Even after a century, no episode in mountaineering history is subject to as much speculation as the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, last glimpsed high on Everest still heading upwards. Did they make the true first ascent, or was theirs just one more tragedy in the long tradition of Imperial heroic failure? Sean Kelly attempts to unpick fact from conjecture...  

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On 15 December 1920, the *Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford, telegraphed to the India Office as follows: 

"Bell telegraphs that he has explained to Dalai Lama object of desired exploration (i.e. Mount Everest) and necessity of travelling through Tibetan territory, and obtained Tibetan Government's consent"

This information was promptly communicated to Sir Francis Younghusband, President of the Royal Geographical Society, and, thus, two years of effort came to fruition. And so began the British assaults on Everest. It was not to be a foregone conclusion…

*If anything, it was his predecessor, Lord Curzon who had been pushing for permission to have a go at climbing Everest with Tibetan authorities, and Charles Bell, the former Political Officer of Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet, and a fluent speaker of the Tibetan language, who had built up the warm relationship and trust of senior Tibetan political and religious figures.

Glorious Failure

History is punctuated with many examples of glorious failure that are invariably celebrated as a victory, rather than the true reality of bitter defeat and mountaineering is no exception. Think of the unfortunate Whymper party on the Matterhorn when four were killed, and of course, George Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine who went missing on Everest. Immediately following this tragedy they were deified by the press and public alike and lauded as heroes. However it is important to remember that they were all dead heroes! *General Charles Bruce, leader of the 1922 Everest Expedition echoed these thoughts after their tragic deaths... 

"...and so these men died after this manner, leaving their death for an example of their nobleness and a memorial of virtue, not only to the young but to the great body of their nation."

Valedictory Address, Charles Granville Bruce, President of the Alpine Club, December 14th 1925

*'Charlie' Bruce by all accounts, was quite a character. Aside from his prolific ten Alpine seasons, he ate voraciously, drank like a fish, and swore like a trooper. Quite the opposite of Charles Howard-Bury in 1921, and Edward Strutt, deputy leader of the 1922 expedition were both profound snobs. It was possibly Bruce who had first proposed going to Everest in 1893 when exploring in Chitral with Frances Younghusband. Although leader of the 1922 expedition, and nominally leader in 1924, illness prevented him from partaking in that expedition when he was stricken with malaria, and so Col. Edward Norton took over this role, where he performed admirably.

We recently marked the 100th anniversary of the tragic 1924 Everest Expedition, famous for the disappearance of Mallory and his climbing partner Irvine, somewhere very close to the summit. Many have made educated guesses as to actually what went wrong, and with the discovery of some of Irvine's remains, yet more speculation ensues. Many would want to believe that they successfully reached the summit of Everest, but the truth is we just don't know. And even if Irvine's Kodak Pocket camera were recovered from the ice, it might not provide the conclusive evidence of a summit photograph, of Mallory on the pinnacle of his dreams.

Mallory's credentials

George Mallory had amassed an impressive mountaineering portfolio before he embarked for the Himalayas. This comprised eight Alpine seasons which included at least four first ascents, as well as some impressive rock climbs across Britain. Foremost among the former, was his ascent of a new route to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi with Harold Porter, a route of over 1,530 metres and today graded AD+, and V+.

His CV also included the South-east Ridge of the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps, the remote and very serious Finsteraarhorn, and 14,022 ft (4,274 m). This was followed by the Peuterey Ridge climbed in 1921, the major ascent of that season. His achievements on British rock were quite respectable too, Mallory's Ridge (HVS, 5a) on Nantlle y Garn, the pick and not repeated until after the Second World War. In the 1989 CC guide to Tremadog and Cwm Silyn this climb resides at the very top of the VS's in the Graded List! Perhaps, even more remarkable was Mallory's ascent of a new route on Pillar Rock, North West by West. It has a modern grade of HVS, 5a and was possibly the hardest route put up in the country at the time, and possibly not repeated for 80 years, until rediscovered by Steve Reid! 

In his mountaineering, Mallory was very driven and would play a leading role in all three Everest expeditions. He alluded to this when sat in the trenches in 1917 writing about his adventures on an early ascent of Mont Maudit, via its South-east Ridge, and on to summit Mont Blanc (18th August, 1911). 

"Experience, slowly and wonderfully filtered; at the last a purged remainder ... And what is that? What more than the infinite knowledge that it is all worthwhile—all one strives for? . . . How to get the best of it all? One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end—to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared. ... Is this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet! We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful; soberly astonished. . . . Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success? That word means nothing here... "

When Mallory arrived below Everest in 1924 this was not a new experience for him as he had been on the two previous expeditions to the mountain, in 1921 and 1922. The first expedition was essentially a reconnaissance of the mountain, seeking a possible line of ascent. Here Mallory was successful in pioneering a route to the North Col. 

He returned the following year and had a narrow escape when descending from the Col; he somehow stumbled into a crevasse. He was fortunate when his axe luckily jammed against the walls of the crevasse and him still clutching the handle, and managed to extricate himself. This second expedition to Everest comprised less 'old men' but did include the highly experienced alpinist George Finch, inexplicably bypassed the previous year. The expedition was abruptly terminated after a tragic accident befell the party, when Mallory and several porters were all swept down the mountain in an avalanche when ascending to the North Col. Mallory, along with Somervell, Crawford and two other porters survived, but seven porters plummeted over an ice cliff and died. The omens were not promising.

Saboteurs

It all went wrong even before the 1924 Expedition left England. The primary reasons for this were twofold:

Firstly, Arthur Hinks, the then secretary of the Mount Everest Committee (set up jointly by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club) to organise and manage British expeditions, and was strongly prejudiced in his attitudes to who and what constituted both 'fair play' and the composition of personnel selected for the coming Expedition. Hinks blackballed Finch's inclusion on the 1924 expedition, despite his knowledge and experience of using oxygen and the physiology demands on the body. And also ignoring Finch's altitude record during the previous 1922 expedition, ostensibly because he was divorced, and had accepted money for lectures (as indeed had Mallory). He even ridiculed Finch for his "patent climbing outfit" but this was in fact was the forerunner of modern down clothing that is now standard for high-altitude climbing. The real reason why Finch was omitted was because he was Australian, and Hinks was determined that the first person to reach the summit should be British. 

Secondly, there was Edward Strutt, climbing leader of the 1922 Expedition, and later the autocratic and outspoken editor in the Alpine Club Journal. He was very conservative in his views. For him, crampons were inadmissible, and pitons complete anathema. George Finch on the 1922 Everest expedition found him a profound snob, with whom Strutt deigned not to even converse, as he was not from the right school or indeed from the wrong side of the tracks. His vehemence however, was particularly directed towards Germans. Finch, an Australian by birth, was German speaking and so his English was heavily accented. Certainly not a plus after the recent trials and tribulations of the Great War. The ill-feeling was mutual. Finch claimed that the members of the Alpine Club sitting snugly in Savile Row possessed of little more than "a good wind and a long purse". He respected experience and expertise over age and position. And his modern methods – silk ropes, eiderdown jackets, and nocturnal climbs – further riled this 'elite establishment'. 

These old-fashioned views of some members of the Alpine Club were highlighted in an anecdote related by C. J. Morris, who was also a member of the 1922 expedition. As stated by Morris, Strutt was aware that Finch…

"…had been educated in Switzerland and had acquired a considerable reputation for the enterprise and skill of his numerous guideless ascents (many members of the Alpine Club were against ascents without guides). Besides, he was by profession a research chemist and therefore doubly suspect, since in Strutt's old-fashioned view the sciences were not a respectable occupation for anyone who regarded himself as a gentleman. One of the photographs which particularly irritated him depicted Finch repairing his own boots. It confirmed Strutt's belief that a scientist was a sort of mechanic. I can still see his rigid expression as he looked at the picture. "I always knew the fellow was a shit," he said, and the sneer remained on his face while the rest of us sat in frozen silence."

Such animosity eventually derailed Finch's attempts to go on the 1924 expedition, despite his outstanding Alpine credentials. Besides which, Finch as a scientist, working in Berne alongside Einstein amongst others, could see the advantage of utilizing oxygen! If only Mallory had allied himself to Finch and not the inexperienced Irving, what might have been achieved?

Science and early experiences on Everest

In 1920 Alexander Kellas and Henry Moorshead had difficulty operating their Primus stoves above 6000 metres on Kamet, and so the matter was referred to Professor George Dreyer at Oxford University. During the Great War he had been involved with the problems experienced by the Royal Flying Corps at high altitudes. After the stoves were successfully modified to work at these extremes of altitude, Dreyer, thinking ahead, then raised the issue of the possible use of oxygen at such extreme heights, although Kellas had already discussed precisely this issue at a lecture he presented to the Royal Geographical Society at the invitation of Hinks in 1917. Dreyer was able to utilise the low-pressure hyperbaric chamber at the Lister Institute in London for conducting experiments to monitor performance in the thin atmosphere the climbers would encounter on Everest. In 1921, after a series of tests it was soon apparent that George Finch was an incredibly fit mountaineer, and performed at an extremely high level when the chamber was pressurised to simulate the air pressure at 6,400 metres. In further tests Finch again performed impressively, now at heights exceeding 7,000 metres. In total Dreyer had tested over 1000 athletic young men and Finch out performed them all. He had demonstrated an extraordinary tolerance to acute severe hypoxia during exercise. He was more than A1! 

Dreyer, like Kellas before, also speculated that there was a probable ceiling above which even someone such as Finch would struggle, and suggested that perhaps the answer to the altitude problem was the use of supplementary oxygen. However other unseen voices and murmurings from the saurians at the Royal Geographical Society and Alpine Club who were strongly hostile to Finch's inclusion, because of his abrasive character, but principally for snobbish reasons, and he was subsequently inexplicably omitted from the 1921 expedition. Hinks engineered that Finch would fail the medical, an astounding malevolent deed.

Finch's climbing credentials were certainly impressive. Along with his brother and the Norwegian climber Alf Bryn, they scaled the impressive East Face of Paglia Orba on 15th April 1909. Higher on the route they encountered several difficult iced pitches. It was the major climb on Corsica for many years and today has three pitches graded V. Prior to the 1924 Expedition he cemented his already considerable Alpine reputation with an ascent of the 1,300-metre North Face of the Dent d'Hérens along with T. G. B. Forster and R. Peto on August 2, 1923, via the North Face Diagonal, now commonly known as the 'Finch Route'. He was equally good on both snow and ice, a prerequisite for any potential Everest mountaineer. 

Finch was finally selected for the 1922 expedition and performed well, particularly with helping to develop the oxygen apparatus that was to be trialled. However some were still reluctant to consider the novel use of oxygen, George Mallory included ("a damnable heresy"), and what the Sherpas dubbed "English air."

Finch and *Geoffrey Bruce eventually reached a height of 8,326 metres using this equipment. It perhaps should be pointed out that the younger Bruce, only twenty five years old at the time, was a totally inexperienced high altitude mountaineer, but more importantly, he was the nephew of General Bruce, the expedition's leader. Using oxygen the pair climbed up to the highest camp from the North Col at the incredible rate of 900 vertical feet per hour (275 vertical metres per hour). The next day Finch and Bruce climbed below the ridge along sloping slabs towards the Great Couloir. Unfortunately, Finch reluctantly had to turn back when his young partner was experiencing problems with his oxygen. The pair were now no more than 500 metres vertically and 800 metres in a direct line from the summit, but Finch with a heavy heart, decided to retreat. Moreover, they had also endured a day of storm at this extreme altitude with no food. They lived on cigarettes, shades of Don Whillans on the later 1971 International Everest Expedition. Finch was convinced however, that with better weather and proper support, they could have continued to the summit.

The fact that Finch was able to descend directly to Camp III with Bruce that day speaks volumes for his strength as an alpinist perhaps even more than the altitude record the pair had set. On arrival there, Finch devoured four jars of pâté de foie-gras and nine sausages, only to find that he had an appetite for more. But Finch and Bruce found their state of exhaustion much harder to shake and both were also suffering from frostbitten feet. Otherwise, the pair had returned unscathed from their exploit. Stephen Venables, the climber and Everest historian, describes Finch's excursion to 8,326 metres as one of the most bizarre episodes in the history of mountaineering. Accompanied by an absolute beginner, Finch had pushed out a new route on Everest to a record height. Yet this height record was no consolation for Finch for he had failed to reach the summit. What Finch could not have known at the time was that the technical difficulties lying in wait on the North Ridge were much greater than could be appreciated from his high point. Even under ideal conditions, the Second Step, a twenty metre-high steep rock-face, could possibly have proved to be an impassable obstacle for Finch and Bruce. However his achievement counted for little for Finch, as 'a legacy of hate' precluded his inclusion on the 1924 Expedition.

*Geoffrey Bruce, like his cousin Charlie, also became a general, and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Indian Army.

Modern expeditions to the North Ridge of Everest are assisted by a rickety fifteen foot metal ladder placed in position by the Chinese in 1975 in order to scale the Second Step, that ultimate problem barring access to the summit. The contrasting Hillary Step on the South Col Route, once the scene of innumerable holdups, is now no more, having fallen victim literally after the 2015 Everest Earthquake.

1924

Mallory and Geoffrey Bruce, sans oxygen, made the first attempt at the beginning of June, but were thwarted by bad weather and the porters succumbed to these conditions and the unforgiving altitude. Without their support they immediately abandoned their attempt. Meanwhile Edward Norton, the Expedition leader, and Howard Somervell began their attempt a couple of days later. Norton achieved the distinction of ascending to 8,573 metres, all this without the help of supplementary oxygen. He left the distressed Somervell, gripped by a severe coughing fit a hundred metres below, but even the determined Norton could go no further. Exhausted and concerned for his partner he retreated. This was an epic achievement without oxygen and a record not surpassed until 1978 by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler. Mallory seized one last chance. He teamed up with Sandy Irvine. 

But why was 'Sandy' Irvine chosen instead of a more experienced climber, to accompany the already seasoned Mallory to the summit, after two previous failed attempts?

To begin with there wasn't anybody else except perhaps from Noel Odell, but he was not an engineer or well versed with the problems with the oxygen apparatus. Everest had taken its toll. When we recall that both Finch and Mallory had outstanding achievements in the Alps on their C.V. Irvine by contrast, was a complete novice. However, with the exception of mountaineering, Irvine certainly ticked all the important boxes. Indeed he went to the right school, was an Oxford Blue (rowing) and very fit. And besides, had not the very inexperienced Geoffrey Bruce accompanied Finch on the final attempt to summit on the previous 1922 expedition that got so high? But Irvine was particularly adept "with the oxygen". He was able to simplify and then lighten it. Irvine's drawings of oxygen flow meters had caught the eye of the committee prior to his selection. For the expedition, he designed a pressure kettle and got a company in Birmingham to build it. He also outlined a lightweight ice axe that he would need. It was Irvine's tinkering with the troublesome oxygen sets that tipped the scales in his favour, especially so with Mallory who had now also witnessed how well Finch had gone on oxygen the previous attempt. He was a convert to O2. Mallory, despite being the most gifted rock climber of his generation, was famously hopeless with equipment. Using a Primus Stove, an essential piece of kit for such expeditions, was beyond him for example. On the morning when they left for the summit, fortified after a breakfast of hot chocolate, fried sardines and biscuits, Mallory recorded in his notebook, "Perfect weather for the job". But sometime after two that afternoon the weather turned most foul.

Meanwhile their support climber Noel Odell at 12:50 pm had just climbed to about 8,000 metres...

"There was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled. My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted on a small snow-crest beneath a rock-step in the ridge; the black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the snow to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the great rock-step and shortly emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more. There was but one explanation. It was Mallory and his companion moving, as I could see even at that great distance, with considerable alacrity … The place on the ridge referred to is the prominent rock-step at a very short distance from the base of the final pyramid."

Alpine Journal, Noel Odell, The Mount Everest Dispatches, November 1924

Odell's solitary vigil waiting for Mallory and Irvine to return over the 8th and 9th of June speaks volumes about his superb acclimatisation and physical fitness moving in the Death Zone, and eschewing the use of oxygen that was readily available. He scoured the barren slopes seeking his friends in vain, but was this last sighting, glimpsed by Odell just below the Third Step (but not called that at the time)? They were then immersed in clouds and never seen alive again. Much debate has ensued over the exact location of this sighting of Mallory and Irvine. Slowly over time various clues have emerged from Everest's lofty snows. 

In 1933 Hugh Ruttledge stated in his book, that Irvine's ice axe (Swiss-made by Willisch of Tasch) was found "...on the slabs, one hour's climbing above Camp VI by Wyn Harris..."  He lists the position as "…about 60 feet below the crest of the ridge and 250 yards east of the first step."  It was lying "…free on smooth, brown 'boiler-plate' slabs inclined at an easy angle, but steepening considerably just below". It was only later that the axe was recognised as belonging to Irvine by the characteristic marks, three horizontal grooves carved into the stock. There followed a later sighting of a frozen body through a telescope by Frank Smythe in 1936 (but bizarrely he divulged this to no-one about what he has glimpsed at the time).

The Chinese climber Xu Jing, deputy leader of the 1960 expedition was on a more direct descent route from the base of the First Step toward their Camp VI located further to the west of the 1924 Camp VI and closer to the middle of the North face by a snow basin. As Xu Jing exited the Yellow Band on his descent, something caught his eye. According to Xu Jing, it was a human body inside a sleeping bag! Had he perchance unknowingly discovered Irvine as no other climber before 1960 had perished at that altitude? Again, most likely the same frozen body was later observed by another Chinese mountaineer, Wang Hongbao, "huddled" high on the North Ridge during his 1975 ascent. He emphatically described it as "...old English dead..." but Wang himself was unfortunately killed in an avalanche the following day. He indicated at the time to the Japanese climber Hasegawa Yoshinori that his cheek had been attacked by Gorak birds, so unlikely to have been Mallory who was found in the prone position and his head buried in the snow. This claim is supported by Zhang Junyan, his tent mate, who described to Everest historian Tom Holzel, seeing the body of a foreign mountaineer at around 8,100 metres.

In 2010, Everest mountaineer Jamie McGuinness was told by officials of the Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association, that the Chinese had now 'removed' the body of Sandy Irvine from the mountain many years ago, and that the body was 'thrown' onto the Central Rongbuk Glacier below, where his remains have been recently discovered. Although the Chinese story was initially doubted, this is now thought to have occurred post 1995.

The penultimate drama unfolded in 1999 when Conrad Anker, an American from the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition, discovered Mallory's corpse high on Everest, but crucially below the Second Step. His leg was broken as the result of a fall from the ridge, but alas there was no trace of Irvine or any camera, the one piece of possible evidence to indicate they had successfully scaled the summit. Interestingly, Mallory has his snow-goggles in his pocket, so the accident must have occurred during the descent in darkness. He also had no oxygen cylinders strapped on his back, so their supply must have been exhausted, and the empty cylinders and harness discarded somewhere above. One of their oxygen cylinders (no.9) was recovered just below the First Step, having originally been glimpsed in 1991 by Eric Simonson, but now retrieved by Tap Richards in 1999 thinking it was an old 1933 bottle, but it wasn't. It has since been revealed that the cylinder contained oxygen, so had this been deposited earlier, a cache to assist the two climbers on their return from the summit? An inspection of Mallory's injuries suggested that he had not fallen from the ridge where such a long fall would have inflicted more severe injuries than was apparent. In the last few weeks part of Irvine's decomposed corpse (a foot enclosed in a boot) has emerged from the glacier ice, the conclusive clue, his name on a label stitched onto his sock.

Speculation and the Second Step

Much has been written about the clothing used on these early Everest expeditions, but if that proved barely adequate at this extreme height, the footwear they used was most certainly not. In 2007, extreme mountaineer Leo Holding agreed that the leather boots were totally unsuitable when he attempted to climb Everest with similar clothing and equipment to that of Mallory. Such footwear might have once been suitable for the Alps, but not for the extremes of temperatures found on Everest, with their iron nails and thin leather they offered sparse protection from the biting cold. Descending at night it was highly likely that both mountaineers were suffering from severe frostbite of the feet, and possibly their hands. Mallory, who might have lost a glove (a mitten was found on the ridge in 1991), had the rope wrapped tightly around his torso, which also displayed obvious rope-burn injuries sustained during his fall. 

A number of very experienced high altitude mountaineers have pondered over the problem of the 'Second Step' and some have actually climbed it free*, that is without any recourse to either a ladder or artificial aids, and only using cams for protection. All concluded that it is indeed a difficult problem at sea-level let alone at 8,000 metres on Everest. Conrad Anker managed to free-climb the off-width crack following his party's discovery of Mallory's remains. (In 2003, fellow expedition climber Andy Politz climbing with Duncan Lee, repeated many of Mallory's British routes and was certainly impressed by his climbing ability. Two of his climbs are today graded at HVS, 5a!). Besides Mallory and Irvine might well have resorted to 'combined tactics' (where one climber climbs up onto the shoulders of the other in order to reach some good holds), to overcome this difficult hurdle on that ridge. This was quite a common technique of the time, and was indeed used by the Chinese on their successful 1960 ascent.  Interestingly, his watch was discovered in his pocket. The glass cover and minute hand were both missing. Jim Curran speculated that it is quite common to damage a watch when jamming arms and hands in a crack and might possibly explain why Mallory had removed it and placed it in his pocket. So was he free-climbing the crack at the top of the second Step?

*The Second Step has witnessed at least four known free ascents. By Catalan, Oscar Cadiach 1985 - Austrian, Theo Fritsche, 2001 - Russian, Nickolay Totmjanin 2003 - and Briton Leo Holding along with American, Conrad Anker 2007. Today the Second Step on Everest has universally recognised UIAA grading of V+. This equates to the British HVS, 5a grade.

Speculating on this tragedy, Leo Holding managed to successfully ascend the Second Step. However he is of the opinion that the difficulty would have probably been beyond even Mallory's substantial rock-climbing skills at the time. However, if any further proof was needed, the Chinese in 1960 took several hours to surmount this tricky obstacle, and that Wang Fu-zhou who reached the summit, actually climbed the second step in bare-stockinged feet, climbing onto the shoulders of fellow mountaineer Liu Lien-man, who was so exhausted by his initial attempts to climb the step that he sat down in the snow and waited for the return of the others coming back from the summit. This explains the installation of a ladder by the Chinese on their next expedition. On his descent Wang Fu-zhou saw a body as he traversed the Yellow Band below the Second Step who was European "…because he wore braces!" he remarked afterwards. Was this possibly Irvine?

However this evidence is contradicted by John Cleare speaking in 2013 about an expedition he led to Muztagh Ata in 1982, where his Chinese Liaison Officer was none other than Chu Yin-hua, one of the original Chinese ascentionists of the North East Ridge on Everest, and I quote from this meeting …

"He told me that the published stories of the 1960 ascent were party political bunk – no way did they carry a bust of Mao to the summit (and so on). The three man summit party fought for their lives, were almost benighted and were very lucky to survive. Chu himself had led the Second Step in stockinged feet and much of both feet were missing. He said that he'd used combined tactics and managed to jam a couple of ( primitive bladed ) ice pegs in a crack and 'muscle up' – and then placed the short electron ladder for his companions."

So were they benighted or not? Who first climbed the second step, was it Chu Yin-hua or Wang Fu-zhou? The official account names Chu Yin-hua as the one who succeeded on climbing the Second Step. Further on John Cleare added that… 

"Chu told me that he considered that Mallory HAD, in all probability, climbed the Second Step and HAD reached the summit – making the first ascent of the N.E.Ridge and of Everest itself. A remarkable loss of face for a Chinese Master of Sport."

So is Chu not letting on about all that he knows? Did one of them locate either Mallory or Irvine and a camera? He appears very confident that they had indeed reached the summit. Back to 1924. There is no doubt that Mallory spoke to John Noel about the route he was likely to follow and where to look out for him with his film camera.

"Mallory told me himself, when he talked to me of his possible routes up the final pyramid and told me where to watch for him, that he expected to go up the northeast of the final pyramid, but if he found the Gully particularly difficult, or if the west wind were particularly bad, he would take the eastern ridge, missing the Gully by passing across the head of it and gaining better protection from the west wind.  Such a route would bring him along the knife-edge of the eastern ridge.  This ridge is corniced by the continual action of the west wind."

The Story of Everest, by John Noel.

Another theory suggests that perhaps Mallory and Irvine avoided the Second Step completely, either by climbing below the ridge or behind it if the winds were bad, although Reinhold Messner has indicated that the eastern side of the ridge has more difficult ground to negotiate. (H. Tilman in 1938 also checked out the far side of the N.E.Ridge and pronounced that it was impossible). Mallory also conversed with Edward Norton who had climbed so high on Everest the previous day. Norton suggested that the sloping slabs of the North Face with an average angle of 30 degrees, and Great Couloir were another option, but that this gully terminated on difficult loose ground. This is supported by Frank Smythe who described the Great/Norton Couloir as both difficult and dangerous. Climbing solo, Smythe had gained little over fifty feet after an hour of hard endeavour, when suddenly the slabby snow on which he was balanced, gave way. Luckily a fall was averted because he had portentously inserted his axe in a crack. At this point he wisely retreated.

Jake Norton with seven trips to Everest in recent years has thoroughly checked this ground and pronounced that this difficult terrain was highly unlikely to provide a means of ascent, as it was loose, steep and unstable. He also conversed with Reinhold Messner who emphatically asserted that climbing up to exit via the Couloir was not an option!

Jake Norton debates whether the exact 'step' that Odell described was mistaken. He noted that Odell actually stated in the official account which differs from his original account on this crucial point, that when he glimpsed Mallory and Irvine "I noticed far away on a snow slope leading up to what seemed to me to be the last step but one below the final pyramid." But this would appear to be a less obvious feature between the two upper steps on the ridge. In other words, not on either of the known  steps, but might he have seen them somewhere else, yet hiding in plain sight above all difficulties? There is however, a snow slope below the third step but not below the second, only sloping rock slabs with a dusting of snow.

This sighting by Odell at around 12:50 was regarded as an unusually late time for Mallory and Irvine to take if they had set off at first light around six in the morning, (sunrise was actually around 4.45am. Though the fact that Mallory left his torch behind, later found by Odell, does suggest that it was certainly daylight when the left the tent. Today's midnight start was unheard of then). That is if they were below the Second Step, it would almost certainly mean that they were very unlikely to gain the summit and return in daylight. Odell again recalls that they climbed this apparent step quite quickly, (with alacrity), the first climber takes five minutes he suggests, and then the other follows in a similar time. Both the First and Second Steps would take much longer to surmount. So again is this a rock hump between the lower steps, or is it the final step on the ridge, today, the so-called Third Step?

If Odell did actually glimpse them at the Third Step then they were less than one hundred and fifty metres from the top. There are still a further two hours of climbing required to reach the summit. That all depends on their oxygen supply and the weather, when the squall blew in sometime after four; or were they above the worst of this? Calculating flow rates over such mixed terrain, working out ascent rates etc. and was it two or three cylinders they each carried? All this makes it extremely difficult to estimate their arrival time at the summit, let alone whether they actually made it. Some work has been done on this by Tom Holzel suggesting some incredible climbing rates achieved by Mallory and Irvine up to the final camp, but later debunked by Phil Summers. Holzel also had a giant photograph made of the North East Ridge so as to study it to precisely locate Irvine's remains, but the fissure though to be the likely site turned out to be nothing more than textures in the limestone rock when later checked by Mark Synnott.

Another factor to take into account is that no oxygen bottles, their cumbersome harnesses, axes, mitts, a photograph of Mallory's wife, camera or anything else for that matter have ever been recovered above the Second Step, anything that suggests that they made it to the top of Everest.  Or perhaps they are somewhere on display in a Chinese museum?

What occurred afterwards on the descent is the subject of much varied speculation. All the evidence, the ice axe, a lost mitten and Mallory's body are all in a similar fall-line, and now Irving's partial remains again in a similar fall-line (?) but now over two thousand metres below on a moving glacier.

And so the confusion continues.

Other theories and evidence

"The Death Zone is a place where the mind wanders into strange and dark corners, where insanity and illusions are ever-present traps, and where the corpses, of far stronger warriors than you will ever be, lie in the screaming wind with their skulls gaping from the ripped remains of their battledress. Ghosts are there in plenty, and their warning cries echo through the night."

Matt Dickinson, 'The Death Zone' 

Since that tragedy, more than 320 people have perished on Everest, some as recently as late May 2024, and recovery missions are so dangerous that most of the bodies are simply left there, whether in plain sight or lost somewhere in the shadowy folds and crevasses of the mountain. The majority of bodies that litter Everest lie within the Death Zone, that is above 25,000 feet (7,600 metres. There is a physiological reason for this, put bluntly, above this height, the body is dying. It is more susceptible to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). This illness manifests itself with conditions known as High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE) or High Altitude Cerebral Oedema (HACE). Another common ailment experienced by high altitude mountaineers is Peripheral Oedema usually manifest as a condition of Diabetes and similar illnesses, as a swelling in the hands and feet, caused by water retention within the body. There is a very telling photograph at the beginning of Beyond the Mountain where author Steve House and climbing partner Bruce Miller display very obvious signs of Peripheral Oedema whilst bivvying at over 7,200 metres on the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat. The closing of capillaries to retain body core heat leaves the extremities of both hands and feet more vulnerable to frostbite injuries.

Perhaps there is a psychological reason as well? Why do so many climbers ignore their Sherpa's sound advice to turn back, yet push on ahead regardless of the dangers they are facing, when obviously struggling to place one foot in front of the other? For want of a better term it could be described as 'Summit Fever'. 

Mallory knew deep down that 1924 was very likely going to be his last opportunity to make it to the top of Everest. Getting an expedition to Everest costs both money and political good will. Success would change his life and open doors to new opportunities. In short, he would be in demand. Everyone would want to meet the man who first got to the top of Everest. This was much the same as walking on the moon. Book deals and speaking tours would inevitably follow, leading to financial security. 'Arise, Sir George!' For Mallory this was an unmissable opportunity. Did he push his young prodigy too far to achieve his dreams? For now, the secret of Mallory's last brave battle to be the first to touch the summit remains hidden among all those other victims lost in the Death Zone.

The latest discovery of Irvine's remains possibly kicks a number of theories out of the window. Everest mountaineer Mark Synnott, and an Australian researcher Philip Summers both speculate that Mallory may have left his companion, and now using the last oxygen bottle, carried on to the summit of Everest alone. The initial position of Irvine's remains, a recently discovered foot inside a boot (on a National Geographic expedition led by Jimmy Chin, the cameraman on the Oscar winning Free Solo film) on the Central Rongbuk Glacier far below asks even more questions. The severed rope around Mallory's waist supports the theory that they were certainly descending together until the accident, and unlikely that the shocked and exhausted Irving, who according to Chinese sources, could perhaps have bivouacked in his sleeping bag, but tragically perished during the freezing Everest night, (all this is before the modern era with integral down suits that sufficed for Haston and Scott during their enforced bivvy just below the summit in 1975). This is possible but two sleeping bags were in the tent at Camp VI, the ones that Odell used to signal that both Mallory and Irvine were missing. Odell could not stay with them at Camp VI because there were none to spare.

It has been suggested that as Mallory's snow-goggles were in his pocket, so the pair must have been descending in the dark. However, he had two pairs, so again, that is not conclusive. Also, a photograph in his pocket of his wife Ruth, which Mallory promised to leave on the summit, was missing when Conrad Anker's group searched the body. Besides Mallory was very forgetful, as somebody on the expedition observed very cattily, "Mallory couldn't even organise himself"! However, copious notes found on his body suggest otherwise. There is a checklist of all that was required for the summit attempt, and a list of the numbered oxygen bottles and their pressures within. He even included a spare tent pole for Camp VI as Somervell had earlier used this after he had lost his ice axe during his and Norton's vain attempt four days earlier. Norton had also provided flares to be used in an emergency, but none such was found.

*According to research done by Michael Tracey, there is no contemporary evidence that Mallory ever intended to leave a picture of his wife on the summit. This popular piece of myth had been promulgated in later years. Letters home reveal that Mallory twice requested a photograph of his wife, but only received photographs of his daughters, so it is unlikely that he actually received any from his wife. He also argues that M&I followed a zigzag route below the Second Step to avoid the difficulties and gained the ridge just below the Third Step. This would make sense with Odell's sighting at 12.50.

Another piece of evidence that is missing or perhaps never existed was the stones that Mallory was going to collect from the summit. Again no such rocks were found on his person. So they couldn't possibly have summited. But let us recall that he was forgetful. Finally there is the mystery of the missing Kodak Vest camera and the film therein which if found could contain conclusive evidence that they been successful. Philip Summers suggests that both climbers carried cameras. Again if it was stormy or dark at the time they summited, taking photographs was very unlikely, especially if their oxygen was exhausted.

The weather factor

The early Everest expeditions were notable for gathering some of the earliest information on the meteorology, geology, and natural history of the Mount Everest region. Regarding meteorology, the focus was on temperature observations at various camps to calculate the environmental lapse rate (Somervell, 1926). Daily barometric pressure measurements were also taken at Base Camp. The air temperature at Base Camp and several higher camps was measured three times daily (0830h, 1200h, and 1600h local time) using a sling thermometer, with a daily pressure measurement at 0830h (Somervell, 1926).

Periods of low pressure on 2, 9, 10, and 22 May and 9 June corresponded to days with poor recorded weather. In the first two weeks of June 1924, there was a warming from 1.5°C on the 3rd to 10.5°C on the 8th and a drop in barometric pressure from 559 millibars on the 6th to 541 millibars on the 9th. The barometric pressure on the 9th was the second lowest observed during the expedition, with the lowest reading of 539 millibars occurring five weeks earlier on 2 May. Norton recorded 4th June as fine and nearly windless - a perfect day for our task, yet bitterly cold (Norton, 1925). Mallory and Irvine left Camp IV (7100 meters) on 6 June for their summit attempt. In a note that day from Camp V (7800 meters), Mallory stated that there was no wind and things looked hopeful (Norton, 1925). On the 7th, in his final note, Mallory further described conditions at Camp VI (8200 meters) as "perfect weather for the job". Odell noted that the morning of 8th June as clear and not unduly cold, with snow and strong winds beginning around 2 pm, this was a rather severe blizzard. According to Odell, the blizzard lasted for about two hours and was severe enough to likely force the summit party to abandon their attempt. Thus, the dramatic pressure drop during their summit attempt was caused by a region of low pressure over north-central India with southerly flow ahead of the low, advecting warmer air into the Mount Everest region; while up to 170 millimetres of precipitation (snow) fell in 24 hours in their vicinity. Interestingly, a drop in barometric pressure of 18 millibars was observed at Base Camp on 8th June, during Mallory& Irvine's summit attempt.

For comparison, the infamous storm described so graphically in Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" of May 1996, the magnitude of that pressure drop at the summit was estimated to be only six millibars. This corresponds with Odell's observations during his journey up to Camp VI, noting the change in weather, probable whiteout with blizzard-like conditions and strong winds from 2 pm for a couple of hours when the two climbers were fully committed to the summit attempt. He also noted that the strong winds persisted until he had descended from the high camps on 10th June. All this dramatic weather deterioration would obviously affect visibility, and coupled with the associated wind-chill effect on the climbers, their descent would have been very challenging. The limited visibility would increase the danger of one of the climbers going through a cornice. The wind-chill outcome would adversely affect tired, oxygen-starved climbers and likely induce bad decision-making. 

That Mallory and Irvine's summit attempt occurred during a period of a very significant drop in barometric pressure, and Everest being so high, such low barometric pressure near its summit places humans extremely close to the tolerance limit for hypoxia. It has been established that changes in pressure near the summit as small as four millibars can be of physiological relevance. It is likely that this drop in pressure would have decreased their oxygen ceiling hypoxic state. Conversely, a rise in barometric pressure would increase their hypoxic ceiling. Recent medical research has shown that cognitive impairment on the descent of Everest, brought on by possible hypoxia, is the most common cause of death on Mount Everest. Therefore, the weather that afternoon and evening facing Mallory and Irvine was much more severe than originally thought, and the decrease in barometric pressure was a major contributing factor in their tragic demise. The low oxygen rate delivered by the primitive apparatus used by Mallory and Irvine, when compared to the modern cylinders delivering three times as much O2 so their hypoxic state would be correspondingly more severe.

The Chinese evidence and the missing camera

There have been at least five sightings of a pre-war dead Englishman high on Everest, and the only possibility is that the body was one of either Mallory or Irvine. Disregard Maurice Wilson who was found below the North Col. The ones that we know about are:

1960: Xu Jing and Wang Fu-zhou

1975:  Wang Hongbao and Pan Duo (2nd woman to summit Everest)

1995: Chhiring Dorje Sherpa

Since the discovery of Mallory, it can be reliably assumed that this other body was more likely Irvine, located somewhere below the First Step on the East Ridge, at around 8,200 metres. In 2001 Xu Jing finally related his account of what he had seen, describing the figure as resting in a sleeping bag, and Pan Duo the first Chinese woman and second woman ever to climb Everest passed by in 1975, described the body as huddled and wrapped in a yellow tent? This is not so far from where Mallory was found in 1999. Yet more unanswered questions? Were they roped together when Mallory fell? Did Mallory actually have two falls? During this second fall he sustained his major injuries, namely a broken leg, a cranial fracture, and rope burns around his torso? Does this explain why Irvine's axe was found higher on the ridge above? This Chinese evidence was doubted at the time and even their 1960 ascent was called into question. However, all that the Chinese have stated has been seen to be true, including throwing Irvine's remains off the mountain onto the Rongbuk Glacier, much the same as other bodies have been disposed of in recent years. The recent discovery by the National Geographic team supports this account.

Graham Hoyland, Howard Somervell's cousin, told Julie Summers that the Kodak Vest camera originally belonged to Howard Somervell, who had generously lent it to Mallory. But did Mallory not have his own camera? Mark Synnott relates a story told by Dorje Sherpa, that the Chinese had indeed 'thrown' Irvine off the mountain (post 1995?), but more importantly disclosed that the Chinese had also 'found a camera back in 1975'. However the anti-climax was that the film was incorrectly processed by them. This fact initially emerged (in 1988) in a casual conversation when an anonymous high-ranking British diplomat (Sir George Bishop?) was told by Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) officials (Wang Fuzhou and Pan Duo) that they had come across a body which they partially buried (Irvine), and more importantly, also a camera found on his person, along with other early Everest artefacts, and was then located at a private museum, Tsering Chey Nga in Lhasa, and since possibly moved and placed elsewhere in China. Does this also help explain why only one oxygen bottle from 1924 has ever been recovered above camp VI? 

*This was later corroborated, when another British diplomat who was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium in 2008 met Pan Duo. It transpired that after this event that Pan Duo, now a very senior figure in the CTMA, met with the high ranking diplomat (Juliette Wilcox?) and stated that the Chinese had located a body at 8,200 metres in 1975, and strongly hinted that there was also a camera. Pan Duo later recanted what she had originally disclosed, that there was no camera, obviously now mindful of the political implications. Pan Duo died in 2014. This now appears to confirm the original story. But why would the Chinese bury this news. Climbing the East Ridge of Everest was a big event in China in 1960 and the idea that someone else beat them to it would be very bad news. Whether the film was incorrectly processed or just secreted away, we will never know, but it obviously suited their purpose.

*The full text of what transpired can be found in Mark Synnott's web link at the end of this article.

If all this is true then proving that Mallory and Irvine reached the summit has suddenly become a whole lot more difficult. Finding the photograph of his wife Ruth that he was going to leave on the summit is unlikely. Possibly as he lay dying, it is possible that he held her photograph in his last moments, to be blown away over Tibet. An oxygen cylinder close to the summit might offer the only proof now that they made it. Either that or possibly Irvine also had a camera not found by the Chinese. But as countless climbers have now scoured these desolate summit slopes, this is very unlikely.

The mountaineering fraternity would love to hear it finally proved beyond doubt that they indeed succeeded in attaining the summit of Everest, of achieving the "Impossible Dream". But along with most experts, I think that the weight of probability is against it. Hard irrefutable evidence is required. Perhaps we will never know, with the possible exception of the Chinese authorities...?

As for all the rest, it is pure conjecture!

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A link below to the full version of this article, complete with references, research, and relevant web links can be found here.