Mallory’s Body Is Found on Mt. Everest

An expedition team trying to determine whether Englishmen George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were the first to reach the top of Mt. Everest announced Sunday that they found Mallory’s body just 800 feet from the summit.

But expedition spokeswoman Erin Copland said it remains a mystery whether Mallory, whose body was found Saturday, had actually made it to the top of the world’s highest mountain before perishing in 1924.

Members of the expedition have yet to find a camera reportedly carried by the two climbers that could contain film proving the two men reached the summit 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Copland said the group will continue its search along the North Ridge.

Expedition leader Eric Simonson and fellow climber Dave Hahn, who was the first to come across the body after only a few hours of searching, announced the discovery on the Internet on Sunday.

“We have a bunch more clues to work with now,” Hahn said on MountainZone.com. “We haven’t answered every question that we have, but we got a few more weeks of expedition and searching to go.”