"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.

Did Mallory and Irvine Summit Mt. Everest in 1924?

Mallory's last written words to his wife reveal a man torn by doubts, but still determined to make one last attempt on the summit of Mt Everest before his strength and the good weather ran out. On his third and last expedition to the mountain, Mallory and his partner Andrew Comyn Irvine climbed up to their last camp at 26,700 feet high up on the North Ridge of Everest. On the next day - June 8, 1924 - they were briefly seen by fellow expedition member Noel Odell about 1000 feet below the summit, before the monsoon clouds moved in and they disappeared forever.

Few clues as to the fate of the pair were uncovered in the 75 years between their disappearance and the discovery of Mallory's body by members of the 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition. In 1933 an ice ax later shown to belong to Sandy Irvine was found at the base of the First Step. Nothing else was discovered until Tom Holzel reported that in 1975, a Chinese climber named Wang Hongbao, had discovered the body of an ancient "English Dead" at around 8100 meters (click here for more on Holzel's 1986 MENFREE expedition to search for M&I).

This body, originally assumed to be Irvine's since it lay almost directly below the ice ax site, ultimately proved to be that of Mallory's. It was clear that he had died in a fall, and the twisted, broken rope that was wrapped around his body indicated that he was tied to Irvine at the time. But there was no proof one way or the other that they had made the summit - 29 years before Hillary and Tenzing - since their camera was not found.

And then in 2001 Jochen Hemmleb and Eric Simonson revealed in their book "Detectives on Everest" that a second body had been discovered even earlier - in 1960 - by Xu Jing, leader of the 1960 Chinese expedition that was the first to successfully climb Mallory's route. If true, this body can only be that of Sandy Irvine. And the camera that he might be carrying....will it solve the mystery?

After this amazing announcement, several other climbers have reported seeing an old body at 8400 meters. One of them was Chhiring Dorje Sherpa, whom EverestNews.com hired along with his uncle to go look for Irvine in 2004. Chhiring Dorje was a porter on the 1995 Nihon University expedition that was the first to ascend the complete Northeast Ridge. On his way to high camp, he saw an old body at 84000 meters in "army-colored" clothing.

Chhiring never did find the body in 2004, but he and his climbing buddy Eric Meyers have been publicly seeking funding. Unfortunately in 2008 they had to cancel their search when there funding didn't come through.

In Jochen Hemmleb's new book "Tatort Mount Everest: Der Fall Mallory" he re-interviews Xu Jing, who made it abundantly clear that the body was on the Ridge, where no modern expeditions go. So Hemmleb organized a search in the Spring of 2009 to search there, but all they discovered was deep snow at 8400 meters.

There are many parties now actively searching for Irvine and the camera...it has basically become a race to get there first. No one has been successful since Xu Jing's statements to Hemmleb and Simonson in 2001 about his sighting, but it is only a matter of time.

Unless Sandy's not there......despite all the reported sightings. Sometimes I wonder....

Anyway, as much as the Mallory and Irvine story captures our imagination, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that these were living, breathing human beings with families that loved them. So Britain's Alpine Club issued a general statement (archive.org) concerning the treatment of climber's remains in the high mountains, but it clearly was meant to apply to how Irvine's remains should be handled.

There have been statements from the Irvine family expressing their wishes that the body not be damaged, that his personal possessions be returned to the family, and that the family be allowed to preview any photographs prior to publication. It's a near-certainty that if an expedition does find Irvine and the camera, then legal battles will quickly rage back and forth.

The legalities concerning ownership of the camera, and who owns the copyright to any images, is a complicated one, requiring detailed analysis of copyright law since even before 1924. Tom Holzel has posted two excellent articles about both these topics on his webpage (archived) webpage:

Who owns the camera? Who has the copyright to any images? Read these great articles on Tom Holzel's ARCHIVED website.

You'll also want to look at his article on how to treat the film if found.

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