In light of recent discoveries I think that during the fall, Mallory being the experienced climber he was stopped himself with his ice axe, but Irvine didn’t have his, and when Mallory caught the weight of Irvine on the rope, it ripped his axe ice out of the ground striking him in the head and also gave him the rope burn/injury, then Irvine’s weight snapped the rope that held him to Mallory (or maybe a rock cut it), and Irvine went tumbling all the way down to the glacier hitting the bottom in pieces, and Mallory (still being partially conscious) slid a bit further down the mountain to where he was found/died. In short, Mallory fell and Irvine fell farther and the reports of old English dead high on Everest were sightings of Mallory or hallucinations.
Isn't it funny. In the end it was Mallory and Irvine, both from the same small town (Irvine having been born in Birkenhead and Mallory's family moving there at 1904). Maybe it gave them something to talk about?
This was so informative, particularly for us history buffs without climbing experience. Can you imagine the sorrow Mallory must have felt laying on that mountain, thinking to himself “no one will ever know”. Ghastly. I hope someday, for his sake, we do. Thanks for sharing your experience.
If Irvine's ice axe marks the spot where he fell but Mallory fell from a spot lower down, then did he manage to keep descending after Irvine fell? I've often wondered, are there any large rocks near the summit that Mallory could have placed his letter to Ruth underneath?
This is the best presentation I’ve watched. I’m a visual person, so seeing then and now, your “John Madden” marks made it all make sense. Thank you! I love the interactive web site with photos and videos you developed
I have just watched this it was a really good insight to the journey of 1924 how very brave you all are it's so fascinating thanks for sharing . I live in the same area Merseyside to where Andrew Irvine lived albeit it he lived on the other side of the river mersey and not far from Birkenhead park
Now hes found I guess there are more things to learn about the mountain and the top of a Glacier he fell on to , im amazed on a few things. One there seems to be very little snow on that glacier , 2 that that must be a spot for avalanches and oxygen bottle mistakes . 3 that that place you can see anything , whould love to know more about that geography
Thank you Jake. Sandy Irvine's foot was found this week by Jimmy and National Geographic. Like you, I hope that Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit. The absence of the photo of Ruth haunts me too.
Hey Jake 😊 I've o ly just heard about the discovery of sandy Irvines foot and boot this must be huge news after all your efforts in finding him. What are your thoughts on this ? ❤
Hopefully he is still there and the Chinese didn't move it in their expedition. Many rumors and hopefully not true! It's brave just to look for him off the safety line. 🗻
I was pleased to find this piece as I’ve been disturbed by many of the comments I’ve read under videos on this topic lately. Many allegations have been made, some that seem very ignorant of the nature of a search on Mt Everest; and others that are focused more on the conduct of the searchers. This has not sat right for me as these allegations don’t gel with the hours of time that I’ve spent listening to the people who were there. Conrad, Jake, Thom, they just don’t strike me as the brainless, heartless mountain jocks that some commenters have painted them as. These men aren’t actors or politicians, I can’t see how they would be capable of this decades long charade. I’m also disturbed by the willingness of commenters to make judgments and throw out accusations without ever seeing any proof for themselves. It’s a sad direction that our civilisation is taking. Videos like this one are important to our historical record of these events. Things were different 25 years ago, of course it would be better to take an archaeologist. But just remember that we wouldn’t know any of what we know now without the talents and perseverance of these mountaineers who were the only ones with the ability to get up there.
I love the quote that you chose from Mallory to sum up the spirit of this expedition. Words that will stay relevant through the ages. You are right that the merits of their journey should be enough to inspire us. The summit question overshadows their achievements.
Excellent presentation. Question/comment about the photo of Ruth. Is there any substantive evidence that Mallory actually had such a photo on the expedition? I think too much emphasis is placed on this wishful canard. After departing Darjeeling, Mallory did correspond with Ruth, requesting photographs of her and the children; and subsequent correspondence affirms that Mallory received the children's photos, but he's still requesting a photo of Ruth.
Jake...the reason I believe your prognosis above that of, say, Conrad Anker, is that I can tell by your handling of certain things and just your general disposition and reverence for the anthropological value of Everest that you have a tremendous amount of empathy as a human being. Empathy is simply the ability to relate to other humans, and feel internally the emotional cost of whatever they are relating to oneself (or the world) externally, personally, or visually. Your (easily detectable) empathy and care gives you a significant leg-up in terms of feeling what George Mallory may have felt in various circumstances when faced with myriad obstacles & situations. The ability to relate and put yourself there, and to truly feel linked to this person in a sort of "spiritual," pseudo-psychological way, is actually quite valuable, and this is the same reason why the greatest detectives are those who are the most empathic and genuinely feel the human cost of the cases they tackle. Their ability to relate on a personal level affords them the ability to humanize and thus demystify otherwise abstract or arcane decisions & circumstances. At the end if the day, is a century truly that much time? If anything, their presence on Everest, given their spartan equipment, should actually afford them several measures more credibility to an observer...not detract from it. To me, Conrad Anker & others of that ilk, treat Mallory as if he's some alien whose ways & methods are arcane and truly baffling...they see their spartan gear and think things like, "they mist be crazy, I wouldn't ever come here so unprepared with such a sparsity of gear." They get lost in absurdity because of their fundamental inability to not see themselves and their own point of view. To them, Mallory & Irvine are a total enigma, anyone on Everest in a waistcoat defies all they cam even fathom, therefore who knows what the hell they did, they probably just fell and died right away, which is the equivalent of not being able to fathom being at 30,000 feet back in Mallory's time, and thinking something absurd, like that your head would explode, or something. When scrutinized, Anker & co. sinply resort back to arguments which roughly amount to, "well...look at their silly hats...I could never climb in such a silly hat...no way they made it." Just my opinions, thank you for the hard work.
Irvine is up there. He is. He will be found, that is my firm belief. However, I think he will be found purely by accident, just like he always has been. Every sighting of Irvine share a couple patterns: tired or disoriented climbers wandering off known routes, all on their own, or in one case, a climber wandering around, off the known route, randomly stumbles upon him.
Jake hi from Canmore, Alberta, not too far apart 15 hr drive. However we share the worlds best playground in our backyards. I really should do some climbing in CO, have enjoyed MT and WY though. Think you are being far too hard on yourself re the "worlds worst RU-vidr" comment. I appreciate that you post when you have quality content or comment not just for the sake of racking up RU-vid placement. This posting is a perfect example obviously I was aware there was film footage of the early Everest attempt taken by John Noel 1922. But knew nothing beyond the photo of him hunched behind that huge aluminum box on massive wood tripods. Photo from "Ghosts Of Everest" awesome book, (Hemmleb, Larry Johnson, Eric Simonson). Now I know the whole story amazingly ingenious for the time. All that from you taking the time to pick of a piece of detritus from poking out of the glacier. Then doing the deep dive so many years later for our benefit. Thanks for showing us articles in your office, that split O2 cylinder looks interesting not seen that before?. O2 cylinders and different delivery systems really interest me US vs Russian vs Chinese for example. Do you have preference of O2 delivery set ?. Personally I prefer quality content over quantity content this posting is quality. Thanks for this take care.
I remember reading about an Everest Summit... don't remember the name of mountaineer at the moment who did the climb... to gather rocks for scientific analysis of summit rocks. My question is that if the rock you have could be compared to those retrived for the analysis, and if they matched, would that help establish whether Malloy's came from summit? I know this might be simplistic, and may have already been done so just a thought. 🤷♀️
