Header Image: The North Face of Everest. The route, in green, that Mallory and Irvine would have taken to reach the top of Everest. The question mark notes the second step which is believed by many to have defeated them. Marker No. 1 is where Mallory’s body was found in 1999. Source: Luca Galuzzi / CC BY-SA 2.5. Insert: Andrew Irvine (1902-1924) during his college years at Merton (Oxford) (public domain)

Mallory’s Mystery Solved? Remains of Sandy Irvine found on Everest

On 29 May 1953 Mount Everest was officially summited for the first time. The climbers, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, entered the history books for their achievement, something nobody had managed before. At least, that is what is believed. However there was another ascent, decades earlier, which may have achieved the impossible and reached the