May 29, 1953, was a momentous day in human history. Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary successfully summited Everest, the highest peak on Earth. It was a testament to human endurance and spirit, for it was the last of the three poles—the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Highest Pole—to be conquered. Until its final conquest, it had been deemed almost unconquerable, with perhaps the highest list of failures and fatalities.
But was Everest summited on May 29, 1953? That is the general belief, and there is documentary evidence, too. Sir Hillary shot the famous photograph of Tenzing Norgay on top of Everest.
But perhaps Everest was summited earlier, exactly a century ago, on June 8, 1924. Only that we may never be sure of it – for the two protagonists of this daring adventure have remained an enigma for 100 years now.
We are talking of George Herbert Leigh Mallory (June 18, 1886 – June 8/9, 1924) and Andrew Comyn 'Sandy' Irvine (April 8, 1902 – June 8/9, 1924)—last seen alive about 800 feet below the summit of Everest. Were they on their way up or returning having already summited Everest? That is the still unsolved question that has lingered on for 100 years now.
Mallory was born in Cheshire, England, and had the usual middle-class upbringing. He served the country during WWI, including at the Battle of Somme in 1916. Prior to that, he worked as a schoolteacher.
Mallory had shown sparks of adventure and daring even as a child, climbing church roofs and spires and, later in his youth (before the War), climbing peaks in Scotland, which have been graded 'very difficult'.But he was reticent and reserved in demeanour compared to his daring nature. When asked by a journalist why he was climbing Everest, he only said: "Because it's there."
Irvine was more spirited, being much younger. He was an engineering student, an athlete, and an accomplished rower.
The Everest expeditions began in the 1920s. In 1921, the British organised the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition to explore routes up to the North Col of Everest. The Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club had joined hands to set up the Everest Committee to organise this expedition. Mallory's tryst with Everest came when he was invited by the secretary of the Alpine Club to be a part of this joint expedition. This expedition was notable in producing the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain.
Mallory was part of two more British expeditions to Everest.
The second expedition in 1922 aimed at summiting Everest. Two groups made two attempts at the expedition party, but both remained unsuccessful. Mallory and his team members reached 8,225 metres without bottled oxygen. A second party led by George Finch reached 8,321 metres, using bottled oxygen for climbing and, in a first in mountaineering, for sleeping at the camps.
Mallory's last attempt was in 1924, and he was, along with his partner, Irvine, never seen or heard of again till decades later when bodies were spotted on the mountain. They were last seen alive on the northeast ridge of Everest on June 8, 1924. Mallory and Irvine are presumed to have succumbed to the harsh elements on the world's highest mountain on June 8/9, 1924.
Incidentally, this was Irvine's first expedition to Everest. He had joined the expedition following a recommendation by expedition leader Noel Odell, whom he had met in the Welsh highlands in 1919.
Irvine's ice axe was discovered in 1933 by a fourth British expedition to Everest, but no bodies were found. It was 75 years later, in 1999, that Mallory's body was discovered on the mountain.
In 1999, the Mallory And Irvine Research Expedition was organised, comprising a battery of climbers from the UK, the US and Germany. It aimed at settling for once the never-ending debate as to whether the duo had actually summited Everest in 1924. While scanning the area where Irvine's ice axe had been discovered in 1933, American mountaineer Conrad Anker veered off-course and accidentally stumbled across a rather well-preserved body. It was later confirmed to be Mallory's. Irvine's body was not found. In fact, it has not been found to date, not confirmed, at least.
However, there have been reports that Irvine's body, Mallory's, and other artefacts that could shed light on whether Mallory and Irvine were the first to summit Everest have also been spotted and removed.
Incidentally, the 1999 expedition failed to arrive at a concrete conclusion about whether the two had summited Everest, as did subsequent expeditions in 2001, 2004, and 2007, including a later one in 2019, which had extensively scanned the area. The 2019 expedition later concluded that the bodies had been removed from their original resting place.
In fact, both Mallory and Irvine's bodies are reported to have been removed from their initial resting place sometime in the 2000s, according to a report in The Guardian. Apparently, seven years after Hillary and Norgay's first confirmed summit of Everest in 1953 (who went via the south route), the Chinese reached the summit via the north route that Mallory and Irvine had attempted in 1924. It was a huge propaganda for the Chinese. Many mountaineers now believe that the Chinese removed the bodies sometime around 2008 – after the discovery of Mallory's body in 1999 sparked renewed interest in the mystery and led to successive expeditions – in a bid to remove any suggestion that someone else had attempted the summit via the much treacherous north ridge before them. Perhaps Irvine's body and the Kodak camera were removed even earlier in 1975 during another Chinese expedition to Everest.
Incidentally, the 2001 expedition made one remarkable discovery—a pre-WWII camp on the mountain that could only have belonged to Mallory and Irvine.
During the 1999 expedition, the team found many artefacts, including goggles and oxygen cylinders, but did not find the Kodak camera, which Mallory was supposedly carrying. This camera could possibly shed light on whether Mallory and Irvine had summited the mountain and disappeared during the descent or perished while climbing up. It has not been found to date. It is now widely believed that the camera was also removed by the Chinese during one of their expeditions.
Some mountaineers believe the duo successfully reached the top of the mountain. They point to two circumstantial evidences in support of this belief.
The first was a photograph of Mallory's wife, Ruth, who Mallory intended to leave at the summit. This was not found on Mallory's well-preserved body, though other items were intact. But the photograph has not been found on the summit to date. Even if we assume that Mallory had summited Everest, the next confirmed summit was in 1953, almost 29 years later. A photograph would unlikely have survived the bleak elements on Everest for 29 years.
The second was the discovery of Mallory's goggles in his pocket, which suggests the two were descending after sunset. Given their departure time from camp 5 in the morning, the only plausibility of staying out in the open at night (since it has been assumed that Mallory was not wearing sunglasses; it was found in his pocket) could be that they were returning to their camp from the summit. Otherwise, there was no reason they would be out so late at night.
It is still debatable whether Mallory and Irvine were the first to summit Everest on June 8, 1924.
But in an era when lightweight was not synonymous with mountaineering – it was all about heavy woollens and oilskin clothes and boots, heavy hawser-laid ropes, iron ice axes, crampons and carabiners- George Mallory was a pioneer.
Several have walked their way to Everest since the first confirmed ascent by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953, but did the Paths Of Glory actually belong to Mallory and Irvine?
Who knows? Perhaps it did. English novelist Jeffrey Archer certainly thought so, as he wrote in his alternative history fiction Paths Of Glory, which caused an uproar in New Zealand.
But it may well remain the most enduring mystery in mountaineering for centuries to come.