Mallory’s white body shone into the distance. Even after a quarter of a century, Everest keeps a cruel secret

They searched an area the size of 12 football fields. But significantly tilted and icy. Nevertheless, at one point, an unusually white area in the rock shone on them.

They scrambled closer and froze. At their feet lay an incredibly well-preserved, frost-mummified human body. Head and hands covered in crushed stone and ice chunks that time had rolled here for decades. But between the lines of clothing made of natural fabric, a back with preserved white skin shone.

“Wait, that’s not him,” said Andy Politz, one of the members of the research expedition that searched for the remains of Andrew Irvine in May 1999.

They were based on the testimony of a Chinese climber who reported the discovery of the body of an Englishman in 1975. But before he could specify the location, he was swept away by an avalanche and the cruel Everest silenced the important witness.

According to the Chinese’s terse description, the corpse was lying on its back with its mouth open. The body found was on its stomach, as if it was still clinging to the rock. Identification was eventually helped by name patches on clothing. That’s how the expedition learned that they had found George Mallory.

The 38-year-old British English teacher was a die-hard adventurer and war hero who took part in the artillery battles of the Somme.

But his whole life was accompanied by his love for mountains and climbing peaks. Even before the war, he climbed Mont Blanc. Then to Mount Pillar in England, where he chose the hardest possible route.

However, the biggest challenge for him was the Himalayas and Mount Everest. In 1921, he went here with an expedition to better map the entire area. A second time a year later they already tried to attack the top.

“Honey, this is such an exciting business. I can’t even describe how it controls me, what an adventure it is. And the beauty all around,” he wrote in one of his letters to his wife Ruth.

The second expedition was ultimately marked by tragedy. Mallory was part of a group that made their way from camp to the summit, even though everyone knew a storm was coming. Seven Sherpas died in this risk.

That didn’t deter Mallory either. He went under Everest rising to a height of 8,848 meters again two years later. And he surprised everyone by choosing a partner for his final attack on the top.

Irvine was an inexperienced partner

Andrew Irvine was only twenty-two years old with minimal experience. But he was in great shape as an Oxford rower, and that must have impressed Mallory.

And according to the testimony of a member of the team, geologist Noel Odell, after noon on June 8, 1924, the pair moved upward really quickly. Before the sky closed below them heralding the arrival of another snow storm.

Odell waited for the pair at the high-altitude camp, calculating that it could take them 15 hours to get back down in bad weather. But no one showed up, so he too had to withdraw. He was the last person to see the two climbers alive some 248 meters below the summit.

The discovery of George Mallory’s body:

The expedition on May 1, 1999 hoped that the discovery of the body would solve the riddle of whether Mallory and Irvine had finally conquered the summit. Both adventurers had a Kodak Vest pocket camera with them, which, thanks to the freezing conditions, should survive for many decades and could provide evidence of where they both went.

But Mallory did not have the device with him and the body of his partner has not yet been found. The position of the body, the types of injuries and the rope wrapped around the torso indicate that the older of the two climbers may have slipped during the descent.

Irvine, who was chained to Mallory, also fell, the rope broke, and the young man was not helped by the impaled ice ax, which was found in 1933 about 300 meters above the found body.

The older and more experienced of the pair apparently still managed to grab hold of the rocks and for a while tried to descend despite his serious injuries, but was soon overcome by agony and hypothermia.

It is not clear whether they really conquered Everest in the end. Most experts believe that in such conditions and with such equipment, a mask and oxygen bombs on the back, it was practically impossible in those last few hundred meters.

Against this is the legend that Mallory’s wallet did not contain a photograph of his wife Ruth, whom her husband had promised to leave on top of the world if he could reach her.

So was Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa Tenzing really the first man to summit Everest in 1953? The Himalayan giant is still keeping this a secret.

As a memento, one of Mallory’s last statements before he set off on his last expedition looms over the entire story. That’s when he was asked what the purpose of climbing Mount Everest actually was.

“It’s no use. There isn’t the slightest prospect of any profit. Oh, maybe we’ll learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and maybe the doctors will make use of our observations for aeronautical purposes. But otherwise, nothing will come of it,” he admitted frankly.

But in a second breath he added. “What we get from this adventure is pure joy. And joy is, after all, the pinnacle of life. We don’t live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to enjoy life. That’s what life is and what it’s for life,” Mallory declared.