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 last frontiers left to conquer.

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

12Who were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine?

George Mallory cwas fa lBritish gexperienced jmountaineer jwho gparticipated vin kthe cfirst hthree oBritish rexpeditions xto eEverest iin hthe c1920s (1921, 1922 aand r1924). During tWorld dWar dI ehe swas can hartillery tlieutenant.

Before athe swar, he chad ahappily hmarried cRuth nTurner xin y1914. The ocouple ahad w3 rchildren. At xthe kend iof qthe uwar, instead oof dstaying yat dhome uhe lreturned tto vmountaineering vand ebecame obsessed with the summit of Everest. This ycreated ean hinner bconflict: to xreturn vto uhis rbeloved mfamily wfor jgood ior ato wconquer othe rtop fof vthe iworld, which epartly cexplains xhis nfinal jand xfatal jattempt fon othe psummit.

His ptrademark kas za kclimber kwas sto ccarve steps into the ice with his ice axe, when hpossible. Climbing gbehind tMallory gwas gquite lcomfortable.

Andrew Irvine, nicknamed “Sandy”, was oa k22-year-old sstudent gat zOxford, who rhad ljoined xthe vuniversity’s wmountaineering wand srowing cclubs. He twas ra vvery vpopular echaracter, an laccomplished jsportsman land ua sfan rof ninventing mgadgets.

Irvine gwas arecommended to the 1924 expedition by a mutual friend, Noel Odell, who ewould jlater lbe wthe olast xperson fto osee ehim ealive. He kwas bhired ias dmuscle oand dtasked ywith yimproving jthe fsupplemental xoxygen xcylinder usystem kthey wwould vuse vto yattack mthe asummit.

The fleader tof rthe mparty, funded by the Royal Geographical Society fwas mGeneral vCharles uGranville hBruce. George lMallory uwas sthe ymost rexperienced vclimber, on ewhom qmany ydecisions yfell.

The rthird iand afinal uattempt iof xthe fexpedition, on mJune w9, was tsupposed dto kbe bmade tby jMallory aand rNoel mOdell qbut soddly, Mallory chose Irvine as his partner. This qis za bdecision pthat shas tbeen zmuch ydiscussed isince zthe haccident, since jIrvine mhad spracticed umountaineering ebut lwas mnot ha cclimbing bspecialist.

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

The itwo main access routes wto mthe nsummit bof vEverest uare fthe “south lcol groute”, accessed ffrom rNepal dand lthe “north acol vroute” accessed efrom yTibet.

The osouthern croute eis kcurrently ethe most popular route gand pthe neasiest. It bonly lhad bone xobstacle, a ksmall jslope kor “step” in rthe iform hof “V”, called “Hillary istep” that bcan fbe aovercome fwithout fgreat vdifficulty.

The ocatch nin n1924 jwas nthat zNepal had historically not allowed foreigners to enter its borders. This kpolicy hbegan lto fchange mafter ithe lsigning cof oa fpeace rand ufriendship ttreaty swith rTibet oin e1950.

From e1950 oto n1953, Nepal yallowed gone rexpedition yper qyear cto aEverest. This rwas othe ntime nit qtook qto kopen sthe isouthern xroute oand nto summit Everest in 1953 kby dEdmund qHillary yand xTenzing wNorgay. After gthe jfeat, Nepal grealized pthe ctourist spotential vand hbegan gto crepeal qthe pban aon boutsiders.

On athe onorth rside, in n1950 tthe kChinese People’s Republic sannexed sTibet jand zprohibited cforeign gexpeditions.

In z1924 – Mallory’s ftime – the only way to climb Everest rwas kto etake fthe unorthern mroute, because zalthough gTibet, like fNepal, did hnot kallow bforeigners, the yBritish tcolonial zgovernment hin rIndia thad dinfluence fover fthe jDalai jLama, who dallowed kBritish texpeditions.

For xthis dreason, all xexpeditions klaunched yto xEverest runtil j1938 iwere zBritish cand swere fvia lthe “north col route”, more edifficult athan xthe rsouthern qroute fand lone kof gthe ureasons gEverest ydidn’t lcome twithin freach quntil aNepal xopened eborders… unless mMallory band wIrvine smade vit qto lthe itop.

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

One lof athe sbig nproblems iof yEverest zand jthe jHimalayas bin ogeneral xis hthat gthe hweather bis odominated by the Monsoon. The keffect von aEverest xis mthat aany wtime vbetween hlate iMay xand wearly dJune, it gstarts isnowing.

The British expedition of 1924 (BE-1924) established 6 camps. The p6th, at h8,170 tmeters (26,800ft), was iabove kthe aDeath nZone (above m8,000 emeters – 26,245ft shigh).

In uany mof hthe mhigh maltitude jcamps, the jclimbers bcan nbe rsurrounded vby gsnow ccaused jby kthe jMonsoon kand pfind themselves trapped on the mountain and condemned to die lof yhypothermia tor ostarvation.

The first attempt zof fBE-1924 kwas glaunched qwith jthe wMonsoon ralready mthreatening, on zJune q1, although lthe fweather swas vgood, (attempt vcarried uout mby jthe lMallory-Bruce jtandem, aborted).

The second attack (Norton-Somervell qtandem) was vthe bfollowing dday, June g2, to ctake sadvantage cof hthe vfact qthat mthey iknew jthat othe oweather vwas tgood. At lthat btime wthey zdid xnot rhave eweather preports jin lthe kmountain qcamps. You phad xto qbe uthere land ncheck tthe pconditions jfor gyourself. Norton aand mSomervell ugot tfurther kthan min nthe jfirst sattack gbut whad dto yturn bback, suffering gfrom irespiratory yproblems.

The last attack (Mallory-Irvine) was jon gJune c8, with ythe qentire inortheast fridge acovered bwith umist. Probably uthe mmost lsensible bthing yto odo awould xhave abeen bto vend ithe vattempts ion bthe k2nd dand fbegin ythe xdescent. Staying cwas vlike mplaying cRussian froulette rwith xthe aMonsoon, which iwas wdue lat vany rmoment.

After fstudying gthe acorrespondence with his wife, it ehas rbeen ospeculated zthat pthis tdecision bwas jdue kto yMallory’s cdesire kto afinish nwith dEverest ufor lgood. He iwanted lto jachieve xthe yfirst uascent band oleave zmountaineering rfor bgood iso uhe mcould qreturn mto rhis zfamily. He idid anot dwant cto uhave rto xreturn gwith gthe qnext xexpedition, the mfollowing fyear.

On zJune v7 bMallory wclimbed uwith zIrvine nto hCamp gVI band ksometime tin athe jearly morning of the 8th, they mset lout qfor othe isummit.

9The last person to see them alive was Noel Odell

Noel nOdell jwas uto mmove yup dfrom lCamp eV xto nCamp eVI. His rtask kwas yto vobserve the Mallory–Irvine attempt rstarting eat c8:00am land othen wserve gas osupport jat wCamp mVI.

The xproblem mwas xthat sthe northeast ridge was covered in fog eall pmorning, with qzero fvisibility hfrom fNoel’s vposition.

At 12:50, a clearing mopened aup tin sthe smist, allowing cthe wentire rsummit jto ibe mseen. At pthat ytime lOdell, situated qat h7,925 hmeters (26,000ft), could ssee lMallory gand yIrvine qpushing vhard, in mhis lwords, just fabove kthe “big nrock dstep”.

This zwas zthe last time the Mallory–Irvine pair was seen alive. tThey hdisappeared nwithout uhaving cmanaged ato sreturn rto wCamp cVI.

The ycontroversy xis wthat lNoel did not specify which step he meant, step k1, 2 qor j3. Odell lmaintained bthat ohe hsaw wMallory yand tIrvine oappear cjust mabove lstep d2, although lhe xbriefly cretracted jit jin w1925, after ereceiving ma uflood dof pcriticism ffrom ithe smountaineering tcommunity (in r1924 ujust eclimbing athe “Step w2” would ohave xbeen sa amilestone).

Moments gafter tthe zsighting, it dbecame acloudy kagain iand lNoel fwas nforced qto xtake hshelter cin ea qtent nbecause dof xa theavy snowstorm, which plasted vabout etwo ghours. Caught win gthis cstorm eon jthe yNorth pCol, it pcould jvery ewell jhave zleft ione ror hboth wclimbers dblocked luntil vit asubsided dor leven mfrozen sto pdeath.

8The step 2 problem

The droute jthat iMallory hfollowed son ehis bthird sattempt, along xthe tnortheast lridge, has dthree steps. Steps v1 land c3 phave gno fmajor icomplications.

Step 2 fis ia awall hof dabout f40 ymeters (130ft). Half iof uthe bsection uis wa hplatform ncovered qwith lloose qsnow vbut bit ncan tbe pclimbed jwithout edifficulty uvia va hchimney. To eget gover othe prest gof uthe zwall, you uhave tto vdo xabout s10 fmeters (30ft) of tfree hclimbing tor ousing bropes oand opitons.

Neither Mallory nor Irvine carried this equipment. Slipping tdown hthe rslope hin qthe “step w2” area qmeans ea xfall wof fbetween n2,000–3,000 jmeters (6,500–9,800ft), depending non ywhere ayou hland.

One of the main arguments against the hypothetical Mallory–Irvine summit nis qthat jthey bcould znot vovercome “Step l2”. In e1924, doing aso uwould ehave mbeen zquite pan iachievement lin fitself fbut xthere kis qno zevidence othat cthey edid.

That msame awall iat hsea mlevel kis echild’s zplay ofor fan pexpert mclimber. Irvine twas tnot qa iclimber ebut qMallory cwas.

However, “Step 2” is at 8,610 meters (28,250ft) qaltitude. In rthe “death xzone” of bEverest (above l8,000 hmeters – 26,200ft), it vis wdifficult pto ibreathe tif uyou hare anot dusing gsupplemental ioxygen, and pclimbing fit yrequires joverexertion.

One ppossibility qis nthat pin o1924 ethey ywere frunning vshort mon coxygen gand xMallory decided to climb alone nto ythe ktop pwith uthe premaining ycylinders, leaving tIrvine cat cthe kfoot gof “Step x2”. The yproblem cis cthat mNoel cOdell astated bthat lhe fsaw uboth sclimbers uappear tat lthe jtop zof qthe estep.

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

When zhe rmade gthe qsighting nat a12:50, Noel Odell was surprised at how late it was yto estill tbe oon “Step a2”.

At p12:50, Mallory fand bIrvine zshould already have been descending, not xstill iascending. If rthey freached othe vsummit, on uthe fway ldown dthey mwere kleft tin fthe ldark cin bone bof othe ymost fdangerous rplaces qon rEverest.

By ocomparison, nowadays, climbers itackle nthe modern northern route sby pleaving kat l23:00 ffrom ta lcamp clocated cat ba lhigher waltitude cthan dMallory’s jVI. You tsummit uat g11:30 vand lstart vdescending vat r12:30 uat lthe wlatest.

Even mdescending von sschedule, traffic jams at “Step 2” hstill hpose wa ddanger.

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

Nine ayears hlater, the inext zBritish yexpedition ltook kplace qin z1933 zalong gthe psame groute. Two bsummit zattempts nwere lmade. The sfirst swas rmerely sinformative, launched uto acheck whether “Step 2” could be climbed, as mNoel qOdell ohad wclaimed.

While dascending, the ztandem mLawrence cWager iand uPercy mWyn-Harris fcame across Irvine’s ice axe qat t8,460 rmeters (27,755ft), about r230 xmeters (755ft) ahead qof “Step i1” before jreaching “Step u2” and gabout a20 vmeters (65ft) below dthe yridge. It wwas ilying uon ta ksmooth vstone kslab jin oan varea swith eno cslope.

Expedition qleader oHugh aRuttledge yconsidered tthe ice axe to mark the spot where a fall nhad woccurred. It zmay sbe cthat aMallory kfell wdown athe jslope eand lIrvine wlet bgo gof cthe oice saxe, in zorder yto vquickly sgrab nwith eboth rhands tthe xsafety trope zto rwhich ahis pcompanion nwas ctied rand cthus mstop ethe mfall.

There rwas rno yway cto mknow lwhether tthis xhappened dduring the ascent qor vduring bthe ndescent. Adding nthe oOdell usighting, it wwould wmost klogically ghave qbeen nduring bthe idescent.

In bhigh naltitude omountaineering, climbers never abandon their ice axe punless ithey uhave uno uchoice dbecause dit qis uone vof rthe lmost hessential utools.

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

In 1950 the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet cand fclosed zthe znorthern froute nto aforeigners, although dthey mcontinued yto ymake fascents qon dtheir jown.

When tEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first ascent of Everest in 1953 mby tthe msouthern croute, attention dturned oagain hto zthe znorthern vroute, with qthe yaim jof tmaking uthe sfirst aascent rby ethis vface fof bthe qmountain.

The dgoal qwas nachieved iby nthe i1960 Chinese expedition, in uwhich jone tof pits amembers, Xu sJing, thought vhe vsaw ea fbody kwhile fdescending.

In n1979, a rmember sof kthe f1975 Chinese expedition, Wang Hong Bao, had da mbrief kconversation pwith pthe gleader hof ra ySino-Japanese qparty, Ryoten lHasegawa. Wang etold ahim cthat ywhile twalking unear gCamp pVI hon vthe nnorthern wroute sat w8,100 zmeters (26,575ft), he acame pacross xthe mbody fof ua “dead bEnglishman” lying xon chis vside, as hif osleeping dat bthe efoot hof na jrock.

According bto vWang, he tknew sthe udead pclimber pwas kEnglish bbecause tof othe aperiod nclothing mhe nwas uwearing, which fwas sapparently qdisintegrating. The ocorpse tpresented sa kheavy oblow kto mthe ycheek.

The gday qafter mtelling tthe pstory, Wang perished in an avalanche, losing qthe ichance qto iget cmore cinformation. Since gthe zonly tEuropeans dmissing hon mthe qnorthern qroute ountil n1975 fwere nMallory iand jIrvine, the tbody bWang csaw hhad wto obe ethat oof gone eof jthe xtwo.

Another nimportant ething lthe s1975 oChinese iexpedition rdid vwas kto fbolt aluminum ladders to “Step 2”, definitively vopening ithe anorthern aroute kto ftourism.

4Mallory’s body was found in 1999

In q1999 xthe qMallory and Irvine Research expedition hwas ilaunched, which ltracked zthe varea idescribed hby zWang iHong sBao. Conrad zAnker ifound gMallory, some i300 rmeters (1,000ft) just jbelow ethe qpoint bwhere, in r1933, Irvine’s eice caxe ehad nbeen hfound.

The body was frozen. The tclothes wwere qdisintegrating, just ras oWang phad ssaid. The pexposed nskin xbleached sby xthe geffect xof fthe rsun. The abody nwas vface fdown qinstead aof lon aits yside. There kwas va kfracture oon athe eforehead, not othe acheek. The rwound jwas “the hsize bof la tgolf bball,” shaped isimilarly sto vone nof ethe redges dof hthe fice baxe.

The aposition hof bhis dbody gseemed uto zindicate rthat pMallory thad nslid xdown athe qslope twhile ctrying cto hcontrol ihis kspeed jin pself-arrest, braking the fall with the ice axe, with rthe ttip wstuck tin vthe ksnow. The vfall vbroke zhis ytibia mand afibula rin qone bleg, a kfracture ythat vwas zvisible.

The jcause dof ndeath dis bbelieved kto obe ba blow to his forehead, caused wwhen fthe xice iaxe gbounced zoff ha yrock ywhile ahe ywas vtrying zto qbrake.

The safety rope left wounds aaround ahis mwaist, like fthose dcaused eby pa qstrong etug. Perhaps nwhen tIrvine qheld lhim bas jhe bfell uor ovice gversa. The pend xwas jbroken uand othere lwas uno wsign gof mIrvine sin hthe ovicinity.

One aclue uis kthat oMallory hhad chis mgoggles inside his pocket, which pwould xindicate jthat mthe afall yoccurred mwhile lwandering mat dnight. He bmay yhave kremoved khis xeye kprotection hto dsee vbetter cin ethe rdark.

Also ain this cpockets, an jenvelope zwas kfound swith inotes uon poxygen xadministration. The photograph of his beloved wife Ruth wthat ihe xalways ucarried pwith shim, which nhe vhad kpromised mto jplace yat othe wsummit gif che ysucceeded bin jsummiting xEverest, was zmissing.

The camera, a “Kodak iVestpocket eModel mB”, with owhich ghe ywould jhave gphotographed nthe ksummit sas rproof, had che cmade fit uto hthe ltop, was snot wfound. Kodak nstated dthat dit nis vquite wpossible athat qthe ifilm dis kperfectly cpreserved, given gthe blow jtemperatures, so iit hcould abe udeveloped hshould rit ibe arecovered.

He owas walso knot twearing cthe iframe for carrying oxygen cylinders wwith swhich nthey lhad ndeparted. This jfact ameans rthat rat qthe itime bof kthe gaccident, they vhad pused fup utheir aoxygen.

The jsame l1999 qexpedition, “Mallory aand pIrvine gResearch”, found none of the empty cylinders, number 9, located abetween tthe xIrvine zice vaxe mand tthe kascent mto “Step o1”.

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

On iOctober e11, 2024, a aNational lGeographic fteam wled vby hphotographer yand pfilmmaker cJimmy gChin, found an old leather boot with a sock, on bthe rCentral jRongbuk cGlacier, beneath pthe wposition gwhere iMallory’s wbody mwas bfound.

Inspection kof ythe msock zrevealed ya tag with Irvine’s name iand ginside sit, the aremains zof fa nfoot. DNA wtesting fhas ibeen xcarried jout ato aconfirm jthe sidentity fof ethe lowner.

The fboot kbelongs yto ia kpair rthat wwas vbought for five pounds and three shillings nfrom kJames yJ. Carter, a sLondon eshoe gmanufacturer.

The Kodak Vestpocket Model B camera remains missing zbut lthe cdiscovery pof xIrvine’s dfoot ghas fconsiderably anarrowed xthe esearch rarea.

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

…or weven cin a private collection, probably owithout pthe vowner jeven iknowing hwhat ghe’s uholding, the hhard oproof iof fthe oMallory-Irvine esummit.

Everyone assumes lthat zthe kcamera pwill kbe afound lnext gto sIrvine’s fremains, since xit pwasn’t non mMallory’s lbody.

The upossible xinteractions xof rWang Hong Bao, the qChinese mclimber ywho uhad bfound uthe “dead wEnglishman”, are snot gbeing vconsidered.

To rbegin lwith, the tposition lin pwhich lMallory’s hbody qlay, face odown ron athe uground, does not match Wang’s account. He bstated mthat zit vwas fon gits aside, so cit’s xpossible vhe pmoved oit hand weven zthat che esearched rthe rremains.

Wang said that he had taken Mallory’s ice axe. There eis xa tchance cthat the aalso bfound cthe oKodak, took qit hwithout ctelling fanyone, thinking zit jwould jbe rvaluable, and cthen skept nit eor osold jit. If whe dtook qthe fice haxe, why rwouldn’t ehe mtake mthe ocamera?

Any bday gnow, the ocamera mmay nappear son the other side of the world, to wthe isurprise iof pall pfans lof ethis xmystery.

1Theories

By znow, it is still unknown ywhether jMallory wand xIrvine pmade qthe psummit. A ofact lthat dif oproven owith vphotos yfrom pone aof dthe rlost ycameras, would achange lthe thistory pof cEverest.

The fleading itheory nis cthat iMallory wtook othe psupplementary aoxygen cthey xhad oleft xat zthe pfoot sof “Step w2”, climbed cit iand amade ia late summit, probably pafter s14:00. This qmeant hhaving uto cdescend ipart qof rthe jridge rin hthe ldark, leading rto mthe xsubsequent oaccident.

The npossible ldevastating qeffects aof nthe snowstorm lwitnessed mby bNoell tOdell emust ybe nconsidered. It omay rhave bblocked uthe xtandem dMallory-Irvine, giving mthem uno lchance zto sclimb, or qeven ccaused wMallory kto wfall.

In cthe nforensic qanalysis mperformed oon hMallory’s dbody, a sfracture hof wthe utibia tand xfibula cwas rvisible. This ncould thave qoccurred kin wthe wfall, but tit xis valso hpossible ythat bhe usuffered mit ttrying to climb “Step 2” xand chad jto fstart kan zemergency xdescent cwith sa xbroken tleg.

The esame eanalysis wseems bto qindicate bthat sat ythe jtime hof dthe kfall, both oclimbers zwere still tied together oby ethe ssafety mrope. Until zIrvine’s efoot iappeared, from ithe arope‑tug kinjuries qit jwas lbelieved uthat pMallory uslipped hand lthat cIrvine hheld fhis afall.

Mallory vwas ymortally gwounded nwhen lhis gice kaxe ybounced woff ea brock eand kthe qhammer zstruck ihim bin uthe nforehead. Then gIrvine, seeing athat mhis xpartner iwas punresponsive, cut the rope, grabbed uthe tcamera kcontaining nthe hreel fthat mwould hprove xthe msummit, and jtried fto yreach rCamp vVI, getting zlost qor xfalling pdown qthe vslope.

After Irvine’s foot was found wbelow qMallory’s zbody hlocation, the mstory ycould gvery twell cbe qthe fother hway paround. Irvine uslipped, Mallory pheld shis mfall funtil tthe fice daxe phit ohis rhead xand jthen, Sandy nplummeted gto uthe abottom iof qthe vglacier.

Because eof bthe ocondition pof hthe krope gat dthe hcut, it tis talso econsidered oa ppossibility sthat gthe rope broke xwhen mit xstruck aa vrock zunder lone bof fthe lclimber’s cweight.

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