George Mallory

Let's walk and see.

First up, George Lee Mallory and Andrew Sandy Irvine went missing from Mount Everest in 1924.

Two British mountaineers, George Lee Mallory and Andrew Sandy Irvine, disappeared while trying to reach the summit of Mount

Everest.

Mallory was an accomplished rock climber who had demonstrated his abilities as a high altitude climber on previous expeditions

to Everest in 1921 and 1922.

On the other hand, Irvine lacked experience in Himalayan and high-altitude climbing, but was skilled at repairing the oxygen equipment used by the British climbers at high elevations.

Mallory made two unsuccessful attempts to climb above 28,125 feet without extra oxygen, but during his third expedition, he understood their benefits.

Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too.

Many years ago, the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it.

He said, because it is there.

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it.

Thank you.

George Mallory is a man who's got summit to do.

The summit, that is, of Mount Everest.

When asked why Everest, he famously replied, because it's there.

That was a completely authentic newsreel from 1923 that we dug out of the CBC archives.

That Chip Baxter had a terrible voice.

But he was right about mountaineer George Mallory, who said the desire to conquer Everest reflected a general human desire to conquer everything.

Well, conquering stuff is one thing, but being a jerk about conquests is another.

Let's walk and see.

First up, George Lee Mallory and Andrew Sandy Irvine went missing from Mount Everest in 1924.

Two British mountaineers, George Lee Mallory and Andrew Sandy Irvine, disappeared while trying to reach the summit of Mount

Everest.

Mallory was an accomplished rock climber who had demonstrated his abilities as a high altitude climber on previous expeditions

to Everest in 1921 and 1922.

On the other hand, Irvine lacked experience in Himalayan and high-altitude climbing, but was skilled at repairing the oxygen equipment used by the British climbers at high elevations.

Mallory made two unsuccessful attempts to climb above 28,125 feet without extra oxygen, but during his third expedition, he understood their benefits.

I climb, knees trampolines for my hands.

I think I finally understand George when he said he wanted to conquer Everest because it's there.

He lost his life to the ascent.

We lose our lives to a cent, 100 to the dollar.

When you're close to nature, when you're outside of the metro area, I think it does make you think about your relationship to the natural world and humanity's relationship to the natural world.

And how different that feels compared to what it might be like during your nine to five grind.

Now, naturally, I've made a reference there to finally understanding George when he said he wanted to conquer Everest.

This is, of course, George Mallory, the famous mountaineer.

And the mountain still keeps its mysteries.

In nineteen twenty-four, decades before Hillary and Norgay, two British climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, vanished high on the ridge, last seen as tiny figures moving toward the summit before the cloud swallowed them.

To this day, nobody knows whether they reached the top first and died coming down.

Mallory's frozen body was finally found in 1999, 75 years later.

There are a couple of things to this.

Have you heard of this guy called George Mallory? So he was the guy who, one of the first guys to attempt Everest.

There was a press conference in New York.

He was going to attempt the climb.

Nepal was largely closed to foreign expeditions.

George Mallory saw the Khumbu Icefall from a distance in the 1920s and believed the northern approach looked more achievable.

That is completely understandable.

Even today, with modern ropes, aluminum ladders, radios, and detailed weather information, the icefall looks intimidating.

Um-

It's the great British mountaineer George Mallory who used it to explain his drive to climb Mount Everest.

Why? Because it's there.

Didn't he fail a lot? Wasn't he the one that failed a lot or is that someone else?