Mountain Man

IT was unmissable. The sight of the bleached white skin, whiter than the snow which -surrounded it, stood out like a beacon of light. Lying face down, covered only by loose rocks and slate, the body of one of this country's first intrepid mountaineers was just feet away; untouched for almost 75 years, battered by the unforgiving elements of the mountain which has claimed the lives of many more since. The American-led expedition to the Steps of Everest had struck gold. But it wasn't until the team looked a little closer that they realised the amazing significance of their discovery.

His skin like alabaster, his bare hands brown and burnt by the sun; his back exposed to the elements; the clothes that had been layered on to protect him from the wind and cold hung in tatters, still visible yet barely covering his frozen torso. It was from the hand-written labels in these clothes that his body was identified.

This body, which has been referred to as a Greek god-looking corpse, was, amazingly, not the body of the man they'd expected to find, Andrew Irvine, but that of his climbing companion, George Mallory. This perfectly -preserved, strapping figure of a man could hold the key to a pre-war myth.

George Mallory, a former Winchester College boy whose bravery and fearless courage had led him on a journey to his death, could, decades after he perished in sub-zero -conditions, achieve the fame and -notoriety he had craved.

As climber Conrad Anker zig-zagged back up the slope towards Camp VI on the west side of the ill-defined rib of the world's most notorious mountain, he stepped over bodies, uncomfort-able at the frozen mounds beneath his feet but determined to overcome his feelings and continue the search. Many climbers who had passed this way before him hadn't survived. It was a cruel fact but an expected peril - each one knew the risks.

He over-looked them with only two thoughts on his mind - finding what the team had come all this way for and his own survival. Once he'd spotted their -modern clothing and equipment he knew to keep on looking - his corpse would not have known the benefits of Gore Tex. Ploughing on, hoping for a find before the weather turned, Conrad removed his climbing -crampons and began to scale the rock ahead. In the distance he saw an old tent fluttering in the wind. He turned, his curiosity pulled him towards it. But as he turned there it was. The find of the century. The gleaming white mound which would re-write the -history books. A 75-year-old body which would get the world talking. He radioed the rest of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition. "There's something here I think you should see."

The team stood in silence looking over their find. They had found a man who had been clinging to Everest for 75 years. Questions were flooding through their minds. No one had made any attempt to dis-turb the site. They just stood in awe, amazed by what lay before them, astounded that after one hour and 20 min-utes their expedition had been a success. The only sound was the -stillness and their own rac-ing thoughts.

The ten-strong research team all pointed at Mallory's perfectly pre-served hobnail boot on his right foot. It was still almost completely intact and eerily recognisable. They also pointed out the climbing rope that was tied tightly around his waist, still braided and white. This would have been the most vital tool for the mountaineers in 1924 when modern tools and technology were unavailable. Mallory and Irvine would have left for the summit in 1924, their third attempt to conquer Everest, with primitive oxygen rigs and dressed in Burberry tweed suits over layers of woollen jumpers. Expedition leader Eric Simonson said: "The achievement of climbers such as George Mallory and Andrew Irvine is not fully appreciated. To get within a few hundred feet of the summit if not closer in 1924 wearing tweed clothing and using extremely heavy, primitive oxygen gear, was incredible. Our expedition is a homage to those guys.''

Without even touching this marble-like statue in the snow the team could see how this determined mountaineer had died. They agreed that a boot-top fracture of his left tibia and fibula meant he had died from a fall. They believed he had fallen in the rocks and must have slid some distance down the snow slopes. He'd stopped himself sliding further with outstretched arms. Although the experts looking over him could see evidence of some type of trauma it wasn't consistent with a -massive fall, say, from the Northeast Ridge Crest where, in 1933, one of his party's ice axe handles was found.

"Yes, this man who we'd found had fallen in the rocks and then slid some way down the snow slopes, but he'd lived through it all," said climber Dave Hahn.

"He'd arrested his fall with out-stretched arms and grasping hands and he'd composed himself to die, crossing his broken leg over the other for some last relief.

"Looking at his layered, thin clothing (perhaps as many as nine layers of cotton, wool and tweed, adding up to only a small fraction of the six inches of down, pile and Gore Tex which covered me as I looked in wonder) it was obvious that the end had come quickly after-wards for a man in shock at 27,000ft. But it was clear the man was at peace."

After a few minutes of stunned silence and collected thought, the team brought themselves to work. Packs and oxygen were set aside as the search began for relics and clues, clues which would first identify the body they had found and then tell the -waiting world whether the summit of Everest was indeed conquered in 1924 and not May 29, 1953.

THE research team had already discussed with Mallory's family, including his grandson who himself climbed Everest in 1995, that should he be found on the mountain they would not attempt to disturb his final resting-place. They would be allowed to search for clues only if they agreed to conduct a small, previously decided ceremony and give him a dignified burial on the mountainside. When they started about their work it was clear the head and arms of this uphill-orientated climber were frozen solidly into a mound of rock which had collected over the years around his body. There would be no rolling him over. Instead they laboriously set about chipping away around him, slicing off some of his clothing, removing some hair and a skin sample so a forensic DNA test could officially reveal their find once back on terra firma. It was doing this they came across the manufacturer's label on his clothes and just beneath a label neatly stitched in, it said "G Mallory".

"We all stopped and looked in each others' faces. Our first utterances were "Why would Andrew Irvine be wearing Mallory's clothes" said Dave.

It was at this point their elation was clear. They had not found the body which in 1975 a Chinese mountaineer called Wang Hong Bao had come across and called his "Old English dead", but had found the needle in the haystack, the man of the mountain, George Leigh Mallory.

"Mallory was the man whose boldness we'd grown-up in awe of and now we were touching him. We each then noticed the muscular arms of the climber. Still, after all these years, George Mallory cut an impressive figure."

As they searched they came across more labels, each one reinforcing like hammer blows the importance of what they were doing. They knew they could only have the one chance to retrieve all the evidence they could to take home. The night was moving in, the weather changing and there might not have been another tomorrow to come back and explore.

To their dismay the team didn't find the small 1920s black Kodak camera which would have been the quick route to validating the claim that Mallory was the first man on the summit. Experts say the film would have survived the cold and could be developed to reveal a picture which could have shown Mallory on the summit. What they did find, though, amazed the team. An altimeter, good to 30,000, his only technical equipment, and a letter from his wife, heavily stamped which was worn on his chest, close to his heart. Mallory also had no primitive oxygen rig and his goggles were in his pocket, which led them all to believe that maybe he had made it; that maybe he was on his way back down after dumping his oxygen rig at the summit and taking off his goggles because at night there would be no risk of snow blindness. All the clues pointed to the positive.

After collecting their samples and the letters they found, the team collected some larger rocks for the burial. They got their packs on, said their good-byes and made the dangerous descent back to base. They couldn't radio back to camp to say who they'd found. They were all hungry for more information and knew they would have to go back and look for Irvine and the cam-era. But that was tomorrow. Today they had to get back to Camp V and let the others in on the miraculous find. They couldn't shout their joy from the mountain top - Mallory's location must remain a closely guarded secret to prevent looters and gold diggers -ransacking his final resting-place.

BACK home, news of the discovery began filtering through over the Internet. The research team are hooked up to the Net and as soon as they got back to camp and told the BBC crew who had travelled to Himalayas with them, and others in the camp, of the news they immediately logged on and told the world to a wave of speculation and celebration. This most significant find ever on Mount Everest could re-write history. Experts, historians and journalists began calculating what the find could actually mean. Would the title bravely battled for by Sir Edmund Hillary and sherpa

Tenzing Norgay in 1953 be stripped from them and given to a man who had completed the challenge 29 years previously Only time and the retrieval of the Kodak camera would tell. The world waited for the next instalment with bated breath.

Could it be possible that the 38-year-old athlete and schoolteacher George Mallory was the first conqueror of Everest

James Sabben-Clare, head of Winchester College where George studied in the early 1900s, says he had reservations about the news.

He said: "It's quite poignant. I feel quite sad. Certain mysteries should be left alone."

Patrick Maclure, secretary of the college's old boys' society, said: "It is fascinating. I thought it was very nice that he was found and given a burial.

"The mystery gets more and more intriguing; that he has been discovered a thousand feet lower than the last sighting."

Mr Maclure has a copy of The Wykehamist, the college magazine, which included an obituary in its July 19, 1924 issue.

It stated:"The love of mountains had entered his inmost being; not only the bodily delight of conquest, but far more the sense of worship at these grand and enduring altars."

Mr Maclure said he was struck by the detail that epitomises the empire-building sangfroid of adventurers like Mallory.

The wife of Mallory's grandson, Barbara (Mallory) Millikan, was overjoyed when news of the team's find was posted on the net.

She said: "We knew the team were going up to look for Irvine so it was wonderful news when they discovered my husband Mark's grandfather, George. We would like to have known a lit-tle more about the burial and what service was per-formed for personal reasons but are glad they buried him up there. It is what he would have wanted. We are still a little overwhelmed - if they find the camera it will be truly amazing.''

The sub-zero temperatures seal this body of evidence into his slate tomb, to be neither touched nor seen again. The words from the committal ceremony taken from a Bristol vicar still ring in the air; a service which was requested by the surviving family members, a service which brought lumps to the throats of the ten men stood over his frozen grave, laying his body and the 75-year mystery of his disappearance to rest.

After hours of patient chopping and digging around his body to unearth any clues which might reveal whether Mallory was indeed the first man to reach the summit of the world, he was again at peace. But instead of satisfying the team, each clue, each new piece of evidence, every answer they uncovered to the great climber's mystery merely hatched further questions. The team was hungry for more. The BBC camera crew, obviously, felt the same. They are at the camp making a documentary of the -expedition that is due to be aired in the autumn. What remains to be seen is what tantalising and vital clues are being kept back for that - clues which might put an end to the speculation and crown Mallory king of the mountain.

This week, the climbers have scaled the mountain once more, this time in search of Irvive. From the severing of Mallory's rope they know he has to be within 150ft of his body following their fall. They need to find him to make the puzzle complete. He could hold the truth in his frozen grasp. Simonson added: "Whatever the outcome of the rest of our expedition, whatever we find, it's an honour to be climbing in the footsteps of these men. This expedition is a testament to the drive and vision of Mallory and Irvine, who were well ahead of their time.''

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