The goal of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 was to discover evidence of whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had been the first to summit Mount Everest in their attempt of 8–9 June 1924. Key objectives included finding Irvine's body and retrieving a camera that might hold proof of their summit success. Jochen Hemmleb, after reviewing historical records, pinpointed a search area based on a 1975 Chinese expedition report. The expedition was instigated by British climber Graham Hoyland. It was organised by regular Everest expedition leader Eric Simonson and advised by researcher Jochen Hemmleb, with a team of climbers from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
Funded by WGBH/Boston's Nova series and the BBC, the expedition included mountaineers Eric Simonson, Conrad Anker, Dave Hahn, and others. On 1 May 1999, Anker discovered Mallory's body at 26,760 ft (8,156 m), well-preserved by the harsh conditions. The body showed significant injuries consistent with a fall. Various artefacts were recovered, but the camera remained missing.
The discovery of Mallory's body raised intriguing questions, especially given the absence of a photo of his wife, which he had intended to leave at the summit, suggesting he might have reached it. Subsequent searches in 2001, 2004, and 2007 aimed to locate Irvine and further evidence but yielded limited results until a successful 2024 search.
Preparations The expedition's objective was to search for evidence of the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition and obtain information about the high point attained by Mallory and Irvine, which may have either supported or refuted whether or not they reached the summit. The team hoped in particular to find a camera on Irvine's body which, had the pair been successful, should have contained a picture of the summit.
After he had re-examined the historical record of Mount Everest North Face expeditions, Jochen Hemmleb recognised that the only seemingly factual information about Mallory and Irvine—other than artefacts such as the ice axe found by Percy Wyn-Harris on the expedition led by Hugh Ruttledge in 1933—was during a 1975 Chinese expedition. Wang Hongbao had discovered a body he had insisted was "English, English!" during what he asserted was a brief twenty-minute walk from Camp VI. The initial challenge was to identify the location of the 1975 Chinese Camp VI and use it as the centre point of a circular search zone with a twenty-minute walk or more, if necessary, radius. From a photo of the 1975 Camp VI, published in Another Ascent of the World's Highest Peak—Qomolangma, Hemmleb determined that the Camp was on an ill-defined rib of rock that bisects the snow terrace on the North Face. Hemmleb believed this was the area in which Irvine's body lay, some distance below his ice axe.
The expedition was funded jointly by WGBH/Boston's Nova series and the BBC. The website MountainZone provided daily expedition dispatches. Other sponsors were Mountain Hardwear, Outdoor Research, Lowe Alpine, Eureka!, Starbucks, PowerBar, Vasque Footwear, Slumberjack, and Glazer's Camera. The personnel were Eric Simonson, mountaineer and expedition leader; mountaineer and high-altitude cameraman Dave Hahn; mountaineer and assistant film producer Graham Hoyland; mountaineers Conrad Anker, Jake Norton, Tap Richards, and Andy Politz; mountaineering historian, researcher, and support climber Jochen Hemmleb; mountaineering historian, researcher, and expedition organiser Larry Johnson; expedition doctor Lee Meyers; high-altitude cameraman Thom Pollard; film producers Liesl Clark and Peter Firstbrook; film sound technician Jyoti Lal Rana; photographer Ned Johnston; and a team of twelve Sherpas led by Sirdar Dawa Nuru.
Discovery
On 1 May 1999, at approximately 10:00a.m., Anker, Hahn, Norton, Politz, and Richards reached , where they were to establish Camp VI. From there, the five mountaineers set out at 10:30a.m. for the "ill-defined rib" identified in Hemmleb's search guidelines and traversed west over the North Face's precipitously angled terrain. Anker searched on intuition and descended to the lower margin of the snow terrace, where it drops away approximately to the head of the central Rongbuk Glacier, and soon after zig-zagging back up the slope in the direction of Camp VI, he looked to the west and saw a "patch of white," which he proceeded towards; he soon ascertained that it was an old body. It was 11:45a.m., and was the elevation where the corpse lay. The body was partially frozen into the scree and well preserved due to the cold, dry air and constant freezing temperatures; it was lying prone, fully extended, with both arms somewhat outstretched and the head pointed uphill. The right leg had broken, and the left leg was crossed over it, possibly for protection, suggesting the mountaineer was still consciously aware after coming to rest. The rear of the body was predominantly exposed, as the clothing had been partially destroyed by the elements and blown away by the wind. The exposed skin was bleached white, and although the corpse was frozen, purportedly, some elasticity remained in the frozen tissue; the hands and forearms appeared dark. Despite the body being notably intact, Everest's alpine choughs had damaged the right leg, the buttocks, and the abdominal cavity by pecking at them and consuming most of the internal organs. Tied to the corpse's waist were the remnants of a braided cotton climbing rope, some tangled around the body, from which its broken, frayed end trailed. On the right foot was an intact green leather hobnailed boot; only the tongue of the left boot remained, jammed between the left foot's bare toes and the heel of the right boot.
The prevalent assumption was that Irvine had fallen in 1924 from where, in 1933, Percy Wyn-Harris had discovered the ice axe, presumably Irvine's; therefore, Anker, Hahn, Norton, and Richards expected the body to be his, but Politz said, "This is not him." When they found the remains, before they touched them and determined who it was, they documented photographically and cinematographically the body and discovery site. Richards, an archaeologist by training, and Norton carefully separated the remaining layers of tattered garments that still covered part of the body, protecting them somewhat from the elements: multiple layers of cotton, silk underwear, a flannel shirt, woollen pullover and trousers, and an outer garment that resembled canvas. Close to the nape of the neck, Norton turned over part of the shirt collar and found affixed to it a clothing label with red print, reading, "W.F. Paine, 72 High Street, Godalming," and below it a second label, again with red print, reading, "G. Mallory." They discovered another label with "G. Leigh. Ma," written in black, and a third label. The expedition members realised that they had found Mallory, rather than Irvine as expected. Because the corpse had frozen into the surrounding scree, the mountaineers used their ice axes and pocketknives to excavate the site to find crucial artefacts and, most importantly, Somervell's Vest Pocket Kodak camera that he "allegedly" had lent to Mallory for his summit attempt with Irvine. Presumably, if they had discovered the camera, it might have solved the mystery of whether or not the summit of Mount Everest was reached for the first time in 1924, years before the first confirmed successful summit of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953. Experts from Kodak have said that it might be possible to develop images from the camera's film using sophisticated techniques and have drawn up specific professional guidelines for an expedition that might discover the camera.
The injuries on Mallory's body were severe; above the hobnail boot on his right foot, both the tibia and fibula of his right leg—which lay at a grotesque angle—were broken. His right scapula was somewhat deformed, and his right elbow was fractured or dislocated. Along his right side were multiple still-noticeable cuts, bruises, and abrasions; on his torso, his ribs had fractured, and black and blue bruises were visible on the skin of his chest. The broken climbing rope, which had been looped around his waist and secured with a bowline knot, had severely crushed his ribs and burned his skin; the indentation marks caused by the rope tugging on his skin were still observable around his torso; undoubtedly, he had fallen. The rope-jerk injuries around Mallory's torso indicate that he and Irvine were roped to each other when the accident occurred; the exact circumstances surrounding their deaths are unknown.
After chipping at the ice and rock for one hour with their axes, the expedition members had freed one jacket pocket in which they discovered an altimeter manufactured by Cary, London, that could record altitude to a maximum of ; its crystal was broken and the hands were absent. Norton reached underneath Mallory's body and found a pouch that hung from his neck. After cutting the pouch's underside with his knife, he discovered a tin of Brand & Co's Savoury Meat Lozenges. Also found were a pair of nail scissors in a leather case and a letter inside an envelope, flawlessly preserved. Other artefacts were discovered in a pouch on Mallory's right side and from separate pockets: a handkerchief—wrapped around some letters addressed to Mallory—with a burgundy, blue, and green foulard pattern, decorated with the monogram G.L.M.; a second-handkerchief with a red, yellow, and blue pattern, also monogrammed with the initials G.L.M.; a tube of petroleum jelly wrapped in a white handkerchief; one fingerless glove; a W.E. Oates of Sheffield manufactured Lambfoot antler-handle pocket knife with a leather case; an intact box of still usable Swan Vestas matches; and a variety of boot laces and straps. Other artefacts found were: a pencil and safety pin; adjustable straps attached to a metal spring clip—used to connect an oxygen mask to Mallory's fur-lined leather helmet; a note from expedition member Geoffrey Bruce; gear checklists, written in pencil on scraps of paper; a bill addressed to G.H. Leigh Mallory, Esq., Herschel House, Cambridge, from A.W. Gamage Ltd, Holborn, London, E.C.1.; and discovered deep inside a pocket was a pair of unbroken snow goggles. The artefacts and samples of each layer of garments were placed one by one in resealable plastic Ziploc bags for examination. To the dismay of Anker, Hahn, Norton, Richards, and Politz, the most sought-after artefact, the Vest Pocket Kodak camera that Mallory had "allegedly" borrowed from Somervell, was not found after a thorough search. With the prior permission of Mallory's son, John Mallory, Anker cut a small skin sample from Mallory's right forearm for DNA analysis. The five expedition mountaineers buried Mallory by covering his remains with rocks, and Politz read a Church of England committal ceremony provided by Barry Rogerson, the Bishop of Bristol.
Controversy arose among family members and climbers as to what was seen as an attempt to capitalise on the discovery of the corpse, particularly as photographs of the body were reported to have been sold to Newsweek magazine for more than $40,000.