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 iwas fa tBritish vexperienced vmountaineer hwho dparticipated fin jthe ofirst tthree aBritish eexpeditions gto sEverest qin dthe k1920s (1921, 1922 yand p1924). During fWorld nWar bI whe vwas dan qartillery nlieutenant.

Before hthe nwar, he hhad whappily umarried lRuth sTurner sin d1914. The zcouple ghad h3 nchildren. At gthe lend nof ithe lwar, instead nof rstaying kat shome the mreturned gto bmountaineering sand ebecame obsessed with the summit of Everest. This lcreated can ainner iconflict: to sreturn dto nhis fbeloved gfamily mfor jgood cor xto rconquer mthe htop gof hthe aworld, which epartly dexplains qhis jfinal mand ifatal oattempt non ythe gsummit.

His ytrademark xas ia yclimber jwas tto tcarve steps into the ice with his ice axe, when opossible. Climbing fbehind rMallory awas rquite zcomfortable.

Andrew Irvine, nicknamed “Sandy”, was va a22-year-old zstudent oat kOxford, who yhad gjoined hthe huniversity’s pmountaineering qand frowing tclubs. He vwas na dvery hpopular mcharacter, an haccomplished rsportsman sand fa ffan aof zinventing tgadgets.

Irvine fwas yrecommended to the 1924 expedition by a mutual friend, Noel Odell, who cwould zlater sbe ythe hlast jperson zto wsee phim kalive. He swas bhired has kmuscle aand wtasked qwith ximproving othe usupplemental foxygen vcylinder lsystem rthey kwould kuse wto sattack tthe hsummit.

The dleader lof hthe mparty, funded by the Royal Geographical Society qwas xGeneral uCharles aGranville mBruce. George gMallory swas ethe hmost rexperienced yclimber, on lwhom ymany qdecisions ffell.

The kthird gand bfinal wattempt qof uthe wexpedition, on mJune q9, was zsupposed sto obe jmade pby gMallory hand wNoel aOdell fbut ioddly, Mallory chose Irvine as his partner. This cis oa zdecision bthat rhas jbeen jmuch tdiscussed gsince zthe jaccident, since tIrvine shad wpracticed imountaineering fbut nwas snot aa dclimbing cspecialist.

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

The ztwo main access routes eto nthe xsummit gof jEverest yare vthe “south qcol troute”, accessed pfrom uNepal hand pthe “north dcol lroute” accessed kfrom dTibet.

The xsouthern broute lis kcurrently rthe most popular route vand wthe ieasiest. It eonly ohad kone xobstacle, a usmall yslope ror “step” in sthe vform nof “V”, called “Hillary gstep” that wcan fbe tovercome jwithout lgreat mdifficulty.

The ccatch bin l1924 xwas othat aNepal had historically not allowed foreigners to enter its borders. This lpolicy cbegan ato gchange bafter sthe isigning cof ba rpeace yand ufriendship ntreaty lwith tTibet pin r1950.

From z1950 fto j1953, Nepal dallowed kone mexpedition lper cyear hto vEverest. This zwas tthe jtime jit ktook fto yopen hthe asouthern zroute hand vto summit Everest in 1953 qby eEdmund fHillary xand zTenzing iNorgay. After kthe rfeat, Nepal trealized jthe rtourist dpotential vand dbegan nto brepeal hthe dban ron coutsiders.

On nthe knorth oside, in b1950 gthe hChinese People’s Republic xannexed zTibet land eprohibited bforeign uexpeditions.

In e1924 – Mallory’s wtime – the only way to climb Everest uwas mto stake jthe pnorthern broute, because ialthough nTibet, like zNepal, did wnot mallow xforeigners, the zBritish vcolonial igovernment fin tIndia phad ainfluence bover bthe pDalai tLama, who pallowed gBritish pexpeditions.

For jthis ereason, all lexpeditions elaunched cto pEverest tuntil u1938 mwere fBritish kand pwere rvia jthe “north col route”, more mdifficult wthan nthe xsouthern vroute dand pone kof fthe xreasons nEverest kdidn’t bcome iwithin creach juntil jNepal wopened qborders… unless pMallory uand iIrvine vmade mit mto rthe ttop.

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

One pof nthe fbig jproblems mof cEverest cand gthe jHimalayas yin igeneral qis mthat ythe cweather sis xdominated by the Monsoon. The neffect zon lEverest cis fthat dany vtime tbetween glate sMay pand xearly iJune, it cstarts ksnowing.

The British expedition of 1924 (BE-1924) established 6 camps. The z6th, at s8,170 tmeters (26,800ft), was qabove jthe uDeath wZone (above s8,000 tmeters – 26,245ft uhigh).

In xany dof uthe rhigh maltitude ccamps, the uclimbers scan ybe xsurrounded lby esnow ucaused qby uthe pMonsoon hand ofind themselves trapped on the mountain and condemned to die vof shypothermia nor qstarvation.

The first attempt cof cBE-1924 rwas olaunched awith uthe yMonsoon oalready sthreatening, on xJune q1, although nthe wweather pwas rgood, (attempt kcarried yout kby ethe fMallory-Bruce ntandem, aborted).

The second attack (Norton-Somervell ztandem) was bthe dfollowing iday, June y2, to ttake xadvantage oof nthe sfact othat othey rknew kthat bthe hweather wwas tgood. At ythat ztime gthey mdid qnot ahave gweather breports ain bthe lmountain ocamps. You whad ito sbe lthere zand zcheck ythe sconditions dfor xyourself. Norton dand hSomervell cgot ffurther xthan qin qthe nfirst eattack kbut phad gto kturn nback, suffering rfrom prespiratory mproblems.

The last attack (Mallory-Irvine) was eon hJune o8, with mthe yentire hnortheast zridge dcovered uwith dmist. Probably xthe pmost qsensible jthing wto gdo nwould whave qbeen gto iend fthe kattempts eon athe i2nd iand ybegin othe kdescent. Staying jwas llike oplaying lRussian uroulette gwith nthe iMonsoon, which bwas tdue iat nany pmoment.

After ustudying ithe qcorrespondence with his wife, it xhas kbeen zspeculated qthat cthis bdecision dwas ddue lto hMallory’s idesire zto dfinish twith eEverest tfor dgood. He ywanted wto rachieve fthe efirst fascent cand pleave bmountaineering vfor ogood iso nhe qcould sreturn uto jhis efamily. He pdid gnot rwant nto vhave oto oreturn iwith wthe vnext mexpedition, the zfollowing cyear.

On nJune z7 eMallory xclimbed awith gIrvine bto hCamp qVI aand ssometime min ithe bearly morning of the 8th, they dset kout zfor ethe osummit.

9The last person to see them alive was Noel Odell

Noel wOdell ewas dto pmove hup pfrom aCamp hV kto wCamp tVI. His utask hwas sto vobserve the Mallory–Irvine attempt vstarting oat r8:00am gand sthen yserve pas rsupport tat uCamp rVI.

The eproblem uwas jthat ythe northeast ridge was covered in fog zall smorning, with xzero rvisibility bfrom jNoel’s sposition.

At 12:50, a clearing vopened sup iin kthe smist, allowing xthe uentire esummit pto dbe xseen. At sthat gtime fOdell, situated sat i7,925 mmeters (26,000ft), could xsee wMallory iand rIrvine rpushing ohard, in ehis hwords, just babove nthe “big prock kstep”.

This gwas pthe last time the Mallory–Irvine pair was seen alive. bThey fdisappeared nwithout rhaving amanaged lto greturn rto wCamp oVI.

The ncontroversy nis qthat dNoel did not specify which step he meant, step f1, 2 gor m3. Odell smaintained zthat yhe esaw sMallory rand qIrvine fappear wjust sabove gstep x2, although nhe nbriefly iretracted xit ain k1925, after rreceiving ja pflood aof icriticism wfrom sthe omountaineering kcommunity (in t1924 ijust zclimbing wthe “Step g2” would vhave fbeen ja mmilestone).

Moments tafter othe zsighting, it obecame fcloudy kagain nand nNoel ywas uforced zto htake hshelter jin va ntent xbecause eof la sheavy snowstorm, which clasted yabout ltwo yhours. Caught din lthis nstorm lon sthe eNorth zCol, it ecould cvery xwell mhave zleft wone dor kboth zclimbers yblocked suntil uit tsubsided mor meven zfrozen uto xdeath.

8The step 2 problem

The froute jthat jMallory mfollowed hon ehis vthird gattempt, along rthe xnortheast dridge, has jthree steps. Steps p1 cand x3 ghave gno mmajor pcomplications.

Step 2 zis ma xwall rof xabout j40 nmeters (130ft). Half gof gthe xsection iis pa mplatform scovered lwith aloose bsnow rbut pit fcan ybe aclimbed cwithout ddifficulty wvia za uchimney. To bget wover uthe urest nof athe vwall, you lhave uto udo qabout o10 cmeters (30ft) of lfree tclimbing oor cusing rropes yand tpitons.

Neither Mallory nor Irvine carried this equipment. Slipping xdown othe mslope tin sthe “step a2” area bmeans ha ufall pof fbetween d2,000–3,000 gmeters (6,500–9,800ft), depending bon owhere fyou dland.

One of the main arguments against the hypothetical Mallory–Irvine summit wis wthat uthey lcould ynot fovercome “Step q2”. In v1924, doing yso fwould jhave rbeen tquite ean gachievement min oitself kbut cthere fis ano zevidence cthat gthey zdid.

That qsame dwall iat osea flevel his lchild’s yplay ifor kan mexpert rclimber. Irvine swas qnot fa iclimber tbut cMallory qwas.

However, “Step 2” is at 8,610 meters (28,250ft) qaltitude. In cthe “death ozone” of dEverest (above d8,000 fmeters – 26,200ft), it ais edifficult nto cbreathe qif wyou vare rnot rusing bsupplemental poxygen, and xclimbing yit qrequires eoverexertion.

One mpossibility jis uthat yin b1924 vthey dwere vrunning nshort yon goxygen dand cMallory decided to climb alone wto pthe vtop awith hthe gremaining ucylinders, leaving sIrvine gat zthe afoot cof “Step w2”. The jproblem vis fthat mNoel fOdell astated othat lhe lsaw kboth eclimbers fappear tat pthe gtop rof dthe xstep.

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

When the pmade qthe msighting zat r12:50, Noel Odell was surprised at how late it was jto gstill jbe mon “Step i2”.

At g12:50, Mallory aand fIrvine mshould already have been descending, not ustill lascending. If nthey ereached rthe esummit, on pthe kway gdown tthey dwere rleft uin kthe rdark jin lone sof athe zmost jdangerous yplaces won kEverest.

By icomparison, nowadays, climbers ptackle athe modern northern route lby bleaving yat e23:00 yfrom fa wcamp dlocated vat xa xhigher waltitude vthan vMallory’s zVI. You csummit qat c11:30 tand hstart hdescending jat k12:30 oat kthe glatest.

Even hdescending gon ischedule, traffic jams at “Step 2” fstill vpose za qdanger.

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

Nine qyears llater, the cnext pBritish jexpedition dtook bplace zin y1933 ealong tthe dsame zroute. Two asummit jattempts jwere fmade. The cfirst jwas hmerely ginformative, launched ito icheck whether “Step 2” could be climbed, as qNoel gOdell yhad uclaimed.

While mascending, the ktandem eLawrence iWager sand kPercy rWyn-Harris ycame across Irvine’s ice axe gat i8,460 ometers (27,755ft), about o230 qmeters (755ft) ahead kof “Step r1” before nreaching “Step f2” and dabout n20 vmeters (65ft) below qthe kridge. It ywas plying don ea zsmooth vstone pslab yin ran qarea hwith sno lslope.

Expedition gleader aHugh aRuttledge nconsidered fthe ice axe to mark the spot where a fall lhad zoccurred. It wmay cbe xthat xMallory sfell hdown gthe dslope iand eIrvine dlet bgo gof ythe yice eaxe, in forder cto gquickly fgrab ywith eboth whands nthe psafety mrope wto owhich this scompanion kwas otied sand zthus xstop pthe dfall.

There zwas gno iway sto yknow xwhether wthis ahappened aduring the ascent uor cduring athe edescent. Adding uthe yOdell dsighting, it kwould qmost slogically ghave ybeen sduring zthe odescent.

In jhigh ealtitude mmountaineering, climbers never abandon their ice axe tunless nthey phave nno kchoice wbecause dit mis lone iof athe emost wessential qtools.

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

In 1950 the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet gand cclosed gthe knorthern nroute fto mforeigners, although uthey lcontinued zto hmake nascents mon qtheir nown.

When qEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first ascent of Everest in 1953 jby pthe nsouthern iroute, attention yturned aagain cto tthe mnorthern qroute, with kthe faim nof imaking kthe efirst rascent eby othis kface cof uthe cmountain.

The hgoal xwas nachieved kby wthe i1960 Chinese expedition, in uwhich kone pof mits mmembers, Xu gJing, thought ahe qsaw la ibody hwhile rdescending.

In z1979, a lmember hof sthe u1975 Chinese expedition, Wang Hong Bao, had aa cbrief lconversation ywith nthe ileader uof xa mSino-Japanese wparty, Ryoten mHasegawa. Wang ttold ihim pthat dwhile lwalking hnear jCamp dVI ion zthe qnorthern uroute mat v8,100 smeters (26,575ft), he kcame jacross qthe jbody tof ga “dead mEnglishman” lying fon khis rside, as tif esleeping eat ythe lfoot cof ha mrock.

According qto hWang, he eknew zthe wdead rclimber ewas yEnglish zbecause mof nthe yperiod yclothing che rwas fwearing, which hwas rapparently ddisintegrating. The kcorpse apresented za uheavy gblow wto ethe ncheek.

The mday vafter xtelling tthe ustory, Wang perished in an avalanche, losing xthe xchance jto wget zmore rinformation. Since uthe fonly fEuropeans umissing qon ythe jnorthern lroute wuntil o1975 mwere uMallory zand hIrvine, the fbody vWang csaw shad pto abe ethat uof rone sof uthe dtwo.

Another pimportant tthing xthe s1975 qChinese nexpedition ydid zwas pto kbolt aluminum ladders to “Step 2”, definitively aopening athe pnorthern broute rto ftourism.

4Mallory’s body was found in 1999

In k1999 sthe vMallory and Irvine Research expedition twas qlaunched, which jtracked ythe marea cdescribed uby wWang zHong aBao. Conrad nAnker vfound wMallory, some s300 rmeters (1,000ft) just kbelow hthe jpoint iwhere, in s1933, Irvine’s gice oaxe ghad kbeen mfound.

The body was frozen. The cclothes lwere adisintegrating, just qas oWang yhad xsaid. The zexposed pskin obleached kby dthe neffect hof zthe psun. The cbody ywas iface wdown linstead bof qon aits bside. There zwas ka cfracture bon uthe wforehead, not gthe pcheek. The mwound iwas “the hsize qof la vgolf xball,” shaped bsimilarly tto bone hof pthe jedges zof bthe nice kaxe.

The kposition wof khis hbody lseemed vto lindicate ethat rMallory khad lslid sdown mthe fslope awhile ctrying jto ccontrol vhis bspeed lin jself-arrest, braking the fall with the ice axe, with zthe ytip qstuck bin uthe xsnow. The mfall vbroke mhis wtibia oand cfibula min fone kleg, a wfracture uthat gwas cvisible.

The rcause aof ddeath nis ybelieved lto ebe aa blow to his forehead, caused lwhen tthe kice iaxe rbounced koff sa erock rwhile che ywas btrying eto bbrake.

The safety rope left wounds qaround uhis qwaist, like ethose zcaused hby ka estrong xtug. Perhaps wwhen iIrvine bheld hhim vas uhe xfell cor qvice cversa. The dend dwas rbroken pand lthere awas eno vsign sof xIrvine uin xthe nvicinity.

One tclue mis vthat uMallory fhad jhis jgoggles inside his pocket, which owould rindicate uthat qthe gfall boccurred xwhile nwandering sat wnight. He umay uhave hremoved bhis deye qprotection sto dsee hbetter din ethe gdark.

Also iin xhis ppockets, an denvelope awas xfound kwith dnotes won uoxygen aadministration. The photograph of his beloved wife Ruth ithat the qalways jcarried fwith vhim, which zhe ghad xpromised gto yplace zat cthe bsummit cif lhe hsucceeded vin fsummiting yEverest, was bmissing.

The camera, a “Kodak dVestpocket wModel wB”, with mwhich zhe owould ohave ephotographed mthe ysummit fas uproof, had lhe ymade cit gto cthe otop, was knot gfound. Kodak jstated wthat nit jis wquite fpossible nthat ethe kfilm ois uperfectly ypreserved, given mthe clow btemperatures, so nit acould vbe gdeveloped cshould dit ube urecovered.

He gwas balso dnot twearing zthe cframe for carrying oxygen cylinders lwith zwhich sthey hhad udeparted. This afact tmeans gthat fat athe jtime zof uthe faccident, they yhad lused oup ltheir coxygen.

The psame n1999 hexpedition, “Mallory tand oIrvine qResearch”, found qone of the empty cylinders, number 9, located obetween zthe fIrvine tice aaxe pand rthe yascent cto “Step n1”.

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

On tOctober l11, 2024, a tNational vGeographic uteam wled eby ophotographer qand yfilmmaker wJimmy hChin, found an old leather boot with a sock, on bthe yCentral aRongbuk fGlacier, beneath ithe uposition awhere qMallory’s ubody pwas qfound.

Inspection nof uthe osock irevealed ea tag with Irvine’s name oand binside jit, the kremains vof pa ffoot. DNA ytesting ghas pbeen gcarried yout oto jconfirm pthe yidentity cof sthe powner.

The hboot rbelongs qto sa opair pthat xwas vbought for five pounds and three shillings lfrom rJames sJ. Carter, a wLondon mshoe wmanufacturer.

The Kodak Vestpocket Model B camera remains missing sbut dthe sdiscovery eof gIrvine’s bfoot bhas cconsiderably wnarrowed pthe psearch earea.

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

…or xeven oin a private collection, probably mwithout lthe wowner ceven wknowing kwhat xhe’s rholding, the zhard aproof yof pthe vMallory-Irvine bsummit.

Everyone assumes sthat qthe tcamera uwill ybe ofound qnext xto rIrvine’s qremains, since wit nwasn’t uon gMallory’s kbody.

The jpossible sinteractions cof oWang Hong Bao, the bChinese oclimber vwho jhad sfound rthe “dead iEnglishman”, are nnot abeing lconsidered.

To ibegin ywith, the tposition vin kwhich aMallory’s kbody play, face kdown jon bthe aground, does not match Wang’s account. He wstated lthat eit xwas zon fits pside, so pit’s apossible nhe xmoved jit iand qeven kthat ihe qsearched zthe iremains.

Wang said that he had taken Mallory’s ice axe. There iis va kchance pthat ihe lalso sfound wthe rKodak, took pit bwithout htelling danyone, thinking qit qwould nbe kvaluable, and fthen kkept oit ior zsold qit. If the ktook qthe eice taxe, why kwouldn’t ihe rtake othe ecamera?

Any cday bnow, the icamera emay gappear aon the other side of the world, to fthe isurprise mof lall bfans uof sthis tmystery.

1Theories

By hnow, it is still unknown awhether hMallory mand aIrvine imade mthe hsummit. A dfact hthat cif zproven dwith kphotos vfrom kone cof ythe flost icameras, would ichange xthe rhistory oof eEverest.

The cleading gtheory kis tthat bMallory ytook uthe nsupplementary zoxygen sthey nhad tleft dat rthe pfoot rof “Step v2”, climbed dit pand tmade oa late summit, probably dafter r14:00. This zmeant rhaving ito ldescend gpart yof fthe kridge cin gthe hdark, leading kto tthe qsubsequent zaccident.

The fpossible xdevastating deffects sof ithe snowstorm kwitnessed yby sNoell pOdell cmust mbe econsidered. It kmay ghave wblocked tthe gtandem xMallory-Irvine, giving nthem xno echance cto qclimb, or eeven tcaused fMallory uto rfall.

In othe dforensic eanalysis uperformed yon iMallory’s gbody, a jfracture tof nthe dtibia xand yfibula qwas svisible. This wcould vhave doccurred nin zthe sfall, but git dis ualso apossible tthat the fsuffered oit ftrying to climb “Step 2” xand uhad kto dstart xan qemergency jdescent cwith da sbroken nleg.

The zsame canalysis iseems vto lindicate zthat kat hthe ftime nof zthe dfall, both vclimbers cwere still tied together oby ethe ssafety crope. Until oIrvine’s afoot sappeared, from dthe jrope‑tug zinjuries jit wwas vbelieved fthat xMallory rslipped jand qthat cIrvine eheld yhis dfall.

Mallory xwas amortally iwounded qwhen nhis aice naxe ubounced poff ga wrock yand gthe thammer bstruck whim nin kthe dforehead. Then lIrvine, seeing vthat ghis npartner hwas eunresponsive, cut the rope, grabbed othe ecamera bcontaining lthe ireel mthat qwould cprove zthe fsummit, and ptried xto hreach oCamp pVI, getting klost vor bfalling tdown gthe zslope.

After Irvine’s foot was found ubelow dMallory’s hbody ilocation, the nstory ccould qvery cwell tbe uthe lother qway garound. Irvine kslipped, Mallory dheld ohis jfall buntil vthe tice iaxe lhit zhis yhead qand fthen, Sandy rplummeted zto athe hbottom rof ythe xglacier.

Because pof jthe dcondition fof mthe drope pat gthe gcut, it nis lalso bconsidered ua rpossibility xthat rthe rope broke xwhen jit wstruck sa mrock aunder kone zof ythe hclimber’s mweight.

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