One person who has grabbed my attention in recent days has been George Leigh Mallory, ( 1886-1924) a mountaineer who made daring attempts to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest in days when mountaineers did not have high tech equipment like high tech clothing and crampons or even pitons or even GPS let alone computers. Pioneers in the true sense, Mallory and Sandy Irvine were lost while on their final assault of the summit of the North East Ridge on the ninth of June 1924. They were last seen when they were 245 meters from the summit close to the first or second step by Odell, one of the members of the support team. They had the time, enough time to summit the peak and return in good time. They were using oxygen this time. That was the last time they were sighted.
George Leigh Mallory was an enigmatic person torn between his loyalty to his love, his wife Ruth and his obsession with the other mistress, Chomolungma, the Goddess Mother of Mountains. George Mallory would have retired from mountaineering after summitting Mount Everest and dedicating himself to his family if everything had gone right. His is a story of romance and conflict of emotions, such as that faced by all those out there who want to follow their dreams. Mallory was 37 when he made his last ascent and he was probably driven by the fact that he would probably not be able to make another ascent because of his advancing years. He was desperate to make the final ascent, therefore and so might have made errors of judgement in his obsession to summit the peak. His partner for the final attempt was Sandy Irvine, a much younger mountaineer though less experienced than him.
My reading of Jeffery Archer’s book, “Paths of Glory” and my viewing of the documentary “The Wildest Dream, Conquest of Everest” featuring Conrad Anker have fuelled a gut feeling that Mallory might have after all summitted Mount Everest much before Edmund Hillary! I am not in any case a mountaineer, just a reader of account, though my gut feeling is that the pair might have summitted Mt. Everest much before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay! What adds credence to my belief is that for one thing they had enough time to reach the peak because when his body was discovered by Conrad Anker, his goggles were in his pocket suggesting that he had no need for the goggles since he and Sandy Irvine were on their way back after sundown. Moreover, Ruth, his wife’s photograph was not in his pockets. He had promised her that he would place her photograph on the peak once he had been able to summit it.
Jeffery Archer’s book, “Paths of Glory” is based on majorly on Mallory’s letters to his wife. The correspondence with Ruth his wife speaks volumes about his state of mind, and that he was quite aware about his ability to summit Mt. Everest. His correspondence, moreover suggests that he was quite adamant on leaving her photograph on the summit. But then, where was the photograph? Mallory’s detractors might suggest that he was not equipped to surmount the first, second and third steps before the actual peak, but then, Conrad Anker proved in the film, “The Wildest Dream” that the first, second and third step could be surmounted without ladders.
Proof of the assumption that George Leigh Mallory and Sandy Irvine might be present in the film of the Kodak Camera they carried, but then the camera has not been found, nor has the body of Sandy Irvine been found although a Chinese climber did state that he had found the body of an ancient European in the yellow zone had been found although this could not be corroborated since he was lost in an avalanche. Things did change when George Mallory’s remains were found by Conrad Anker, 75 years after his last summit attempt. Strangely enough, Sandy Irvine’s Ice Axe was found placed rather casually or carefully on a rock at the height of 230 meters below the first step.
Evidence suggests that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine had a fall after summitting the peak. The frayed remains of the rope around the waist of George Mallory’s body suggest that both climbers had been tethered to each other when they fell off the rock face. Critics suggest that the route taken by George Mallory and Sandy Irvine was too treacherous, (mountain climbers don’t take this route any more) but then Odell’s report that he had seen them close to the first step suggests that they had surmounted all the preliminary obstacles.
So what then is the mystery surrounding the fate of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine? My guess is that one day, climbers will come across the Kodak Camera that the pair was carrying, and the mystery will be solved. The discovery of Sandy Irvine’s remains will explain further what happened on that fateful day. Surely their ghosts will finally be laid to rest and history will be re-written!
You might also like to read:
Paths of Glory, Archer Jeffery, St. Martin’s Press, 2014
Or watch the documentary:
The Wildest Dream Conquest of the Everest,2010
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