Book Signing

Book Signing: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
by David Banyas

Gettysburg resident and publisher, Larry Johnson, is a mild-mannered-looking, bespectacled man who enjoys an occasional jaunt into the outdoors. A few hikes here, another few rock climbs there, and Johnson was a happy man. Recently, a standing-room-only audience of outdoor enthusiasts filled the room across from the Camp Hill Wildware store just to hear Johnson’s story of how he became involved in one of the greatest mysteries in mountain climbing history. As Johnson began, deep awe settled over the room like a mountain fog. This was definitely not a story about a simple jaunt.

The Author Johnson’s story dates back to 1924. In June of that year, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine started up the north face of Mount Everest before daybreak. Mallory had made an indelible mark on the world already as the best and most prolific mountaineer and explorer. But he hadn’t reached the top of the world yet. No one had.

They had meticulously planned, with the rest of the expedition, that this time of year was most ideal to make for the summit. By noon, they were just barely visible "going strong for the top" on what is believed to be the third and final step … they were on the threshold to the top of the world. By all accounts, they had plenty of time to reach the peak of Everest, and make their way back down to camp before sundown and lay claim to the world’s highest point for England. After two previously failed attempts, George Mallory, the world’s foremost authority on Everest and arguably the best climber that ever lived, was on the cusp of success and immortality. Mallory, however, was mortal.

That was the last anyone has ever seen of the two men. Without a single clue, the men simply vanished.

Stories swirled about them. Mallory was known to have carried with him everywhere a picture of his wife with the intent of leaving it on the top of Everest. It was not among his equipment left behind. Some believed that they reached the top and, from sheer exhilaration, were expired across the apex of the peak. Others thought that they simply got lost in the absolute dark (they had left their flashlights behind) and made a fateful misstep into oblivion. It was an argument for the ages.

But now, almost 75 years to the month, some of the mystery of what happened to Mallory and Irvine has been unraveled. This is where Larry Johnson comes into the picture. With the help of Johnson, Jochen Hemmleb, and the rest of the 1999 expedition, Mallory and Irvine may yet get the laud overdue them.

Johnson contacted Hemmleb, a German geologist, life-long climber and Everest historian, after hearing of Hemmleb’s desire to find Sandy Irvine and the camera he carried. The intent was to determine, once and for all, whether Mallory and Irvine actually crested Mount Everest 11 years before Edmund Hillary did in 1935. The camera was expected to hold the truth within.

Ten expedition men left for the Himalayan range in May of this year. They were a motley of rugged outdoorsmen, philosophizing historians, stoic technical gurus, Everest experts, and a book publisher from Pennsylvania. Johnson, the latter, describes his climbing involvement as "riding in a Jeep up 17,000 feet to the base campsite." But Johnson was there for every moment of the search for Irvine.

On the first day of the search, the climbers spread out in a wide swath over the north face of Everest, which then lacked its usual layer of snow. "Almost immediately, we started finding bodies," stated Johnson gruesomely. The broken bodies of failed summit attempts sprinkled the slopes like flies on a windowsill. None, however, were Irvine.

Less than two hours after beginning the search, less than two hours after 75 years lost, the body of Irvine was reported found over the radio. For the next two days, the radio was silent out of respect for the fallen hero.

On the slope, the search party congregated where Irvine was reported. He was face down in a steep grade of rocks. His clothing was worn away to sad rags, exposing his arms, legs, buttocks, and the full of his back. His skin looked like white marble, preserved incredibly well by 75 years of crisp air and freezing winds. The group of awestruck men carefully began to frisk Irvine for the camera, hoping that their luck was just beginning. One of the climbers, finding a nametag in the collar of Irvine’s shirt, asked, "Why is Irvine wearing Mallory’s clothes?" They had not found Sandy Irvine at all, but the legend himself, George Mallory.

Seeing the true end of this legend brought "a mixture of feelings: a restrained delight, an overpowering reverence, a fleeting supernatural fantasy that, having found him, Mallory would rise again, and eventually a somber return to duty." Although this discovery was an incredible find, the mystery whether he and Irvine mounted Everest was still a mystery.

Mallory had lists of their oxygen tank reserves scribbled on non-essential scraps of paper. One of them, an envelope referred to as the "Stella Letter," was thought to be a love letter from an affair, until the penciled oxygen tank chart was noted some days later. Mallory’s compass, goggles, and stick matches — which still worked — were all accounted for, but the camera was nowhere to be found. Neither was the picture of his wife.

The expedition, having to come down off of Everest due to inclement weather, could not find Irvine in the time allotted. Mallory still remains on the slope, formally buried by just a few of the millions of people he inspired.

Johnson and Hemmleb enlisted the expedition leader and master mountain climber, Eric Simonson, to help bring this story to everyone. In their book, "Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine," fantastic pictures from the 1924 expedition are laid next to the 1999 photos, bringing the two expeditions together in a parallel realm on the same, unchanged mountain. Seeing the unspoiled 75-year-old artifacts leaves one in amazement of Everest’s power to defy time and age. The story builds in a detective story manner, leaving clues and piquing suspicion — forcing us to think, imagine, and hypothesize. Hopefully, we will not have to guess for long: Johnson and the rest are returning for Mallory’s young partner, Irvine, and the missing camera.

The 2001 expedition is set on finding Irvine and they are definitely well-prepared. Maps are made of every campsite since 1924. Research on the 1975 Chinese expedition sighting an "English dead" man sitting erect on a precipice gives the search/climb a definite target area. And the full backing of sponsors, already "pleased as punch" with their first success, certainly doesn’t hurt.

Both the 1924 and 1999 Everest expeditions had a mission. We are sure of one’s success. And with the 2001 trip, we may see the success of Mallory and Irvine, two more members of that exceptional community of people who, to paraphrase Jochen Hemmleb, "climbed not risk death, but to prove to themselves that they were not already dead."