April 28, 2004 Eighty years after famed British explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine perished on the upper reaches of Everest, a group of climbers is attempting to resolve one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries—whether or not the pair reached the summit.
The expedition, sponsored by EverestNews.com, began its quest in early April. As of Sunday, April 25, the team had reached Advanced Base Camp (21,300 feet) on the north side of the mountain, and found it snowier than normal for this time of year. As the climbers continue their ascent, they will search for the body of Irvine and the collapsible Kodak Vest Pocket camera Irvine reportedly carried with him.
If either Irvine's body or the camera is recovered, the mystery could be solved once and for all. Black and white film in the camera could prove that one or both members of the 1924 party reached the summit almost 30 years before Sir Edmund Hillary did in 1953.
"Our expedition is rooted in historical curiosity, and born out of a sense of honor and respect to those who have ventured before us," reads an official statement on the Everest News Web site. "We go to Mount Everest in search of an answer."
The search comes five years after the 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found the body of Mallory (see Outside's October 1999 cover story, "Ghosts of Everest") at almost 27,000 feet on the North Face. Though he had a broken right leg, analysis suggested that Mallory had died of a head injury, which he most likely incurred in a fall.
Prior to the 1999 discovery, evidence suggested that George Leigh Mallory, 37, and Andrew Comyn Irvine, 22, had reached at least the First Step (a steep, 100-foot section at 27,900 feet). In 1933, a British expedition found Irvine's ice axe on the Northeast Ridge at 27,600 feet. Members of the 1999 team found an oxygen cylinder from Mallory and Irvine's 1924 expedition at the base of the First Step.
Because Mallory's body was not in the fall line below the First Step, climbers reasoned that he had not died in a fall from the Northeast Ridge, but rather, on the descent from the route. However, the sum of the evidence surrounding Mallory's body failed to produce a definitive answer to the question of whether the pair reached the summit.
Analysis of Mallory's watch, still on his body, revealed that its balance shaft still worked; therefore, the watch did not break during Mallory's fall to record the time permanently. Members of the 1999 team found neither a camera near Mallory's body, nor the photo of Mallory's wife that he had intended to place at the summit. Either of these clues would have helped to solve the mystery: If the photo had been found, there would be reason to believe that they had not reached the summit. A camera might have contained images of the two explorers at the summit—if they had reached that point.
Given the uncertainties concerning Mallory, the Everest News expedition hopes to uncover clues about Irvine, who may have been spotted near 27,000 feet in 1975, by a Chinese climber named Wang Hangbao shortly before he died. The Everest News expedition will also search for the body of another recently found climber thought to be Irvine because of his old-fashioned clothing.
Mallory and Irvine were last seen by Noel Odell, a geologist on the British Everest Expedition, headed for the summit of Everest, likely above the Second Step (28,200 feet), at 12:50pm on June 8, 1924.
If the Everest News team does find Irvine's body, they plan to give it a proper burial on the mountain.
"If they didn't make it," George Martin, the general manager of Everest News, told Outside, "this should be about their effort."
