1924 fight for Everest - Stranger than fiction ?

When Edmund Hillary became famous for climbing Everest in 1953.......He was asked If/when he made it to the Summit.....To look around for any evidence that George Mallory or Sandy Irvine had been there.....30 years before !!

On the 8th of June 1924....The two heroic pioneers were on the North side of the mountain and... "On the second step and going strong for the top" According to a team member named Neil O'Dell who got a glance of the climbers at 12.50 in the afternoon whilst returning to Camp 3 (Some half a mile lower)..... Before the clouds moved in and they were never seen again !!.....

The fact they were going close to the top was a feat in itself considering they had inadequate clothes and equipment.....But Brits at the turn of the Century were pretty well famed for being good with their backs to the wall...and full of pluck !!

To this day some climbers say that the two made it but the majority disagree................

The problem has always been the "second step" was deemed unmanageable without ladders or unless you were brilliant climbers with top equipment (Hillary summitted from the South side)...........Other doubts concern O'Dell's testimony saying that he probably saw them on the manageable first step 100 metres lower...........(In later years he'd become unsure !!)

There are three steps on the North face in touching distance of the top........... The first is 8,550 metres..... second 8,600 and the third and last is 8.700............Everest is 8,850 metres high !!

However whilst the majority think they reached the second step and turned back...Then fell in deteriorating weather............Other facts to consider are ...................

1. When Mallory's body was found in 1999 on it's own (No Irvine) It was basically on written jottings by the 1960 Chinese expedition party who saw an English dead at the same exact spot pretty much where he was found...............at 8,100 metres.........400/500 metres below O'Dell's last sighting..

2. The same Chinese jottings also said they saw an English dead further up the mountain at around 8,700 metres and If that's so and It's Irvine's body then he/they would have navigated the second step and almost certainly made it to the top....

3. When Mallory was found his sunglasses were in his pocket............Which suggests he was trying to navigate down the mountain at night....Why would he be doing this If he was close to the second step at 12.50.......Doesn't take hours to realise a spot is unclimbable...

4. Mallory had a picture of his Wife he said he would place at the top when he reached the summit......Whilst Hillary never found such a picture when Mallory's wallet was recovered it had no picture of his Wife in it.......

5. When Mark Horrell retraced Neil O'Dell's footsteps down the mountain on his journey to Camp three..........He said his journey made it nigh on impossible to see the two climbers on the first step...........Would have had in his opinion to have been on the second If he saw them at all !!

Neil O'Dell later said he only saw one of the climbers and not two at 12.50 on the fateful day......

Had Irvine already fell ?..............Was that Irvine going for the top without Mallory ?..........Was it Mallory going for the top ???

Perhaps we'll never know what happened in the 1924 quest for the World's tallest prize...........and maybe it's better that way !!!!!!!!!

What we do know is Mallory and Irvine are legends and rightly so !!!!!

Great post. I suppose what it comes down to is that irrespective if they made it or not, there is no firm evidence that they did - therefore even if you believe they did, you can't credit them for doing it.

Was there no camera ever found?