The 75-Year Mystery Of George Mallory’s Death On Mount Everest
Dave Hahn/Getty ImagesThe body of George Mallory, as captured in 1999.
When asked why he felt driven to scale Everest, English mountaineer George Mallory replied simply, “because it’s there.”
To this day, Mallory is known perhaps as much for that retort as he is for the controversy over whether or not he ever reached the top. After failing to scale Everest twice before in 1921 and 1922, he never returned from his 1924 attempt, leaving the fate of his climb uncertain.
Wikimedia CommonsMembers of the 1924 expedition team, with Mallory highlighted in gray.
A skilled climber since his days at Winchester College, George Mallory was one of the pioneers of Mount Everest’s early expeditions.
Mallory helped map out routes for the first Everest expedition in 1921. When the winds forced his party to turn back, they tried again in 1922, an expedition that featured the first use of supplemental oxygen.
Though eager to partake in Everest journeys in the early 1920s, Mallory feared his age would soon become an issue as he advanced into his mid-thirties. But with the prospect of adventure and glory nevertheless in mind, he and climbing partner Andrew Irvine jumped at the chance to try again in 1924.
But the men disappeared on the mountain and how far they got remains unclear. After departing camp at 26,800 feet on June 8, 1924, Mallory and Irvine were last seen ascending through the mist.
Wikimedia CommonsMallory (top right) and his team in 1921.
Their fate remained a mystery for 75 years, with only scattered clues filling in pieces of the story. Irvine’s ice ax was found at 27,700 feet in the 1930s, while a Chinese man said he saw a body that looked English in 1975. A 1920s oxygen canister was found in 1991.
But in 1999, climbers with the BBC’s Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found their bodies. This was perhaps the most historic discovery of any of the Mount Everest bodies ever uncovered.
The official analysis says that Mallory died after a terrible fall from a cliff. Irvine’s body wasn’t found, nor was the camera that Mallory had carried on his person throughout the journey. In the end, the historic explorer was buried where he was found.
But the discovery of his body still didn’t definitively answer the question of whether he’d made it to the top, whether he was on his way up when he died or on his way back down. But we do know that he vowed to leave a photo of his wife on the summit — and that no photo of her was found on his body.
