George Mallory walking to his Everest death: Newly-unearthed photo of doomed expedition was taken by last man to see explorer and his colleague Edward Irvine still alive
A photograph showing British explorers George Mallory and Edward Irvine walking to their deaths on Mount Everest has been re-discovered after nearly 100 years.
A photograph showing British explorers George Mallory and Edward Irvine walking to their deaths on Mount Everest has been re-discovered after nearly 100 years.
The black and white image has only been seen once before and that was during a photographic exhibition 99 years ago.
Mallory and Irvine disappeared in June 1924 when they attempted to become the first people to climb the worlds highest peak.
The photograph shows seven members of the expedition trekking upwards on the north face of Mount Everest.
It was taken by Noel Odell, the expeditions photographer, who was the last person to see Mallory and Irvine alive. He titled the photo Pilgrims to the Great Goddess Everest 1924.
The photograph of the expedition was taken by Noel Odell and titled Pilgrims to the Great Goddess Everest 1924’
The last photo of Edward Irvine ( left) and George Mallory (right) will be sold at auction
Irvine (left) disappeared aged 22 with his climbing partner, the renowned mountaineer Mallory, in June 1924
The group set off from Camp VI 26,000ft up Everest on June 8 after leaving a note for their support party that read things look good.
Several hours later Odell reached Camp VI and was able to see the entire summit above him.
He trained his camera lens on it and sighted Mallory and Irvine at about 28,200ft before they disappeared into the clouds. It was the last time the pair were seen alive.
It could never be shown whether the pair reached the peak and perished on their way down or if they succumbed to the conditions agonisingly short of their historic goal.
In the event, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to conquer Everest in 1953. In 1999 Mallorys body was discovered about 700 metres from the summit.
In September this year, a team of climbers filming a National Geographic documentary stumbled on a preserved foot encased in a climbing boot and sock that was later confirmed to be that of Irvine.
The photograph taken by Odell is one of several taken by him on three separate Everest expeditions that are coming up for sale.
They have remained in the Odell family and are being sold by a direct descendant of the photographer and mountaineer who died in 1987 aged 96.
One of Irvines feet was found several hundred feet beneath where Mallorys body was discovered in 1999
A plaque commemorating George Mallory and Andrew Irvine placed on Mount Everest by Italian climbers. The inscription reads from the glory of the peaks forever in our hearts
George Mallory is seen with Andrew Irvine at the base camp in Nepal
The images are expected to sell for a combined £8,000.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of Henry Aldridge & Son, of Devizes, Wilts, said: Odell is remembered above all as the last man to have seen Andrew Irvine and George Mallory alive, as they were making dogged but delayed progress towards a potential first ascent of Mount Everest in 1924, 29 years before Hillary.
This is an exceptional original photograph taken by Odell. It shows members of the expedition on their trekking upwards to Everest.
It is a tantalising final glimpse of Mallory and Irvine before they perished by pushing the boundaries of human endeavour.
The Odell collection also includes three original photographs taken by him of the south face of Everest in 1905 and an exceptional panoramic photograph on the 1938 expedition which ended in failure.
