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Mount Everest—The Reconnaissance In 1921, the British Reconnaissance Expedition, led by Col. Howard–Bury, ascended the northern and eastern slopes of Mount Everest, the world’s “third pole.” Spearheading this fateful adventure was George Mallory, the famous mountaineer whose body was discovered on Everest in 1999. Their mission: to discover if an ascent to the peak were possible from Tibet, the Western world’s only access at the time. This is the chronicle of the obstacles they surmounted, as well as early mountaineering techniques that paved the way for the 1922 expedition. With a special foreword by Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who discovered Mallory’s body in 1999, this book was on-site text for the filming of The Wildest Dream, in theaters in 2010.
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The Assault on Everest When it comes to mountain climbing, designing a successful summit is both a work of art and a labor of love. No one knows this better than Conrad Anker, who handpicked these books to accompany him on his 2007 Everest summit in pursuit of what George Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine might have experienced on their last climb. Expeditionary Charles Granville Bruce, brigadier-general and president of the Alpine Club, led this first British ascent with the mission to summit Everest. With him was George Mallory, who had participated in the reconnaissance mapping mission to Everest in 1921. A year later, with a total of 160 men, theirs was the first expedition to use bottled oxygen; their equipment and clothing were crude, even suicidal, by modern standards; yet their daring, tenacity, and careful records paved the way for all future endeavors to summit the world's tallest mountain. With a special foreword by Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who discovered Mallory's body in 1999, this book was an on-site text for the filming of The Wildest Dream, in theaters in 2010. |
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The Lost Explorer This is the adventure story of the year -- how Conrad Anker found the body of George Mallory on Mount Everest, casting an entirely new light on the mystery of the explorer who may have conquered Everest seventy-five years ago. On June 8, 1924, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine were last seen climbing toward the summit of Mount Everest. Clouds soon closed around them, and they vanished into history. Ever since, mountaineers have wondered whether they reached the summit twenty-nine years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. (continues)
On May 1, 1999, Conrad Anker, one of the world's strongest mountaineers, discovered Mallory's body lying facedown, frozen into the scree and naturally mummified at 27,000 feet on Everest's north face. The condition of the body, as well as the artifacts found with Mallory, including goggles, an altimeter, and a carefully wrapped bundle of personal letters, are important clues in determining his fate. Seventeen days later, Anker free-climbed the Second Step, a 90-foot sheer cliff that is the single hardest obstacle on the north ridge. The first expedition known to have conquered the Second Step, a Chinese team in 1975, had tied a ladder to the cliff, leaving unanswered the question of whether Mallory could have climbed it in 1924. Anker's climb was the first test since Mallory's of the cliff's true difficulty. In treacherous conditions, Anker led teammate Dave Hahn from the Second Step to the summit. Reflecting on the climb, Anker explains why he thinks Mallory and Irvine failed to make the summit, but at the same time, he expresses his awe at Mallory's achievement with the primitive equipment of the time. Stunningly handsome and charismatic, Mallory charmed everyone who met him during his lifetime and continues to fascinate mountaineers today. He was an able writer, a favorite of the Bloomsbury circle, and a climber of legendary gracefulness. The Lost Explorer is the remarkable story of this extraordinarily talented man and of the equally talented modern climber who spearheaded a discovery that may ultimately help solve the mystery of Mallory's disappearance
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