Mallory's Body

“In 1999, the well-known American climber Conrad Anker discovered Mallory’s body on a sloping edge at 27,000 feet, where it had come to rest after an apparent fall seventy-five years earlier.” (Krakauer, 1999, p.18). After conducting further research on this statement, nothing invalidates it but one part; Mallory’s body was found 63 years prior to when Krakauer said he was found. In 1936, Everest pioneer Frank Smythe spotted Mallory’s body during a telescope survey. It was right where Mallory and Irvine would have landed. In a letter to Edward Norton, leader of the 1924 Mallory expedition, Smythe said, “I was scanning the face from base camp through a high-powered telescope last year,” his letter read, “when I saw something queer in a gully below the scree shelf. Of course it was a long way away and very small, but I’ve a six/six eyesight and do not believe it was a rock. This object was at precisely the point where Mallory and Irvine would have fallen had they rolled on over the scree slopes. It’s not to be written about, as the press would make an unpleasant sensation.” My Father, Frank, which is a biography of Frank Smythe made by his son, Tony Smythe, provides an in-depth look at Smythe’s ascent of Everest. Tony had dug up all of his father’s diaries and letters he could find, and in one of these diaries, Smythe goes into more detail about where and when he spotted George Mallory’s body, further confirming what he stated in the letter above. Both of these sources confirm that even though Conrad Anker discovered …show more content…
(1999). Into thin air. New York: Anchor Books.
Nuwer, R. (2013, November 26). George Mallory's Frozen Body May Have Been Discovered Decades Earlier on Everest. Retrieved September 05, 2017, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/george-mallorys-frozen-body-may-have-been-discovered-decades-earlier-on-everest-180947845/
Smythe, T. (2015). My father, Frank: the forgotten alpinist. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers