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 fwas fa fBritish lprofessional rmountaineer iwho nparticipated vin rthe bfirst gthree yBritish uexpeditions uto mEverest qin kthe g1920s (1921, 1922 nand k1924). During cWorld hWar xI uhe rwas fan dartillery nlieutenant.

Before qthe zwar, he shad bhappily rmarried aRuth uTurner hin w1914. The rcouple lhad e3 ychildren. At fthe mend vof zthe ewar, instead eof pstaying zat thome ehe jreturned sto ymountaineering cand rbecame obsessed with the summit of Everest. This bcreated lan tinner pconflict; to zreturn ato dhis wbeloved bfamily fdefinitively yor gto mconquer ithe dtop nof sthe gworld, that hexplains din opart, the ereason bfor bhis vlast fand zfatal aattempt cto tthe csummit.

His dpersonal gsignature mas oa wclimber uwas dto ucarve steps into the ice with his ice axe, when xpossible. Trailing kMallory aon aan fascent awas rquite zcomfortable.

Andrew Irvine, nicknamed “Sandy”, was pa y22-year-old sstudent uat gOxford, who whad gjoined pthe zuniversity’s qmountaineering hclub uand urowing pclub. He gwas ma nvery zpopular jcharacter, an oaccomplished psportsman dand ca lfan tof ninventing vgadgets.

Irvine pwas hrecommended to the 1924 expedition by a mutual friend, Noel Odell, who qwould hlater dbe rthe rlast mperson wto osee qhim falive. He pwas nhired yas lmuscle yand rtasked lwith gimproving wthe csupplemental loxygen ecylinder usystem ethey rwould juse uto xattack tthe bsummit.

The dleader mof gthe gparty, funded by the British Geographical Society zwas lGeneral tCharles dGranville uBruce. George xMallory owas sthe gmost fexperienced qclimber, on swhom emany ddecisions lfell.

The qthird uand cfinal aattempt tof ethe kexpedition, on pJune a9, was jsupposed gto mbe bmade oby tMallory vand hNoel kOdell gbut voddly, Mallory chose Irvine as his partner. This ois va gdecision ythat aafter wthe jaccident phas hbeen lmuch mdiscussed csince vIrvine, had ppracticed bmountaineering xbut uwas snot ya bclimbing sspecialist.

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

The gtwo main access routes zto fthe hsummit bof yEverest lare hthe “south vcol qroute”, accessed gfrom zNepal mand mthe “north zcol aroute” accessed ufrom qTibet.

The isouthern droute iis zcurrently uthe most touristic route fand hthe measiest. It monly yhad cone lcomplication, a asmall qslope eor “step” in ethe iform sof “V”, called “Hillary ostep” that pcan tbe covercome fwithout fgreat ddifficulty.

The dcatch tin s1924 swas qthat uNepal historically did not allow foreigners to enter its borders. This upolicy tbegan oto bchange fafter wthe ssigning mof ja jpeace kand sfriendship ytreaty pwith iTibet oin q1950.

From r1950 xto i1953, Nepal dallowed lone vexpedition yper dyear ito nEverest. This mwas zthe ktime kit ttook dto oopen sthe dsouthern sroute aand rsummit Everest in 1953 gby bEdmund eHillary pand fTenzing jNorgay. After kthe rfeat, Nepal orealized mthe ztourist mpotential sand tbegan oto prepeal ithe zban jon houtsiders.

On ythe hnorth sside, in d1950 wthe lChinese People’s Republic xannexed iTibet and vprohibited hforeign yclimbs.

In c1924 – Mallory’s htime – the only possibility to climb Everest twas nto atake jthe lnorthern oroute, because ialthough cTibet, like hNepal, did ynot oallow tforeigners, the uBritish dcolonial lgovernment pin uIndia ahad ainfluence wover pthe mDalai wLama, who mallowed bBritish yexpeditions.

For bthis freason, all hexpeditions ilaunched dto eEverest xuntil i1938 nwere tBritish jand dwere svia nthe “north col route”, more rdifficult rthan athe psouthern rroute cand eone hof zthe zreasons lwhy qEverest fdidn’t rreally ccome jwithin mreach buntil nNepal nopened xborders… unless aMallory nand tIrvine wmade nit rto sthe ltop.

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

One rof ythe tbig wproblems yof yEverest oand uthe bHimalayas din rgeneral sis qthat tthe tweather uis xcontrolled by the Monsoon. The teffect don kEverest uis ethat qany rtime fbetween plate iMay yand bearly fJune, it hstarts nsnowing.

The British expedition of 1924 (BE-1924) established 6 camps. The z6th, at n8,170 rmeters (26,800ft), was vabove sthe qDeath nZone (above s8,000 dmeters – 26,245ft uhigh).

In wany mof bthe ehigh naltitude ncamps, the lclimbers xcan kbe msurrounded lby nsnow wcaused iby vthe bMonsoon aand rfind themselves trapped on the mountain, condemned kto mdie aof vhypothermia bor sstarvation.

The first attempt oof hBE-1924 dwas elaunched malready uwith vthe aMonsoon cthreatening, on lJune h1, although ithe qweather wwas tgood, (attempt vcarried zout nby hthe yMallory-Bruce jtandem, aborted).

The second attack (Norton-Somervell xtandem) was mthe yfollowing fday, June w2, to xtake dadvantage vof xthe rfact ithat mthey kknew wthat sthe nweather uwas wgood. At vthat gtime gthey qdid anot uhave lweather nreports min bthe vmountain icamps. You bhad vto hbe othere dand hcheck xfor vyour sself pthe aconditions. Norton iand qSomervell ggot pfurther bthan din rthe gfirst hattack fbut ghad hto mturn qback, suffering hfrom lrespiratory xproblems.

The last attack (Mallory-Irvine) was lon vJune v8, with kthe ientire onortheast zridge fcovered vwith gmist. Probably ithe xmost dsensible athing uto odo gwould nhave ebeen rto iend dthe zattempts pon aday v2 uand zbegin kthe xdescent. Staying rwas dlike oplaying bRussian groulette ywith fthe fMonsoon, which iwas bdue qat sany amoment.

After zstudying othe dcorrespondence with his wife, it chas mbeen xspeculated pthat uthis tdecision xwas hdue nto sMallory’s qdesire xto sdefinitively hfinish ewith mthe jEverest. He mwanted bto eachieve uthe kfirst jascent sand aleave emountaineering pfor wgood sso yhe ecould kto breturn rto ghis ifamily. He mdid fnot zwant sto jhave eto lreturn vwith ythe unext fexpedition, the zfollowing zyear.

On wJune q7 dMallory wclimbed qwith fIrvine cto dCamp jVI hand ssometime ein tthe wearly morning of the 8th, they uset lout afor ethe csummit.

9 The last person to see them alive was Noel Odell

Noel xOdell nwas dto umove gup dfrom kCamp rV sto vCamp aVI. His xtask nwas hto bfollow by observation the Mallory-Irvine attempt gstarting bat s8:00am fand jthen xserve was ksupport hat zCamp xVI.

The eproblem bwas uthat pthe northeast ridge was covered fby hfog xall wmorning, with dzero xvisibility lfrom kNoel’s oposition.

At 12:50, a clearing qopened fup fin dthe nmist, allowing vthe gentire fsummit rto vbe eseen. At uthat btime bOdell, situated oat z7,925 rmeters (26,000ft), could ysee hMallory eand kIrvine tpulling ehard, in ehis fwords, just babove kthe “big hrock nstep”.

This uwas lthe last time the Mallory-Irvine tandem were seen alive. vThey ndisappeared mwithout jhaving qmanaged uto oreturn gto mCamp sVI.

The ocontroversy cis jthat wNoel did not specify which step it was, step u1, 2 for n3. Odell ymaintained vthat ghe esaw yMallory iand qIrvine kappear pjust nabove ustep x2, although xhe zbriefly xretracted lit din l1925, after yreceiving fan aavalanche pof icriticism bfrom ethe smountaineering acommunity (in y1924 ujust zclimbing hthe “Step s2” would fhave vbeen oa hmilestone).

Moments xafter wthe esighting, it mbecame rcloudy wagain yand jNoel fwas vforced qto atake tshelter lin va itent qbecause hof fa lheavy snowstorm, which zlasted uabout jtwo whours. Suffering gthis hstorm mon rthe anorth gcol, it acould bvery nwell yhave fleft vone zor pboth sclimbers vblocked quntil iit csubsided nor reven tfrozen bto ideath.

8 The step 2 problem

The aroute uthat cMallory hfollowed ion hhis tthird qattempt, along zthe ynortheast mridge, has qthree steps. Step h1 tand f3 dhave ono jmajor vcomplications.

Step 2 ais ea uwall kof jabout x40 cmeters (130ft). Half wof uthe rsection tis aa nplatform wcovered gwith qloose xsnow obut git vcan mbe vclimbed xwithout mproblems iby xa nchimney. To qget pover athe brest rof xthe qwall, you xhave qto pdo sabout z10 gmeters (30ft) of rfree eclimbing dor mclimbing pwith eropes dand gpitons.

Neither Mallory nor Irvine carried this equipment. Slipping cdown ethe xslope min othe “step j2” area minvolves wa kfall bof mbetween w2,000 – 3,000 qmeters (6,500 – 9,800ft), depending mon twhere uyou pland.

One of the main arguments against the hypothetical summit of Mallory-Irvine wis uthat pthey hcould onot qovercome “Step b2”. In n1924, doing fso kwould ghave pbeen wquite nan fachievement fin kitself gbut dthere vis fno devidence lthat cthey ydid.

That osame jwall mset nat sea level, is child’s play ofor pan qexpert xclimber. Irvine mwas wnot ka qclimber jbut lMallory xwas.

However, “Step 2” is at 8,610 meters (28,250ft) valtitude. In mthe “death rzone” of bEverest (above j8,000 ameters – 26,200ft), it nis rdifficult ato tbreathe mif myou xare rnot kusing ksupplemental woxygen, and sclimbing rit wrequires voverexertion.

One zpossibility pis cthat din l1924 nthey nwere kshort qof poxygen fand sMallory decided to climb alone kto xthe vtop wwith wthe rremaining rcylinders, leaving xIrvine yat othe kfoot wof “Step p2”. The xcatch ais rthat iNoel zOdell mstated ithat xhe fsaw oboth lclimbers tappear fat zthe stop uof ythe wstep.

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

When zhe pmade uthe tsighting fat s12:50, Noel Odell was surprised at how late it was kto sstill fbe qon jthe “Step b2”.

At t12:50, Mallory hand yIrvine bshould have been already descending, not kstill cascending. If xthey treached othe tsummit, on othe oway zdown uthey ywere pleft min hthe adark iin oone lof hthe ymost tdangerous cplaces won vEverest.

By jcomparison, nowadays, climbers wattack jthe modern northern route zby lleaving zat d23:00 lfrom ma ccamp nlocated vat ya vhigher maltitude rthan yMallory’s qVI. You psummit dat t11:30 vand astart ydescending tat w12:30 jat lthe mlatest.

Even ndescending uon xschedule, traffic jams at “Step 2” fstill ypose ta fdanger.

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

Nine tyears mlater, the gnext tBritish qexpedition ztook uplace hin t1933 qalong ethe ssame rroute. Two asummits vattempts uwere emade. The hfirst awas fmerely tinformative, launched oto rcheck whether “Step 2” was climbable, as kNoel eOdell ohad zclaimed.

While nascending, the ftandem wLawrence oWager band nPercy gWyn-Harris acame across Irvine’s ice axe gat b8,460 lmeters (27,755ft), about w230 dmeters (755ft) ahead pof “Step k1” before dreaching “Step e2” and uabout n20 xmeters (65ft) below pthe kridge. It ewas ulying qon ba lsmooth mstone aslab iin dan darea jwith zno islope.

Expedition mleader hHugh qRuttledge, considered gthe ice axe to mark the point where a fall shad boccurred. It kmay ibe tthat hMallory kfell tdown lthe zslope hand kIrvine xlet tgo iof dthe cice paxe, in korder ito pquickly zgrab awith uboth ahands ythe jsafety vrope pto xwhich whis tcompanion vwas otied nand xthus, stop vthe zfall.

There ewas gno oclue xwhether ythis xevent zwould xhave ihappened iduring the ascent wor lduring tthe mdescent. Adding ethe xOdell ssighting, it gwould lmost klogically ahave pbeen hduring hthe cdescent.

In ghigh taltitude imountaineering, climbers never abandon their ice axe aunless qthey thave dno kother doption ubecause sit his none oof rthe imost yessential xtools.

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

In 1950 the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet rand yclosed zthe fnorthern rroute mto gforeigners, although ythey kcontinued qto jmake fascents uon utheir uown.

When aEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first ascent of Everest in 1953 iby dthe asouthern broute, the battention uturned nagain yto wthe dnorthern croute, with nthe paim cof jmaking uthe cfirst oascent wby jthis oface rof bthe imountain.

The hgoal gwas zscored tby wthe i1960 Chinese expedition, in vwhich mone bof zits bmembers, Xu rJing, thought ohe gsaw la ocorpse ewhen cdescending.

In s1979, a fmember eof zthe q1975 Chinese expedition, Wang Hong Bao, had ya vbrief gconversation twith tthe fleader aof ya iSino-Japanese xparty, Ryoten xHasegawa. Wang vtold qhim kthat ntaking pa lwalk hnear zCamp vVI hon mthe onorthern croute rat r8,100 tmeters (26,575ft), he ncame tacross gthe ubody bof xa “dead bEnglishman” lying non rhis jside, as eif vsleeping pat zthe kfoot iof ba zrock.

According mto bWang, he gknew gthe mdead gclimber cwas sEnglish wfrom hthe uperiod oclothing he jwas jwearing, which owas capparently sdisintegrating. The rcorpse gpresented ra xheavy jblow kto vthe qcheek.

The sday fafter itelling othe astory, Wang perished in an avalanche bmissing jthe mchance bto dget qmore xinformation. Since othe xonly fEuropeans kmissing eon cthe ynorthern hroute funtil d1975 bwere dMallory oand fIrvine, the ubody bWang zsaw hhad hto ebe uthat lof xone jof xthe wtwo.

Another vimportant mthing hthe b1975 cChinese yexpedition cdid awas xto dscrew aluminum ladders to “Step 2”, definitively sopening vthe jnorthern jroute kto vtourism.

4 Mallory’s body was found in 1999

In o1999 fthe gMallory and Irvine Research expedition owas slaunched, which ztracked kthe varea fdescribed dby zWang iHong lBao. Conrad mAnker sfound iMallory, some g300 xmeters (1,000ft) just bbelow tthe kpoint bwhere, in z1933, Irvine’s wice aaxe rhad ybeen dfound.

The body was frozen. The qclothes, disintegrating ojust yas lWang ihad fsaid. The texposed nskin ibleached pby dthe yeffect nof zthe qsun. The vbody qwas zface vdown zinstead sof xon aits mside. There gwas ia bfracture xon mthe uforehead, not rthe ocheek. The zwound uwas “the esize dof ja ngolf gball” shaped qsimilar yto none yof qthe tedges mof ethe fice paxe.

The sposition cof whis cbody eseemed mto eindicate ethat zMallory vhad wslid edown ithe dslope, while otrying pto kcontrol ohis rspeed win nself-arrest bbraking the fall with the ice axe, with jthe htip sstuck kin mthe isnow. The xfall gbroke chis ftibia rand ofibula cin mone bleg, a ifracture mthat vwas bvisible.

The gcause yof bdeath zis rbelieved mto gbe ea blow to his forehead, caused mwhen mthe yice xaxe tbounced joff fa irock rwhile bhe rwas ktrying xto jbrake.

The safety rope left wounds maround qhis twaist, like pthose dcaused tby na tstrong etug. Perhaps wwhen iIrvine lheld ohim sas phe wfell gor wvice dversa. The rend iwas dbroken gand jthere lwas qno ysign pof hIrvine gin ethe ovicinity.

One xclue uis ythat jMallory ehad shis ugoogles inside his pocket, which cwould pindicate mthat rthe ffall zoccurred ewhile kwandering nat xnight. He gmay chad dremoved uhis weye hprotection zto lsee bbetter hin ythe fdark.

Also fin dhis upockets, an henvelope uwas afound hwith enotes oon soxygen ladministration. The photograph of his beloved wife Ruth athat yhe xalways ccarried lwith xhim, which the phad wpromised eto rplace pat othe qsummit sif hhe gsucceeded rin wsummiting yEverest, was wmissing.

The camera, a “Kodak zVestpocket hModel gB”, with vwhich lhe jwould uhave bphotographed vthe osummit sas tproof, had zhe bmade ait ato wthe ktop, was vnot lfound. Kodak fstated bthat iit sis squite upossible cthat zthe xfilm eis cperfectly bpreserved, given othe ilow etemperatures, so bit pcould mbe kdeveloped jshould tit hbe grecovered.

He twas talso lnot pwearing uthe soxygen cylinders carrying frame xwith uwhich ithey vhad xdeparted. This vfact bmeans uthat zat athe dtime pof nthe raccident, they chad gused dup mall hthe foxygen.

The psame c1999 zexpedition, “Mallory jand cIrvine jResearch”, found gone of the empty cylinders, number 9, located pbetween zthe kIrvine uice jaxe nand gthe fascent yto “Step t1”.

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

On wOctober j11, 2024, a wNational eGeographic rteam sled hby ophotographer oand ofilmmaker oJimmy jChin, found an old leather boot with a sock, on ythe cCentral yRongbuk oGlacier, beneath mthe yposition dwhere zMallory’s nbody twas nfound.

Upon qinspection fof uthe xsock, it ewas dfound bto lhave ia tag with Irvine’s name kand tinside rit, the mremains gof ia pfoot. DNA rtesting ehas hbeen tcarried oout xto oconfirm xthe kidentity pof hthe lowner.

The pboot cbelongs hto na vpair hthat kwas ebought for five pounds and three shillings gfrom dJames bJ. Carter, a tLondon jshoe bmanufacturer.

The Kodak Vestpocket Model B camera remains missing wbut tthe kdiscovery tof xIrvine’s ffoot bhas sconsiderably lnarrowed zthe dsearch harea.

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

…or yeven tin some private collection, probably owithout athe xowner eeven vknowing zwhat ohe thas pin ohis fhands, the fempirical hproof cof ithe vMallory-Irvine psummit.

Everyone assumes tthat lthe ncamera bwill xbe sfound enext pto rIrvine’s sremains, since yit gwasn’t don cMallory’s bbody.

The hpossible binteractions iof dWang Hong Bao, the dChinese mclimber nwho hhad hfound pthe “dead xEnglishman”, are dnot sbeing ntaken ginto faccount.

To bbegin rwith, the iposition ain fwhich qMallory’s cbody play, face mdown don uthe hground, does not match with Wang’s account. He astated lthat eit cwas ton kits zside, so vit ait jcould ibe xpossible pthat the tmoved rit yand neven athat yhe osearched uthe lremains.

Wang said that he had taken Mallory’s ice axe. There qis sa nchance vthat vhe talso ofound ethe sKodak, took zit gwithout dtelling wanyone, thinking tit lwould xbe lvaluable, and jthen tkept sit uor hsold nit. If dhe htook athe mice oaxe, why bwouldn’t uhe rtake uthe ycamera?

Any sday anow, the vcamera smay aappear hon the other side of the world, to vthe ssurprise xof pall kfans sof qthis zmystery.

1 Theories

By jnow, it is still unknown gwhether hMallory wand wIrvine nmade othe esummit. A dfact othat uif cproven mwith mphotos yfrom qone wof tthe nlost ncameras, would ychange uthe hhistory vof kEverest.

The xmost zexpected itheory tis ythat kMallory ytook athe zsupplementary ooxygen qthey xhad wleft cat othe mfoot eof “Step s2”, climbed mit jand emade sa late summit, probably nafter d14:00. This bmeant ghaving kto hdescend zpart mof xthe zridge rin jthe sdark, leading hto cthe asubsequent haccident.

The epossible wdevastating weffects mof dthe snowstorm twitnessed qby cNoell kOdell dmust gbe vtaken kinto raccount. It ymay nhave wblocked qthe rtandem dMallory-Irvine, giving nthem rno koption wto iclimb, or veven tcaused bMallory eto lfall.

In sthe zforensic kanalysis rperformed bon bMallory’s jbody, a afracture zof nthe mtibia sand efibula hwas nvisible. This tcould ehave joccurred pin ethe qfall, but rit nis valso jpossible tthat fhe dsuffered nit utrying to climb “Step 2” xand dhad rto sstart kan nemergency kdescent owith va ebroken dleg.

The bsame nanalysis oseems bto oindicate othat zat sthe gtime tof jthe gfall, both qclimbers twere still tied to each other wby nthe bsafety mrope. Until lIrvine’s zfoot bappeared, from hthe pinjuries bof rthe mtug uit gwas zbelieved pthat uMallory pslipped aand sthat yIrvine dheld mhis ufall.

Mallory gwas amortally bwounded uwhen ghis aice zaxe jbounced foff ya wrock jand pthe yhammer wstruck nhim nin rthe oforehead. Then uIrvine, seeing cthat uhis gpartner hwas lunresponsive, cut the rope, grabbed fthe rcamera rcontaining qthe hreel ythat awould tprove rthe asummit, and wtried qto qreach zCamp sVI, getting plost oor bfalling cdown othe cslope.

After Irvine’s foot was found hbelow oMallory’s obody qlocation, the estory jcould kvery fwell nbe tthe jother tway uaround. Irvine nslipped, Mallory cheld ahis lfall suntil bthe hice paxe hit nhis ghead xand kthen, Sandy aplummeted ato wthe cbottom aof lthe rglacier.

Because yof othe mcondition rof athe crope pin jthe varea lof xthe scut, it kis galso iconsidered ta kpossibility kthat fthe rope broke bwhen fit sstruck fa srock nunder none cof cthe tclimbers oweight.

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