The great Everest mystery: 100 years of the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine
The Fight for Everest: 1924, Odell recalled that “rolling banks of mist" were sweeping across the mountain and covering the north face, though the wind “did not attain its usual boisterous degree". Neither the face nor the summit ridge could be seen clearly by Odell. At 26,000ft Odell decided to climb a 100ft crag and as he reached the top at 12.50pm, the whole summit ridge and the peak of Everest was unveiled.
Odell spotted high above on the ridge, a black spot climbing a rock step, which he at that point identified as the Second Step, one of three rock “steps" leading up to the summit of Everest. Soon after, Odell saw another black spot following the first. But before Odell could be sure that the second spot had joined the first, the mist rolled in and blanketed the mountain.
The two spots that Odell saw were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine heading for the summit of Everest. Mallory and Irvine were never seen alive again. Mallory’s body was found on 1 May 1999 by American mountaineer Conrad Anker at around 26,730ft, close to the 1924 British Camp VI.
But even today, 100 years after the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, the legend of Mallory lives on. Books are being written about Mallory, efforts have been underway for many years now to find Irvine’s body and a camera that he was carrying, because Everest experts believe that the camera will unlock the secret of Mallory’s last climb and one of the greatest mysteries of mountaineering. Did Mallory and Irvine summit Everest on 8 June 1924, a full 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first successful ascent? From the very beginning of climbing in the Himalaya, the British looked upon Mount Everest as their mountain.
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