Mallory & Irvine Update: The search for Irvine’s body is turning into a circus at 8,000 meters. In addition to our guys (the Everest News expedition), there are two other teams on Everest scrounging for the corpse. One of these teams was recently up high on the mountain with a metal detector, without ropes or camps. In other words, they were making a dash and hoping to get lucky. None of this can be very comforting to Irvine’s family, who are hoping that if the body is discovered it will be treated with respect and given a Christian burial on the mountain. When Mallory’s body was discovered, much of the climbing world was horrified at the gruesome pictures made public, and the general pawing over the body received. The Everest News expedition is going to try and do better:

“We have been asked by the family that information from the mountain be relayed to them before this information is given to anyone else. After a burial, in most countries it is a legal requirement that thereafter the body remains untouched. The family requests this, and we join them in their belief that this practice should be respected in the mountains. We will attempt to treat Sandy with the utmost respect. We will go very quietly and very slowly. We plan to stay focused and small. We need to stay on task and without complex agendas. No reporters, no cameramen, and no interviews while on the mountain.”

But who knows about the other teams, and who knows who–if anyone–will find the body first. Maybe Everest should be allowed to keep its secrets, and its dead…



Young Irvine: “I definitely don’t look like this anymore, so I wish these ghouls would let me rest in peace…”

(Photo via EverestNews.Com)