Everest climb remains a mystery

It's one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries: Did George Mallory and former Shrewsbury School pupil Andrew Irvine conquer Everest in 1924?

Somewhere high on the slopes of Everest lies the undiscovered body of a former Shropshire schoolboy whose remains may yield proof that he was the first person to conquer the world's highest peak.

Before Andrew "Sandy" Irvine began his final ascent with his climbing partner, the mountaineering legend George Mallory, he was given a camera.

He slipped it into his pocket, all ready to take a historic photo on top of the world.

Somewhere near the summit the pair fell, a tragic climax to that 1924 expedition which had set out to conquer Everest.

And ever since there has been speculation over whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit, a full 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing claimed the glory and the fame.

History is full of such unknowns and "what-ifs". But what is tantalising about this one is that it is still possible that a conclusive answer may be found, even after all these years.

In 1999 American mountaineer Conrad Anker came across a body on the north face of Everest, almost 27,000ft up.

Nothing unusual in that – the upper reaches of the mountain are strewn with scores of those whose dreams of glory ended in failure and death, whose bodies have never been recovered, and which simply lie there, preserved in the dry air and sub-zero temperatures as if in a deep freeze.

In the hostile environment of the "Death Zone" in which mountaineers struggle to preserve their own lives, taking on the extra hazard of bringing back the dead is a risk too far.

This though, was different. Anker was part of an expedition which specifically aimed to find the bodies of Irvine and Mallory. And the remnants of clothing spoke of an early age of mountaineering.

He called his teammates to the spot. They were all but certain they had at last found Irvine's body.

One of them began prising back the layers of clothing. Inside a cotton shirt he found a label. It read "G. Mallory."

The discovery caused a worldwide sensation.

The story of how it changed Anker's life and culminated in him recreating the Mallory and Irvine climb in 2007 for a television documentary – to see if they really could have conquered Everest with their 1920s equipment and methods – is told in a new book, "The Wildest Dream," by Mark MacKenzie.

Some items of evidence have fuelled speculation that Mallory and Irvine made it. Mallory had told his wife, Ruth, that were he to reach the summit, he would leave her picture there in her honour. No picture was found on Mallory's body. Had he left it at the summit all those years ago?

Further, his goggles, to protect against snowblindness, were in his pocket, suggesting that perhaps he was descending in darkness after a successful ascent.

But were Mallory and Irvine capable of reaching the summit anyway?

Key to their ascent was a feature called the Second Step, a 90ft face which on their chosen route would be the last great challenge before the summit, and a climb so tricky that in modern times it's been made a lot easier by, believe it or not, fixing a ladder to it.

In recreating the climb of the intrepid duo, Anker determined to see if he would be able to climb the Second Step using 1920s-style "free climbing" methods.

In the event he fell – but was held by a rope.

The talented and experienced Mallory might have succeeded. But what of the inexperienced Irvine?

His mountaineering abilities are an unknown quantity.

Born in Birkenhead on April 8, 1902, Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine was at Shrewsbury School from 1916 to 1921, where he was head of Severn Hill house. There are various archives at the school connected with him, including the house book in which Irvine wrote comments on the leavers.

He was a great sportsman, particularly in the field of rowing. After Shrewsbury, he went up to Oxford.

MacKenzie's book tells how he loved the theatre, cars, and women, and in 1923 embarked on a passionate affair with the young wife of a wealthy steel magnate.

On the 1920s Everest expedition, his teammates were impressed by his improvisational talents as a sort of glorified handyman, particularly in coming up with a successful oxygen bottle design.

Irvine, his face badly sunburnt, and Mallory set off on their final ascent on this very day in 1924. They were briefly spotted high on the summit ridge before being enveloped by clouds.

How and why they fell can only be a matter of speculation. Mallory was found face downward, suggestive of a long slide rather than a cartwheeling fall.

Anker thought his injuries were probably survivable and that he remained conscious. There was, of course, no hope of rescue.

Irvine's fall took him on a different path, a path yet to be discovered.

Kodak experts think that the film in the camera he carried might be successfully developed.

All depends, of course, on finding his body.

The balance of opinion among modern mountaineers is that Mallory and Irvine are unlikely to have made it to the summit.

But that does not detract from the epic courage of a Shrewsbury schoolboy who reached for the top of the world.

• The Wildest Dream by Mark MacKenzie has been published by John Murray and costs £20.

By Toby Neal