"I'm quite doubtful if I shall be fit enough. But again I wonder if the monsoon will give us a chance. I don't want to get caught, but our three-day scheme from the Chang La will give the monsoon a good chance. We shall be going up again the day after tomorrow. Six days to the top from this camp!"

--from George Mallory's last letter to his wife prior to disappearing on Mt. Everest with his partner Andrew "Sandy" Irvine in 1924

"My face is in perfect agony. Have prepared two oxygen apparatus for our start tomorrow morning".

- Sandy Irvine's last diary entry

About Me

Celebrating my 50th birthday on pitch 3 of Prodigal Son, Zion National Park, Utah (guided, all I did was jug up the ropes!)

I am an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Western Oregon University where I taught for 31 years.

Photoanalysis in the Mystery of Mallory & Irvine

Here is an updated orthomap of the North Face of Mt. Everest where I have sketched in magenta where I think Xu Jing's descent route was based on his latest interview in Tatort Mount Everest: Der Fall Mallory. I have also included the original and updated locations of Irvine's body according to Tom Holzel's recent photoanalysis - the green line is Holzel's presumed Xu Jing descent route. The blue line is the modern route, and you can see on the left a red route. In the older literature this was called Longland's Traverse, and is the known ascent route of Chhiring Dorje Sherpa, who also saw an old body n 1995. So do the two body locations agree? Only where Xu Jing and Chhiring Dorje's routes coincided. This would be in the area I've labelled with a question mark, at the end of the my magenta descent route for Xu Jing.

In 2001 after the release of Detectives on Everest, I constructed an orthomap of the North Face of Mt. Everest where I have added the locations of all known artifacts and camps associated with the mystery (except for the 1924 Camp 6 which is off the map to the east - or left - at 26,700'). By tracing the fall line back up from Mallory's grave, the approximate location of his fall can be estimated, somewhere in the Yellow Band between 8300 and 8400 meters - the same area that Xu Jing in 1960 may have passed through while taking his direct line back from Camp 7 (see Detectives on Everest for more details).

Tom Holel's Photoanalysis (archive.org) (mentioned above) where he locates what he believes is the location of the body of Andrew Irvine in the Yellow Band. This "Holzel spot" was used by Thom Pollard and Mark Synnot's 2019 National Geographic expedition to find Andrew Irvine.

Jochen Hemmleb displayed a 1:1000 scale orthomap of the North Face of Mt. Everest at the Detectives on Everest Exhibit at the Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma, WA. Hemmleb meticlulously recorded on this map the locations of all search areas, camps, and artifacts located in 1999 and 2001. I took these somewhat blurry images with my digital camera that can be viewed here: map01, map02, map03, map04. Please note that the jpegs of Hemmleb's map are public domain because cameras were allowed at the exhibit.

A reconstruction of Jochen Hemmleb's Photoanalysis used to help locate the 1975 Chinese Camp 6 (it turned out to predict a location that was too high but was good enough to find the "English Dead". Compare to Tom Holzel's analysis in the next paragraph). The photo of the Chinese Camp 6 was scanned from Ghosts of Everest

Tom Holzel (archive.rg) has given his permission to display a jpeg of his search area for Sandy Irvine that he constructed back in 1999. Holzel's approach was to track the movements of a party of Chinese climbers in 1975 who were pinned down by a storm on their way to the final location of the 1975 Chinese Camp 6. Holzel calls this intermediate camp "5b", and he believes that this is the camp that Wang was in when he located the "English Dead". Comparison of this Camp 5b with Jochen's orthomap indicates that Camp 5b was probably at the same position as the 1960 Chinese Camp 6.

Tom Holzel (archive.org) has also given permission to use his photo of Odell's route up the North Ridge of Everest in search of Mallory & Irvine as given to him by Odell himself.

Is that an extra pair of goggles Mallory's holding in this famous North Col photo taken by Noel Odell, or is it a gauge used in the oxygen apparatus? I believe it's actually the gauge based on this quote from Odell's appendix on the use of oxygen in "Fight for Everest 1924":

"An attempt was made to do away with the rigid arm supporting the instruments, that passed over the left shoulder, since it proved to be a considerable encumbrance. Instead the instruments - i.e. flow meter alone - was connected up with the rubber tubing conveying the gas from the cylinders to the mouthpiece, which passed under the right arm.IT WAS SUSPENDED FROM THE COAT IN FRONT IN A VISIBLE AND COMFORTABLE POSITION (emphasis added). The p needle-valve close beside it, accessible to the right hand. In this way the total weight was reduced considerably, and the only hampering of movement was caused by the lower ends of the cylinders, which were in the way when going down steep rocks facing outwards. This arrangement uge can only be read by someone else at the wearer's back, an obvious diadvantage."

Did this mitten found on the NE Ridge in 2001 belong to either Mallory or Irvine? Jochen Hemmleb of the 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition thinks it's likely. Compare it to this photo of 1924 porters scanned from Last Climb: The Legendary Everest Expeditions of George Mallory.

News

2019 Searches and Evidence that Irvine and the Camera Were Found by the Chinese in 1975?

Along with Mark Synnott, Thom Pollard was part of the National Geographic 2019 search, as well as a member of the 1999 search that found Mallory's body. I recommend his Facebook page as well as his YouTube channel where he has been producing videos dealing with the new theories that are given below.

After his book "The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest" was published, Synnott uncovered resarch that seems to prove that Irvine and the camera were found by the Chinese back in 1975.

Let's not forget that Jake Norton was on a Discovery Channel search at the same time, but looking in a different place!

There were two films produced about these searches, and you can watch them here: Pollard/Synnott movie "Lost on Everest (Discovery+), and the Norton film Everest's Greatest Mystery (this is an Amazon Prime link, but the movie is available on AppleTV as well).

New Theories

It has recently come to my attention the theories of Ajay Dandekar, a historian and a faculty member of Shiv Nadar University, Delhi. I find his theory that Irvine stayed behind in a sleeping bag while Mallory went to the summit to be highly questionable. Please see my two part series on why I think this is true: Part 1 and Part 2

He's been around for awhile, but you'll want to read Michael Tracy's thoughts of what happened to Mallory and Irvine, along with his repository of YouTube videos. He's very mercurial and you'll need a thick hide if you debate him!

New Mallory and Irvine Forum hosted by Jake Norton

Please visit and become a member of Jake Norton's new Mallory and Irvine forum. You'll want to check out his image-based collection of all of the searches for Irvine from 1999 to 2019. He also has a three part series on his theory of what happened to Mallory and Irvine: part 1, part 2, part 3. And finally, here is the link to his Mallory and Irvine archive.

Articles and Editorials

A new article by researcher Wim Kohsiek, who has convincingly interpreted the time Mallory's watch was pointing to when it stopped, at odds with Jochen Hemmleb's interpretation that it was pointing to the time of Odell's sighting of the pair at 12:50 pm.

An interview with Graham Hoyland, author of the new book “Last Hours on Everest - The gripping story of Mallory and Irvine's fatal ascent”

Harvey V. Lankford, MD, has written a paper documenting the origin of the term "Glacier Lassitude" as a diagnosis for the debilitating effect of altitude as experienced by members of the early British Everest expeditions.

My new "what if?" theory about Mallory and Irvine's last climb, where I assume Odell's sighting was erroneous, and have them taking the Couloir route instead.

Part 1: the ascent
Part 2: the descent

Warwick Pryce is a new researcher who has arrived on the scene, and he has a new theory about how Andrew Irvine could have been the first person to stand on the top of the world.

Wim Kohsiek has a new interpretation of what Mallory's altimeter can tell us based on scientific applications of meterology.

Mallory and Irvine researcher Wim Kohsiek has two new thought-provoking articles about Mallory's watch and Irvine's location:

• Does Mallory's watch point to the time of his death?
  
  
• Where is Irvine?

Mallory's Watch - Does it Really Point to 12:50 PM?

1924 Oxygen by Richard McQuet and Pete Poston

Why the Camera and Film are not Doomed to Destruction!

The Politics of Mallory and Irvine

Why Andrew Irvine Will Not be Found in a Sleeping Bag! Part 1 and Part 2

Chomolungma Nirvana: The Routes of Mount Everest

Rust Marks on Mallory's Altimeter

Little Known Free-Solo Ascent of the Second Step in 2001 by Theo Fritsche - I should never have written this - Anker and Houlding deserve credit for the first free ascent

Criticisms of the 2004 EverestNews.com search for Irvine --

The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine's Fate (with J. Hemmleb): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Mallory and Irvine - Comments on the 'real Second Step' route: Part 1 and Part 2

Conrad Anker's comments on the unlikeliness of a direct route up the prow of the 2nd Step

Articles about my heroes Walter Bonatti and Chris Bonington --

Spilling the Beans - Lino Lacedelli's Book "Price of Conquest: Confessions from the First Ascent of K2" Part 1 and Part 2

The Life and Climbs of Chris Bonington, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 final - interview