I saw a National Geographic documentary some years ago about two British accomplished mountain climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who tried to summit Everest without oxygen and perished. It was 1924.
Fast forward to 1999, and an expedition was mounted to find them. They expected to find Irvine, but found Mallory instead. They covered what was left of him with stones, and took personal effects to forward to his family.
They were hoping to find Irvine, because he had a camera on him which could possibly provide some information about wether or not they had actually summited the mountain, some 30 years ahead of Sir Edmond Hillary and his guide.
A fascinating, and tragic, story.
They went up a different face of the mountain that was more difficult. Most people do not use the route.
“I saw a National Geographic documentary some years ago about two British accomplished mountain climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who tried to summit Everest without oxygen and perished. It was 1924.”
The thing is, they DID have oxygen, but the devices were rather primitive compared to what we have today.