Rating: 
Summary: Mystery solved!--OR IS IT??
Review: If you have ever wondered what happened to the best climber ever to set foot on this earth, and the brave wonderful man who disappeared with him, this is your book! A group of courageous men set out to solve this question in 1999, 75 years after the mysterious disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. And what they find will chill you to your very bones! I highly recommend this beautifully conceived and presented book for anyone interested in Mt. Everest and all those brave but foolhardy ventures.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Topic, But Ultimately Tedious
Review: The descriptions of the `24 expidition were terrific. However the accounts of the `99 trip were down right tedious up until the story reaches the First Camp. In the first part of the book, tales of getting the gear, the sponsors, getting thru customs and the various slight ailments of the various climbers are neither interesting nor compelling. After that, it builds.Not a bad book, but the first half really could have used some editing.
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Summary: ghost writings
Review: This book is two stories for the price of one. Alternate chapters deal with the 1924 attempted ascent of everest by mallory and irvine, and the 1999 mallory and irvine research expedition. The 1924 story is clear and factually correct in its content, and the standard of photography is high. The 1999 expedition has the highlight of the finding of George Mallory's body on the north face of everest. It is an incredible chapter culminating in a photo of the great man still in self arrest position. And thats about it. Large sections of the book are ghost written and have a distant feel, written in third person or taking extracts of interviews that distance the reader. The last chapter gives Jochen Hemmleb, a German M & I researcher his chance to give four possible endings to the tale of mallory and irvine. Very good, but I didnt want conjecture, just the documented story of the finding of a great explorer. It is clear that Mr Hemmleb knows his stuff but he has as much evidence for his hypotheses as Tom Holzel has for his in the book "The search for mallory and irvine", ie- very little solid evidence. The climbing team that made up the 1999 M & I expedition are back on the mountain at present. Good luck to them, and I hope they find Andrew Irvines body and camera. Otherwise we may well be treated to another unnecessary mix of travelog and conjecture this year. Its not bad, but it could have been so much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Mallory and Irvine Theory according to America
Review: This book is a great read especially to anyone one day thinking about an assault of Everest. A very detailed and accurate account of the calender of events leading up to the early days in June. I must point out as other customer reviews mention that their is a huge negative slant put on the BBC and the British in general. All I can gather from these degrading inputs is a huge amount of jealousy from the American side. Let's face it the British have been great at exploration in the last few century's with wonderful stories of fame, fortune and disaster. I believe there is a lot of envy from the Americans because the Brits were there first. Actually the true hero was New Zealander - Sir Edmund Hillary.
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Summary: Virtual reality...
Review: Reading this book was not only informative. It actually gave me the shivers; it was almost like I was there myself. It is one of the most riveting accounts of a mountaineering expedition that I have ever read. It is concise and to the point; there are no wasted pages. Everything is relevant. I am only a trekker with no hope over ever reaching an altitude of over 6000m, but this book put me right there on Everest. After finishing it, I pulled out almost all my other books on Everest, scanning every photograph of the North Face I could find to try and visualize what the 1999 team experienced up there the day they found Mallory. The book reads like a fast-paced detective story, with the exception that one knows the outcome....yet when it comes to the moment of discovery, one is still left breathless. What this book has done, is to persuade me to go and visit the Tibetan side of Everest myself. I want to sit there at Base Camp and just try to picture in my mind the events of 1924 and 1999. I have been to the Nepalese side in 1990, and I thought I had my fill of Everest. Not any more! My congratulations to the climbers and authors....they did an exceptional job. I have every intention now to go and buy the hardcover version, because this story is without doubt a collector's item (not that I'm going to throw away the paperback!).
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Summary: Finally, definitive coverage of the subject matter...
Review: Having read virtually all of the printed material I could lay my hands or mouse upon regarding the early British expeditions, it is my opinion that this publication is the best of the bunch. It is objective, factual, well-organized and written by folks initimately familiar with what they're reporting. Also, they used intelligent discretion in presenting suitable photographs to convey that which is necessary and, thankfully, managed to avoid those which were not. While Peter Firstbrook's publication may have been more thorough regarding early expedition history, he came up woefully short when it came to an assessment of the facts as assembled by the 1999 search team (his work left me hanging); this book left me feeling that I now know about as much as anyone could. Another feature I found interesting was the supplemental material at the end of the book recounting the possible acts of previous expeditions that may've carelessly disturbed evidence of Mallory's fateful last climb - again, tantalizing. Finally, I admired the authors' willingness to offer their best guess as to what actually happened up there during Mallory's & Irvine's last hours of life - very plausible, insightful and touching. If this 75+ year-old mystery beckons you as well, I'd suggest you choose this as your definitive source. The others are simply lesser works that tried to cash-in on a truely remarkable effort by some very motivated researchers.
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Summary: Which Step?
Review: You can't put this book down because it addresses the very question that has gripped every armchair M&I fanatic for almost eighty years: which rock step were Mallory and Irvine surmounting when Odell caught his last glimpse of them during that short break in the clouds? Odell originally assumed it was the diffícult Second Step but, under pressure from the incredulity of the climbing establishment according to Hemmleb, he later changed his mind, stating it had probably been the easier First Step. With meticulous, detective-style research Hemmleb sensationally argues the case that it couldn't have been the First but was in fact more likely to have been the THIRD Step! However, in this well-balanced account doubt is cast over Hemmleb's reasoning by the absense of conclusive evidence and the opinions of his companions who reclimb M&I's North-East Ridge route. Describing the route pitch for pitch, they conclude that the Second Step would probably have been too difficult for 1920s standards. Hemmleb isn't convinced, neither (probably) are the armchair fans.
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Summary: A Terrific Real Life Aadventure On The Roof Of The World!
Review: In reading this wonderful, literate, and spellbinding exploration into the question as to whether or not the very experienced and quite venerable mountain climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine actually reached the summit of the world on Everest before succumbing to the elements in a sudden storm some seventy five years ago, again and again I found myself asking myself the question as to why this is so important to so many people. After all, the two died in a valiant attempt, successful or not, to do something they thought was worth the risk of their own lives to accomplish. Comparing their incredible courage, stamina, and almost superhuman strength in getting as far as they did to what Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay did accomplish some twenty-five years later with vastly superior support and much better equipment is silly; what Mallory and Irvine did was a singular historic accomplishment, regardless of whether they were the first to reach the summit or not. On an entirely different level, this is a wonderful adventure book, filled not only with the specifics of the earlier attempt, but also of the intrepid attempt by a group of true believers to discover the truth by finding the bodies of the two climbers. One comes to admire the motives and the morality of these men, who indeed put their own lives on the line in a determined effort to determine where on the mountain they had succumbed. Of course, as the trail leads them higher and higher, one's own expectations and sense of excitement rises, as well. This is a terrific book, one I suggest for all readers, a well written, carefully organized, and nicely photographed journey of discovery and a lesson in just how much a determined group of men can do when they have an important mission that each has a sense of commitment toward, and when they all share a common sense of purpose to propel them. This is a great book, and one I highly recommend.
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Summary: An amazing detective story
Review: In the words of Sherlock Holmes - "When you have eliminated what cannot be, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is what must be." So did Sir Mallory and Irvine reached Everest almost 30 years earlier than Sir Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing ? The book attempts to answer this question. The book reconstructs the whole 1924 Mallory expedition as well as the 1999 search expedition. The idea of writing both the ascents together is what makes the book so interesting. The pictures and the maps are really superb. The descriptions of the mountain is so detailed that even you know nothing about mountain climbing (like me) you will have little trouble in imagining the scenes. The last chapter is the conclusion of this Sherlock Holmes detective story. With just some (apparently inconsequential) noting on an old envelope found in Sir Mallory's pocket, the writers/researchers are able to put forward a plausible theory about what may have happened. Interestingly, the broken wrist watch considered to be the an important discovery told the researchers little. At the end, you are free to draw your own conclusions at the end. As for me, I believe that Sir Mallory and Irvine were able to make it. For the simple reason that his wife's photo and letters were not found on his body. Sir Mallory seemed devoted to Ruth (his wife) and had brought a photoframe of his wife to place on the summit. He wasn't carrying it simply because he had placed it at the summit. And he was too meticulous to have left them behind anywhere else. Also, it is proven without doubt that Sir Mallory fell on the descent. Maybe, the success had made him so happy and relieved that he may have dropped his guard just a little bit (out of sheer fulfillment of a difficult purpose) which could have resulted in a fatal lapse of concentration during the descent.
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Summary: The romance of high adventure
Review: With their splendid book "Ghosts of Everest" ("Ghosts"), the authors have taken up the gauntlet of attempting to determine whether or not Mallory & Irvine reached the summit of Mt. Everest on June 8th, 1924, before perishing on the descent. The authors provide a fascinating and hugely-detailed description of the fatal climb, and of the Simonson expedition which discovered Mallory. The layout, photography, graphical and sheer physical qualities of the book are to the absolute highest standards. The front half of the book describes the 1999 expedition, a tale that begins like many of this genre. The difference in "Ghosts" becomes quickly apparent. This is not your bunch of good old boys undertaking a simple task of conquest. Instead, they are only the second expedition since WW-II launched expressly to find the body and camera of the two British climbers, with the intent of finding out how far they got. Unlike most other Everest expeditions which conjure up the names of Mallory & Irvine to raise financing, the Simonson team actually made the search for the two men and their camera(s) their number one priority. The search effort was planned by Mallory & Irvine researcher Jochen Hemmleb-the catalyst with Larry Johnson-for this expedition. Hemmleb has amassed practical research on the 1924 expedition that pinpointed the probably location of Irvine's body as evidenced by the 1933 discover of his ice ax lying on the route. Yes, they had great luck with the weather-the mountain being unusually clear of snow--but Lady Luck often smiles on the well-prepared, and none were better prepared to undertake this arduous search than the team of this expedition. The shock of actually finding their needle in the haystack-and then discovering that the body was that of George Mallory rather than Andrew Irvine--sent climbers and researchers reeling back to their notes to try to make sense of this first new ground truth since the discovery of an "English dead" by a Chinese Climber in 1975. The stunned reaction of these hardened climbers to their momentous discovery adds a new element to this tale of historical research conducted under enormous physical adversity; and the photographs of the 1924 artifacts act like an eerie time portal glancing back to an age when climbing the world's highest peak was undertaken with equipment which would today be considered inadequate to climb Mt. Hood. While the consensus forming is that the route was too long and the Second Step cliff too difficult for those pre-WW II climbers to have reached the top, enough ambiguity still exists to give heart to the true believers for whom success might still have been possible. Only the still-sought Kodak camera, with film preserved by the Everest's icy grip, may someday give the final answer. Until that day, "Ghosts" has moved itself to the center of gravity of this still fascinating legend.
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