George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8/9 June 1924) was an English
mountaineer-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
who took part in the first three British expeditions to
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
in the early 1920s.
During the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner
Andrew "Sandy" IrvineAndrew "Sandy" Comyn Irvine was an English mountaineer who took part in 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest....
both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the
first ascentIn climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only a few hundred metres from the summit.
Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered in 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains. Whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.
Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort "Because it's there", which has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering". There have been questions over the authenticity of the quote, and whether Mallory actually said it. Some have suggested that it was a paraphrase by a newspaper reporter, but scrutiny of the original report in the
New York Times leaves this unresolved. The phrase was certainly consistent with the direct quotes cited in the
New York Times report, so it cannot be said to misrepresent Mallory's attitude.
Early life, education, and teaching career
Mallory was born in
MobberleyMobberley is a semi-rural village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, situated between Wilmslow and Knutsford. Mobberley railway station lies on the Manchester to Northwich and Chester line and was opened on 12 May, 1862 by the Cheshire...
,
CheshireCheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, the son of Herbert Leigh Mallory (1856–1943), a clergyman who changed his surname to Leigh-Mallory in 1914. George had two sisters and a younger brother
Trafford Leigh-MalloryAir Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory KCB, DSO & Bar was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during World War I...
, the
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
commander.
In 1896, Mallory attended Glen-gorse, a preparatory
boarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in
EastbourneEastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
on the south coast of England, having transferred from another
preparatory schoolIn English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
in
West KirbyWest Kirby is a town on the north-west corner of the coast of the Wirral Peninsula, England, at the mouth of the River Dee across from the Point of Ayr in North Wales. To the north-east of the town lies Hoylake, with the suburbs of Grange and Newton to the east, and the village of Caldy to the...
. At the age of 13, he won a mathematics scholarship to
Winchester CollegeWinchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
. In his final year there, he was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by a master,
R. L. G. IrvingRobert Lock Graham Irving , was an English schoolmaster, writer and mountaineer. As an author, he used the name R. L. G. Irving, while to his friends he was Graham Irving.-Life and family:...
, who took a small number of people climbing in the Alps each year. In October 1905, Mallory entered
Magdalene College, CambridgeMagdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
to study history. There, he became good friends with members of the
Bloomsbury GroupThe Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
including James Strachey,
Lytton StracheyGiles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
,
Rupert BrookeRupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
,
John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, and
Duncan GrantDuncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
, who painted several portraits of Mallory. Mallory was a keen
oarsmanRowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
and rowed in the college eight for his three years at
CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
After gaining his degree Mallory stayed in Cambridge for a year writing an essay he later published as
Boswell the Biographer (1912). He lived briefly in France, where Simon Bussy painted his portrait, now in London's National Portrait Gallery. On his return he decided to become a teacher. In 1910 he began teaching at
Charterhouse SchoolCharterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
, Godalming, Surrey, where he met the poet
Robert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, then a pupil, and he went on to act as best man at Graves' wedding in 1918. In his autobiography,
Goodbye to All ThatGood-Bye to All That, an autobiography by Robert Graves, first appeared in 1929, when the author was thirty-four. "It was my bitter leave-taking of England," he wrote in a prologue to the revised second edition of 1957, "where I had recently broken a good many conventions"...
, Graves remembered Mallory fondly both for his encouragement of Graves' interest in literature and poetry and his instruction in climbing. Graves recalled: "He (Mallory) was wasted (as a teacher) at Charterhouse. He tried to treat his class in a friendly way, which puzzled and offended them."
While at Charterhouse he met his wife, Ruth Turner (6 October 1892 – 6 January 1942), who lived in
GodalmingGodalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
, and they were married in 1914, just six days before Britain and Germany went to war. George and Ruth had two daughters and a son: Frances Clare (19 September 1915–2001), Beridge Ruth, known as 'Berry' (16 September 1917–1953), and John (born 21 August 1920). In December 1915 Mallory joined the
Royal Garrison ArtilleryThe Royal Garrison Artillery was an arm of the Royal Artillery that was originally tasked with manning the guns of the British Empire's forts and fortresses, including coastal artillery batteries, the heavy gun batteries attached to each infantry division, and the guns of the siege...
as 2nd lieutenant and in 1916 participated in the shelling of the Somme, under the command of Major Gwilym Lloyd George, the son of then
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
.
After the war he returned to Charterhouse, resigning in 1921 in order to join the first Everest expedition. In between expeditions he attempted to make a living from writing and lecturing, with only partial success. In 1923 he took a job as lecturer with the Cambridge University Extramural Studies Department. He was given temporary leave so that he could join the 1924 Everest attempt.
In Europe
In 1910, in a party led by Irving, Mallory and a friend attempted to climb
Mont VélanMont Vélan is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. At 3,727, metres Mont Vélan is the highest summit lying between the Great St Bernard Pass and Grand Combin. Two large glaciers cover its northern flanks: Glacier de Tseudet and Glacier de Valsoray...
in the
AlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, but turned back shortly before the summit due to Mallory's
altitude sicknessAltitude sickness—also known as acute mountain sickness , altitude illness, hypobaropathy, or soroche—is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude...
. In 1911, Mallory climbed
Mont BlancMont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
, as well as making the third ascent of the Frontier ridge of
Mont MauditMont Maudit is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in France and Italy. Until the end of the 18th century, Mont Blanc and its satellite peaks were collectively known in French as the Montagne Maudite....
in a party again led by Irving. According to Helmut Dumler, Mallory was "apparently prompted by a friend on the Western Front in 1916 [to write] a highly emotional article of his ascent of this great climb"; this article was published as 'Mont Blanc from the Col du Géant by the Eastern Buttress of Mont Maudit' in the
Alpine Journal and contained his question, "Have we vanquished an enemy?" [i.e. the mountain] to which he responded, "None but ourselves."
By 1913 he ascended Pillar Rock in the English
Lake DistrictThe Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, with no assistance, by what is now known as "Mallory's Route" – currently
gradedIn rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...
Hard Very Severe 5a (American grading 5.9). It is likely to have been the hardest route in Britain for many years.
In Asia
In 1921 he participated in the British Reconnaissance Expedition, organised and financed by the
Mount Everest CommitteeThe Mount Everest Committee was a body formed by the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest and all subsequent British expeditions to climb the mountain until 1947...
, that explored routes up to the
North ColThe North Col refers to a sharp-edged pass or col carved by glaciers connecting Mount Everest and Changtse in Tibet. It forms the head of the East Rongbuk Glacier....
of
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
. The expedition produced the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain. Although he was accompanied by several senior members of Britain's
Alpine ClubThe Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...
and by surveyors based in
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, the debilitating effect of altitude resulted in Mallory, his climbing partner Guy Bullock and E. O. Wheeler of the
Survey of IndiaThe Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying. Set up in 1767 to help consolidate the territories of the British East India Company, it is one of the oldest Engineering Departments of the Government of India...
performing most of the exploration of the approaches to the mountain. Under Mallory's leadership, and with the assistance of around a dozen
SherpasThe Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...
, the group climbed several lower peaks near Everest. His party were almost certainly the first Westerners to view the
Western CwmOften called the Valley of Silence, the Western Cwm is a broad, flat, gently undulating glacial valley basin terminating at the foot of the Lhotse Face of Mount Everest. It was named by George Leigh Mallory when he first saw it in 1921...
at the foot of the
LhotseLhotse is the fourth highest mountain on Earth and is connected to Everest via the South Col. In addition to the main summit at 8,516 metres above sea level, Lhotse Middle is and Lhotse Shar is...
face, as well as charting the course of the
Rongbuk GlacierImage:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Rongbuk Glacier and Mount Everest as seen from the International Space Station.rect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateau...
up to the base of the North Face. After circling the mountain from the south side, his party finally discovered the East Rongbuk Glacier-—the highway to the summit now used by nearly all climbers on the Tibetan side of the mountain. By climbing up to the saddle of the North Ridge (the North Col, 23,000-ft, 7000m), they spied a route to the summit via the North-East Ridge over the obstacle of the Second Step.
In 1922 Mallory returned to the Himalaya as part of the party led by Brigadier-General
Charles BruceBrigadier-General Charles Granville Bruce, CB, MVO was a Himalayan veteran and leader of the second and third British expeditions to Mount Everest in 1922 and 1924.-Background and early life:...
and climbing leader
Edward StruttLt-Col. Edward Lisle Strutt CBE, DSO was an English soldier and mountaineer, and President of the Alpine Club from 1935–38.-Family:...
, with a view to making a serious attempt on the summit. Eschewing their bottled
oxygenOxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
, on ethical grounds, Mallory led his climbing team of
Howard SomervellTheodore Howard Somervell OBE was a British surgeon, mountaineer and missionary who was a member of two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, and then spent nearly 40 years working as a doctor in India.-Early life:...
and
Edward NortonEdward Felix Norton DSO MC was a British army officer and mountaineer.He was educated at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and then joined artillery units in India and served in World War I. He had been introduced to mountain climbing at the home in the Alps of his...
almost to the crest of the North-East ridge. Despite being hampered and slowed by the thin air, they achieved a
record altitudeIn the history of mountaineering, the world altitude record referred to the highest point on the Earth's surface which had been reached, regardless of whether that point was an actual summit. The world summit record referred to the highest mountain to have been successfully climbed...
of 26,985 ft (8,225 m) before weather conditions and the late hour forced them to retreat. A second party led by
George FinchGeorge Ingle Finch FRS was a chemist and mountaineer.He was born in Australia but educated in German-speaking Switzerland and studied physical sciences at Geneva University....
reached a height of approx. 27,300 feet (8,321 m) using bottled oxygen both for climbing and — a first — for sleeping. The party climbed at record speeds — a fact that Mallory seized upon during the next expedition.
Mallory organized a third unsuccessful attempt on the summit, departing as the monsoon arrived. While Mallory was leading a group of porters down the lower slopes of the North Col of Everest in fresh, waist-high snow, an
avalancheAn avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
swept over the group, killing seven Sherpas. The attempt was immediately abandoned, and Mallory returned home to face criticism for poor judgement, a criticism that was to follow him to the next expedition.
Plans for another attempt were marred by the Royal Geographical Society's Everest Committee barring George Finch, on the grounds that he was divorced and had accepted money for lectures. The Secretary, Arthur Hinks, made it clear that for an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n to be the first on Everest was not acceptable, as they wanted the climb to be an example of British spirit, to lift British morale. At first Mallory refused to climb again without Finch but acquiesced after being personally persuaded by members of the
British Royal FamilyThe British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
, at Hinks' request.
June 1924 expedition to Everest
Mallory joined the 1924 Everest expedition, led as in 1922 by General Bruce. Mallory believed that at age 37, it would be his third and last opportunity to climb the mountain. When touring the US, Mallory had boldly claimed that this next time would be different, to enthusiastic Harvard students. Mallory and Geoffrey Bruce set off for the first attempt, which was inexplicably aborted by Mallory at Camp 5 (C-5).
Norton and Somervell set off from C-6, and in perfect weather, managed without oxygen to reach 28,128 ft (8,573 m), a new record height.
On 4 June 1924, Mallory and
Andrew IrvineAndrew "Sandy" Comyn Irvine was an English mountaineer who took part in 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest....
set off from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6500 m (≈ 21,325 ft) and already began using oxygen from the base of the North Col, which they climbed in 2½ hours—such was the conversion of Mallory from anti- to pro-oxygen usage, Mallory having been converted from his original scepticism by his failure on his initial assault and recalling the very rapid ascent speed of Finch in 1922.
At 8:40am on 6 June they set off, climbing to C-5. On 7 June they reached C-6. Mallory wrote he had used only ¾ of one bottle of oxygen for the two days which suggests a climb rate of some 856 vertical feet per hour.
On 8 June, Odell was moving up behind the pair in a “support role.” At some 26,000 ft he spotted the two climbing a prominent rock-step, either the First or Second rock step, around 1PM; although some summit advocates suggest it may have been the, as then unknown, “Third Step.” Expedition colleague
Noel OdellNoel Ewart Odell was an English geologist and mountaineer. Educated at Brighton College and the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, in 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit attempt...
reported the following:
At the time, Odell identified one of the men to have surmounted the Second Step of the NE ridge. No evidence, apart from his testimony, has been found that they climbed higher than the First Step (one of their spent oxygen cylinders was found shortly below the First Step; and Irvine's ice axe was also found nearby in 1933). They never returned to their camp and died somewhere high on the mountain.
It is assumed that Mallory and Irvine died either on 8 June or, at the latest, the next day. The news of Mallory and Irvine's disappearance was widely mourned in Britain to the extent that the two were hailed as national heroes. A memorial service was held at
St Paul's CathedralSt Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, London on 17 October and was attended by a wealth of family and friends as well as the prime minister
Ramsay MacdonaldJames Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
, the entire cabinet and the royal family, headed by King
George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
.
Lost on Everest for 75 years
After their disappearance several expeditions tried to find their remains (and perhaps determine if they had, in fact, reached the summit). Based on reports from a Chinese climber that his tent-mate, Wang Hung-bao, had stumbled across "an English dead" at 26570 feet (8,098.5 m) in 1975 (in spite of official denials), Tom Holzel launched a search expedition in late 1986. The Mt. Everest North Face Research Expedition (MENFRE) was snowed out, not able to even reach the 8100 m terrace. However, on the last day of the expedition, Holzel met with Wang's tent-mate, Zhang Junyan. Far from denying that Wang had found anyone (as the Chinese Mountaineering Association repeatedly did) Zhang admitted that Wang had come back from a short excursion and described finding "a foreign mountaineer" at "8100 m."
In 1999 the
Mallory and Irvine Research ExpeditionThe goal of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 was to discover evidence of whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had been the first to summit Mt. Everest in their ill-fated attempt of 8–9 June 1924...
, sponsored in part by the TV show
Nova and the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and organized and led by Eric Simonson, arrived at Everest to search for the lost pair. Guided by the research of Jochen Hemmleb, within hours of beginning the search on 1 May, a frozen body was found by
Conrad AnkerConrad Anker is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author famous for his challenging ascents in the high Himalaya and Antarctica. He is a member of The North Face climbing team and also works closely with Timex Expedition as brand ambassador...
at 26760 feet (8,156.4 m) on the north face of the mountain. As the body was below where Irvine's axe was found in 1933, the team expected the body to be Irvine's, and were hoping to recover the camera that he had reportedly carried with him. They were surprised to find that name tags on the body's clothing bore the name of "G. Mallory." The body was remarkably well preserved, due to the mountain's climate. The team could not locate the camera. Experts from Kodak have said that if a camera is ever found, there is some chance that its film could be developed to produce printable images, if extraordinary measures are taken.
The expedition conducted an Anglican service for Mallory and covered his remains with a
cairnCairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
.
Reaching the summit
Whether Mallory and Irvine reached Everest's summit is unknown. The question remains open to speculation and is the topic of much debate and research.
Mallory's body
From the discovery of a serious rope-jerk injury around Mallory's waist, which was encircled by the remnants of a climbing rope, it appears that the two were roped together when one of them slipped. Mallory's body lay 300 m below and about 100 m horizontal to the location of an ice axe found in 1933, which is generally accepted from characteristic marks on the shaft as belonging to Irvine. The fact that the body was relatively unbroken (in comparison to other bodies found in the same location that were known to have fallen from the NE Ridge) strongly suggests that Mallory could not have fallen from the ice axe site, but must have fallen from much lower down. Wang reportedly found Mallory's ice axe near his body (and took it with him). If this is true then Mallory not only survived the initial fall with Irvine, but was in possession of his axe until the last seconds of striking a rock that stopped his final fall. When found, his body was sun-bleached and frozen.
The other most significant find made on Mallory's body was a severe golf-ball size puncture wound in his forehead, which was the most likely cause of his death. The unusual puncture wound is consistent with one which might be inflicted by an ice axe, leading some to conclude that, while Mallory was descending in a self-arrest "
glissadeGlissading is the act of descending a steep snow- or scree-covered slope via a controlled slide on one's feet or buttocks. It is an alternative to other descent methods such as plunge stepping, and may be used to expedite a descent, or simply for the thrill....
", sliding down a slope while dragging his ice axe in the snow to control the speed of his descent, his ice axe may have struck a rock and bounced off, striking him fatally.
Two items of circumstantial evidence from the body suggest that he may have attempted, or reached, the summit:
- Mallory's daughter said that Mallory carried a photograph of his wife on his person with the intention of leaving it on the summit.This photo was not found on Mallory's body. Given the excellent preservation of the body, its garments and other items including documents in his wallet, this points to the possibility that he may have reached the summit and deposited the photo there. On the other hand, no one who has subsequently reached the summit has reported seeing any evidence of this, or any other trace of their presence there.
- Mallory's snow goggles were found in his pocket, suggesting that he and Irvine had made a push for the summit and were descending after sunset. On his attempt a few days earlier, Norton had suffered serious snow-blindness because he did not wear his goggles, so Mallory would be unlikely to have dispensed with them in daylight, and given their known departure time and movements, had they not attempted the summit pyramid it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall. An alternative scenario is that Mallory may have carried an extra pair and the pair he was wearing were torn off in his fall.
Climbers in this expedition were also aware of speculation that a camera might have been carried by Mallory (or Irvine) during their final climb, and Kodak experts provided guidance as to handling of such a camera and film inside, in the event that such were found in the investigation.
Oxygen supply
From the location of their final camp (discovered in 2001), a summit climb may be estimated to have taken them around eleven hours. Assuming they took two cylinders each, they only had about eight hours of oxygen available, so – although this depends on the flow rate, which could be controlled and was not necessarily used on full flow – the oxygen would almost certainly have run out before they reached the summit. The two flow rates available on those oxygen sets were 1.5 and 2.2 litres/min. Both are low rates for active climbing, and it is unlikely the two would have used the lower flow rate. One of their oxygen bottles was found some 200 yards (182.9 m) short of the First Step, which enables their speed of climbing to be calculated (~275 vert-ft/hr.
HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
and
NorgayPadma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...
climbed at 350 vf/h at this altitude). It can be estimated that at best they might have reached the base of the Second Step with one-and-a-half hours of oxygen remaining each. Given the vertical distance remaining (~800 vft), the climb to the summit after the Second Step at the same climbing rate would be three hours. But climbing speed drops quickly with altitude. (Hillary and Norgay managed only 150 vf/h above 28,000 feet.) Thus, even if Mallory had taken Irvine's oxygen, he would not have had enough oxygen to reach the summit.
Although some recent climbers have climbed Everest without the aid of supplemental oxygen, these are extraordinary athletes, fully hydrated and wearing the latest wind-proof clothing, or Sherpas who are genetically endowed with high-altitude capability. Like the
four-minute mileIn the sport of athletics, the four-minute mile is the act of completing the mile run in less than four minutes. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3:59.4. The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all male professional...
, this was not within the capabilities of climbers of the period. Thus, the best chance for Mallory to have reached the summit would have been if he had relieved Irvine of his oxygen at the First Step and sent him down to safety. However, the rope-jerk injuries around Mallory's waist tell the story that the two were roped together when they fell. Other historians suggest that, after having seen the extreme technical difficulty of the Second Step, the two may have switched to the "Norton" Route, via the Great Couloir. While theoretically possible, there is no physical evidence for this supposition.
Another possibility, prompted by Mallory's remark in his last note to John Noel that they would "probably go on two cylinders," is that the pair carried three, and not two cylinders each (Mallory's "probably" implying that the choice was between two or three, as a single cylinder would clearly be inadequate). Mallory's oxygen rig was not found with his body, and neither climber's backpack-style oxygen rig has ever been found.
Some believe George Mallory chose his climbing partner (Andrew "Sandy" Irvine) because he was excellent at repairing the oxygen tanks that had been controversial during that time.
The difficult "Second Step"
Experienced modern climbers disagree on whether Mallory was capable of climbing the infamous "Second Step" on the North Ridge, now surmounted via a 15 ft (4.6 m) aluminium ladder first permanently fixed in place by Chinese climbers in 1975 to bridge this very difficult pitch. The Second Step was first climbed by the Chinese in 1960. It was climbed "
freeFree climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend, employing ropes and forms of climbing protection to prevent falls only....
" (without artificial aid) by
SpanishThe Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
climber Oscar Cadiach in 1985. He rated the 15 feet (4.6 m) crack that forms the crux 5.7-5.8 (5+
UIAA gradingIn rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...
), certainly accepted as within Mallory's ability. However, on Cadiach's climb, the Second Step was filled with a hard snow ramp that made its ascent considerably easier than in the conditions faced by Mallory. Austrian Theo Fritsche repeated the free climb solo — that is, without rope protection — in 2001 under dry pre-monsoon conditions (as in 1924), and supported Cadiach's assessment of 5.7–5.8. Fritsche completed the climb without supplementary oxygen (as did Cadiach), wearing only a light down jacket, but it took him a solid hour to achieve—hardly what a 5.8 climb of a few metres would require. He believes that Mallory could have summitted in his clothing on a good day.
In June 2007, as part of the
Altitude Everest Expedition 2007The 2007 Altitude Everest Expedition, led by the American climber Conrad Anker, arrived at Base Camp below the north face of Everest in May 2007 and retraced the last journey of British climber George Mallory. On 8 June 1924, Mallory, along with his climbing partner Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, set out...
,
Conrad AnkerConrad Anker is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author famous for his challenging ascents in the high Himalaya and Antarctica. He is a member of The North Face climbing team and also works closely with Timex Expedition as brand ambassador...
and
Leo HouldingLeo Houlding is a British rock climber who has climbed the Angel of the North along with more traditional ascents such as some of El Capitan's toughest lines....
successfully free-climbed the Second Step, having first removed the Chinese ladder (which was later replaced). Houlding rated the climb at 5.9, just within Mallory's estimated capabilities. The climb was part of an expedition designed to film a re-creation of the 1924 climb as closely as possible. Eight years earlier Anker had climbed the Second Step as part of the
Mallory and Irvine Research ExpeditionThe goal of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 was to discover evidence of whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had been the first to summit Mt. Everest in their ill-fated attempt of 8–9 June 1924...
but had used one point of aid by stepping on a rung of the ladder which blocked the only available foothold. At that time he had rated the climb at 5.10, certainly well beyond Mallory's capability; after the June 2007 climb he changed his view and said that "Mallory and Irvine could have climbed it". But by then Anker was starring in a film that portrays the two carrying three bottles of oxygen and as probably having summitted. The climbing community still remains split on the subject of whether Mallory was capable of having climbed the Second Step.
Mallory is known to have "swarmed up" a very similar obstacle in alpine conditions on the
NesthornThe Nesthorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps. It is located in the Swiss canton of Valais north of Brig. The mountain lies between the Oberaletsch Glacier on the north and east side and the Gredetschtal on the south side. It is part of the subrange of the Bernese Alps that culminates at the...
(3,824 m) in the Swiss Alps, and his companions were under no illusions about either his considerable ability or his visionary, idealistic self-motivation.
As for climbing difficulties, Mallory is known to have climbed comfortably at HVS (Hard Very Severe) standard (YDS ~5.9) in Wales and
CumbriaCumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
. Many of his early pioneering rock climbs were undertaken on
Y LliweddY Lliwedd is a mountain, connected to Yr Wyddfa in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales.Its summit lies 2,946 ft above sea level....
, a near-1,000 ft often-loose, usually wet cliff face, which is part of the Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa massif. Those who have climbed on this face in mountaineering boots, perhaps armed with only basic equipment, will understand the genuine difficulty of a climb of HVS standard – and come to truly appreciate Mallory's boldness and physical ability. But on this, his final climb, he had already taxed himself by a previous aborted ascent, along with the other normal strenuous activities of being on Everest.
There is some evidence available on the rockclimbing ability of Andrew Irvine—but all at sea-level altitudes. In her biography of Irvine (
Fearless on Everest) Julie Summers notes that Irvine did climb the Great Gully on Craig yr Ysfa with Odell, a wet, five hour climb of VDiff (~5.7) degree of difficulty. Nevertheless, brief rock climbing episodes in above freezing weather are not like mountain climbing with its sustained, frigid courage-draining exposures. Given Irvine's limited climbing experience, it seems unlikely that he would have had the ability to climb the Second Step, and even more unlikely that he could have done so in the rapid manner described by Noel Odell.
The rope-burn evidence on Mallory suggests that the two climbers were roped together when they had their fall at the 1933 ice axe site, making it unlikely that Mallory had made a solo "sprint to the top." This would have involved Irvine waiting at the base of the Second Step for up to ten hours—an impossibility in that weather with their clothing.
Noel Odell believed he had seen Mallory and Irvine ascend the Second Step. The British climbing establishment increasingly questioned this opinion, and Odell eventually changed his story to say it was the First Step. Towards the end of his life, however, he reaffirmed his original view. If his eyewitness report is accurate, the topography he describes appears to fit the Second or even the Third Step on the ridge.
On the other hand, Everest historian Tom Holzel suggests that when Odell saw them climbing a Step, he assumed that, as they were still ascending, they must therefore be on the Second Step, as there is no need to climb up the First Step to reach the summit: climbers typically cross or traverse its base and continue around it. This was in keeping with the prevailing disdain for oxygen equipment at the time to put the blame on it for Mallory being five hours behind the schedule he had stated in his final note describing his assault plan of reaching the Second Step as early as 8am. Odell naturally assumed they were still ascending, but woefully late, and so would only have been climbing the Second Step. However, Holzel surmises that if they were already on their descent, the unproven oxygen malfunction, and the unlikely late start theories can be discarded, and they would have been close to estimates of climbing time in their descent from perhaps as high as the base of the Second Step. Odell then may have seen them clambering up the First Step as a vantage point from which to view and photograph the complex route to the Second Step before returning to the North Col (which is what the French did in 1981 when they, too, could no longer continue upward).
Recent observations taken from Odell's vantage point by advocates of Mallory's success indicate that the viewpoint is such that Odell would not likely have been confused or mistaken as to the location of the pair, and so had probably seen the men at the Second Step as he had initially reported-or even the Third Step.
Further expeditions
The 1999 research team returned to the mountain in 2001 to conduct further research. They discovered Mallory and Irvine's last camp, but failed to find either Irvine or a camera. Based on rumours of the sighting of Irvine, Don Martin of EverestNews.com funded a search expedition (unrelated to the 1999 and 2001 team) for the cameras and other clues that either had reached the summit, but found no significant new evidence. A fourth initiative in 2005 also proved fruitless.
Possible sightings of Irvine
In 1979 a Chinese climber named Wang Hung-bao reported to Japanese Expedition leader Ryoten Hasagawa that, in 1975, he had discovered the body of an "English dead" at 8100 m. Wang was killed in an
avalancheAn avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
the day after this verbal report and so the location was never more precisely fixed. The Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA) officially denied the sighting claim. In 1986, Chinese climber Zhang Junyan (who had been sharing the tent with Wang in 1975) confirmed to Tom Holzel, Wang's report of finding a foreign climber's body. Zhang stated that Wang had only been out for 20 minutes. If this report was accurate, at that altitude and date the body must have been that of Irvine.
Wang's sighting was the key to the discovery of Mallory's body 20 years later in the same general area, though Wang's reported description of the body he found, face up, with a "hole in cheek", is not consistent with the condition and posture of Mallory's body, which was face down, its head almost completely buried in scree, and with a golfball-sized puncture wound on his forehead. Some have speculated that Wang could have been referring to the hole in the skin of Mallory's exposed buttocks ("cheeks"). The 2001 research expedition discovered Wang's campsite location and made an extensive search of its surroundings. Mallory's remained the only ancient body in the vicinity. Some argue it must have been Mallory, not Irvine, that Wang had found in 1975, despite the variations in body posture. Zhang said that Wang had only been gone about 20 minutes. But he had waited while dozing in his sleeping bag, so Wang's stroll could have been of longer duration. Conrad Anker now believes Wang did indeed find Mallory and not Irvine.
In 2001, another Chinese climber, Xu Jing, claimed to have seen the body of Andrew Irvine in 1960 (reported in Hemmleb and Simonson's,
Detectives on Everest), although testimony is uncertain with regard to the location of his find. On two occasions, Xu placed it between Camps VI and VII (Yellow Band, c. 8300 m), though later changed it to the NE Ridge between the First and Second Steps (c. 8550 m) and directly on the NE Ridge. In spite of several such rumoured and reported sightings subsequent searches of these locations on the North Face have failed to find any trace of Irvine. Some climbers believe Xu spotted Mallory.
American researcher Tom Holzel reported that Xu had spotted the body as he descended "by a more direct route" due to exhaustion, while his teammates had continued their assault. He was lying on his back in a narrow slot, his feet pointing towards the summit, his face blackened from frostbite. Holzel has claimed that a location in the Yellow Band, matching this description exactly, has been identified at 8425m by his analysis of high-resolution aerial photography.
In July 2005 the Alpine Club of St.Petersburg, Russia, published an article to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the North Face climb by the Chinese expedition in 1960. The article referred to the presentation by Wang Fuzhou (a member of the group which reached the summit of Everest on 25 May 1960) given by him in Leningrad before the USSR Geographical Society in 1965. It claims that Xu Jing had seen the body of a European climber at an altitude of some 8600m, just below the notorious Second Step. That Russian article could be a first non-mainstream and non-English-language source of evidence in the Mallory-Irvine story. In particular, it mentions that Xu laconically reported that he had identified the body to be "European" by braces (suspenders) that it wore.
Assessments by climbing partners
Harry Tyndale, one of Mallory's climbing partners, said of Mallory: "In watching George at work one was conscious not so much of physical strength as of suppleness and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious was his progress in any steep place ... that his movements appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness."
Tom Longstaff, who accompanied Mallory on the 1922 Everest expedition, wrote in a letter to a friend, "It is obvious to any climber that they got up. You cannot expect of that pair to weigh up the chances of return. I should be weighing them still. It sounds a fair day. Probably they were above those clouds that hid them from Odell. How they must have appreciated that view of half the world. It was worthwhile to them. Now, they will never grow old and I am very sure they would not change places with any of us."
Geoffrey Winthrop YoungGeoffrey Winthrop Young D.Litt. was a British climber, poet and educator, and author of several notable books on mountaineering.-Mountaineering:...
, one of the most accomplished alpine climbers of his day, held Mallory's ability in awe: "His movement in climbing was entirely his own. It contradicted all theory. He would set his foot high against any angle of smooth surface, fold his shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and upright again on an impetuous curve. Whatever may have happened unseen the while between him and the cliff ... the look, and indeed the result, were always the same – a continuous undulating movement so rapid and so powerful that one felt the rock must yield, or disintegrate." When informed of Odell's belief that Mallory had climbed the Second Step, Winthrop Young was convinced he made the summit. He wrote: "After nearly twenty years' knowledge of Mallory as a mountaineer, I can say that difficult as it would have been for any mountaineer to turn back, with the only difficulty past, to Mallory it would have been an impossibility."
Theories
A range of different outcomes has been proposed, and new theories continue to be put forward. Most views have the two carrying two cylinders of oxygen each, reaching and climbing either the First or Second Step, where they are seen by Odell. At this point there are two main alternatives: either Mallory takes Irvine's oxygen and goes on alone (and may or may not reach the summit); or both go on together until they turn back (having used up their oxygen, or realising that they will do so before the summit). In either case Mallory slips and falls to his death while descending, perhaps caught in the fierce snow squall that sent Odell to take shelter in their tent. Irvine either falls with him or, in the first scenario, dies alone of exhaustion and hypothermia high up on the ridge. The theory advanced by Tom Holzel in February 2008 is that Odell sighted Mallory and Irvine climbing the First Step for a final look around while they were
descending from a failed summit bid. As with all good mysteries, the fragmentary evidence leaves much room for speculation and hypothesis.
First "real" ascent, or just to the summit?
If evidence was to be uncovered which showed that George Mallory or Andrew Irvine had reached the summit of Everest in 1924, advocates of Hillary & Norgay's first ascent maintain that the historical record should not be changed to state that Mallory and Irvine made the
first ascentIn climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
, displacing
Edmund HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
and
Tenzing NorgayPadma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...
. These mountaineers make the novel claim that a successful first ascent not only involves reaching the summit, but also returning to the bottom alive. George Mallory's own son, John Mallory, who was only three years old when his father died, said, "To me the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive. The job is only half done if you don't get down again". Hillary's daughter, Sarah, when questioned regarding her father's take on the debate, said, "His view was that he had got 50 good years out of being conqueror of Everest, and, whatever happened, he wasn't particularly worried. That's my feeling as well."
Sir Edmund Hillary's assessment
Sir
Edmund HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
echoed John Mallory's opinion, asking:
If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain? I am rather inclined to think personally that maybe it is quite important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the bottom again.
Sir Chris Bonington's assessment
Sir
Chris BoningtonSir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest and the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna.-Early life and expeditions:Educated at University College School in...
, the widely respected British Himalayan mountaineer, summed up the view of many mountaineers all over the world:
If we accept the fact that they were above the Second Step, they would have seemed to be incredibly close to the summit of Everest and I think at that stage something takes hold of most climbers ... And I think therefore taking all those circumstances in view ... I think it is quite conceivable that they did go for the summit ... I certainly would love to think that they actually reached the summit of Everest. I think it is a lovely thought and I think it is something, you know, gut emotion, yes I would love them to have got there. Whether they did or not, I think that is something one just cannot know.
Legacy
Mallory was honoured by having a court named after him at his
alma mater,
Magdalene College, CambridgeMagdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
, with an inscribed stone commemorating his death set above the doorway to one of the buildings. Two high peaks in California's
Sierra NevadaThe Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, between the California Central Valley and the Basin and Range Province. The Sierra runs north-to-south, and is approximately across east-to-west...
,
Mount MalloryMount Mallory is a mountain located in the Sierra Nevada of California. The border between Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Park runs across its peak. The peak was named in memory of George H. Leigh Mallory, of the British Alpine Club, who was lost on Mount Everest, June, 1924...
and Mount Irvine, located a few miles southeast of Mt. Whitney, were named for them.
Mallory was captured on film by expedition cameraman
John NoelJohn Baptist Lucius Noel was a mountaineer and filmmaker best known for his film of the 1924 Mount Everest expedition. His father, Col. Edward Noel , was the younger son of the second earl of Gainsborough...
, who released his film of the 1924 expedition
Epic of Everest upon returning. Some of his footage was also used in George Lowe's 1953 documentary
The Conquest of EverestThe Conquest of Everest is a 1953 British documentary film directed by George Lowe about various expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....
. A documentary on the 2001
Mallory and Irvine Research ExpeditionThe goal of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 was to discover evidence of whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had been the first to summit Mt. Everest in their ill-fated attempt of 8–9 June 1924...
,
Found on Everest, was produced by Riley Morton. Mallory was played by
Brian BlessedBrian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
in the 1991 re-creation of his last climb,
Galahad of Everest.
Tragedy in the mountains has proved a recurring theme in the Mallory line. Mallory’s younger brother,
Air Chief MarshalAir chief marshal is a senior 4-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
Sir
Trafford Leigh-MalloryAir Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory KCB, DSO & Bar was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during World War I...
, also met his death on a mountain range when the
Avro YorkThe Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:...
carrying him to his new appointment as Air Commander-in-Chief of
South East Asia CommandSouth East Asia Command was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II.-Background:...
(SEAC) crashed in the
French AlpsThe French Alps are those portions of the Alps mountain range which stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions....
in 1944, killing all on board. Mallory's daughter, Frances Clare, married physiologist
Glenn Allan MillikanGlenn Allan Millikan , American physiologist, invented the first practical, portable pulse oximeter in 1940–1942. The Millikan oximeter "is generally acknowledged as the beginning of oximetry in physiology and clinical medicine." The word oximeter was introduced by Millikan.Millikan, son of...
, who was killed in a climbing accident near
Oak Ridge, TennesseeOak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...
. Millikan was the son of
Robert MillikanRobert A. Millikan was an American experimental physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his measurement of the charge on the electron and for his work on the photoelectric effect. He served as president of Caltech from 1921 to 1945...
, a Nobel-Laureate and one of three formers of the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
.
Not all Mallory-related mountain endeavours have proved fatal. Frances Mallory's nephew, Rick Millikan, became a respected climber in his own right during the 1960s and '70s. Mallory's grandson, also named George Mallory, reached the summit of Everest in 1995 via the North Ridge with six other climbers as part of the American Everest Expedition of 1995. He left a picture of his grandparents at the summit citing 'unfinished business'.
Jeffrey Archer's book,
Paths of GloryPaths of Glory is a novel by English author Jeffrey Archer based on the story of George Mallory. It was published by St. Martin's Press on 3 March 2009. It claims that George Mallory, an Englishman, was the first to conquer Mount Everest -- before Sir Edmund Hillary...
, is based on Mallory's life.
The 5-volume graphic novel
Kamigami no Itadaki (2000) by Japanese manga artist
Jiro Taniguchiis a Japanese manga artist.- Biography:He began to work as assistant of the late manga artist Kyota Ishikawa. He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kareta Heya , published in the magazine Young Comic....
and author
Baku Yumemakurais a Japanese science fiction and adventure writer. He is best known for writing Jōgen no Tsuki wo Taberu Shishi , which won both the Seiun Award and the Nihon SF Taisho Award...
uses the 1924 expedition as a
back-storyA back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
. A mountaineer photographer believes he has found the missing camera that Mallory and Irvine took with them and tries to find the film it contained which may provide valuable clues as to whether they reached the summit. The book retraces the expedition and, by extension, looks at the world of mountaineering and its ever-present
fatal accidents.
In Anthony Geffen's 2010 biographical documentary film about Mallory's life and final expedition,
The Wildest DreamThe Wildest Dream is a 2010 theatrical-release feature documentary film about the British climber George Mallory who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924 with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine...
,
Conrad AnkerConrad Anker is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author famous for his challenging ascents in the high Himalaya and Antarctica. He is a member of The North Face climbing team and also works closely with Timex Expedition as brand ambassador...
and
Leo HouldingLeo Houlding is a British rock climber who has climbed the Angel of the North along with more traditional ascents such as some of El Capitan's toughest lines....
attempt to reconstruct the ill-fated climb, dressed and equipped similarly to Mallory and Irvine.
Keith Thomas and Glyn Bailey are creating a musical about Mallory's life called
Mountain of Dreams to be launched in New Orleans in 2012-13.
Further reading
- Anker, Conrad & Roberts, David (1999) The Lost Explorer — Finding Mallory on Mount Everest. London: Simon & Schuster
- Archer, Jeffrey (2009) Paths of Glory. New York: St Martin's Press ISBN 978-0-312-53951-1
- Firstbrook, Peter (1999) Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine. BBC Worldwide
- Gillman, Peter and Leni (2000) The Wildest Dream: Mallory, His Life and Conflicting Passions. London: Headline (winner, Boardman Tasker Prize)
- Hemmleb, Jochen; Johnson, Larry A.; Simonson, Eric R. & Nothdurft, William E. (1999) Ghosts of Everest — the Search for Mallory & Irvine. Seattle: Mountaineers Books ( Story of the 1999 expedition that located Mallory's body)
- Hemmleb, Jochen, & Simonson, Eric R. (2002) Detectives on Everest: the Story of the 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition. Seattle: Mountaineers Books (Sequel to Ghosts of Everest, with new discoveries on Everest and revelations regarding the fate of Andrew Irvine)
- Holzel, Tom & Salkeld, Audrey (1986) The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine. Revised edition: Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 1999
- Robertson, David (1969) George Mallory. Revised edition 1999. (Biography written by Mallory's son-in-law, married to Beridge.) Faber and Faber Selected edition: Paperback 1999, with foreword by Joe Simpson ISBN 9780571203147
- Summers, Julie (2000) Fearless on Everest: the Quest for Sandy Irvine. (Republished 2008) ISBN 978-1-904466-31-4
External links
- Ghosts of Everest – New evidence examined. 1999 Expedition finds Mallory's remains; tries to reconstruct Mallory's ascent. From Outside Magazine
- Lost on Everest – In January 2000, PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
broadcast the story of the 1999 Nova expedition to locate the bodies of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.
- Peter H. Hansen, ‘Mallory, George Herbert Leigh (1886–1924)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2004, brief biographical entry.
- Interactive panorama of The Second Step on Everest's Northeast Ridge.
- 2004 Expedition to find the cameras
- Mount Everest 1924 photographs – John Noel's photographs from the 1924 expedition.
- Worksopguardian.co.uk, "Poor clothing may have killed."
- Photo of Mallory Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge
- What happened to Mallory & Irvine?
- Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 – Retracing Mallory and Irvine's last steps on Everest.
- Mallory's rowing career and account of the 1907 Boat Race, with photo [NB that caption incorrectly states that Mallory rowed in Oxford/Cambridge boat race.]
- Tom Holzel's 2008 theory that Odell saw Mallory descending at the First Step
- 2008: An investigation of Mallory's replica clothing using a thermal manikin