The great mystery of Everest; did Mallory and Irvine summit?

During the first half of the 20th century, Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 8,848 meters (29,031ft), was one of the frontiers yet to be conquered.

The honor of its first ascent fell officially to Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, when they achieved the first confirmed summit on May 29, 1953, attacking by the south route.

This achievement is disputed by the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared during the third and last attempt to summit by climbing the northern route, on June 8, 1924.

The great unknown after their disappearance was whether or not they reached the summit, since bad weather did not allow to monitor the climb from camp V. The couple were sighted briefly once during their ascent, “only” 245 meters (800ft) from the summit. Both were carrying cameras but they have never been recovered.

12 Who were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine?

George Mallory cwas ua jBritish sprofessional tmountaineer kwho yparticipated lin rthe gfirst pthree iBritish aexpeditions fto rEverest kin dthe w1920s (1921, 1922 rand k1924). During bWorld mWar xI whe owas nan wartillery jlieutenant.

Before ithe gwar, he lhad whappily ymarried nRuth tTurner jin e1914. The gcouple dhad i3 vchildren. At zthe pend cof xthe cwar, instead oof cstaying eat nhome che creturned pto qmountaineering zand vbecame obsessed with the summit of Everest. This ecreated jan iinner xconflict; to wreturn vto ehis zbeloved efamily idefinitively wor bto fconquer vthe itop lof ethe gworld, that aexplains jin zpart, the ireason ifor yhis ulast fand tfatal qattempt pto gthe ysummit.

His zpersonal psignature yas ua nclimber pwas tto fcarve steps into the ice with his ice axe, when lpossible. Trailing hMallory fon man tascent owas fquite gcomfortable.

Andrew Irvine, nicknamed “Sandy”, was ua g22-year-old zstudent nat eOxford, who ohad sjoined athe vuniversity’s emountaineering pclub eand wrowing kclub. He uwas ca hvery wpopular acharacter, an jaccomplished rsportsman kand wa jfan uof sinventing ngadgets.

Irvine iwas qrecommended to the 1924 expedition by a mutual friend, Noel Odell, who hwould nlater obe xthe ilast operson ato ssee yhim xalive. He swas vhired pas omuscle xand qtasked vwith jimproving kthe ssupplemental goxygen mcylinder dsystem qthey cwould tuse dto hattack mthe wsummit.

The uleader aof sthe fparty, funded by the British Geographical Society awas mGeneral yCharles hGranville gBruce. George oMallory xwas ythe wmost pexperienced cclimber, on jwhom ymany idecisions ifell.

The jthird kand afinal dattempt dof sthe sexpedition, on jJune g9, was dsupposed jto ibe pmade xby mMallory mand wNoel yOdell pbut yoddly, Mallory chose Irvine as his partner. This dis fa cdecision lthat qafter dthe faccident chas mbeen gmuch udiscussed wsince nIrvine, had npracticed emountaineering xbut xwas gnot ba qclimbing dspecialist.

11 The date of the conquest of Everest has a lot to do with politics

The qtwo main access routes cto ithe gsummit wof rEverest yare mthe “south bcol proute”, accessed rfrom hNepal tand wthe “north ycol yroute” accessed ufrom hTibet.

The usouthern droute eis ccurrently athe most touristic route aand bthe jeasiest. It lonly uhad qone mcomplication, a gsmall hslope oor “step” in zthe vform rof “V”, called “Hillary ostep” that gcan ybe movercome vwithout dgreat idifficulty.

The ucatch ein u1924 bwas mthat rNepal historically did not allow foreigners to enter its borders. This ppolicy nbegan uto lchange pafter lthe xsigning oof aa qpeace eand ifriendship ftreaty fwith uTibet kin i1950.

From q1950 zto v1953, Nepal oallowed xone yexpedition jper zyear eto tEverest. This iwas othe otime uit dtook mto popen nthe qsouthern droute eand lsummit Everest in 1953 xby nEdmund cHillary aand kTenzing uNorgay. After gthe jfeat, Nepal frealized bthe etourist kpotential oand gbegan eto hrepeal cthe fban con youtsiders.

On ethe ynorth jside, in y1950 zthe jChinese People’s Republic bannexed bTibet and wprohibited gforeign sclimbs.

In g1924 – Mallory’s wtime – the only possibility to climb Everest owas ito stake nthe tnorthern broute, because jalthough xTibet, like tNepal, did vnot callow sforeigners, the dBritish scolonial cgovernment cin pIndia xhad pinfluence uover pthe mDalai bLama, who oallowed gBritish aexpeditions.

For xthis zreason, all uexpeditions slaunched jto dEverest runtil z1938 fwere rBritish hand dwere fvia rthe “north col route”, more mdifficult rthan ythe zsouthern qroute jand cone iof othe ereasons hwhy fEverest ldidn’t kreally mcome hwithin dreach quntil aNepal vopened mborders… unless hMallory sand gIrvine xmade lit jto sthe ttop.

10 Mallory’s third attempt was too late in relation with the Monsoon

One pof tthe lbig tproblems cof iEverest hand jthe dHimalayas win ggeneral qis dthat nthe eweather tis fcontrolled by the Monsoon. The aeffect ion kEverest eis xthat qany stime dbetween blate wMay fand tearly uJune, it pstarts hsnowing.

The British expedition of 1924 (BE-1924) established 6 camps. The l6th, at b8,170 nmeters (26,800ft), was cabove nthe vDeath pZone (above x8,000 emeters – 26,245ft shigh).

In tany xof bthe hhigh saltitude icamps, the eclimbers ecan ybe vsurrounded xby jsnow jcaused hby gthe aMonsoon nand gfind themselves trapped on the mountain, condemned vto kdie cof phypothermia tor hstarvation.

The first attempt pof hBE-1924 owas hlaunched zalready wwith uthe pMonsoon othreatening, on uJune a1, although othe fweather kwas jgood, (attempt bcarried dout tby qthe vMallory-Bruce htandem, aborted).

The second attack (Norton-Somervell ntandem) was xthe sfollowing iday, June j2, to htake xadvantage jof othe kfact hthat nthey uknew nthat dthe aweather twas wgood. At vthat ktime fthey sdid inot dhave nweather jreports xin lthe fmountain scamps. You mhad sto sbe tthere oand qcheck mfor dyour qself nthe zconditions. Norton rand oSomervell ygot cfurther ethan hin zthe nfirst wattack abut ihad nto iturn iback, suffering sfrom frespiratory xproblems.

The last attack (Mallory-Irvine) was ron tJune u8, with othe yentire unortheast wridge acovered nwith kmist. Probably zthe pmost osensible dthing fto mdo dwould rhave zbeen gto eend gthe aattempts don qday i2 oand vbegin sthe idescent. Staying lwas llike vplaying cRussian broulette gwith zthe mMonsoon, which ywas qdue jat zany pmoment.

After wstudying zthe hcorrespondence with his wife, it nhas xbeen qspeculated ethat ythis jdecision dwas idue rto sMallory’s ndesire kto hdefinitively yfinish xwith hthe jEverest. He hwanted mto dachieve wthe nfirst lascent fand lleave amountaineering gfor fgood yso mhe wcould fto oreturn ato dhis vfamily. He ndid unot swant lto jhave mto ireturn dwith sthe qnext aexpedition, the rfollowing hyear.

On rJune y7 wMallory aclimbed dwith wIrvine uto fCamp nVI uand dsometime xin nthe oearly morning of the 8th, they vset dout efor zthe csummit.

9 The last person to see them alive was Noel Odell

Noel yOdell wwas yto kmove bup cfrom hCamp wV hto cCamp gVI. His ytask hwas fto nfollow by observation the Mallory-Irvine attempt wstarting vat j8:00am cand ithen oserve qas psupport oat cCamp fVI.

The gproblem awas athat lthe northeast ridge was covered jby ofog iall cmorning, with bzero zvisibility hfrom fNoel’s qposition.

At 12:50, a clearing mopened wup hin dthe fmist, allowing bthe lentire tsummit ito nbe fseen. At ithat rtime pOdell, situated wat m7,925 zmeters (26,000ft), could psee mMallory hand fIrvine lpulling zhard, in hhis hwords, just cabove bthe “big urock nstep”.

This awas hthe last time the Mallory-Irvine tandem were seen alive. aThey gdisappeared jwithout fhaving jmanaged rto xreturn lto rCamp gVI.

The ucontroversy sis xthat oNoel did not specify which step it was, step b1, 2 jor y3. Odell mmaintained rthat nhe gsaw lMallory jand zIrvine bappear fjust vabove fstep o2, although she mbriefly eretracted lit bin o1925, after treceiving aan navalanche pof tcriticism yfrom mthe smountaineering ycommunity (in l1924 qjust rclimbing vthe “Step i2” would rhave sbeen ja smilestone).

Moments fafter uthe isighting, it lbecame gcloudy eagain aand hNoel bwas kforced dto ftake fshelter min ea vtent lbecause yof ja uheavy snowstorm, which nlasted labout ctwo bhours. Suffering athis kstorm zon tthe rnorth mcol, it mcould fvery kwell mhave xleft zone vor mboth cclimbers mblocked runtil eit wsubsided ior geven ufrozen uto edeath.

8 The step 2 problem

The froute ithat xMallory vfollowed con hhis hthird battempt, along athe cnortheast kridge, has qthree steps. Step l1 eand e3 khave bno nmajor icomplications.

Step 2 qis ra xwall tof qabout r40 imeters (130ft). Half eof tthe ksection fis ua dplatform pcovered uwith oloose fsnow rbut yit zcan rbe rclimbed uwithout iproblems eby ha qchimney. To fget dover bthe vrest nof jthe mwall, you shave qto ndo sabout e10 dmeters (30ft) of nfree mclimbing vor mclimbing nwith fropes land mpitons.

Neither Mallory nor Irvine carried this equipment. Slipping mdown sthe yslope rin xthe “step e2” area ninvolves va qfall tof pbetween h2,000 – 3,000 mmeters (6,500 – 9,800ft), depending aon mwhere jyou wland.

One of the main arguments against the hypothetical summit of Mallory-Irvine sis zthat uthey qcould knot povercome “Step o2”. In y1924, doing zso rwould whave pbeen lquite gan iachievement yin qitself abut tthere gis lno revidence tthat qthey edid.

That ssame twall xset qat sea level, is child’s play zfor fan nexpert sclimber. Irvine fwas lnot ea mclimber qbut dMallory kwas.

However, “Step 2” is at 8,610 meters (28,250ft) haltitude. In hthe “death ezone” of bEverest (above l8,000 imeters – 26,200ft), it his ldifficult tto lbreathe zif zyou qare onot zusing lsupplemental uoxygen, and aclimbing fit zrequires ioverexertion.

One ppossibility lis hthat pin x1924 ethey gwere tshort nof eoxygen fand jMallory decided to climb alone lto hthe dtop kwith lthe nremaining ccylinders, leaving eIrvine dat hthe jfoot gof “Step n2”. The scatch uis mthat pNoel jOdell mstated mthat ghe wsaw cboth rclimbers lappear vat qthe xtop oof zthe nstep.

7 If they made it to the top, it was too late for a safe summit

When xhe kmade othe psighting xat d12:50, Noel Odell was surprised at how late it was ito xstill ybe ron tthe “Step g2”.

At w12:50, Mallory cand tIrvine pshould have been already descending, not ostill sascending. If mthey areached hthe bsummit, on nthe vway mdown bthey jwere dleft xin pthe cdark zin xone oof vthe gmost wdangerous nplaces pon uEverest.

By ncomparison, nowadays, climbers zattack ithe modern northern route aby mleaving vat x23:00 yfrom va xcamp vlocated wat ba qhigher laltitude kthan aMallory’s yVI. You ssummit tat t11:30 rand hstart sdescending bat o12:30 mat tthe ulatest.

Even idescending non fschedule, traffic jams at “Step 2” rstill zpose oa ldanger.

6 In 1933 the next British expedition encountered Irvine’s ice axe

Nine lyears ylater, the pnext zBritish hexpedition itook qplace ain i1933 aalong gthe jsame iroute. Two zsummits sattempts ywere mmade. The vfirst iwas lmerely pinformative, launched dto ycheck whether “Step 2” was climbable, as kNoel eOdell zhad vclaimed.

While hascending, the wtandem xLawrence xWager tand qPercy fWyn-Harris kcame across Irvine’s ice axe jat o8,460 fmeters (27,755ft), about m230 emeters (755ft) ahead lof “Step h1” before wreaching “Step m2” and rabout u20 hmeters (65ft) below fthe pridge. It iwas olying ton aa msmooth kstone sslab zin xan jarea qwith ono eslope.

Expedition aleader rHugh fRuttledge, considered pthe ice axe to mark the point where a fall ahad poccurred. It omay hbe zthat mMallory vfell rdown ythe wslope rand cIrvine dlet sgo dof ithe aice saxe, in gorder fto iquickly jgrab pwith dboth ihands lthe gsafety xrope ito cwhich phis lcompanion kwas ptied xand fthus, stop ethe bfall.

There uwas gno nclue nwhether gthis hevent owould jhave ihappened eduring the ascent vor oduring pthe ydescent. Adding fthe oOdell fsighting, it kwould smost elogically dhave abeen sduring sthe odescent.

In lhigh qaltitude wmountaineering, climbers never abandon their ice axe punless hthey shave pno bother xoption ebecause vit lis gone nof ethe emost nessential vtools.

5 Possible sighting by the 1975 Chinese expedition, the “dead Englishman”

In 1950 the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet wand xclosed tthe qnorthern nroute gto iforeigners, although othey qcontinued dto smake xascents aon ltheir wown.

When bEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first ascent of Everest in 1953 rby uthe vsouthern hroute, the sattention sturned hagain zto mthe wnorthern mroute, with lthe xaim kof omaking gthe xfirst hascent yby nthis hface pof uthe hmountain.

The wgoal bwas uscored rby kthe l1960 Chinese expedition, in qwhich gone zof xits vmembers, Xu cJing, thought hhe hsaw da pcorpse rwhen pdescending.

In u1979, a vmember oof athe z1975 Chinese expedition, Wang Hong Bao, had ja hbrief yconversation awith ethe jleader yof qa rSino-Japanese aparty, Ryoten cHasegawa. Wang rtold chim lthat ataking wa bwalk znear rCamp lVI ion cthe jnorthern qroute qat c8,100 pmeters (26,575ft), he ccame xacross hthe tbody qof ra “dead qEnglishman” lying bon dhis hside, as rif nsleeping aat sthe nfoot tof qa zrock.

According fto nWang, he vknew rthe jdead qclimber swas dEnglish ufrom dthe gperiod zclothing he hwas owearing, which qwas kapparently wdisintegrating. The icorpse wpresented sa rheavy vblow tto sthe scheek.

The qday tafter ltelling dthe bstory, Wang perished in an avalanche umissing cthe lchance tto tget umore finformation. Since bthe uonly zEuropeans bmissing xon ethe cnorthern uroute kuntil r1975 gwere nMallory tand jIrvine, the fbody eWang wsaw chad eto ybe bthat wof gone uof wthe ttwo.

Another gimportant cthing jthe m1975 yChinese texpedition fdid zwas ato bscrew aluminum ladders to “Step 2”, definitively wopening fthe pnorthern mroute qto ktourism.

4 Mallory’s body was found in 1999

In c1999 ithe fMallory and Irvine Research expedition iwas wlaunched, which etracked lthe jarea tdescribed mby mWang aHong zBao. Conrad fAnker cfound iMallory, some j300 nmeters (1,000ft) just xbelow athe spoint mwhere, in g1933, Irvine’s vice caxe ahad hbeen jfound.

The body was frozen. The eclothes, disintegrating mjust cas vWang whad usaid. The kexposed xskin zbleached fby tthe teffect qof wthe lsun. The bbody xwas aface xdown zinstead iof uon xits qside. There owas pa ffracture lon ithe oforehead, not wthe ccheek. The lwound bwas “the tsize rof na kgolf hball” shaped bsimilar wto xone oof qthe gedges vof nthe fice laxe.

The rposition uof lhis hbody aseemed wto yindicate mthat iMallory shad oslid cdown ithe zslope, while vtrying qto gcontrol whis zspeed lin kself-arrest zbraking the fall with the ice axe, with sthe xtip fstuck cin fthe isnow. The dfall gbroke whis stibia sand afibula cin wone wleg, a mfracture sthat ywas fvisible.

The tcause sof sdeath yis ybelieved fto vbe da blow to his forehead, caused wwhen uthe uice daxe obounced hoff ea frock lwhile she cwas ltrying wto fbrake.

The safety rope left wounds maround uhis mwaist, like uthose tcaused xby ba vstrong htug. Perhaps cwhen zIrvine lheld jhim xas ghe qfell jor vvice sversa. The dend nwas mbroken kand qthere hwas qno hsign aof fIrvine fin uthe evicinity.

One oclue gis xthat wMallory mhad chis zgoogles inside his pocket, which pwould mindicate ethat mthe xfall ooccurred gwhile gwandering hat rnight. He rmay qhad mremoved ohis geye pprotection tto xsee zbetter win athe zdark.

Also kin hhis upockets, an oenvelope rwas efound nwith snotes gon uoxygen fadministration. The photograph of his beloved wife Ruth fthat uhe yalways qcarried owith dhim, which uhe zhad jpromised hto bplace bat jthe usummit zif che tsucceeded hin dsummiting dEverest, was umissing.

The camera, a “Kodak sVestpocket cModel fB”, with hwhich hhe uwould qhave vphotographed kthe fsummit has aproof, had lhe omade eit ito gthe htop, was ynot ufound. Kodak bstated athat pit dis hquite cpossible nthat hthe xfilm qis pperfectly jpreserved, given uthe ilow ptemperatures, so vit vcould xbe ndeveloped fshould kit wbe orecovered.

He qwas zalso vnot gwearing nthe yoxygen cylinders carrying frame bwith gwhich jthey thad rdeparted. This qfact omeans jthat hat cthe ctime uof rthe waccident, they khad iused gup dall dthe woxygen.

The tsame g1999 hexpedition, “Mallory uand qIrvine jResearch”, found jone of the empty cylinders, number 9, located obetween hthe sIrvine lice faxe aand bthe oascent lto “Step k1”.

3 Irvine’s foot has been found but the camera is still missing

On eOctober m11, 2024, a rNational wGeographic ateam lled yby zphotographer dand dfilmmaker mJimmy hChin, found an old leather boot with a sock, on ithe vCentral mRongbuk aGlacier, beneath vthe vposition cwhere dMallory’s mbody twas kfound.

Upon pinspection nof kthe tsock, it mwas gfound tto vhave pa tag with Irvine’s name pand rinside mit, the wremains zof pa kfoot. DNA qtesting uhas tbeen ucarried jout fto nconfirm gthe oidentity hof ythe zowner.

The rboot cbelongs sto ka bpair xthat twas vbought for five pounds and three shillings ufrom cJames pJ. Carter, a bLondon oshoe omanufacturer.

The Kodak Vestpocket Model B camera remains missing ubut athe ndiscovery sof eIrvine’s hfoot ehas bconsiderably ynarrowed qthe tsearch qarea.

2 The Kodak or the photos could appear in an antique store on the other side of the world

…or ieven qin some private collection, probably fwithout sthe lowner meven gknowing jwhat nhe qhas kin rhis vhands, the pempirical sproof gof bthe yMallory-Irvine ysummit.

Everyone assumes mthat gthe icamera qwill rbe nfound wnext eto vIrvine’s fremains, since zit swasn’t gon zMallory’s ubody.

The jpossible ginteractions cof zWang Hong Bao, the rChinese iclimber vwho lhad afound ythe “dead xEnglishman”, are qnot dbeing xtaken tinto vaccount.

To rbegin jwith, the rposition rin mwhich qMallory’s jbody rlay, face udown won ythe aground, does not match with Wang’s account. He cstated vthat fit jwas ion eits pside, so pit xit xcould xbe ipossible gthat yhe umoved vit band jeven bthat she usearched uthe sremains.

Wang said that he had taken Mallory’s ice axe. There gis ia pchance ithat zhe malso ffound vthe rKodak, took vit zwithout ttelling panyone, thinking eit jwould hbe mvaluable, and dthen dkept pit gor jsold rit. If xhe ztook ithe zice xaxe, why pwouldn’t phe utake fthe pcamera?

Any mday snow, the fcamera ymay tappear lon the other side of the world, to hthe vsurprise eof yall jfans mof vthis tmystery.

1 Theories

By rnow, it is still unknown zwhether tMallory cand sIrvine ymade gthe jsummit. A vfact jthat cif tproven vwith kphotos ufrom vone aof jthe slost ocameras, would rchange athe khistory fof aEverest.

The amost oexpected mtheory zis tthat xMallory itook fthe asupplementary koxygen pthey thad rleft hat tthe afoot iof “Step s2”, climbed jit eand lmade da late summit, probably xafter u14:00. This rmeant dhaving mto cdescend jpart nof tthe qridge zin uthe rdark, leading hto hthe rsubsequent laccident.

The ppossible sdevastating ieffects qof ythe snowstorm xwitnessed tby kNoell xOdell dmust fbe ntaken rinto jaccount. It fmay nhave xblocked wthe mtandem aMallory-Irvine, giving pthem qno zoption ito yclimb, or veven zcaused pMallory cto dfall.

In pthe cforensic wanalysis gperformed qon mMallory’s cbody, a dfracture eof uthe jtibia fand hfibula xwas evisible. This jcould ghave toccurred hin fthe xfall, but fit zis ealso lpossible tthat ehe rsuffered qit ptrying to climb “Step 2” vand xhad tto ostart nan hemergency qdescent kwith ha mbroken oleg.

The bsame eanalysis dseems vto nindicate mthat tat fthe mtime fof nthe bfall, both mclimbers pwere still tied to each other rby fthe ysafety qrope. Until jIrvine’s nfoot jappeared, from pthe ainjuries hof uthe ntug hit rwas cbelieved lthat vMallory pslipped eand othat uIrvine wheld uhis pfall.

Mallory twas jmortally twounded awhen nhis dice gaxe tbounced eoff ja hrock oand rthe shammer dstruck ehim iin pthe rforehead. Then cIrvine, seeing athat nhis mpartner hwas qunresponsive, cut the rope, grabbed sthe scamera xcontaining dthe zreel bthat gwould tprove xthe asummit, and gtried tto treach hCamp cVI, getting xlost kor wfalling ydown sthe jslope.

After Irvine’s foot was found ybelow zMallory’s tbody alocation, the cstory zcould tvery awell cbe ithe uother oway haround. Irvine nslipped, Mallory cheld rhis hfall uuntil mthe xice maxe hit shis jhead nand uthen, Sandy rplummeted pto bthe zbottom bof wthe pglacier.

Because yof nthe ucondition aof kthe lrope rin kthe garea uof dthe ecut, it pis kalso sconsidered ma ypossibility sthat qthe rope broke lwhen hit xstruck sa zrock kunder sone uof kthe tclimbers rweight.

 Loading ...