A view of the upper slopes of Everest from the North Col camp of the 1922 expedition. It was just above here that Noel Odell last saw George Mallory and Sandy Irving, on June 8 1924.
	Photo: Finch Archives

	Eric Simonson, the leader of the Mallory and Irving Research Expedition
	Photo: Eric Simonson/Mountainzone.Com

When George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared into the afternoon mist less than 300m below the top of Mt Everest on June 8, 1924, they left behind one of climbing's greatest mysteries. Before they died, in 200km/h winds and temperatures that may have sunk to -80C, did they stand on the roof of the world? Were they able to peer at the mountains beneath them and know that they were the very first to reach the summit of the tallest mountain in the world?

Their end has been debated since they vanished 75 years ago. The last person to see them alive was Noel Odell, who was watching from Camp V at 7710m. The clouds parted and he saw this: "The entire Summit Ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled. My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted on a small snowcrest beneath a rock step in the ridge; the black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the snow to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the rock step and shortly emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more."

Along the Northeast Ridge, where Mallory and Irvine were climbing, there are two steep rock steps, the second far more difficult than the first. The Second Step is the last true difficulty before the summit. It was believed that Odell's "rock step" was the Second Step.

At least it was until 1933, when an expedition reached the Second Step and reported it as an obstacle of enormous difficulty. Lead climber Percy Wyn Harris described it as a "dark grey precipice, smooth and holdless". Harris also found Irvine's ice axe, considerably lower on the mountain. Under pressure, Odell wavered on the details of his sighting, saying that he might have been mistaken about where he saw the pair.

After the British expeditions of the 1930s, the Tibetan side of the mountain was sealed off from the outside world. In 1960 the Chinese were the first to tag the summit from this side. The climber who conquered the Second Step had to remove his boots and gloves to do so, ultimately losing both his hands and his feet to frostbite. In 1975, another team of Chinese climbers lashed a ladder to the Second Step, which subsequent expeditions have used. In the 1970s, China re-opened the mountain to foreigners for climbing and it is in this period that Everest demonstrated its capricious nature.

During the joint Sino-Japanese reconnaissance expedition of 1979, one of the Chinese climbers had an interesting story to tell. Wang Hongbao told Japanese climber Ryoten Hasegawa that during a 1975 expedition he had seen two "English dead". One was lower down on the mountain, and was clearly the body of quirky English adventurer Maurice Wilson who died in 1934, shortly after leaving base camp for a solo attempt on the mountain. But the second, below Camp VI, 8100m, on the North Ridge route, remained a mystery. In a conversation that must have had its difficulties -- Hongbao spoke no Japanese and Hasegawa no Mandarin -- Hongbao described the body as wearing tattered clothing that broke to his touch.

After revealing his secret, Hongbao and two other teammates were killed in an avalanche on the North Col the very next day.

For more than 20 years climbers have followed the route set by the Chinese, and found no trace of this "English dead". The mystery of the body moved from fact into the realm of dreamtime. Perhaps Hasegawa misunderstood. In a mountain that is littered with grim monuments to man's desire, bodies are commonplace. A story told in sign language at altitude had few takers.

In the fall of 1986 an expedition went to the mountain to search for Mallory and Irvine, but was turned back by heavy snowfall and bad weather. It would be another 13 years before a concerted effort was made to investigate the story. This spring, American climber Eric Simonson, 43, led the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition in an attempt to unlock one of Everest's last secrets. Simonson, a partner in International Mountain Guides Expedition 8000, has taken part in more than 70 expeditions spanning the globe. He has been on Everest six times and summited the mountain via the North Ridge in 1991. The mystery of Mallory and Irvine's disappearance has always intrigued him.

When he announced his ambitious plan to search for evidence of the pair, he was met with both support and derision. Critics thought his search for evidence of the early climbers' fate was a foolish dream. But Simonson was more than happy to carve his name alongside those on the long list of Everest dreamers.

Working with a team of Everest historians, including German Jochen Hemmleb and American Larry Johnson, the expedition mapped out exactly where they wanted to search: just below CampVI, where Hangbao reported seeing the "English dead". The team also had some fantastically good luck as very little snow fell in the Himalaya that year.

Simonson told Action Asia, in an interview from 6450m on the Rongbuk Glacier, that the success of the mission wouldn't be determined by whether or not they found proof that the early climbers had reached the top.

"This expedition is about telling the world the rich story of two of the greatest mountaineering explorers of our time, Mallory and Irvine," he said. "These men, wearing tweed country jackets and using very heavy, primitive gear and oxygen systems, were able to accomplish an incredible feat of discovery," Simonson said.

After setting up advanced base camp on the Rongbuk Glacier and putting in lower camps, the climbing team made its first trip up the mountain for the preliminary search. Dave Hahn, Conrad Anker, Tap Richards, Jake Norton and Andy Politz pushed their way up the mountain and made it to Camp VI by 11am on May 1, 1999.

In the early afternoon of that same day, just below CampVI, the team's efforts were rewarded. After searching for less than two hours, Conrad Anker called the team over, saying he'd found something he wanted them to see. The climbers made their way across the steep, rocky slope to Anker, and found him standing over a man who had been missing for almost 75 years.

Reporting to MountainZone.com, the Seattle-based website that broke the news to the world, climber Dave Hahn described what he saw: "Already the answers to age-old questions were flooding our senses. He had died from a fall. Trauma was present, but not overwhelming, so it most likely had not been a fall from the Northeast Ridge Crest where the legendary ice axe had been found in 1933. That would be too much for a body. Yes, this man had fallen in the rocks, and he then must have slid some distance down snow slopes, but he lived through it all. He'd arrested his fall with outstretched arms, and grasping hands, and he'd composed himself to die, crossing his broken leg over the other to get some last relief."

The climber's many layers of cotton, wool and tweed clothing had been worn away by the cruel weather. His still muscular back was exposed, bleached white by the years of high-altitude sun. A faded white climbing rope was wrapped around his waist, showing that he and his partner had climbed together until the last. Small stones had tumbled down the mountain, piling up on his shoulders, head and outstretched hands.

The climbers then began the reverential task of searching this tired, broken body for clues. Time had frozen him to his rocky bed, making him a part of the mountain he had so much wanted to climb, and making it difficult to search under him for the elusive camera.

In the process of examination, a manufacturer's label on a shirt was lifted and beneath it was a tag with a neatly stitched "G. Mallory". They had found the man himself.

The climbers continued their search, finding letters from Mallory's family tucked into his chest pocket. Another pocket held his sun goggles, suggesting that the sun had set before he fell. They retrieved a skin sample, for DNA testing, from Mallory's muscular forearm. When they had finished their work, at the request of the Mallory family, the team performed a committal ceremony for him and covered his long-lost body with painstakingly gathered stones. They then made their way down the mountain to share the news with the rest of their team, and then the world.

But what did the find mean? If he did fall in the hours after dusk, six hours after Odell had last seen the two "black spots", he had to be on his way down. As Dave Hahn said, the damage to the body wasn't enough to support a fall from as high as Odell said he saw him. He was conscious enough to attempt to take the pressure off of his leg and arrest his fall, so he clearly hadn't fallen from where he was last spotted. What happened in those lost hours? What happened to Sandy Irvine? How did the rope break? There was no evidence to suggest that he and Irvine summited. And there was no evidence to suggest that they did not.

But, consider this. George Mallory was a man possessed by the summit. Everest fever had him well and truly in its grip. While it may be unlikely that he reached the top, his personality was such that it is difficult to imagine him turning back if he had made it above the dreaded Second Step. And in Sandy Irvine, 22, he had an eager apprentice who wouldn't have second-guessed his decisions.

For Mallory, Everest was much more than a mountain peak to be claimed. At 38 years old, he was getting long in the tooth for hardcore mountaineering. Everest was to be his master work. In his essay The Mountaineer As Artist, Mallory wrote that in climbing, man confronted the sublime as in no other sport. Mountaineering for him wasn't mere athleticism, it was art. He believed the mountains were his canvas and he was deeply passionate about finishing this mountain that he had struggled with for so long.

In his book The Epic Of Mt Everest, 1924 expedition leader Francis Younghusband wrote of Mallory's mood before his final summit attempt: "Fury raged in Mallory's soul as he was forced to return from Camp V. . . He was absolutely possessed with the idea of climbing Mt Everest. Climbing Everest was no incident in his life. He had made it his whole life. . . And to get him away from Everest before Everest itself had hurled him back you would have had to pull him up by the very roots of his being."

And Everest finally did hurl Mallory back. While finding his body answers some questions about the manner of his death, Simonson's expedition also attempted to solve the mystery of the last few hours of his life. Perhaps the most important task of the expedition was to evaluate the difficulty of the Second Step.

Since the Chinese placed their ladder in 1975, all expeditions have used it. No one had tried to climb the step without the ladder. Until this year. Conrad Anker was the designated Second Step climber on the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, and with good reason: Anker is a veteran of eight Himalayan expeditions, four trips to Antarctica, the first ascent of Latok II, Karakoram, and was acknowledged as the strongest climber on an experienced team. After discovering the body, the climbers basked briefly in the glow of their new-found fame and then returned their focus to summiting the mountain, and Anker's attempt at the Second Step.

But while the team replenished their high camps and waited for good weather for a summit attempt, disaster struck. A Ukrainian team, which had forged ahead through poor weather, was in serious trouble. The three-member summit team had reached the top without oxygen late in the day of May 8. Two of the climbers spent the night out in heavy snow and high winds, while a third managed to make it back to the high camp.

By the next day one of the climbers was missing and presumed dead and another was being helped down by teammates who had climbed the mountain to rescue him. But they were going to need help.

There were other teams on the mountain, and in a telling display of the ethos of modern high-altitude climbing some chose to become involved, while others kept their distance. The Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition became involved.

Reporting to MountainZone.com, Simonson said: "A number of teams have pitched in to help, and in rescues such as this one -- well, they really do bring out the best and worst in the various expeditions."

Four members of the expedition climbed into the night to help. They met up with the exhausted Ukrainians and undertook the dangerous task of lowering the critically injured climber, who had frostbite up to his knees. Using rope and anchor systems, 1000m of technically demanding lowering was accomplished. Sherpas and other members of the team joined in to carry the stretcher down to Advanced Base Camp.

Drained by their high-altitude rescue effort, the expedition rested for a few days, then moved into position for their summit attempt on May 13. After reaching Camp V, 7600m, the climbers were trapped in their tents by winds gusting up to 150km/h. Everest wasn't quite ready to reward them for their efforts. After three days of wind, the weather cleared enough to allow them to make a summit bid. They moved to Camp VI to be in position for the 2am start of the climb to the top.

By the time they reached the base of the Second Step at 11am, four of the climbers had decided to retreat. Only Dave Hahn and Conrad Anker remained. Anker slipped his pack off his shoulders and took off his heavy oxygen tank to prepare for the attempt on the Second Step. Sucking the thin, bitterly cold air into his lungs, he worked his hands and boots into the crack and began to pry his way up the narrow gap. Moments later he stood victorious at its top. It was difficult, but possible. From the top of the Second Step it took Hahn and Anker, with oxygen, almost four hours to make the summit. Using the ladder, and with help from their teammates, it took them more than six hours to get safely back to camp.

While it was possible for Anker, one of today's premiere climbers, to free climb the Second Step, it is doubtful that Mallory and Irvine would have been able to do so using ancient gear and hobnailed boots. But for Simonson, the expedition was never about proving whether or not the early team were the first to summit.

"In my book, Hillary and Tenzing were the first to summit. It's not really what the expedition was about for me," says Simonson. "This expedition was my tribute to Mallory and Irvine, and the search was for better understanding of their experience, not proof. There will never be "proof" and the debate is only enhanced and more fun with additional fabric on the story."

Part of the driving force for Simonson was to broaden the public's perception of the mountain beyond the widely discussed disaster of 1996, in which eight climbers died.

"Climbing Everest is much, much more than the story of a group of unfortunate climbers, some of them my colleagues, involved in a disaster," he said. "Everest is about a very long and rich history of people with great courage pushing the envelope of discovery and human capability, about setting goals and then going out with great determination and trying to reach them."

And while much ink was spilled attempting to stir controversy between Sir Edmund Hillary and the expedition, Hillary once again rose to greater heights. In an interview from his Auckland home, he applauded the expedition's efforts.

"Mallory has always been a hero of mine. He was really in many ways the pioneer of climbing on Mt Everest. Whatever really happened, he has still been a heroic figure," Hillary said. "Proving he got to the summit would depend on finding a camera with film in it that could be developed."

As of yet, no such camera has been found. Hillary said if the day comes when that camera is discovered, he wouldn't mind sharing the summit with Mallory and Irvine.

"I've always had the greatest respect for Mallory and it really wouldn't make any difference to me if it was proved that he summited," Hillary said. "But, an important part of any expedition is coming down safely, and sadly they failed to do that. I'm just glad that the searchers have been successful and that they have survived their time on the mountain."

Mallory and Irvine never came back from their climb. They never got to feel the sweet ache in their knees as they descended the Rongbuk Glacier. They never got to feel the warm wind of the lower mountain on their skin. They never got to return to the loving arms of their families. George Mallory was never able to complete his masterpiece. Sadly, they were never able to truly appreciate the magnitude of their accomplishment. Or maybe they did. Eric Simonson hopes so.

"Perhaps as they lay out in the bitter cold, maybe even as they knew they were dying, perhaps for a moment they felt the deep satisfaction that comes not necessarily from pulling it off, but from going first, and having the guts to try to pull it off, and very nearly succeeding. I don't think Mallory and Irvine got to feel that, but if I could have one wish, I would wish for them that they did."