mikegarrison

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/110...nd_hillary.html

This guy was a legend more for what he did after Everest than for climbing it. A great example of how someone can turn their 15 minutes of fame into a benefit for many, many other people.

trapper

That's a nice article about a truly remarkable person.

mikegarrison

If you go trekking in Nepal, you meet people from a lot of foreign countries. However, from what I hear, if you run into Americans about half of them turn out to be from Seattle.

So I know a lot of people who have been to Nepal (many who have been there multiple times), and all of them were impressed with how much Hillary did for the people of that nation.

Legal Bill

Was he really the first person to climb Everest, or the first "white man" to do it?

mikegarrison

Only two people know for sure, and both of them said he was the first to actually stand on the summit. Among mountaineers, it's generally considered that Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first two people to climb the mountain. Generally speaking, they are regarded as equal partners and co- first ascensionists.

50 years ago, though, Norgay was generally just considered to be "Hillary's Sherpa" by most Westerners.

Everest is unlike a mountain such as Rainier, in the sense that it is very unlikely pre-industrialized people were able to climb it. While it is now climbed fairly regularly without oxygen, the people doing so use all sorts of very light and very warm equipment and clothing. They also know exactly where to go and do not need to spend any time or energy on routefinding.

trapper

There has always been the question of whether George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine made the top during a 1924 British expedition. If they did they would have been the first. Both were lost on the mountain trying to reach the summit using a North Face route from China.

Irvine's ice axe was found in 1933 about a 1000 or so vertical feet below the summit.

In 1979 a Chinese climber told a Japanese climber that he had found and "English Dead" in 1974 in a sitting position on the North face. That Chinese climber was killed the next day in an avalanche so he was never questioned throughly [it is now thought that that body was Irvine's.... it has never been relocated and from the description it does not appear to have been the body of Mallory]

In 1999 Mallory's mummified body was found by an expedition sent for the purpose of trying to find them. It was clear from the body that he had fallen a great distance. It was hoped that they would find notes or a camera that they had with them that might record whether they had made it to the top.... they found neither.

Most people now think that they didn't make the top.

mikegarrison

Most climbers always thought they didn't make it to the top.

trapper

Yeah .... they've always been in the majority but still, they just might have made it ...... we'll probably never know for sure one way or the other.

The arguments for and against their success or failure go on and on.

For One: Mallory's goggles were found in his pocket. That indicates to most that they were descending after nightfall. If they managed to get past the notorious "second step" on the way up they might have made it to the top and would have been coming back down after dark. Of course there are also many other reasons why they may have been coming down in the dark.

For Two: Irvine was not a very experienced climber [but he was the "expert" with the primitive oxygen equipment they were using which is probably why Mallory chose him to try for the summit]. Given Irvine's experience many people thought they would not have been able to get past the Second Step [the Chinese even rigged up a ladder to help get over it when they finally made it to the top using the North Face route....I also believe that one of the experienced rock climbers on the 1999 expedition that found Mallory's body made getting over it look easy].

For Three: Did they or did they not have enough oxygen with them? Did the equipment fail?

etc.etc.etc.......

I've been fascinated by the Mallory/Irvine mystery since I was a kid and have read most of what's been published about it in the last 60 years..... I like to think they made it but know they probably didn't. .