Essay, Research Paper: George Leigh Mallory

George Leigh Mallory: the first to summit?
Climbing Mount. Everest, the fame and the glory it would bring, knowing that you conquered the highest peak on this planet, and having to fulfill a mountaineer s dream. In contrast to that, the challenges it brings to an individual, the altitude sickness you had to put up with, knowing that you might never be able to come back down again, staying the night above 25,000 feet and sleeping in the 80 degrees below zero weather, all the sacrifices you had to make in order to be standing at the top of the world. What if you had climbed the mountain, but did not receive recognition? What if you didn t live to tell the tale of the summit to Mount. Everest? Historians and mountaineers are working together to solve the 75 year old mystery: was George Leigh Mallory the first to summit Everest.
There are several clues that support George Mallory as the first to summit the treacherous mountain. On June 8, 1924 the last person to see Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine alive was Noel Odell, the expedition s geologist. John Flinn stated in the May 9, 1999 issue of the San Francisco Examiner, Mallory and Irvine were last spotted at around 12:50 p.m. at just 800 feet shy of the 29,028 feet prodigious vertex. Since the turn-around time for Everest is 2 p.m. they still had a little over an hour to climb the remaining 800 feet. For a skilled and experienced climber like Mallory, I think it is possible. In 1975, a Chinese climber named Wang Hong Bao discovered a deceased Englishman dressed in old-fashioned clothes on a ledge below the Northeast Ridge (where Mallory and Irvine were last seen). But to everyone s surprise, the body was actually discovered 1000 feet where Odell had seen them, in early May of 1999. According to Erin Copland, the expedition s U.S.-based spokeswoman, it appears Mallory must have been on his way down when the fatal accident occurred. Another suggestion was the discovery of Mallory s mountain goggles, which was in his pocket. This suggests that he might have been descending after nightfall. Mallory s expertise personified him as the first man to summit Everest, but even the tragic end would not serve justice to Mallory.
George Leigh Mallory was a husband and a father of three young children, had a superb sense of leadership, an excellent reputation, and was incredibly intelligent. He reported in all three British attempts to summit during the 1920s. On the second attempt, just 2000 feet short of the Everest summit, he decided to go for another strive. But he failed to notice there were massive amounts of fresh new snow, so he set forth his team, soon to witness the death of seven Sherpas in an avalanche (Salkeld 00). This horrible disaster left him doubtful of a third attempt at Mount. Everest. But when the idea was proposed to him in the early spring of 1924, he hesitated, but accepted the challenge. When asked why he wanted to conquer this colossal mountain, he simply replied, Because it is there . The courageous effort lead by Mallory and Irvine made them a living legend.
Without doubt, mountaineers are in admiration of both heroes. Whether they summited on that dreadful June afternoon, or had they fallen short of their dream to attain this mountain, they have done what some of us thought impossible.