The Mystery of Irvine and Mallory

Mallory and Irvine, Everest Base Camp, 1924.

Mallory's body found during the 1999 Research Expedition.

Mallory's broken rope and wool glove.

Andrew Irvine and George Mallory disappeared while attempting to summit Everest in 1924.

75 years later, Mallory's body was found at 26,760 feet on the north face. The rope that cut into his skin, broke several ribs and finally snapped was still tied around Mallory's chest. Despite having no oxygen tank, crushed ribs, a broken leg and a crack in his skull that would have left his brain exposed, Mallory's corpse was still clinging to the mountain, climbing up...

The location of Irvine's body remains unknown.

What happened to Mallory and Irvine? Did they make it to the top before the accident? Perhaps we shall never know.

Robert Peary

a yeti...?

Robert Peary surveying a route at Kap Morris Jessup, Greenland.

Conrad Kain

Conrad Kain, Mt Cook summit, 1916

"Life is so short, and I think one should make a good time of it if one can. The only thing I enjoy now is nature, especially spring in the mountains, and letters from friends. Sometimes I think I have seen too much for a poor man. There are things that make a man unhappy if he sees the wrongs and can't change them."

Thanks to Sebastian for telling me about Mr. Kain :)

Sir Edmund Hillary

On May 28, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper, a summer occupation that allowed him to pursue climbing in the winter. His interest in beekeeping later led Hillary to commission Michael Ayrton to cast a golden sculpture in the shape of honeycomb in imitation of Daedalus's lost-wax process. This was placed in his New Zealand garden, where his bees took it over as a hive and "filled it with honey and their young".

Frederick Spencer Chapman

Frederick Spencer Chapman in front of Kyichu, Lhasa. November 29th 1936.

This is one of the least formal shots taken during the 1936 British Mission to Lhasa. Taking a break from their duties, Spencer Chapman and Evan Nepean went swimming in the Kyi Chu river. They then photographed one another on the river bank with their shirts off. Chapman often walked in the countryside around Lhasa bird-spotting, collecting botanical specimens and taking photographs.