Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine

Rating:
Summary: A Mystery Yet Unsolved
Review: By no means can I be considered an expert on matters concerning Everest, so I can't comment authoritatively on some of the factual issues here. Nevertheless, I can say that this is an excellent primer for the layman who is interested in learning about the mystery of Mallory and Irvine and their 1924 attempt to be the first to reach the summit of the world's tallest mountain.

For background, the book provides biographical details about Mallory and a history of Western exploration of Everest. (Apparently, Mallory was a great natural climber, but extraordinarily forgetful about critical details and sometimes suffering from poor judgement.) It also details the events of the 1921, 1922, and 1924 British expeditions, the first organized attempts by Europeans to explore the mountain. Excellent maps are included, along with two sections of black and white photos, primarily from the original expeditions, with some supplements from the 1999 search for Mallory and Irvine's bodies. (For those of a more morbid mindset, note that the photos from 1999 feature only one discreet shot of Mallory's frozen body, and otherwise mostly are concerned with the artifacts found upon him.)

The last two brief chapters relate the efforts of a 1999 British/American expedition (funded in part by German interests) to find the missing climbers and hopefully to salvage preserved film from the camera they were known to have been carrying. Should the camera be found, it's possible that photos might still be developed from it and that the question of whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit could be conclusively answered at last. To date, neither the camera nor the body of Irvine have been found (apparently a subsequent 2001 expedition by some of the team members from 1999 uncovered only questionable further evidence from the 1924 climbers), so the mystery endures. However, this book speculates that it's possible, however unlikely, that Mallory and Irvine might indeed have reached the top, albeit at so late and dangerous an hour and with such primitive protection and gear that their doom would have been assured in any case.

The last few chapters are mildly repetitious in certain parts, but other than that minor flaw, this is a very readable and fascinating account of one of the greatest tragedies and enigmas of mountaineering.

Rating:
Summary: Readable on Everest
Review: More an engaging history of early Everest exploration than a record of the expedition to find Mallory & Irvine, this book still will be of interest to climbers and arm-chair mountaineers. A few proofing errors in the later chapters detract from the quality and several of the photos could use arrows and annotations. It seemed as if the author and publisher rushed this book through to get it on the shelves before Christmas.

All that said, the plates are the best collection of early Everest illustrations that I've seen. I found the account readable and enjoyable. When the text finally got the search team on the mountain, it was captivating.

Of course, their findings raise more questions: where is Irvine and the missing camera, what happened to Mallory's watch? I'd like to know how close they were to the original camp when Mallory fell. And after they found Mallory, why didn't they spend more time looking for Irvine?

I'll probably read the other titles about the search for Mallory & Irvine just because of my mountaineering background. I'll be curious to see how they compare.

Rating:
Summary: Did Mallory and Irvine stand on the summit of Everest?
Review: Peter Firstbrook, the author of this book thinks that it's possible. Ironically however, if they did make it, it might have helped cause their deaths. By the time they would have got there it would have been early evening at the earliest. Then tiredness, exhaustion, dehydration combined might have caused Mallory's fall to his death. The irony being that they were at that point quite close, less than 200 ft, from Camp VI, from where they set off that morning. This book is divided into two parts. Part one is a biography of George Mallory, and a brief history of Himalayan mountanerring expeditions up till the 1920s, the second is an account of the expedition that found Mallory's body earlier this year. Worth reading, if only to look at the possible scenearios and evidence

Rating:
Summary: A Partially Successful Expedition
Review: This book was a disappointment. I have read several great adventure books, both about Everest and other explorations, but I didn't know much about Mallory and thought this book would be exciting and informative. It was certainly good for biographical details and a history of Everest exploration, but the was a striing lack of energy and drama, which made the book seem like a text book for Everest buffs rather then an adventure story for the general public. The other major flaw with the book was its awkward transition from Mallory's history to the 1999 expedition to find his body. It was unexpected and poorly done, it would have been much better to incorporate the details of the expedition throughout the book. The writing in the book wasn't particularly strong and there were several spelling errors that were distracting, so it wasn't a book I would recommend for casual readers. It was, however, well researched, so for people very interested in Everest it is an excellent selection.