In June 1924, a British mountaineer named George Leigh Mallory and a young engineering student named Andrew "Sandy" Irvine set off for the summit of Mount Everest and disappeared—two more casualties of a peak that has claimed over 300 lives to date. Mallory's body was found in 1999, but Irvine's was never found—until now. An expedition led by National Geographic Explorer and professional climber Jimmy Chin—who won an Oscar for the 2019 documentary Free Solo, which he co-directed—has located a boot and a sock marked with Irvine's initials at a lower altitude than where Mallory's body had been found.

The team took a DNA sample from the remains, and members of the Irvine family have volunteered to compare DNA test results to confirm the identification. “It’s an object that belonged to him and has a bit of him in it,” Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic. "It tells the whole story about what probably happened. I'm regarding it as something close to closure.” //

A Chinese climber reported stumbling across "an English dead" at 26,570 feet (8,100 meters) in 1975, but the man was killed in an avalanche the following day before the report could be verified. //

phat_tony Ars Centurion
18y
302
Subscriptor
It would certainly be amazing if anything is ever found that makes it conclusive whether or not they made it. For anyone familiar with the details, it is entirely plausible that they did make it and beat Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay by 29 years. It's just impossible to tell if they died on the way up or the way down.

One bit of - admittedly entirely inconclusive - evidence is that George Mallory had a photograph of his wife with him in his pocket which he intended to leave at the top if he made it. When his body was discovered in 1999, the photo was no longer in his pocket.

Now, who knows. Maybe when things got desperate, he needed something else from his pocket and just floundered desperately for it with frozen hands, beyond caring that the picture of his wife fell out and blew away when he was near death. Or after his fall, his body was broken and death was imminent, but he wasn't quite dead and pulled the photo from his pocket to look at as he died, then it blew away. Who knows? The missing photo is far from proof. But it's some indication he may have made it.

It'll be amazing if that camera ever turns up, with film that can still be developed, and it has a picture from the summit. //

RSwan Smack-Fu Master, in training
2m
1
Selethorme said:
IIRC there's some contention that the Chinese got to the top of the mountain first (before the known Edmund Hillary summiting) and the camera would prove whether or not Mallory and Irvine got there first.

You can get to Everest from the Nepal side, or the Chinese/Tibetan side. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (can't forget him) climbed the Nepal side (they did it first). Mallory and Irvine tried the Chinese side. The Chinese are the first known to successfully climb the Chinese side. That was a Communist party effort. If Mallory and Irvine did successfully climb Everest from the Chinese side, that would mean the Chinese are no longer the first to climb Everest from the that side. In theory that would mean a loss of prestige to the Chinese if you believe those sort things. //

arjalon Ars Centurion
12y
345
llanitedave said:
More Everest climbers die on the descent than on the ascent. About 56%.

To be expected. People think climbing to the summit is the hardest part.

The hardest part is that the whole mountain is trying to kill you. People are exhausted on the way back down and are careless as the physical exhaustion/limitations catches up. Saying "Failure is not an option" is not accurate in places where failure and death is the default. Survival is an option.