The Everest Discrepancy

always remember if you ain't first you're last columbus washington armstrong to most these names are remembered for one reason and one reason only they were each the first to accomplish something remarkable the word first is one of the most frequently used adjectives in the english language out of all descriptive concepts first may be the most important superlative words we use to express the highest degree of something first is one of the most popular superlatives because it's so unambiguous being the first person to do anything is a big deal all who follow you have no choice but to know your name if you're the first to achieve something monumental history will remember you long after you're gone most superlatives end with the suffix est a grammatical trait rather fittingly shared by the tallest mountain on the planet mount everest is quite possibly the world's most famous landform it towers nearly nine kilometers above sea level and can be seen from over 300 kilometers away equivalent to seeing new york city from boston it's a well-known fact that the first person to reach the summit of everest was sir edmund hillary in 1953 it's one of those pieces of trivia that gets thrown around so much that you just stopped questioning it it seems like something that should be indisputable the first man to set foot atop the tallest mountain an unambiguous statement of fact except 29 years before edmund hillary reached the top of everest there's a small chance but a chance nonetheless that someone else may have got there first the western world first laid eyes on everest in the middle of the 19th century but it wasn't until 1921 when they first set foot on it that year the british royal geographic society financed the first expedition to explore everest and identify a route to the top a leading member of the expedition was 34 year old george mallory considered to be one of the most skilled climbers in britain just five years prior mallory was fighting in the battle of the psalm where over the span of five months the young men of europe suffered more than 1.6 million casualties in 1922 mallory was about to enter one of the few places on earth that was even more inhospitable for millennia civilizations around the world have considered the highest mountains to be sacred grounds anyone who dared to climb them would be trespassing in the realm of gods no matter how superstitious you are you can't deny that there are some places on earth that human beings were never designed to go atop mountains like everest the terrain is so precarious that one misstep can result in a fatal fall for most of the year the summit is blasted with hurricane force winds enough to blow any climber clear off the mountain any practical attempts to reach the summit have to be conducted in roughly a 10-day window before the annual monsoon season when wind speeds are relatively calm usually this window opens towards the end of may but even then temperatures at the top of everest struggle to break zero degrees cold enough to cause frostbite on exposed skin in minutes the frigid temperatures force climbers to seek shelter by nightfall but even the welcome warmth of the sun presents its own challenges during the day ultraviolet radiation becomes much more potent at high altitudes combined with highly reflective snow people on everest are at constant risk of snow blindness and other debilitating eye problems even during optimal weather conditions can change in an instant climbers can venture onto the everest slopes on a clear day and suddenly find themselves stranded in blizzard conditions with nowhere to hide as if that wasn't bad enough the roving threat of an avalanche can wipe out an entire team of climbers in a matter of seconds however in spite of all the deadly hazards that await climbers at the top of everest the single most life-threatening factor has to do with what isn't there at 29 000 feet air pressure is three times lower than at sea level meaning that climbers have access to only one third as much oxygen mount everest is one of 14 summits that extends above the 8 000 meter mark otherwise known as the death zone beyond this altitude the human body no longer has enough oxygen to sustain itself and within several hours vital systems will begin to shut down climbers who enter this range are no longer flirting with death they are literally in the process of dying if anyone in the death zone fails to descend back to a safe altitude in time their chances of survival are zero the death zone presents an extreme complication by making any run towards the everest summit a crucially time sensitive event climbers must maintain a certain pace on the final ascent or else risk running out of oxygen to make matters even more difficult the thin atmosphere makes the act of climbing painstakingly slow most climbers near the summit have to stop to catch their breath after each individual step the process is so exhaustive that summoners are expected to burn more than 15 000 calories equivalent to the daily energy output of seven people the peak of mount everest is in contention for the single most hazardous place on the surface of the earth and 99 years ago george mallory was one of six climbers trying to get there on may 19 1922 mallory led howard somerville edward norton and henry moore's head on the first official attempt to reach the everest summit across three days the team trekked up the north side of the mountain eventually reaching a record altitude of 8 225 meters before turning back on may 24th george finch and jeffrey bruce set off on another attempt this time making use of supplemental oxygen on the 27th finch reached a new altitude record of 8326 meters immediately mallory was eager to make his own attempt with oxygen believing that it was his ticket to making history while many of the exhausted climbers were hesitant to make a third attempt mallory's fascination with everest had begun to turn into an obsession on june 3rd he convinced several climbers to follow him on a hastily improvised trek to the summit they were joined by 14 sherpa porters who were assisting in hauling equipment to the higher camps the expedition was now running far too late and the monsoon had begun dumping fresh snow on the everest slopes on june 7th mallory's party triggered an avalanche that buried seven porters alive the disaster would mark the immediate end of the expedition mallory was criticized by his peers for his recklessness as his sudden mania for the summit had led to a severe lapse in judgment after the failure of 1922 he would have to wait two more years until his next chance to conquer everest in the spring of 1924 the british expedition crew were back in the himalayas mallory bruce norton and somerville had returned from the previous mission this time being joined by newcomers noel o'dell and sandy irvin mallory was now 37 and reconciled that this expedition would likely be his last shot at reaching the world's highest peak the may of 1924 featured historically poor weather conditions at everest not wanting a repeat of the 1922 disaster the group decided to overrule mallory's original plan and attempt the summit without oxygen the change frustrated mallory who now viewed oxygen as a necessity to reach the summit on june 1st mallory and bruce began their journey up the north ridge after less than a day the pair disappointingly aborted their attempt after poor weather forced them to retreat on june 2nd norton and somerville began their attempt this time finding themselves in ideal weather as they marched higher up the mountain by june 4th the pair had made it all the way up to the great color before exhaustion and respiratory problems forced them to turn around edward norton reached a new altitude record of 8570 meters just 280 meters beneath the summit mallory was originally scheduled to make one last attempt with experienced climber noel o'dell but after the failed first attempt mallory decided to call an audible instead of odell mallory would make his final run to the summit alongside the 22 year old novice sandy irvin who happened to be the most skilled oxygen technician among the expedition crew based on this attribute it's clear what mallory had in mind on june 6th mallory and irvin began their ascent each bringing with them as much oxygen as they could afford to carry the pair were trailed by odell who was taking photos about a thousand meters farther down the slope on the evening of the seventh mallory wrote a final correspondence to odell before the run to the summit saying to look out for he and irvin near the summit skyline the next day on the morning of june 8th odell eagerly waited for visual confirmation of the climbers but everest's peak for the moment was obscured by mist then at 12 50 pm there was a sudden break in the cloud cover allowing odell to clearly see the summit there odell witnessed two black dots scaling one of the rock steps on the northeast ridge with one dot appearing to climb up and over the crest just below the final summit pyramid after five minutes the mist rolled back in and the two figures disappeared behind the clouds this small fleeting moment would be the last time that george mallory and sandy irvin were ever seen alive shortly after the sighting a storm hit the mountain and the two climbers did not return from their attempt odell as the closest party member hiked up to around 8 200 meters to search for them but after 24 hours he signaled the rest of the crew that no trace could be found mallory and ervin had been lost to the mountain the tragedy would soon be overshadowed by the burning question looming in everyone's mind the two climbers were on the cusp of the single greatest achievement in the history of human exploration and no one in the world knew if they had made it [Music] welcome back everyone to a very special product placement today the fine people at bespoke post have sponsored me on an expedition to become the first green man to climb the tallest mountain in florida i'm being joined by my sherpa rusty cage and today thanks to his help we're going to be making history now you've seen your share of subscription boxes but i'm telling you buddy bespoke post is unlike anything you've ever seen before bespoke offers a variety of premium goods from under the radar brands many of their products come from small businesses based right here in the us whether you like cooking fashion or the great outdoors bespoke has a box for you and unlike other subscription boxes at bespoke you only pay for what you want each month you get a preview your box and if you're not satisfied you can choose to swap it out or skip the month entirely for no charge so for this expedition the folks at bespoke have provided us with the trail box and the weekender bag and actually it looks like we're coming up on the mountain right about now [Music] man that's uh it's a little bit bigger than what i was expecting all right i guess i guess they did uh they didn't sponsor us to come out here so gotta go climb it all right here we go this is what dreams are made of right here [Music] history in the making seeing that enormous mountain in front of me had me worried but thankfully the bespoke trail box had everything i needed to tackle the tough road ahead the survival manual pocket saw and paracord bracelet should allow us to navigate this potentially deadly situation and the gut hook knife will provide us with much needed leverage on these treacherous slopes just starting get up the incline here still quite a ways to go but if we keep up this fast enough vertical pace we should be able to reach the summit by sundown i was starting to get exhausted from ordering my sherpa to carry the supplies up the mountain luckily the bespoke weekender bag and nylon shoulder strap attachment allowed us to set up base camp right on schedule just a few more hours we can get there but for now we must stop and acclimatize to the sheer altitude difference luckily the uh cozy interior of the weekender travel bag has uh kept our provisions nice and warm i can tell you what it tastes tastes like history all right we've reached a high enough altitude on the mountain where we're now required to activate our oxygen systems all right fellas i'll see you at the top of the mountain [Music] we did it i did it i have become the first green man to climb the tallest mountain in florida and wow just look at that view oh this is just unbelievable you must be 10 15 feet up in the air you sure did it mr lemon and you did it all by yourself you're a real hero well that's not true sherpa cage i couldn't have done it without bespoke post i'd like to dedicate this moment to all the people who watch my videos and consume the products [Music] following the 1924 everest expedition reporters were eager to find out whether the highest peak in the world had been reached as the last people to see mallory and irvin alive the other members of the expedition found themselves in a frenzy of media attention fellow climbers odell norton and somerville were under the consensus that the pair had reached the summit however the greater climbing community were far more skeptical and future everest expeditions would begin to raise major questions over the possibility of a successful attempt based on the testimony from norton and odell the working theory was that mallory and ervin were attempting to reach the summit via the crest of the northeast ridge a route which at that point had never been explored climbers of the time lacked the knowledge or experience to truly evaluate the difficulty of the route a major complication that mallory and ervin would have had to face was a geological feature on the ridge known as the second step one of three prominent obstacles on the final run to the summit at an altitude of 8 600 meters the second step is a 40 meter tall near vertical rock face that spans across the entire width of the ridge initially it was claimed to be the rock step mentioned in odell's eyewitness report and was supposedly surmounted by one of the climbers in just five minutes however as future expeditions examined the second step odell's statement began to appear more and more dubious the first climbers to definitively explore the second step arrived in the 1933 expedition one member described the rock face as utterly impregnable edmund hillary's successful summoned attempt in 1953 did not have to navigate the second step as he reached the summit from the south side of the mountain the first party confirmed to successfully climb the second step was the 1960 chinese expedition which managed to overcome the obstacle using pitons a climbing aid which mallory and urban did not have even with superior tools it still took the chinese five excruciating hours to complete the climb future expeditions would install a ladder to make surmounting the second step somewhat bearable historical hindsight of the second step's extreme difficulty shed serious doubt on whether mallory or irvin could have feasibly climbed it back in 1924 irvin a novice climber was almost certainly out of his depth only mallory would have had a realistic chance of navigating the obstacle but many climbers today question whether even that would have been possible modern-day mountaineers now use tiered grading scales such as the yosemite decimal system to assess the technical difficulty of climbing features in the centuries since the 1924 expedition several experts have successfully free climbed the second step and have appraised the obstacle with grades ranging from 5.6 to 5.10 based on mallory's climbing history his skill has been estimated at a grade of 5.9 meaning that the second step may have been just within his capabilities however aside from his raw aptitude mallory would have also had to scale the step using rudimentary gear while hauling multiple oxygen canisters making an unassisted climb on an unexplored obstacle under all these circumstances would have required a superhuman effort and to do so in the five minutes that odell supposedly saw it would have to have been one of the most unlikely miracles in the history of mountain climbing it's for this reason why many have inferred that odell did not see the two climbers surmounting the second step but rather the comparatively easier first step however if this was the case it would have provided the pair with another major complication at the time odell spotted the climbers they were already four hours behind schedule if they were as far from the summit as the first step in that moment they would not have had enough time to reach the peak by sundown even if mallory and ervin had continued climbing into dusk their estimated supply of oxygen would have likely run out an additional problem working against the two climbers was the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions over the course of june 8. meteorological data gathered at the base camp during the expedition recorded a significant drop in barometric pressure between the 8th and 9th which would have made the air near the summit even more thin everest climber graham hoyland extrapolated that on the day that mallory and ervin trek to the summit the drop in air pressure would have added the equivalent of 180 meters to the effective altitude of the mountain unfortunately their summit date coincided with the arrival of that season's monsoon and to get to the summit the two climbers would have had to survive the storm that hit the mountain at around 2pm a modern-day thermodynamic analysis of mallory's clothing revealed that he would not have been insulated if the wind speed had risen by a significant degree a scenario that he likely experienced in the june 8 storm it's probable that this sudden change in the weather ultimately led to mallory and irvin perishing on the mountain but for the moment without any knowledge of their whereabouts a specific cause of death could not be determined eventually though as more expeditions ventured up the slopes of everest clues began to emerge over the fate of the two wayward climbers in 1933 crew members discovered a lost ice pick just below the first step the pick was eventually proven to belong to sandy irvin who likely dropped in near the scene of the climber's fatal accident now that an artifact from the missing climbers had been recovered researchers of the mystery concluded that their final resting place couldn't have been far due to the extreme cold near the everest summit bodies stranded atop the mountain don't decompose allowing them to essentially remain frozen in time in 1975 chinese climber wang heng bao reported spotting a body at an altitude of 8 100 meters judging by their clothes the remains must have belonged to a climber from an old british expedition 24 years later several researchers organized a search to locate the deceased climber it was on that expedition that conrad anchor discovered a corpse about 300 meters beneath the side of the lost ice pick lying there face down in the snow was the body of george mallory mallory's remains showed evidence of three key injuries he suffered a broken leg a puncture wound in the skull and bruising from a rope around his waist the bruising indicated that malory and ervin were likely roped together when one of them fell snapping the rope and separating the duo mallory's injuries were not severe enough to indicate a steep fall he may have experienced a minor stumble at the ice axe location after which he descended further down the slope where he suffered a second fatal fall several of mallory's possessions were recovered from the scene which revealed additional clues to the summit question his climbing goggles were found stowed away in a pocket indicating that he was likely operating in low visibility mallory was probably descending after the sun had set or during storm conditions one of his pockets concealed a note with a list of five oxygen cylinders providing evidence that the climbers had brought one extra cylinder than previously thought in fact the same search mission actually recovered one of these cylinders an artifact which marked the highest confirmed point that mallory and irvin reached rumored to be among mallory's possessions was a photo of his wife which he planned to place at the summit the photo was not found on mallory's body sparking further speculation to a successful attempt but beyond speculation no evidence could be found that conclusively proved whether he did or did not reach the summit many researchers hoped that finding george mallory would finally provide a solution to mountaineering's greatest mystery but it may have only created more questions than answers today nearly 100 years after the tragedy climbing experts are still split on the fate of mallory and ervin seasoned veterans like conrad anchor and graham hoyland are of the opinion that they did not make it reasoning that the duo simply had too many factors working against them other researchers are more optimistic phillip summers notes an inconsistency in the number of sleeping bags accounted for in the 1924 expedition and suggests that mallory and irvin may have carried two of them on their summit attempt possibly as a means of attempting a bivouac to buy them more time michael tracy offers a solution to the second step problem by suggesting that the climbers bypass the obstacle entirely by using the northridge traverse which was the standard route at the time tracy presents a comprehensive explanation for how the pair could have followed this route while using a system of oxygen caching to reach the summit before sundown in this case odell would have actually spotted the climbers at the third step which would be far more consistent with the supposed five-minute climb there are various other creative theories regarding mallory and ervin but until further evidence surfaces a definitive conclusion may never be reached fortunately the mystery is not yet a hopeless cause as the answer to the summit question may lie among the still undiscovered remains of sandy irvin it's highly likely that if either of the two climbers reached the summit they would have collected rock samples the rocks found atop everest are geologically unique to that part of the mountain if ervin were to be found with summit rocks it would prove that one of the climbers had made it to the top of everest curiously the 1999 forensic search of mallory's body neglected to check for summit rocks so it remains unclear whether mallory had any on his person at the time the prospect of rock samples had been completely overshadowed by the single most compelling missing piece from the 1924 expedition as mallory passed howard somerville on his final trek up the mountain he asked to borrow somerville's portable kodak camera to capture photographs in the event of a successful attempt when mallory was found in 1999 the camera was not found among his possessions therefore it is likely that mallory handed off the camera to ervin sometime during their descent if the camera is ever located the undeveloped film within could finally solve the mystery once and for all modern day photographers have shown it's possible to develop hundred-year-old film it's unknown whether the extreme conditions atop everest would corrupt the process but in the event that the camera is found kodak provided special instructions to give the film its best chance at survival but before any images can be retrieved researchers will most likely have to locate the body of sandy irvine first xiu jing of the 1960 chinese expedition claimed to have seen a dead climber lying on his back near the first step many researchers have inferred that this must have been urban but subsequent searches of the area have thus far turned up nothing somewhere high up on the mountain the missing piece of the everest discrepancy is waiting to be found but until that happens all we have are the theories there are many arguments for and against a successful summit attempt but most of them hinge on one unknowable variable whether george mallory while tantalizingly close to his defining achievement would have chosen to turn back away from the mountains mallory had a beloved wife and children after the 1924 expedition he was known to have aspirations of becoming a writer he certainly was in no position to throw his life away nor endanger the life of his young climbing partner however the imposing allure of the everest summit can have a strange effect on people many climbers who attempt everest report a psychological phenomenon known as summit fever where they become affixed in a trance-like state compelling them to either reach the summit or die trying death was no stranger to george mallory who had witnessed the horrors of world war one an event so traumatizing that it profoundly altered the way a generation of men understood the concept of life and death many soldiers who lived through the slaughter would go on to develop survivors guilt a condition where survivors of a mass tragedy experience sorrow and regret over not perishing alongside their peers death was so common in the great war that many began to see valiant self-sacrifice as an expectation it's possible that as malory was staring down his greatest adversary he may have been thinking the same way it's tough to think clearly in oxygen starved conditions and chasing the summit had already once enticed mallory into a reckless decision considering what was at stake in that moment one has to wonder whether the temptation was too much to resist at the end of the day the summit question may simply come down to the limits of human obsession but as far as any of us are concerned does it really matter if mallory or irvin made it to the summit regardless of whether they succeeded or failed we managed to reach the top of everest anyway and we did so long ago we have since reached the summit along every ridge and during every season as of now over 4 thousand people have stood atop everest including a 13 year old an 80 year old a blind man a double amputee and in 1995 george mallory who conquered the mountain that took his grandfather's life all those years ago today climbers can reach the summit by following a fixed rope that extends all the way down to base camp the summit track has become so foolproof that practically anyone in good health with fifty thousand dollars in a few weeks to spare can reach the top of the tallest mountain in the world what used to be considered the most astounding achievement in human exploration has since been relegated to a neat trophy to brag about at a cocktail party it's somewhat disheartening to see how even a place as mystifying as everest eventually found a way to be commodified and commercialized these days it seems that there are hardly any frontiers left to explore as of now the greatest discoveries reside not in mountains but in mysteries we may never know for sure what happened to mallory and ervin but pretty much all of us can be confident about one thing no one would prefer if they had failed it's a shame that history only tends to remember the first because so many other remarkable stories and people get lost in the fold whether or not mallory and irvin made it to the summit the fact remains that they both gave their lives trying to push the needle of human achievement it's chilling to consider someone spending their final moments stranded high above the clouds with no hope of rescue you can only imagine how lonely it must feel but in a spiritual sense the greatest pioneers are never truly alone while on the precipice of making history all of mankind is with them if they were to fail so would the rest of us human beings are defined by challenging the unknown the innate desire to explore unifies us all we will not rest until every summit is reached and every question is answered george mallory put it rather succinctly back in a 1923 interview for the new york times when asked why he wanted to climb everest he simply responded with the three most famous words in mountaineering because it's there [Music] you

Channel: EmpLemon

Views: 3,246,017

Keywords: EmpLemon, Everest, Mount Everest, George Mallory, Sandy Irvine, Mallory and Irvine

Id: T-VZ1kL8ZgE

Length: 31min 16sec (1876 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 03 2021

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