elsener knife factory for its assistance, recounting the following story::
«Your support enabled us to climb the highest and steepest mountain face in the Himalayas. It was the most difficult mountain expedition in which I have ever participated. The extremely difficult conditions tested both climbers and equipment to the full. During the expedition the Swiss pocket-knives showed themselves to be excellent servants. They proved highly versatile, for example for cutting finger and toe nails high up the mountain, or filing down a spanner to the precise width required for repairing the seal on a leaking oxygen tank.
Withstood Hammer Blows
During our adventure I think we used every single blade on the knife except for the fish-scaling knife, there being a distinct shortage of freshwater fish halfway up the south face of Anapurna. The knives even stood up to blows from a hammer; despite this treatment the blades remained sharp. The kitchen and butcher’s knives were used extensively at our base camp. Finally, they had to deal with whole necks of mutton and I can assure you that Nepalese goats and oxen are amongst the toughest in the world.
At the end of our expedition the kitchen knives were a much sought after prize amongst our Sherpas and I think that the knives were just as sharp as they had been at the beginning of the adventure. Without your generosity, and that of other companies, we would not have succeeded in mounting this Anapurna South expedition. Once again, many thanks for your help.»
In another letter, Bonington thanked the company for its support of the British Everest expedition up the south-west face in 1975: «I would like to personally thank you once again for all the help you have given me over the years. As always, the Swiss knives proved their worth superbly. In fact, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston reached the top thanks to one of your knives. Doug used it to free Dougal’s oxygen system which had become blocked with ice. The only thing I regret is that I lost my own multi-purpose knife when I left the camp for one hour. I assume that one of the Sherpas swapped it for a more basic model?»
Jean Troillet from western Switzerland on Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, 2002. He has also relied for many years on his faithful companions from Victorinox.
Knife Surgery in Uganda
The legendary Swiss Army Knife satisfies the most rigorous demands for quality, not least in the field of medicine. An example from black Africa makes his point impressively. On 18 September 1991 the Elsener knife factory received a letter from Professor John Ross, a Canadian doctor who was giving further training to local doctors in a rural region of Uganda. Shortly after his arrival his surgical saw was stolen. All he had left to carry out leg and arm amputations was his Swiss Army Knife. In his own words:
«I started work here two years ago. Part of my work is dedicated to the development of a hospital in a small town called Tororo. It is located close to the Kenyan border, some 300 km from Kampala, the capital of Uganda. For my work I brought a wide range of surgical instruments with me, one of which was a good surgical saw for amputations. This type of instrument is needed here because many injuries occur here, such as bullet wounds, which result in having to amputate an arm or leg. Shortly after my arrival here the surgical saw was stolen. So my Swiss Army Knife, which I always carry with me, was sterilised in boiling water. From then on I decided to use the saw on the knife for amputations. It worked very well. It took an entire six months for me to get a new surgical saw. During this time I carried out at least six amputations using the saw on the knife. Although the knife lost its lovely red plastic cover due to being repeatedly boiled in water, the instrument otherwise worked faultlessly. I thought this information might be of use to you, and maybe for your advertising. You can tell people that the knife has a great scope of application because of the steel you use, which must be of excellent quality.»
