Did Mallory Make it to the Top of Everest First?

George Mallory was an unlikely hero—a left-leaning intellectual schoolteacher who became one of mountaineering's most legendary figures. Despite rubbing elbows with the Bloomsbury Group, he initially showed little sign of future fame. He was handsome, tenacious, but also notoriously flighty—he once loaded camera film backwards on an expedition, ruining all the photos. His obsession with Everest would define his legacy and cost him his life.

• Mallory was a progressive school teacher who socialized with John Maynard Keynes and Virginia Woolf
• He got into hiking and mountaineering in his late teens and fell in love with it
• Doctor Tom Longstaff said Mallory was 'quite unfit to be placed in charge of anything, including himself'
• Mallory loaded camera film backwards on the 1922 expedition, ruining all photos

Getting to Everest's summit required traversing mountain ranges, crossing treacherous glaciers with 100-foot crevasses, climbing house-sized ice blocks called seacores, and enduring extreme altitude sickness—all with primitive equipment. These pioneers had to master ice climbing, rock climbing, and mountain climbing simultaneously, often creating their own gear and techniques. The North route required 22 miles of walking at extreme altitude, compared to today's southern route of 12.75 miles.

• Climbers had to traverse entire mountain ranges, climbing mini-mountains just to reach Everest's base
• Glaciers presented crevasses over 100 feet deep, avalanches, and house-sized ice blocks called seacores
• The North route requires 22 miles of walking vs 12.75 miles on the southern Nepalese route
• Low oxygen concentration makes every step exhausting—modern climbers take one step then wait 15-30 seconds before the next