Did Mallory make it?

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At 11.30am local time, on the 29th of May 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of the world, Mount Everest, at 29,029 feet. For 46 years their triumph was undisputed; until May 1st 1999 at 11.45am. At 27,000 feet below the Yellow Band on the North side of Mount Everest the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition made mountaineering history. Following his senses, Conrad Anker, a world renowned American mountaineer, decided to stray from the search group. He came across not one but two bodies, both from the modern era judging by their clothing. Ignoring these he continued to search the Yellow Band. One in ten people who make the summit die on the slopes; bodies litter the vast summit area.

Anker however, noticed a flash of white on the terrace above him. The colour was unlike the snow. As he approached he noticed it was a frozen body. The body could clearly be distinguished as from the early British expeditions. The man’s buttocks had been eaten by Himalayan vultures. His exposed skin was white. Inscriptions on the clothing marked G.M. This was the body of George Mallory. A major piece of Everest’s history had been filled. The fate of George Herbert Leigh Mallory and Andrew Comyn Irvine on the 9th of June 1924 may finally have been decided. Had either of them reached the summit? What happened high up on the slopes of Everest that day?

The British Mount Everest Expedition of 1924 had the weight of a nation on its shoulders. After two unsuccessful attempts, the British Empire was waiting with drawn breath for its greatest collection of mountaineers to conquer what they saw as their own prize, the summit of Everest. One man in particular was destined for greatness on the slopes. Having been the only per...

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...cond step by 8am, and Odell spotted the two moving quickly at 12.50pm, it is conceivable that Odell saw them descending. Mallory could have left Irvine at the second step, reached the summit with the excess oxygen and returned to Irvine with the last of the oxygen. Odell may have seen them beat a hasty retreat from the second step. A snow storm then forced Odell to seek cover at camp V and it is thought that during this storm, Mallory and Irvine died.

Ten years before the expedition it was conceived that humans were unable to survive above 25,000 feet, let alone 28,000. The fact that these men were in one of the most inhospitable habitats in the world wearing cotton jumpers and hob nailed boots is inspiring enough. If Mallory and Irvine were given the slightest chance to reach the summit out of any of the points above, they would have walked on, even to their end.

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