Mysteries and legends are meant to live in people’s hearts, and George Mallory’s story has both ingredients: legend and mystery. Whether he managed to be the first to climb Everest with Andrew Irvine is a mystery, as is his whereabouts…
Born in 1886 in Cheshire, England, Mallory was a legend even before climbing the mountain. Leader of England’s first two failed expeditions to conquer the “third pole,” as Everest was called, in 1921 and 1922, he was considered the top climber of his time. Athletic, with his own climbing style and incredible endurance.
On his third (and final, as it turned out) attempt, Mallory was determined, as his age wouldn’t give him another chance to be the first to set foot on the world’s highest peak. “We are climbing again for triumph or final defeat,” he wrote to a friend just before the final ascent to the summit.
On the morning of June 8, Mallory set out with his loyal friend on this mission, Andrew Irvine, from Camp 6, just 600 meters from the summit. Irvine, a relatively inexperienced 22-year-old climber who joined the team at the last minute and specialized mainly in repairing the “primitive” oxygen bottles the team had, became Mallory’s “student” and co-pilot throughout the British expedition.
Noel Odell, a member of the support team, was exploring the area below, making scientific observations for which he had gone to Everest with the expedition when at 12:50, he observed two “black dots” climbing a “rocky step” at a rapid pace. This was the last time anyone saw the two climbers. A sudden snowstorm that broke out immediately afterward erased all traces of them, creating the greatest mountaineering mystery in history. Did they manage to reach the summit about thirty years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay officially set foot on the world’s highest peak in 1953?
Mallory’s legend influenced every climber who tested themselves by climbing Everest. His attempt, along with Irvine, in an era with primitive climbing gear, clothes, and oxygen bottles, is a unique chapter in the history of human exploration. The thousand or so people who have reached the summit to date owe much to the man who first showed how to get close to the sky, know and touch your limits, and feel the power and magic of nature.
The “ghosts of Everest,” as the two climbers were called, became the central point of research for many generations regarding whether they managed to reach the summit. As part of this research, in May 1999, the Research Expedition formed to search for Mallory and Irvine discovered, in excellent condition, on the North Face of Everest and a few hundred meters from the summit, the body of a man (photo). Sewn into the collar of his shirt was a label with the name G. Mallory. The items found on him (notes, clothes, a watch, handkerchiefs, letters, rope, knife, etc.) did not allow researchers to determine if Mallory and Irvine had reached the summit. The camera they had with them, which would have shown if they had indeed reached the summit, was not found. Irvine’s dead body, which is waiting somewhere around there to be discovered by someone, may hold the solution to the greatest secret in mountaineering history…
According to speculation and based on the position of his body, it appears that Mallory slipped from a greater height, possibly dragging Irvine with him. The spot where he was found suggested that the two were returning to the last camp. However, what couldn’t be answered is whether they were returning as “victors” from the summit or had decided to give up due to the storm. The research focused on the oxygen bottles (and whether their supplies were sufficient) and on Odell’s last testimony, who, upon returning to England, “clouded” by the pressure of the whole country for the truth, changed his testimony about exactly where he had seen the climbers. All versions were examined, and countless speculations were made, but definitive conclusions could not be drawn. Mallory’s supporters rely on his promise to his wife that if he reached the summit, he would leave her photograph there. On his lifeless body, this photograph was not found…
Since then, Mallory’s name has been inextricably linked with Everest. He himself had surprised everyone when, in response to a persistent journalist’s question at lectures in America before the expedition, “why are you going to Everest,” he replied: “Because it’s there!” To the same question another time, he was more detailed: “For the rocks from the summit, for the geologists. For the knowledge of the limits of our endurance, for the doctors. But above all, for the spirit of adventure that keeps the human soul alive!” The legend of Mallory and his companion, Irvine, will haunt Everest forever. Because myths and legends live forever in people’s hearts…