Tom Holzel, himself an experienced mountaineer believes that he now knows the location of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine’s body on Everest, and with that the chance that the two camera’s the men took will be with him. No-one knows if Mallory and Irvine died on the mountain after they reached the summit or before, the evidence thus far is:
- Mallory had stated that he would leave a photo of his wife on the summit, on the discovery of his body, no photo was recovered.
- His goggles were in his pocket, suggesting it was at night when they died, which would mean they had probably already been to the summit.
It is hoped that the recovery of Irvine’s body and the recovery of the camera’s (Kodak have stated that it is possible the film will still be able to be developed), may finally answer the remaining questions. However it is highly unlikely that they did summit as it was nearly 30 years after that Hilary and Tenzing conquered Everest; the knowledge of hydration and the ‘dead zone’ would have been limited in the 20’s.
‘Look at Me Ma, Top of the World’
Jason E Cooper 