Can Heroes Be Failures? George Mallory Was

Everyone (wrongly) assumed Mallory never reached Everest's summit, but he was still lionised.

by Harold Cluff |
George Mallory

Heroes can be failures too. As far as it was known to mountaineers and the world at large, English adventurer George Mallory, famous for saying he wanted to climb Everest simply ‘because it’s there’, died attempting to reach the summit. But did he? Does it matter? Whether he accomplished his dream or not, Mallory’s reasoning is far more interesting than the outcome – of man’s irrepressible daring to do.

George Mallory decided to climb the world’s tallest mountain peak, Everest, ‘because it’s there’

On Sunday, 8th June, 1924, veteran climber, George Mallory, and his partner, Sandy Irvine, were spotted a thousand feet below the summit of Everest ‘going strongly for the top’. Hitherto, the tallest peak in the world was deemed impregnable, but Mallory’s two previous attempts in 1921 and 1922 had convinced the climbing community that such a feat was possible. That brief sighting of two small dots racing along the slopes of Everest was the last anyone ever saw of Mallory and Irvine alive.
In 1999, an expedition discovered Mallory’s well-preserved body, along with numerous personal items and telling bits of equipment. The Kodak camera he had brought with him to document his ascent was not found, nor were the remains of his young companion, Sandy Irvine. If Irvine’s corpse or their Kodak camera are ever located, their recovery may solve the greatest mystery in the history of modern exploration – were they the first to reach the top of Everest?
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The 1924 British expedition to Mount Everest. Sandy Irvine (hat) is on the far left of the back row, with George Mallory stood to his right. 
Over 27 years later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, officially conquered the indomitable mountain. Having reached the top and gotten down unharmed, they deserve to be recognised as the first pair to successfully and safely overcome the supposedly insurmountable odds of Everest. However, in 1924, when Mallory led his third and final expedition, nobody even knew if life could survive at such high altitudes. It is those perceived obstacles that make the notion of Mallory and Irvine reaching the top over twenty-five years before Hillary and Tenzing all the more tantalising and heroic, even though neither climber returned.
In 1924, when Mallory led his third and final expedition, nobody even knew if life could survive at such high altitudes
George Mallory was born in Cheshire. Having attended Winchester College and Cambridge University, he befriended many of the best known intellectuals and artists of his time, all of whom noted his courage, intelligence and determination. Sandy Irvine was an engineering student at Oxford. A champion rower and keen athlete, despite his inexperience as a mountaineer, few questioned his abilities to accompany Mallory to the highest acre on earth. His knowledge of the primitive oxygen tanks the team took with them in 1924, made his involvement especially important. He was only 22 when him and Mallory went missing. At 37, Mallory had suddenly arrived at the morass of middle age without having achieved the accomplishment that had plagued his dreams for years.

An expedition member contemplates Everest (photo credit: EDWARD OLIVER WHEELER)

Mallory titled this picture ‘Camp at 20,000ft – the last day’ (photo credit: GEORGE LEIGH MALLORY)

Mallory’s caption: ‘Descending from Karpo Riwo, head of Kama Valley, Aug. 7th’ (photo credit: GEORGE LEIGH MALLORY)

Irvine’s ice axe, found on the North-East Ridge in 1933

Friends and colleagues have argued that Mallory’s awareness that this attempt would likely be his last would have spurred him on to overcome any hazard and hardship fate would have flung at him. He and his celebrated team had set earlier records and naturally the completion of their quest dominated every decision they made. Among that impressive squad of alpinists was geologist, soldier and climber extraordinaire, Noel Oddell. It was him who saw Mallory and Irvine for the last time, moving with pace up the steep climes of Everest’s penultimate step, before a colossal cloud enveloped the mesmerising view of his intrepid comrades and they vanished forever. Some critics, however, have asserted that Oddell didn’t see Mallory and Irvine where he claimed that they were possibly far lower than initially anticipated. In any case, subsequent to their disappearance, Oddell broke another record, staying eleven days above 26,000 ft to search for his friends.
On 1st May, 1999, an expedition set off to locate Mallory’s body. They were merely the latest in a long line of admiring explorers who strove to pinpoint the resting place of the world’s most famous mountaineer. To their surprise, they quickly found Mallory’s corpse at the base of a drop lying face down in a mess of snow, slate and gravel. Not wanting to act inappropriately or disrespectfully they hesitatingly searched their hero’s pockets for clues as to what happened. Letters, a box of matches, bills, and a compass were retrieved, but certain intriguing items were missing. Mallory reportedly carried a photograph of his wife on the climb with the intention of depositing his keepsake on the summit. No photograph was found. His unbroken snow goggles were also in his pocket, suggesting that he and Irvine had gone for the top and were descending after sunset. These clues imply that the doomed duo did in fact find themselves looking over the world from the zenith of Everest.
These clues imply that the doomed duo did in fact find themselves looking over the world from the zenith of Everest

Clues as to the fate of  Sandy Irvine are scattered across Everest’s unassailable slopes. In 1933, an ice-axe was found at 27,760 feet. Since the make of the axe was used on the third, fateful English expedition, and no other members of that venture made it as high, researchers have concluded that the axe must belong to Mallory or Irvine. In 1991, a 1924 oxygen tank was collected 200 feet closer to the first step than the ice-axe was located. The finding of this kit at 27,820 feet marks the minimal elevation Mallory and Irvine must have achieved on their unfortunate adventure. But what of the Kodak camera they took with them?

George Mallory, as he was found by the 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition

The Kodak corporation has said that if their camera, designed to withstand the harsh elements of those exalted heights, is ever discovered, they have the necessary methods to develop the film. Imagine a selfie from 1924, taken atop the tallest place in the world. That wonderful image would end decades of professional speculation and impassioned debate.

Imagine a selfie from 1924, taken atop the tallest place in the world

When Mallory was asked by a journalist why he wanted to climb a seemingly insuperable mountain, he iconically replied: because it’s there. He also wrote – ‘Why do we travel to remote locations? To prove our adventurous spirit or to tell stories about incredible things? We do it to be alone amongst friends and to find ourselves in a land without man’. Trying times allow people to measure the extent of their mettle, to learn the limits of their confidence and to ascertain the expanse of their inner resources, but some simply enjoy the unique thrill of doing what they’ve been told is impossible. The Athenian Tragedian, Aeschlyus, once pithily explained that ‘shameless, self-willed infatuation/emboldens man to dare damnation.’ Like a daring dyad of classical heroes, Mallory and Irvine vanished behind a cloud and entered into legend. It is a legend we ought to remember.

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