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By Tara Pepper
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It is the greatest mystery in the history of mountaineering. At 12:50 p.m. on June 8, 1924, British climber George Mallory and his young companion, Andrew (Sandy) Irvine, disappeared into the clouds some 600 feet below the windy summit of Mount Everest. It wasn't until nearly 30 years later that two climbers--Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay--were credited with reaching the peak. But for years, questions about the events of 1924 have nagged at climbing enthusiasts. Could Mallory and Irvine have reached the summit before vanishing into their snowy graves?
Last week a team of the world's top mountaineers set out from base camps on Everest hoping to find the body of Sandy Irvine--and the answer to that question. Irvine, 22, was carrying a Kodak Vestpocket camera--with film that Kodak officials believe could survive in alpine temperatures. The team will also be searching for discarded oxygen canisters and climbing apparatus at various elevations. "The answers are high on the north face of Mount Everest waiting for discovery," says a team statement. The expedition is focusing on the general area where British climbers discovered Irvine's ice ax back in 1933, and where Chinese climber Wang Hongbao in 1975 found a body he described as "old English dead."
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The team has a good track record. Two years ago the same group of international explorers, led by American guide Eric Simonson, made headlines after discovering Mallory's corpse on a rock shelf at 27,000 feet. Though that mission didn't answer the question of whether he reached the summit, it did reveal new clues: Mallory's goggles, typically worn in daylight, were discovered inside his jacket--implying that he was still alive after dark. Since he was last seen around lunchtime, that would have given him plenty of time to reach the summit before he died. He was also found face down, and appeared to have fallen from above.
Yet the new expedition is controversial. After the 1999 discovery, Simonson sold gruesome photographs of Mallory's frozen, sun-bleached body to the press (including NEWSWEEK). Members of Mallory's family and some climbing enthusiasts were outraged. "I felt desperately sorry for Mallory's son," says Sandra Noel, whose father, John, served as the expedition photographer in 1924. "He was only about 4 when his father died, and those pictures were in the paper before he even knew about them." This time critics are already speaking up. The prestigious Alpine Club recently issued a statement urging against "exploitation" and warning of "the media's insatiable desire for images of the body and...gruesome details." "We're just asking, please don't show his body partly clothed or wounded," says Irvine's nephew John.
Despite their opposition, the descendants are fairly certain about what the team will find. Sandra Noel says her father never doubted that Mallory and Irvine made it to the top. Julie Summers, Irvine's great-niece and biographer, agrees. "They would have pushed on to the top," she says. So far, at least, Simonson and his team have no plans to turn back, either.
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