Everest Ghosts–Mallory and Irvine Expedition Comes Up With A Corpse: Actually, make that 5 corpses. But only one has really got their attention. It was found above 8,000 meters on May 27, and it wasn’t a pretty sight: headless, with many broken bones and massive damage to the chest area. The reason it got their attention is that this mystery climber was wearing a leather (i.e. not modern) boot, and hand-made socks. No climbing harness, personal effects, or rope was found. At first the climbing team thought two characters in blue ink in the boot indicated that the climber was Chinese (and only Irvine and a Chinese climber are thought to have died on this part of Everest (the North side) before 1985). But the writing turns out to be English. The team–which doesn’t believe it is Sandy Irvine (they don’t say why)–gave the corpse a proper burial, but will continue to try to determine its identity (DNA maybe?). The expedition also found an old oxygen bottle at 8,400 meters. What about the other four bodies? Some of them were just photographed because they were hard to reach, and their identities are so far unknown. The expedition is playing it’s cards very close to the chest. “Several other items in various locations” were found, but no details have been offered. The expedition is now off the mountain trying to sort it all out. Stay tuned. This could get very interesting…



Mallory (second from left) and Irvine (far right) En Route To Everest, And Destiny, February 1924

(Photo: Sandy Irvine Trust, UK via EverestNews.Com)