Archive for March, 2006
[Book Review] The Lost Explorer - Finding Mallory on Mount Everest 1 comment
Conrad Anker & David Roberts
Non-Fiction
ISBN 0-684-87151-3
Simon & Schuster New York
2/12/06 6:43PM
I borrowed the Conrad Anker-signed edition from my brother who’s an avid Alex Lowe fan. The book covered George Mallory’s life and the three expeditions he was part of in the 1920s. Each chapter was interspersed with the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 in which Conrad Anker was part of. Their mission was to find Mallory and Irvine and solve the mystery whether they summitted Mt. Everest in 1924.
George Mallory was part of three expeditions (1921, 1922 and 1924) sponsored by the British Crown to conquer the summit of Mount Everest. The first two expeditions failed but was able to set world records of the highest point climbed. The last, 1924, expedition was where, George Mallory along with Sandy Irvine, was last seen “moving expeditiously as if endeavouring to make up for lost time” near the peak of Mt. Everest. This was their last sighting before becoming part of the mountain’s history. It was never known whether they reached the summit of Everest.
There were a few fragmented reports in the 1970s where a Chinese Everest expedition saw an “old English dead” on the north face of Everest. This was the clue that the 1999 M&IRE used to mark an area where to start searching for Mallory and Irvine’s bodies and eventually solve the mystery of their success or failure.
In this age of GPS receivers and composite climbing equipment, it’s quite humbling to know that back in 1924, men in tweed jackets and hob-nailed boots set out to conquer the worlds highest peak with little more than courage and tragic ambition.
It’s an exciting read if you’re into mountaineering, which I’m not. I find the narration a bit dull, like listening to an account of something unexciting. But it’s obviously not. It’s more of a chronicle of two expeditions, one of George Mallory pushing to be the first man to claim the “third pole” and the present story of an expedition that eventually found his body on Mt. Everest’s North Face.
It’s just sad that commercialism and the rapid transit of information soured the 1999 M&IRE with details about photo copyrights and reactions by people judging from the safety of their homes about the real purpose of the expedition.
The book is a good read and quite educational. I would recommend it to anyone who’s into the sport. It makes me want to read Mallory’s own account of his expeditions. It’s probably more artfully written.
