Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine

What happened to these two pioneering climbers is perhaps the most famous mystery in the history of mountaineering. For over 75 years there has been fierce debate over whether they were the first to reach the summit, doing so 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. In March 1999 an expedition primarily sponsored by the BBC climbed to the North Face of Everest. The discoveries of this expedition became front page news around the world.

This gripping book by Peter Firstbrook, who is also the BBC film producer, fully explores the events leading up to Mallory and Irvine's historic attempt to reach the summit, giving a dramatic, first-hand account of the 1999 search expedition.

Firstbrook utilizes his extensive historical research and the amazing evidence found in 1999 to piece together the final hours of the two brave climbers.

For background, the book provides biographical details about Mallory and a history of Western exploration of Everest. (Apparently, Mallory was a great natural climber, but extraordinarily forgetful about critical details and sometimes suffering from poor judgement.) It also details the events of the 1921, 1922, and 1924 British expeditions, the first organized attempts by Europeans to explore the mountain. Excellent maps are included, along with two sections of black and white photos, primarily from the original expeditions, with some supplements from the 1999 search for Mallory and Irvine's bodies. (For those of a more morbid mindset, note that the photos from 1999 feature only one discreet shot of Mallory's frozen body, and otherwise mostly are concerned with the artifacts found upon him.)

The last two brief chapters relate the efforts of a 1999 British/American expedition (funded in part by German interests) to find the missing climbers and hopefully to salvage preserved film from the camera they were known to have been carrying. Should the camera be found, it's possible that photos might still be developed from it and that the question of whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit could be conclusively answered at last. To date, neither the camera nor the body of Irvine have been found (apparently a subsequent 2001 expedition by some of the team members from 1999 uncovered only questionable further evidence from the 1924 climbers), so the mystery endures. However, this book speculates that it's possible, however unlikely, that Mallory and Irvine might indeed have reached the top, albeit at so late and dangerous an hour and with such primitive protection and gear that their doom would have been assured in any case.

The last few chapters are mildly repetitious in certain parts, but other than that minor flaw, this is a very readable and fascinating account of one of the greatest tragedies and enigmas of mountaineering.


Great Book!   July 15, 2001
I know nothing about climbing or mountains, but I was recommended this book as a good read. I had no idea about the history of Everest or about Mallory and Irvine. What a great book! I loved the background and the story about these two great climbers. A great read. I'd recommend it to anyone.