Everest Keeps Its Secret

Remarkably preserved and still tied to a climbing rope, the body of British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory has been found high on the Tibetan flank of Mt. Everest. There is evidence that Mallory fell, perhaps while descending on a bitterly cold night at more than 27,000 feet above sea level.

But the major mystery remains unsolved after 75 years: Did Mallory, 38, and his partner, Andrew Irvine, 28, reach the 29,028-foot summit of Mt. Everest on June 8, 1924? Members of the American expedition that found Mallory are still seeking Irvine’s body or other evidence of the team. They especially hope to find a pocket camera carried by the climbers. The film, preserved by the cold, dry environment, might reveal whether Mallory or Irvine reached the top of the world 29 years before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, acclaimed as the conquerors of Everest.

David Breashears, the director of the IMAX film “Everest” who led a 1987 expedition in search of Mallory and Irvine, said the location of the body and evidence of a broken leg indicate that Mallory suffered a fall. The body was several hundred feet below where an ice ax believed to be Irvine’s was discovered in 1933. Mallory’s glacier goggles were in his pocket, indicating it was dark when he fell.

The last person to see the pair was Noel Odell, who climbed to 25,700 feet that June 8. He said he was certain he spotted the two on the northeast ridge at 12:50 p.m., just below one of two rock protuberances known as First Step and Second Step. They were moving quickly upward, Odell said, but it was late in the day to be so far below the summit. Then they were enveloped by the mist and never seen again.

The discovery of Mallory’s body offers no conclusive evidence on whether the pair made the summit. Mallory could have fallen after turning back short of the top because of the lateness of the hour, exhaustion or climbing difficulties.

Hillary and Tenzing climbed Everest via the South Col route in Nepal on May 29, 1953. Since then some 850 climbers have reached the top and about 150 have died on Everest expeditions. Most ascents have been from the South Col, which now is considered the standard, easier path to the summit.

Even if Mallory and Irvine failed, their climb was remarkable. The expedition had none of the sophisticated gear or weatherproof clothing now used. The two men climbed in cotton and tweedy wool and hob-nailed leather boots.

They had primitive oxygen equipment, but no one knows whether they used it that day. And they were going where no one else had been, although teammate Edward Norton reached 28,126 feet by a somewhat different route several days earlier. These explorers had none of the fixed ropes or metal ladders that now ease the way over some of the most difficult terrain.

The quest to unravel the Mallory-Irvine puzzle is understandable. But perhaps it’s just as well not to know. Maybe it’s better just to imagine seeing Mallory and Irvine as Noel Odell saw them three-quarters of a century ago--two tiny figures climbing a mountain ridge outlined against a cobalt Himalayan sky, going strong for the summit as the mist closes around them.