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Did Mallory & Irvine make it to the summit of Everest?
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by jakedai | October 4, 2007 at 01:47 pm
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Did Mallory & Irvine make it to the summit of Everest?
I've posted quite a bit on this blog about the enduring mystery of Everest pioneers George Mallory & Andrew Irvine, and have been fortunate enough to take an active role in the story, going to Everest in 1999, 2001, and 2004 to search for clues and answers to this greatest of mountaineering mysteries.
On that first expedition - the 1999 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition - one of our team members was Graham Hoyland, the grand-nephew of Howard Somervell who was on the fateful 1924 Everest expedition. (Somervell reached nearly 28,000 feet without oxygen climbing with Teddy Norton on June 4, 1924, and also loaned Mallory his Kodak Vestpocket (VPK) camera for the final summit bid as Mallory had forgotten his at Basecamp.)
Unfortunately, in 1999, Graham fell ill with altitude sickness and was not able to take part directly in our discovery of Mallory's remains on May 1. But, since then, he has taken a very active role in putting the pieces of the story together, including developing clothing replicas and returning to the mountain on several occasions.
Just this week, Graham has unveiled a new theory on Mallory & Irvine's final summit bid and generated much media attention in the process in conjunction with a presentation to the Royal Geographic Society in London.
The crux of this theory, which puts Mallory & Irvine on the top of the world some 29 years before Hillary and Tenzin, hangs on Noel Odell's final sighting of the pair high on the Northeast Ridge and conjecture that Mallory would have chosen to forgo the difficulties of the Second Step and climb instead below to the Third Step.
While I, like Graham, believe Mallory & Irvine could have reached the summit in 1924 (and I like to believe they did reach the top, a theory for which I have no proof), I doubt Graham's new theory really breaks any ground.
If you take a good look at the interactive Zoomify panorama of the Northeast Ridge I put up on my website a while back - which shows the First, Second and Third Steps as well as the Summit Pyramid - you can see that bypassing the Second Step by traversing below it (which is the crux of Graham's new theory) is not really a possibility. The daunting band of gray rock which forms the Second Step continues all the way to the Great Couloir with only a small gully breaking through just above the Second Step. And, given that this couloir is composed of down-sloping, rotten rock - characteristic of the upper North Face of Everest - I doubt this would be more feasible than the Second Step itself.
Indeed Teddy Norton, on his attempt on June 4, 1924 with Howard Somervell, traversed below the Northeast Ridge crest trying to find an alternate way to the summit. He found no viable break in the rock bands bypassing the Second Step, and was eventually turned around at 28,165 feet in the Great (Norton) Couloir.
Likewise, in 1933, Percy Wyn-Harris and Lawrence Wager eventually followed Norton's traverse line after backing away from the Second Step and, as with Norton, found no viable passage through the gray band and onto the ridge crest. They turned around at nearly the same spot as Norton 9 years before. Days later, Eric Shipton and Frank Smythe tried the same route with the same results.
George Mallory was a great climber, skilled, insightful, and clever. But, Norton, Wyn-Harris, Wager, Shipton, and Smythe were no slouches and if they could not find a route through the gray band, I doubt Mallory & Irvine could have fared better.
So, while Graham's theory is intriguing and brings this fascinating mystery back into the limelight, I unfortunately think it is but another theory. It unfortunately sheds no more true light on the story than Conrad Anker's assertion that they could not have reached the top given the route challenges.
As I have maintained since 1999, we now know far more about their final days and hours than ever before, but we still have no proof...No proof that they did summit, and likewise no proof that they did not summit.
Anything proclaiming otherwise is simply conjecture.
What do you think?
Did Mallory & Irvine reach the top in 1924?
Does it matter?
- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.
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at 14:42 on October 4th, 2007
jakedai, informative and thought provoking.
at 16:09 on November 20th, 2008
If it is true, as I have heard, that most climbing fatalities happen on the return (which is to say, while climbing downhill) the simple fact that Mallory and Irvine were killed gives a small statistical edge to the view that they were descending when the accident occurred. That, for what it’s worth.
W.J. Wait
at 15:32 on April 21st, 2009
I think people need to be very objective here and not let emotions cloud their judgement. Yes it would be great if it could be proved that Mallory and Irvine actually got the summit, thereby overcomming incredible adversity only to perish tragically on the return to camp.
Unfortunately the reality is quite different. First - there is no way on earth that Irvine could have climbed the second step. He had virtually no record at all of completeing moderate rock climbs let alone difficult rock climbs. Given the altitude and conditions it is very unlikely even Mallory could have climbed the second step. Second - there really is no alternative to climbing the second step. If someone could show this mythical alternative route it would be appreciated. Third - we now know the climbers were together when they had their fatal fall. So we know they didn't split up. If they had have split up and Mallory had climbed the second step and gone for the top, Irvine would have had to wait for him for many hours at the base of the second step. This would have been fatal to Irvine given the conditions of the day and his equipment.
So in summary, Irvine's lack of rock climbing skill completely dashed any chance they had of getting to the top. Yet this simple fact is completely and consistantly overlooked by the romantics who want to beleive they made it
at 17:31 on April 26th, 2009
I've read somewhere that Mallory have a rope tied to him that was broken a few feet away, like it had ripped on a rock. Also his body is said to have bad rope burns on his waist. Now if these items are true I'd say they where tied together climbing down and someone slipped and took them both down. So in my opinion there is no way they split up. That being said i think the Irvine should be somewhere close by Mallory's grave. I've always wondered what happened to Irvine.
at 22:37 on July 6th, 2009
I wonder if the Chinese (1960, 1975) had disturbed any of the evidence or taken it with them when they descended the mountain (e.g. a camera by chance?)