Everest climbers who disappeared on a mission 100 years ago had problems with their oxygen tanks, a new book claims.
George Mallory, 37, and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine, 22, disappeared during their 1924 expedition to climb the world’s highest mountain.
Mallory’s body was discovered 2,000 feet from the summit in 1999, but her climbing partner’s body has not been found.
Mick Conefrey, in his upcoming book Fallen, George Mallory: the Man, the Myth and the 1924 Everest Tragedy, claimed that the two mountaineers suffered problems with their oxygen tanks during their mission.
The author also alleged that the British organizers knew that Mallory and Irvine’s oxygen kits were not working properly, The times reported.
The book, to be published on May 2, details documents that purportedly reveal how the Everest committee clumsily carried out preparations for the climb and then kept the situation out of public discourse to avoid being blamed for the tragedy.
George Mallory, aged 37 (left) and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine, aged 22 (right) disappeared during their 1924 expedition to climb the world’s highest mountain. A new book claims the couple had problems with their oxygen tanks.
Andrew Comyn Irvine, the British climber, is pictured working with an oxygen bottle at the Everest Expedition camp in 1924.
According to Conefrey, the Mount Everest committee spent the current equivalent of £50,000 on oxygen equipment for Mallory and Irvine’s expedition.
But the author, as reported in his book, claims that each of the 11 pieces of equipment climbers must carry was defective and that 38 of the 90 cylinders had serious leaks.
Organizers also fired Australian climber George Finch, who had reached an altitude record using oxygen on an Everest expedition in 1922, despite being the person most likely to operate the oxygen apparatus.
They also tasked Noel Odell, who was in Iran, and Irvine, who was only 21 at the time, with communicating with the manufacturers of the oxygen cylinders.
Irvine, who was not taken seriously by the manufacturing company, allegedly brought in the wrong replacement parts because he provided inaccurate manufacturer information.
In addition to alleged failures during preparations, Conefrey has claimed that the tanks were “so unreliable” that Mallory did not use gas on a previous Everest attempt during the same expedition.
Gordon Robbins, a journalist working for The Times at the time of the expedition, had requested a copy of a report that supposedly detailed how oxygen cylinders had leaked on the way to the foot of the mountain.
The committee reportedly allowed Robbins to see the report, but declared the document “strictly private and confidential and not suitable for publication.”
Bentley Beetham, a member of the expedition, who reportedly requested a copy of a report on the operation of the oxygen apparatus once he returned to Britain.
But he encountered similar restrictions and was allegedly told: “This memo must be considered confidential and no quotes can be made from it nor any public statements made that tend to criticize it in any way, because it involves many sensitive issues.”
In January 1925 an investigation was carried out into the state of the oxygen equipment, which Conefrey described as “appalling”.
The Everest Committee supposedly promised to create a subcommittee to “deal with the entire issue,” but the author says there is no evidence to support that this has been achieved.
This is an artist’s impression of George Leigh Mallory (above) and Andrew Irvine climbing the second step of Everest.
Irvine (top left) and Mallory (top row, second from left) are pictured with the other members of the 1924 Everest expedition.
When Mallory and Irvine were last seen alive on June 8, 1924 by their climbing teammate Noel Odell, the couple were about 800 feet from the summit of Everest.
But the men disappeared soon after and the facts about what happened to them remain unclear. Odell went to look for them but was unsuccessful.
Mallory’s body was found wearing spiked boots just 2,000 feet from the summit of Everest in 1999. He had a rope around his waist and injuries consistent with the possibility that he and Irvine had fallen while tied together.
After the discovery of his body, historians raised the tantalizing possibility that Mallory was the first man to reach the top of the world’s tallest mountain.
But two crucial mysteries still remain unsolved after the 1999 discovery: what had happened to Irvine’s body and where was the Vest Pocket Kodak camera that the couple were supposedly carrying and which could contain crucial photographs proving that the men had reached the summit. of Everest on his 1924 trip. expedition?
Without that evidence, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are still credited with being the first climbers to reach the summit of the Himalayan mountain, which straddles Nepal and China, on their 1953 expedition. .
If Mallory and Irvine had reached the summit of Everest, they would also have been the first to successfully do so on the deadly north face, almost 40 years before Chinese climbers accomplished the feat in 1960.