Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine

Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Everest. Or were they? Twenty-nine years previously, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Sandy Irvine died on their attempt on the summit. Many believe they were successful but perished on their return. This passionate debate has lasted nearly 75 years, and the truth can now be uncovered. Today, modern lightweight video cameras and specially tuned metal detectors make it a real possibility that the bodies of Mallory and Irvine will be found and with them, a unique photographic record. They each carried a Kodak VPK camera, containing negative which could lay to rest the debate over who was first to reach the roof of the world. Beginning with Sikdhar and Hennessy, who are credited with identifying the worlds highest mountain in 1852, Lost on Everest explores the events which led up to Mallory and Irvines climb, traces the subsequent history of climbing on the mountain and concludes with the exciting story of the search for Mallory and Irvine's bodies and cameras.

On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their tent high on the slopes of Mount Everest and climbed into history. They were seen at 12:50 p.m. just 240 metres from the summit and ?going strong for the top.? Within minutes, Mallory and Irvine had disappeared in a snowstorm and were never seen alive again.

What happened to these two pioneering climbers is the most famous mystery in the history of mountaineering. For 75 years, there has been fierce debate over whether they were the first to reach the summit, 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. In March 1999, an expedition primarily sponsored by the BBC climbed to the North Face of Everest. Their discoveries became front-page news around the world. This gripping story by film producer Peter Firstbrook fully explores the events leading up to Mallory and Irvine?s historic attempt to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world, giving a dramatic first-hand account of the 1999 search expedition. Firstbrook utilises his extensive historical research and the amazing evidence found in 1999 to piece together the final hours of the two brave heroes ? George Mallory and Andrew Irvine.

Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine is an extraordinary tale of high adventure by the author of The Voyage of the Matthew.