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Mallory, preparing for his final summit bid.
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In Extremis
by Liesl Clark
May 7, 1999
The natural fiber clothing was the give-away, layers ripped from the impact
of Mallory's fall. "It came as quite a shock," confessed Dave Hahn today in
an interview at Base Camp. "We needed to go through the clothing and cut it
off to be able to fully examine him. Jake found this clothing label on the
neck," Hahn continued. "He pulls this 'G.L. Mallory' tag out, and all of a
sudden this was something that I knew was bringing me a little closer to
20th-century history than I ever thought I'd be. And it took me a few
seconds to understand that."
It is a climber's clothing that helps maintain the fragile balance between
body and mountain. What moves us the most is the realization that two
climbers in 1924, ill-equipped to stay out overnight on the upper slopes of
Everest, still set out to try and be the first to climb to the top of the
world. Certainly it wasn't their clothing that caused their demise. As
Hahn explained: "He had fractures of his leg bones. He had a broken arm on
the right side, and trauma to his shoulder. You could see this was a fall.
You could see where the rope had bit into him, but it wasn't excessive
trauma. He was at 27,000 feet, he was wearing nothing by our standards. He
was going to die of exposure with such trauma."
David Hahn
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| We continue to try to piece together Mallory's last moments, given what we
know of his injuries and the terrain. When asked his opinion of the evidence
at hand—the rope around Mallory's waist, his injuries, and his fight for
life—Hahn relied on his mountaineering intuition to give us a possible
scenario: "(The evidence) didn't suggest that he had fallen off of the North
East Ridge. That's what you like to picture—that he's climbing on the
normal route and he takes the epic fall of all time. No, this was probably
from somewhere within the Yellow Band, within the cliff band. It couldn't
have been several hundred vertical feet. It was a tumbling fall probably,
but then he probably ended up on the steep snow slope below the Yellow Band
and continued his fall and that probably was his fate. You could see he was
caught in the rope so he rolled and then eventually he slid. What I thought
was clear was that he stopped himself eventually and it also seemed clear to
me that he was alive at the end of this tumble and slide. The rope had
separated at some point. It looked like he was alive, he had held himself on
the snow slope. He was in an anatomically natural position and I guess we
were all struck by that broken leg and the way he had crossed his good leg
over that. He was going for that last bit of relief or comfort by that last
action of crossing his leg. He couldn't have been alive for very long
there."
It is still Mallory's clothing that astonishes Hahn the most: "I can't
emphasize it enough. I wear street clothes that are thicker than George
Mallory's were up there at 27,000 feet on the North Face of Everest, and to
have the shock of injury setting in, there wouldn't have been much time, the
cold would've taken his life away if the injuries hadn't."
(Compare the inventory of clothing found on Mallory with the clothing worn
by his discoverer, Conrad Anker.)
In their next search, the climbers have one clue to hold onto while
searching for Andrew Irvine. Zippers had just been invented in 1924 and
Irvine was one of the first climbers to wear them on his clothing. With this
information in hand, the climbers hope to find Irvine and the camera that we
know Mallory and Irvine had with them on their summit climb. "My curiosity
is stronger than ever," admits Hahn. "I need to go back up there and find
what I can."
Unanswered Questions (May 25, 1999)
Forty-Eight Yaks (May 21, 1999)
On Top of the World (May 17, 1999)
Summit Team Moves Higher (May 16, 1999)
Still at Camp V (May 15, 1999)
Snow Bound (May 14, 1999)
Outsmarting the Weather (May 13, 1999)
Last Trip Up (May 12, 1999)
Up to ABC/The Rescue (May 11, 1999)
The Image of Mallory (May 8, 1999)
In Extremis (May 7, 1999)
Pieces of the Puzzle (May 6, 1999)
Dearest George (May 5, 1999)
Mallory's Discoverers Return (May 4, 1999)
Mallory Reported Found (May 3, 1999)
Waiting in Silence (May 1, 1999)
Up to the Search Site (April 30, 1999)
To the North Col (April 29, 1999)
Waiting out the Wind (April 28, 1999)
Search About to Begin (April 25, 1999)
Pitching a 1933 Tent (April 23, 1999)
Early Camp Found at 21,750 Feet on Everest (April 20, 1999)
Up to Base Camp (April 23, 1999)
Photos: (1) Courtesy of the John Noel Photographic Collection; (2) Liesl Clark.
Members of the press: click here for NOVA/PBS ONLINE "Lost on Everest" media relations contacts.
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