Andrew Irvine

Photograph courtesy The Sandy Irvine Trust, Merton College, Oxford

Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, a 21-year-old chemistry student at Oxford, was Mallory's handpicked choice for his climbing partner. Irvine was a mountaineering novice but a natural athlete, and most important to Mallory, practical and clever. Irvine spent many hours tinkering with their oxygen equipment to make it lighter and stronger.

George Mallory

Photograph courtesy The Alpine Club Photo Library, London

Mallory dreamed of being the first man to climb Mount Everest. Once World War I was over, the Royal Geographical Society in London planned the first-ever expedition to the mountain. They needed Mallory for his supreme climbing skills—and he needed their backing to realize his obsession.

Himalayan View

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Anker, left, and Houlding look out over a Himalayan valley before their Everest expedition begins.

"My family's anxious about this trip ... It's a deadly mountain. What's it worth?"

Searching for a Route to Everest

Photograph by Anthony Geffen

Hikers dressed in 1920s-era clothing walk through towering ice pinnacles near Mount Everest.

In 1921, Mallory and his team spent months searching for a route that would lead them to the summit. Eventually, they found a route to the very foot of the North Col, paving the way for summit attempts.

Storm on Everest

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Dressed in replica 1920s climbing gear, Anker and Houlding confront driving snow on the slopes of Mount Everest as the annual monsoon approaches and temperatures plummet.

Everest Expedition Team, 1924

Photograph courtesy John Noel Collection

Members of the 1924 Everest expedition team pose for a photograph before commencing their climb from base camp. Back row, left to right: Andrew Irvine, George Mallory, Edward Norton, Noel Odell, and John Macdonald. Front row: Edward Shebbeare, Geoffrey Bruce, Howard Somervell, and Bentley Beetham.

By the time of Mallory's third trip to Everest in 1924, he was torn between continuing his efforts to conquer Everest and staying home with his beloved wife, Ruth, and their three young children. "I am having a horrible time, on a tightrope," he wrote. "It would be an awful tug going away instead of settling down here with Ruth. But it would look rather grim to see others, without me, conquering the summit."

Climbing to the North Col

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Anker, using replica 1920s clothing and equipment, cuts steps on the ice slope below Everest's North Col—just as Mallory did in 1924.

With hobnail boots and no guide ropes, Mallory led the assault on the North Col, cutting steps into what he called “its great battlements of ice.” He wrote: "The North Col was a triumph. I enjoyed the conquest of the ice wall and making the steps. Afterwards I was practically bust to the world."

Prayer Flags Near Everest

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Tibetan prayer flags provide bursts of brilliant color in the stark high-altitude environment near Mount Everest.

Conrad Anker on Everest

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Anker, in modern climbing gear, ascends a nearly vertical rock formation on Mount Everest during the filming of The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest. In 1924, Mallory and Irvine ascended the mountain outfitted in the climbing gear of their day—tweed clothing and hobnail boots.

Filming the Ascent of the Second Step

Photograph courtesy Altitude Films

View the ascent of Anker and Houlding as they attempt to free-climb the Second Step of Mount Everest.

Debate over whether Mallory and Irvine could have succeeded in their summit attempt hinges on whether they could have surmounted this notorious sheer rock wall without the aid of the ropes and ladders that subsequent climbers installed. Anker and Houlding's successful free-climb indicates that the earlier mountaineers could also have made it—and perhaps gone on to achieve the summit.

Everest Camp in the "Death Zone"

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

The climbers and crew rested at this high-altitude camp in what's called "the death zone”—above 26,000 feet (7,925 meters)—on the night before their summit attempt. Above this point, the lack of oxygen puts extreme stress on the human body.

Mallory and Irvine also pitched their last camp high in the death zone, the first climbers ever to do so.

Last Known Photo of Mallory & Irvine

Photograph courtesy Royal Geographical Collection

Early on June 6, 1924, support climber Noel Odell took this photograph of Mallory and Irvine as they set out from the North Col for their summit attempt. They never returned.

Despite fighting a racking cough, Mallory wrote to his wife, Ruth, "I must tell you, dearest one, I feel full of energy and strength. My plan will be to carry as little as possible, go fast, and rush the summit.”

Mount Everest

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Retracing the journey taken by Mallory and Irvine in 1924, two climbers walk near the foot of Everest, dwarfed by the mountain looming huge against an azure sky.