June 8 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of the disappearance of two British climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, who were part of the third British expedition to Mount Everest in 1924.
An enduring mystery remains of this expedition as to whether Mallory and Irvine were the first to climb on top of Everest in 1924, 29 years before Hillary and Tenzing conquered the highest mountain peak in the world on 29 May 1953.
George Mallory (1886-1924) had a distinguished mountaineering career. He was a graduate of Cambridge and honed his skills in the French Alps and English Lake District. He was also a part of the British expedition to Mount Everest in 1921 and 1922.
On being asked by the American press in 1923 as to why he wanted to conquer Mount Everest, Mallory replied with the immortal statement: “Because it is there.”
In the 1924 expedition, he took a relative newcomer, Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine with him as they tried to scale the peak from the NE side of the mountain.
Irvine (1902-1924) made major and crucial innovations to the expedition’s professionally designed oxygen sets, radically improving their functionality, lightness, and strength.
Both were seen at 12.50 pm on 8 June 1924 by their expedition member Noel Odell who described them as “the last step but one from the base of the final pyramid” and “going strongly for the top.”… Around 800 feet from the summit.
Both Mallory and Irvine were never seen again.
The Mystery
On May 1 1999, 75 years after their disappearance, Mallory’s body was found by an American expedition. Mallory seemed to have suffered from a fall, his right leg was broken, and just above his left eye was an injury, which may have been the cause of his death.
Mallory also had rope-jerk injuries around his torso. This, alongside the finding of a broken rope around his torso and his goggles which was found in his pocket, proved that Mallory and Irvine were roped together and that they were descending when the sun had set.
Mallory had promised that he would place his wife’s photo on top of the summit if he reached there. No photo of Mallory’s wife was found on his body, which may prove somehow that Mallory reached the summit.
The only question now remains as to a vest pocket Kodak camera which was with Mallory & Irvine, whose find may have cleared a lot of doubts. The camera was not found with Mallory, so it must have been with Irvine, whose body is yet to be found.
The Questions
In the last 100 years, several questions have been asked if Mallory and Irvine had reached the summit of Mount Everest.
1) Odells’ Observations: Noel Odell, who last saw Mallory & Irvine, “ climbing rapidly”, first identified that it was on the ‘Second Step’ where he saw them. Later on, he insisted that he saw them on the ‘First Step’. Just before he died in 1987, Odell said that “he wasn’t sure…”
First and Second steps are rocky features on the base of Everest at the height of 8500 and 8610 meters. respectively.
The Second Step, where Odell saw Mallory and Irvine is very difficult to climb even for the climbers having modern equipment. It is at 8610 meters, with a climbing height of 40 meters (130 feet) and the last five meters are almost vertical.
It is such a difficult rock to climb that the Chinese have fixed a ladder on the Second Step to help future climbers.
2) The Question of Oxygen: It is not known as to how many oxygen cylinders Mallory and Irvine carried. The oxygen cylinders of those days were poorly made and were prone to leakage on heights. Even if Mallory and Irvine carried 6 cylinders, it was quite possible that they had exhausted the cylinders by 1 pm and had to turn back.
This was the last climb of Mallory, and being experienced he would never have allowed the life of his fellow climber to be threatened. However, it is also possible that Irvine may have waited at the base of Second Step and Mallory himself went to the summit carrying one last Oxygen bottle.
What May Have Happened:
Mallory may have climbed the Summit around 3 pm, taken photographs with his Kodak camera, and joined Irvine at around 5 pm near the Second Step.
By the time they descended, it was already dark and due to exhaustion and misstep, Mallory first fell, and Irvine might have tried to wait for the Sun to rise, but froze to death.
Mallory fell to his death, followed by Irvine in the blizzard.
The Final Word: Everything hinges on the Kodak vest camera and the body of Irvine. If future climbers are able to find it, it will solve a long-standing mystery of who first climbed on top of Mount Everest.
But as the son of George Mallory once said: “To me, the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive; the job’s half done if you don’t get down again.”
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