Conspiracies & Lies: Thoughts on May 1, 1999 

Thank you. I really appreciate it, and I guess all any of us can do is try to be honest, tell our truth, admit our mistakes and missteps, and keep climbing onward. Thank you again, and be well!

Thanks, David!

My pleasure - glad you are enjoying it!

Thank you - very much appreciated! I agree with you vis-a-vis MT, that he has contributed a lot, brings forth a lot of good theories and ideas, but sadly weakens it all through the other aspects. But, thanks again, and hoping to get some more content out later this week. It's been a busy time work wise and I've gotten behind! All best to you!

Thank you. We had a great team, a great season, and a healthy dollop of luck as well. And, yes, RIP to the many who have been lost on the mountain. Thanks, and be well.

@@jake_norton Absolutely, cheers!!!

Why don't you go a kick rocks! You people just love to find conspiracy in anything anymore. Never do you use some common sense!

Hi John, thanks for your note and thoughtful comment. I can't speak to what Tap was referencing, and I of course cannot speak to what others from 1999 say or do. But, I can say for my side that I've been as transparent and honest and open with what I did, we did, what I've seen and uncovered and explored - and what I have not - and have shared for decades the photos I have that might help tell some more of the story. As for your specific questions: 1. Mallory''s neck pouch was not retrieved, at least not by me on May 1. I was the one who felt it as I reached underneath Mallory's body, and felt a rectangular metal (hard) object inside. I cut it open with my knife, and pulled out what turned out to be the tin of beef lozenges. Other items if memory serves were in the pouch, including Mallory's pen knife, pencil, and the small notebook. 2. All the items we recovered from Mallory - every single one - was inventoried at Basecamp. They then traveled back to Seattle for analysis post-expedition. After that. certain personal items were returned to the family directly to Clare in the Bay Area, and the remainder went on to the RGS. So, the notebook should either be with the Mallory family or with the RGS. I was not in charge of the artifacts after the expedition, so don't have any more definitive information. 3. We only found bottle #9, and it was right where Eric described having seen an old bottle in 1991. I honestly was not really aware of the rumors of a second bottle having been possibly seen prior to our expedition. I asked Jochen this weekend and he said Eric thought he might have seen another one in 1991, but was not sure. The one Eric knew he had seen was not well below the ridge, nor did he ever describe it that way to me; it was always near the ridge crest below the First Step, right about where Tap found it. Hope this helps some, and thanks.

​@@jake_norton Jake, thanks for the reply. As you may or may not know, I started my semi-adult life as a professional archaeologist and spent twenty years at that pursuit. My approach to this problem is largely from from the perspective of material culture, i.e. artifacts and features. Perhaps I should ask my questions on your blogsite where there are more people who could be interested? Here is a bit from Simonson, Hemmleb and Anderson's Outside Magazine article ("Ghosts of Everest") from October 1st, 1999: "Finally lifting up Mallory's right shoulder, Norton reached underneath to find a pouch around Mallory's neck. Inside was something hard and metallic-but not the camera. It was a metal tin of bouillon cubes, “Brand & Co. Savoury Meat Lozenges.” With the tin was a brass altimeter missing both its face and hands, and an envelope, perfectly preserved, the ink script of the letter inside crisp and clear. " I have been told that you sliced open to pouch to get to the contents? That single pouch is visible around Mallory's neck in Odell's famous photo from Camp IV-North Col at 8:40 AM on June 6th, 1924.

@@JohnDavidHays Thanks, John, for your reply, and nice to meet a real archaeologist, not just one who plays one in the mountains! Feel free to ask questions on the blog if better, whatever is best for you. Yes, you're correct the pouch is the same pouch (presumably) seen in the June 6th photo taken at the North Col. I thought it was the knife, pencil, and notebook that also came out of the pouch, but those could well have been in his breast pockets where Tap and I found additional items. Thanks.

@@JohnDavidHays I should note also that I don't know of anyone being banned from social platforms after asking questions, nor would I understand how that could happen unless someone from '99 has a lot more power than I know!

Thank you, Meg. You rock, and I hope all is well with you and the family. Hope to see you again soon!

Thanks, Scott - much appreciated! Yeah, I do find the accusations of Irvine having been found on drone footage and the truth being hidden - to what end? - quite amusing, and immensely frustrating. It's especially, um, curious, that I am often accused of not releasing the drone footage, even thought it's not mine and was shot on a different expedition! Ah, well. Anyway, thank you, and have a great evening.

Indeed, Peggy. Some choose to see the cloud in every silver lining. Too bad. Thank you again, and be well!

Thanks, Ulrich. Hope all is well!

Yeah, I've heard that Discovery has not made it widely available for some reason. You should be able to catch it on Apple TV here: tv.apple.com/us/show/everests-greatest-mystery/umc.cmc.3383txnc63d2ociocsmjsk1x5. It's also on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Everests-Greatest-Mystery-Season-1/dp/B092JLJJR1. And here: ondemand.spectrum.net/tv/discovery-channel/18830607/everests-greatest-mystery/. But I'm not sure if it's region restricted on all those platforms. Sometimes a good VPN like ExpressVPN can sneak around those things!

I'm with you. I respect so much of what he's done and the new ideas and energy he's added to the story and research, but the attitude is unfortunate. But, such is life in this day and age I reckon!

Thanks for your note. I'm not sure I completely understand your question: Are you asking what the movement of Irvine might have been after Mallory's death? If so, I think a lot depends of course on Irvine's condition, and where the accident took place. Personally, as I've written about before, I've always believed the final fall must have occurred somewhere in the mid to lower Yellow Band. I believe Irvine likely survived that accident, and tried to make it back to their Camp VI, only to eventually collapse and succumb to his possible injuries and the cold, only to be found in 1960 by Xu Jing. But, of course, that's only hypothesis!

Ha, thank you for the thoughts and wise words, Toni. It's hard to bite the tongue and not react at times! Anyway, thank you, and I hope you are well. Take care!

You're welcome Jake. I am doing great ,retired from coaching soccer and dedicating myself to my great passion of mountaineering. Not like y'all but enjoying climbing mountains in Bosnia right now, and yes no Michael Tracy kinda guys around here, they get beatchslapped pretty quick here. We'll , I climb Kili with my buddy Elia Saikaly and P.K. Sherpa. Suppose to go to Elbrus next but being an American in Russia is not terribly healthy right now. I hope Aconcagua next year, I am still young and a perspective mountaineer. 😂. Take care man, keep up the good work brother, enjoying all your past posts, your walk under the pinnacles is stunning and your video on warts effing wow😮

Thank you, Chad - much appreciated!

Thank you.

Thank you, Christopher, I appreciate it! Just one quick correction: Michael Tracy has climbed Everest, reaching the summit on May 23, 2013, as a client of Arnold Coster. He returned as a client and searcher in 2018 and spent one day searching somewhere above Camp VI/Camp 3 on May 19. Interestingly, I've not seen details of his search area, any findings, etc. Ah well! Anyway, thanks again, and best regards.

​@@jake_nortonThanks for the correction. I see where you got that! ( Mr. Tracy's video, Dave Hahn ) yeah, I figured, it was a minor mistake. Hey, when we are recording, which, when I record, I say wrong things. No one is perfect! You meant 2018!

Thanks, Daniel. I unfortunately don't have footage of the Pinnacles aside from (possibly, I'll have to check) some really bad shots in wind and storm from the 1938 Camp VI shot in 2004, and maybe some passing video shot in 2019. I'll go through my archives though and pull out what I can to share. Thanks!

Hey Ryan, Hmm, I'm not Jamie, nor Mark, nor have I ever been on an expedition with them, so I can't say. Not trying to be snide, it's just Michael and his acolytes seem to believe that any researcher (except him, of course) is part of some sort of monolith, all working in tandem to hide the truth ala X Files. The truth that is plainly out there is that we aren't a monolith, as Michael well knows, but individuals. I have no idea what Jamie knew and when, nor honestly what Mark searched outside of what I saw in their film, which seems to indicate he searched a small part of essentially what I did back in 2004 and then Michael repeated (from what little I know) in heavy snow in 2018 for some reason.

@@jake_norton Appreciate the reply as always Jake, what does your gut tell you about where SI ended up with the true or not true reports of the Chinese possibly being involved ?

My pleasure, Ryan. As for Sandy, my (sad) hunch is that IF the reports are true that the Chinese found him and moved his remains, I doubt they would have taken his body down the mountain. My guess is they would have pushed him off the mountain, and depending where they found him, that could place his remains down the Kangshung, down toward ABC and the East Rongbuk, or, most likely, down the North Face and Central Rongbuk. I sure hope I am wrong and that (first choice) he is still up there, or (second choice) that they brought down and somehow preserved his remains and all that was found on him. I wish I knew more!

@@jake_nortonI agree I hope he wasn’t tossed down further, I wonder what happened to Mallory’s oxygen system, it seemed a fairly sturdy frame, obviously ripped off when the fall happened. Must have been terrifying for them

Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, I've wondered about the O2 system as well. My guess is that they likely ran out of O2 before the final fall, and thus they would have abandoned the frames and such to save weight. So, theoretically those would have been left somewhere on the upper mountain. I've never heard of any being found, but something could have been back in the early days, or they well could have slipped off the mountain over time. Or, there could be something up there still, just enough off the route to not have been seen/found. I think there's still a chance of evidence being up high, but it's a tough place to search.

Thanks Dave. I wish I could answer that question, but cannot. Thom was there, I was not, and I honestly have no idea, nor I guess do I think it matters much on a material level regarding the story: I believe Thom's account of a hole/injury in Mallory's forehead, as that has always been consistent, and I don't need a photo to confirm that that is a significant injury, possibly the one that killed him in the end (although cold and his other injuries would likely have done that absent the head injury). Anyway, I'm sure you've been on a team in your life, and while that team may have been great - not perfect - you probably know that one member can not control or know everything about another member.

100%

Not sure you will get a response tbf. They have had plenty of time to respond.

As you can imagine, I'm one person, one member of a climbing team. I cannot control others, nor would I want to, nor can I force others to go out and fix some perceived wrongs, or wrongly-perceived wrongs as the case may be. As for Eric and "finder's keepers," please elaborate as I'm not sure what you're speaking about. On the DNA, we were under direction from Peter Firstbrook and Graham Hoyland, the main BBC reps, that we needed to take a DNA sample per the Mallory and Irvine families' request. It was not something we wanted to do in any way, especially after finding what we did and feeling confident we knew who we had found. But, we were at 27,000 feet, had our orders from BBC, could not speak freely on the radio, so decided to do what was asked and took a small DNA sample, which was immediately brought back to the UK by Peter Firstbrook. And, that DNA sample did confirm the blood on Mallory's lapels was indeed his, so was not useless data I guess. And, while I'm sure some find nefarious intent with taking the DNA sample - although I'm not sure how - there was none. Thanks.

@jellynicecream1967 @jellynicecream1967 They" is me, and I have a life outside of RU-vid. Apologies for a delayed reply.

@@jake_nortonJake - To the finder's keepers: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N0HSMUlzGYY.html. Regarding the DNA, see the couple of minutes after minute 47: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IwUqUzgpHw0.html

Thank you.

Thanks, and take good care!

@@jake_norton Thank you Jake. As an aside, it's so wild to me that I can type words in my house, and have a legend like you read them and reply directly. You're in my pantheon like Mallory is in yours. Also, thank you so much for making that interactive Everest viewer. I climb mountains, but I'm in New England so they're all puny. You're providing views and angles I've only dreamed of having up there.

Thank you! And, that's great you're in New England - my old stomping grounds! The mountains may be smaller there, but as you well know, they pack a punch! Say hi to them for me!

Thanks, Allen!

Thanks, Bob, much appreciated! And, of course - please use my remembrances wherever you need to! Thanks again, and all my best, Jake

Dianne, thank you. Your words mean a lot. I did wonder if I should even post/write something like this, but finally felt I needed to say my piece, even though it will fall on deaf ears for those who want to only see what we did wrong. I guess that is life, and so it goes. But, I truly appreciate your words, and in the end I feel we did a good thing in the best way with the best intentions, and that's all we can do. Thank you again, and take good care!

👏👏👏

@@jake_norton Jake, my apologies for not seeing this reply. You are so welcome. Please take care. Sending all my best thoughts and light your way. 🙏

Thank you, Robert. I feel similarly: I wish we had found a camera, wish we had looked for - and found - summit rocks, wish for a lot of things, but in the end I'm happy we found something, added a bit more to the story. May we some day know more.

Thanks, Ellen! Especially from someone who knows that place as well as anyone! So great to see you a few months back, and hope to see you again sooner than later!

May 16th search not so much

Thanks, Gary, we tried our best. All best to you!

How is Tracy an expert?

With all due respect, you are a fool. Jake was actually there when they found George Mallory's body. He's probably spent more time risking his life investigating this topic than anyone. It's appalling that he has to even has to make this video.

@@czarcastic1458 if you have to ask the question then you know little or anything about the 1924 expedition or the man Mr Tracy , who has done more than anyone else to bring the truth to the surface with regards to the 1924 climb , all of this information is available if you are willing to look for it , I am not your personal assistant and I was not put on this planet to educate you , the extensive research that Mr Tracy has done is second to none and NO ONE does a better job with regards to finding and explaining the truth

Thanks, Donald. I don't disagree that Michael has a lot of information and insight into the story. A lot of it came directly from the 1999 expedition I was on, and which he thoroughly and incessantly castigates. Interesting that, no? Anyway, appreciate the respect you give to Mallory and Irvine. Best to you.

Mr Norton Thank You for the reply

I'm not sure I get your meaning, but assuming it is that some outside power controls the truth and protects Hillary and Tenzing? Even if there was such a force, it wouldn't matter: Hillary and Tenzing made it up, and made it back down. That counts as the first success, regardless of how amazing it would be if one day we find Mallory and Irvine did reach the top in 1924.

@@jake_norton I didn't mean to diminish the feats or suggest theres supernatural orders at work, but if there were a truth that proved Malory and Irvine made it up that would change things from a commercial stand point, an we all know money and politics rules. Which is likely why the Chinese have been hiding things and likely why Malorys remains were butchered by the team that found him.

Without doubt, any evidence that M and I made it would be broadcast everywhere. It would be electric news, and no one would conceal it. It makes no sense to suggest otherwise.

Jesus, you sound like a snarky teenage girl.

Hahaha, cracking me up! Thanks, and be well.

Tracy is a joke.

Hmm, Wade Davis film? I didn't know he made one. Second search film? As I said in the video - assuming you watched it - I've never seen the raw footage, only the PBS and BBC films; I've never had access to it. Drone footage: again, again, again, Renan is another human being, quite separate from me. We were on different expeditions. I have not seen his footage; I cannot force him to share it. As for my own, let me know what you want to see and I'll share it. Seriously, are you expecting me to upload everything I have ever shot on 8 Everest expeditions?

@@jake_norton [comment deleted because I just don’t know enough yet]

Thanks for the detailed reply and thoughts. I guess there's not much to reply to here, as your mind is pretty made up as is evident by all you share as gospel and fact without really, it seems, understanding the situation. 1. By Wade Davis film, I'm assuming you mean the film that was shot on our expedition, which Wade got access to? So far as I know, there would be no other Wade Davis film. At any rate, I have no idea how Wade got to view the footage. I never have. Nor do I feel a compelling need to. I was there. As I've said, I know we didn't do things perfectly, while also knowing we did the best we could. Not sure what else you want. 2. Apparently Michael and his acolytes don't fully grasp the way expeditions and the assets created work. Dave Hahn, Thom Pollard, and Ned Johnston were contracted by and paid by BBC and NOVA to shoot the expedition. BBC and NOVA - not Dave, not Thom, not Ned, not Eric, not anyone but BBC and NOVA - owned 100% of the copyright to that footage. Every single piece of it. No one else had access to it. Additionally, BBC and NOVA had agreements to make their own films, independent of one another, which they did, and we - the climbing/research team - had no editorial control, no input, no nothing. The decisions made as to what to include/exclude, etc., were done by Peter Firstbrook of the BBC and Liesl Clark of NOVA, and their respective teams. We were not consulted. The footage, as I understand it, is currently in the BBC archives. Feel free to reach out to them, fly over to London, and take a look. It's not my job to do that for you, nor could I if I wanted to. 3. My archive: What do you want to see? Let me know and I'll happily share it. There's a lot on my website. There always has been. I've been working on this, sharing about it, a actually going to the mountain to look for things and find things and shed light on the story long before Michael decided to get guided up in 2013 and then go back and search in 2018 for a couple hours across ground I had already searched 14 years prior. And, he's not really shared much of what he did, why, how, what was found, what footage he shot, etc., publicly available. Isn't that ironic? Is HE hiding something? I doubt it; I think Michael, like me, has shared what is relevant, what info, data, media, etc. he has that contributes to the story and research, and has not bothered to share the rest as it's not relevant. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for Michael in some ways, not in others. I'm not here to disparage or argue, and if that's the path you choose, go ahead, but I'll not be a part of it. Not sure what else to say to you, honestly. You're going to believe what you want to believe, what you've been told to believe. That's fine. I guess I wonder why you're here, watching and commenting, if you're so certain I'm just lying, obfuscating, etc? Anyway, not my gig to get into a shouting match over all of this, and I won't. Have fun on the Discord channel, take care, and have a great day.

@@jake_norton hey Jake I just want to reiterate my prior comment that you really are generous with your time and access here. And I say that because it stands in stark contrast to others out here who’d rather hit the block button and call it a day. I actually did not give you much of a detailed response tbh but thanks I’ll take the compliment. I do have a ton of questions for you, as do many in the particular Discord you reference. ✌️But I’d rather ask them in a less confrontational forum. If you did a live stream, everyone would be interested. And if you had someone on to help you cue up your footage, artifacts, and photos, it would be one for the books. It would allow you take questions and you can even invite others on to join. My guess is that behind most of the attention and criticism you are receiving lies interest and respect. Anyways. Hope to chat in a live soon ✌️🗻